Driving an F1 car. One word, GRIP!!
Discussion
So, for years, driving an F1 car has been the only item on my bucket list and I’ve been procrastinating for ages. In fact I asked about it on here back in 2005; yes, it’s been on my mind that long! For those who just want to cut to the chase, the story is all there in the youtube links and the flickr folder. In brief it was an absolutely tremendous day, easily one of the best in my life. Expensive as hell but it absolutely blew me away. Biggest impact wasn’t the acceleration or the brakes, but the grip. It’s just VAST. My brain just couldn’t get over how much was available. At one point I thought I’d overcooked it into turn 1 and it was all going to go squirrel nutkin, but the car went round easily. I think this is the single hardest thing to metabolise since nothing in a road car prepares you for these levels of grip.
I have my wife to thank for this. She knew it was important to me, researched it, and decided the people to do it were Wildside, based in Reading www.adren-a-line.com. She booked it up, paid a deposit and that was one of my Christmas presents. Long story short, we booked it, 10 laps, Circuit de Catalunya Barcelona, first week of July in a Jaguar R2. You can choose other circuits but we decided to make a mini break of it, plus you can be more confident of the weather than other places.
The reason I chose the R2 was the sound; to me this is one of the most important things about any car, and certainly an F1 car. The current generation is just pathetic in this regard, so part of the attraction was an old school, howling V10 behind my head. All good, until around 10 days before we were due to go, Nick Duncan from Wildside called to say that the Jag had blown it’s engine and would be out of action for a month. Sh*t! Bless him though, he offered me several alternatives, including rebooking the whole trip for the Hungaroring in September. The other main option was to ‘upgrade’ to the Williams FW33 from 2011. This is the most expensive package and I’d get fewer laps, but the main reason I hadn’t considered it was because I thought it would sound sh*t. Quick google and it absolutely does NOT sound sh*t, so put more money in the pot and booked up 10 laps in the Williams.
Format of the day is 2x 10 lap sessions in Formula Renault single seaters, mainly I think to check that you’re not a dick, but these were surprisingly fun. Not the main event sure, and I wouldn’t have come out just for this.
The main worry beads ahead of time were would I fit, and what if it’s like Richard Hammond's go in the Benneton. On the first point, it’s clear from the attendees that they’re all middle aged men in various stages of roundness, so cockpit space was absolutely necessary. I needn’t have worried since I fit pretty easily. In fact the Benneton they had there had such a large cockpit I reckon you could get a small hippo in it. The other worry bead was having a mare of a day like Hammond though. To make sure I wasn’t totally hopeless, I did a couple of sim sessions with Mark Blundell's driver training outfit in Royston. This was mainly to learn the track, but also to check out technique; I don’t do track days and have no pretences of being a racing driver. Moreover, this would be my first proper experience of single seaters, so I was keen not to suck at it. Bottom line, it was surprisingly useful in retrospect; all the bits where I messed up on the sim were the same as those where I messed up for real if that’s anything to go by.
Anyway, let’s cut to the chase and the vids are below. Against my better judgement I’m including the onboard go-pro footage, because it really captures the experience well. There’s bound to be comment on my driving technique, but you know what, I really don’t care. Yes I know I messed up in lots of places and I wasn’t pushing it hard enough. But. Put it in the gravel and it’s game over for the afternoon and the objective was to experience it, not set a lap time. It also shows the bit where I thought ‘sh*t just got real’, which was where they took the tyre warmers off; we’ve all seen that on TV, but when you see it happening in front of you, it really brings it home.
Anyway, this is the story of an ordinary car dude plonked into an F1 car for the first time. I hope it’s useful for anyone else considering it. It’s an enormous investment in a life experience, but one that did quite literally blow me away. All up, wait for it... over 15K. Yes that's right, around £10 per second, so it’s a big deal for anyone! There's very little out there to guide you, so hopefully this will help
https://www.flickr.com/gp/129817784@N08/6y610E
https://youtu.be/S2DhOjJSjFE
https://youtu.be/oClTWhI44mE
As a thank you to my wife, I also booked her a passenger ride in a 3 seater..
https://youtu.be/bHs15S3Pl9o
I have my wife to thank for this. She knew it was important to me, researched it, and decided the people to do it were Wildside, based in Reading www.adren-a-line.com. She booked it up, paid a deposit and that was one of my Christmas presents. Long story short, we booked it, 10 laps, Circuit de Catalunya Barcelona, first week of July in a Jaguar R2. You can choose other circuits but we decided to make a mini break of it, plus you can be more confident of the weather than other places.
The reason I chose the R2 was the sound; to me this is one of the most important things about any car, and certainly an F1 car. The current generation is just pathetic in this regard, so part of the attraction was an old school, howling V10 behind my head. All good, until around 10 days before we were due to go, Nick Duncan from Wildside called to say that the Jag had blown it’s engine and would be out of action for a month. Sh*t! Bless him though, he offered me several alternatives, including rebooking the whole trip for the Hungaroring in September. The other main option was to ‘upgrade’ to the Williams FW33 from 2011. This is the most expensive package and I’d get fewer laps, but the main reason I hadn’t considered it was because I thought it would sound sh*t. Quick google and it absolutely does NOT sound sh*t, so put more money in the pot and booked up 10 laps in the Williams.
Format of the day is 2x 10 lap sessions in Formula Renault single seaters, mainly I think to check that you’re not a dick, but these were surprisingly fun. Not the main event sure, and I wouldn’t have come out just for this.
The main worry beads ahead of time were would I fit, and what if it’s like Richard Hammond's go in the Benneton. On the first point, it’s clear from the attendees that they’re all middle aged men in various stages of roundness, so cockpit space was absolutely necessary. I needn’t have worried since I fit pretty easily. In fact the Benneton they had there had such a large cockpit I reckon you could get a small hippo in it. The other worry bead was having a mare of a day like Hammond though. To make sure I wasn’t totally hopeless, I did a couple of sim sessions with Mark Blundell's driver training outfit in Royston. This was mainly to learn the track, but also to check out technique; I don’t do track days and have no pretences of being a racing driver. Moreover, this would be my first proper experience of single seaters, so I was keen not to suck at it. Bottom line, it was surprisingly useful in retrospect; all the bits where I messed up on the sim were the same as those where I messed up for real if that’s anything to go by.
Anyway, let’s cut to the chase and the vids are below. Against my better judgement I’m including the onboard go-pro footage, because it really captures the experience well. There’s bound to be comment on my driving technique, but you know what, I really don’t care. Yes I know I messed up in lots of places and I wasn’t pushing it hard enough. But. Put it in the gravel and it’s game over for the afternoon and the objective was to experience it, not set a lap time. It also shows the bit where I thought ‘sh*t just got real’, which was where they took the tyre warmers off; we’ve all seen that on TV, but when you see it happening in front of you, it really brings it home.
Anyway, this is the story of an ordinary car dude plonked into an F1 car for the first time. I hope it’s useful for anyone else considering it. It’s an enormous investment in a life experience, but one that did quite literally blow me away. All up, wait for it... over 15K. Yes that's right, around £10 per second, so it’s a big deal for anyone! There's very little out there to guide you, so hopefully this will help
https://www.flickr.com/gp/129817784@N08/6y610E
https://youtu.be/S2DhOjJSjFE
https://youtu.be/oClTWhI44mE
As a thank you to my wife, I also booked her a passenger ride in a 3 seater..
https://youtu.be/bHs15S3Pl9o
And thanks to all of you for not making me regret posting. I assure you my intention is only to shine a light on the experience, warts and all. Most threads seem to descend into an argument, and this one hasn't, at least yet...
CABC said:
great post 456. this reaffirms faith in this site!
How much track driving have you done? can you expand on your history, useful to help share the insight. I'm prompted to ask this from my own experience doing track days and then driving a F3000 and most notably a Radical. Grip was phenomenal, especially when aero kicked in. Hard to fully explain the feeling of going faster and realising you can add another 30mph to entry speed just because you're already going faster and the aero is working. My cajones weren't big enough to fully exploit in the short time i had!
when watching F1 I'm always in awe that they're pulling 5G whereas fast road driving is less than 1 and fast track is 1.5G. The level of commitment and reaction time required is unbelievable.
Very little track experience to speak of. Main one was a couple of seasons in Club100 about 15 years ago. That and a couple of Palmer days. As I said, I don't do track days, though I know many here take this seriously. So really, I'm about as green as it gets. I was ready for the acceleration and the brakes, just not the sheer mountains of grip. Unbelieveable!How much track driving have you done? can you expand on your history, useful to help share the insight. I'm prompted to ask this from my own experience doing track days and then driving a F3000 and most notably a Radical. Grip was phenomenal, especially when aero kicked in. Hard to fully explain the feeling of going faster and realising you can add another 30mph to entry speed just because you're already going faster and the aero is working. My cajones weren't big enough to fully exploit in the short time i had!
when watching F1 I'm always in awe that they're pulling 5G whereas fast road driving is less than 1 and fast track is 1.5G. The level of commitment and reaction time required is unbelievable.
ou sont les biscuits said:
Tubes63 said:
This is awesome. You way outperformed mr. Hammond! Go Pros usually make things look slower than they feel, and this looked fast. How's your neck??
I expect his wife's was quite sore. She was struggling to support her head on the left handers, and presumably on the right handers as well, but you couldn't see because it was out of shot.What an amazing experience for both the OP and his missus.
I'm not going to try and multi quote as it ends up being unreadable, so please don't take offence if I haven't attributed a reply to you.
I don't believe the car (FW33) is massively rev-limited, but I think they've toned it down a bit ie 16,000 versus 18,000 as it was originally. The forces through the engine go up with the square of the engine revs I believe, so you'd probably do the same if it was your car. My only sensitivity is whether that changes the sound quality, and one other guy was driving the Williams, hearing the car then sounded to me like F1 in it's heydey. The irony is, you can't hear that when you're driving the car. It sounds to you just as it does on the gopro footage. I tried it with and without earplugs and it made no difference; I think you feel rather than hear the engine when you're in the car. I've got a few bruises from driving, on the insides of my upper arms for some reason (probably getting in and out of the cars), and maybe it's adrenalin, but I got out of the car fresh as a daisy.
What was interesting is that the other cars they were running were the Prost AP1, one with a V10 the other a V8, and the Benetton with a V8, ie early 2000's cars. They didn't sound that good to my ear, certainly less howl. I think we have some footage somewhere, and my missus said that when I went past the Benetton on the main straight the difference in the engine notes was night and day. I really don't know why the Benetton was so slow, but it felt like I was stuck behind a pensioner. Someone else said that it was a handful to drive, and I think the Williams is a faster, more well sorted car so more flattering. They don't allow you to overtake unless the guy ahead has been given the blue flag, and it was obvious he hadn't seen me so I bided my time.
Every time down the main straight was grit your teeth and hang on. I think it was one long ffffuuuuuucccccckkk actually, so just as well they didn't turn on the radio! It's just so incredibly intense, the car is vibrating away, the wind buffeting is like someone boxing your ears and your helmet is trying to fly. You can feel everything. Jinking across the track imperfections, how stiff the chassis is and how tight all the controls are. Nothing is too heavy, not even the brake. Though it's unassisted, there was more travel than there is in the 930 or the F50. But I still wasn't hitting the brake hard enough. Don't know if you can see on this trace (they're monitoring everything from the pits) but the maximum force I was applying to the brake was 40psi; apparently that should be 80; brake trace is green throttle is white. Need to stock up on weetabix then since I was bloody trying!
There's at least 5 seconds in braking later and harder and another 5 in carrying more speed in the corners. Then there's actually troubling those apexes. You have to be wary of going off line though, since you must pick up dirt on the tyres when you go off line or over the rumble strips- there was definitely less grip available for a couple of corners after that The mechanics say that the biggest ingredient to going faster is confidence, that the car will slow down, and is going to stick.
And this is the problem. I look at those laps and I know where 10 seconds live without any real thought, And you think, hmm, that looks like unfinished business. Before you know it you're looking at a return visit. Chatting to one French guy there on his fourth visit; I thought he was crazy at the start of the day, but at the end of it I completely understood how this could be addictive. There were 7 or 8 other people driving the F1 cars, but I was the only Brit there, the others were French and German guys and the team running the cars is French. I do think you have to be careful who you book with because one of the things that put me off for so long was the fear of being out on a mickey mouse circuit in a rev limited car. I think these guys were the real deal though, and I don't feel short changed at all. I've done what I think most of us have, and seen that you can buy an ex-F1 car for the price of a modern supercar. Hello! Then you look into the details of how much time and effort to run it, where to run it etc, and you rapidly come to the conclusion that the purchase price is merely a down-payment, and it's a colossal PITA to boot. So, no, I don't feel like I was rinsed, and I'm happy to stick with my road cars. We were out in the Carrera GT last night and while it was nowhere as intense, it didn't feel a world away to be honest.Though I'm resisting the urge to steam into corners then hit the brake like I'm standing on a snake.. Yes I know I'm a massively fortunate b
d, something I absolutely do not take for granted as I've spent the greater part of my life skint.
The take away from all of this, IMO, is that anyone reading this could do the same or better, it really is that accessible. For a price of course!
I don't believe the car (FW33) is massively rev-limited, but I think they've toned it down a bit ie 16,000 versus 18,000 as it was originally. The forces through the engine go up with the square of the engine revs I believe, so you'd probably do the same if it was your car. My only sensitivity is whether that changes the sound quality, and one other guy was driving the Williams, hearing the car then sounded to me like F1 in it's heydey. The irony is, you can't hear that when you're driving the car. It sounds to you just as it does on the gopro footage. I tried it with and without earplugs and it made no difference; I think you feel rather than hear the engine when you're in the car. I've got a few bruises from driving, on the insides of my upper arms for some reason (probably getting in and out of the cars), and maybe it's adrenalin, but I got out of the car fresh as a daisy.
What was interesting is that the other cars they were running were the Prost AP1, one with a V10 the other a V8, and the Benetton with a V8, ie early 2000's cars. They didn't sound that good to my ear, certainly less howl. I think we have some footage somewhere, and my missus said that when I went past the Benetton on the main straight the difference in the engine notes was night and day. I really don't know why the Benetton was so slow, but it felt like I was stuck behind a pensioner. Someone else said that it was a handful to drive, and I think the Williams is a faster, more well sorted car so more flattering. They don't allow you to overtake unless the guy ahead has been given the blue flag, and it was obvious he hadn't seen me so I bided my time.
Every time down the main straight was grit your teeth and hang on. I think it was one long ffffuuuuuucccccckkk actually, so just as well they didn't turn on the radio! It's just so incredibly intense, the car is vibrating away, the wind buffeting is like someone boxing your ears and your helmet is trying to fly. You can feel everything. Jinking across the track imperfections, how stiff the chassis is and how tight all the controls are. Nothing is too heavy, not even the brake. Though it's unassisted, there was more travel than there is in the 930 or the F50. But I still wasn't hitting the brake hard enough. Don't know if you can see on this trace (they're monitoring everything from the pits) but the maximum force I was applying to the brake was 40psi; apparently that should be 80; brake trace is green throttle is white. Need to stock up on weetabix then since I was bloody trying!
There's at least 5 seconds in braking later and harder and another 5 in carrying more speed in the corners. Then there's actually troubling those apexes. You have to be wary of going off line though, since you must pick up dirt on the tyres when you go off line or over the rumble strips- there was definitely less grip available for a couple of corners after that The mechanics say that the biggest ingredient to going faster is confidence, that the car will slow down, and is going to stick.
And this is the problem. I look at those laps and I know where 10 seconds live without any real thought, And you think, hmm, that looks like unfinished business. Before you know it you're looking at a return visit. Chatting to one French guy there on his fourth visit; I thought he was crazy at the start of the day, but at the end of it I completely understood how this could be addictive. There were 7 or 8 other people driving the F1 cars, but I was the only Brit there, the others were French and German guys and the team running the cars is French. I do think you have to be careful who you book with because one of the things that put me off for so long was the fear of being out on a mickey mouse circuit in a rev limited car. I think these guys were the real deal though, and I don't feel short changed at all. I've done what I think most of us have, and seen that you can buy an ex-F1 car for the price of a modern supercar. Hello! Then you look into the details of how much time and effort to run it, where to run it etc, and you rapidly come to the conclusion that the purchase price is merely a down-payment, and it's a colossal PITA to boot. So, no, I don't feel like I was rinsed, and I'm happy to stick with my road cars. We were out in the Carrera GT last night and while it was nowhere as intense, it didn't feel a world away to be honest.Though I'm resisting the urge to steam into corners then hit the brake like I'm standing on a snake.. Yes I know I'm a massively fortunate b
d, something I absolutely do not take for granted as I've spent the greater part of my life skint.The take away from all of this, IMO, is that anyone reading this could do the same or better, it really is that accessible. For a price of course!
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