drive f1 car

At a cocktail reception at the Canadian GP in Montreal back in '94, I heard a civilian ask Eddie Irvine how long it'd take him to get up to a respectable speed in Eddie's car. Irvine replied- "you're kidding yourself if you think that you could get the car out of the pits- you'd stall it repeatedly and fry the clutch without turning a lap." He's wasn't too far from wrong.
I've had two very brief drives in two different Arrows F1 cars (once at Road America and once on the little road course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway- a dusty little kart-like affair), and while it was a very cool experience, don't delude yourself into thinking you'll ever really get up to speed, especially if you drive a tight little track like the one they use in Vegas. I'm a pretty lame race car driver, but despite having driven several open-wheel cars before (FF and F2000) it was intimidating when I opened the throttle- which you'd best do only with the wheels pointed straight! Hell, if you blink hard you'll end up in the weeds.
Consider yourself lucky if you get off the grid (in 2nd gear) without stalling, and don't expect to truly test the car's speed, handling or brakes unless you're very talented. Any amateur who thinks he can get up to speed in a day (or three) has delusions of grandeur, but it's a seriously fun experience nonetheless.

 

good video of a (talented) non racer trying out a modern F1 car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb8N6bGOvkY

and here's a relatively small time race driver putting up very impressive times around Silverstone on his first day in a Honda F1 car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0R4pxk1mhg

 

I have once done a driving event with WCD and therefore can tell you that they are serious and legit. I haven't done their F1 events (yet), but have driven two different F1s in the past:

- In Le Luc you can drive several different F1. Le Luc used to be the test track of the former F1 AGS team, which was briefly active at the end of the eighties. From that time they still have several cars around, which use stick shift, clutch etc. That's the red/silver car in my pictures. Cossie V8 as the engine. The program starts in the morning by visiting the track in a van, all the brake points and apex markers are there. Then you spend the rest of the morning in a F3. After lunch you get your laps in the F1. Start is from the pits but you use 2nd gear so you don't stall the car. Depending on how much you pay you get more or less laps.
The same folks also offer more modern F1 cars from the late nineties with paddle shift etc. Those are Arrows, Jordan and Prost. They also offer some generic F1 like/type chassis they painted in McLaren and Ferrari paint schemes. Similar technologywise as the Arrows etc.
They also offer an alternate deal where you get to drive at Le Castellet, but that costs a few grands extra.
If you go the South of France route, combine it with a vacation, some beach time in St. Tropez and potentially the Monaco GP.
- There used to be a company in Las Vegas, which offered a similar program based on the Damon Hill Arrows from the mid nineties and some Prost F1. That's probably what Ira did. Before they folded they took their cars around the country and that's how I got to drive the Arrows at Joliet's Autobahnclub. The car uses a pedal shifter and tuned down engine and electronics, so no worries about stalling it etc. The start was push start oddly enough.
When this company went under WDC bought their equipment and is now offering their F1 experience solely at the Monticello track near NY. It is the same car however. They have a second one with Michelin livery.

The costs at WDC are about twice as high as the costs in the South of France, but you don't have to travel to Europe. So the overall costs remain similar.

As for intimidation: I had done Skip Barber beforehand but most folks who do these events haven't and enjoyed themselves nonetheless. Having some previous experience helps, but isn't necessary. Regardless you won't set a new track record. But that's not the point. You will still get a feel for what these cars are and how they handle and how they perform. I play a lot of virtual racing at home and experiences like these give me a sense for how close/different the virtual racing is. But that's another story.

Also let me state that running these machines is insanely expensive (think about 10k per weekend if you have a historic F1 car). So while expensive, these experiences are still your best/most cost efficient ticket to driving a F1. And that's why I will do it again and sample more cars when I have a chance.

There is much more I could tell you about these experiences, but this should do for starters.

PS: Since Eddie Irvine was mentioned: You can also rent Eddie's F1 Jaguar at the Hungaroring track. Similar deal.
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The first guy is short-shifting and using part throttle (not that I blame him)- you can do that and still enjoy the experience, but don't kid yourself into thinking that you're posting even remotely decent times. The few times I gave it full throttle I struggled to keep my head pointed forward, and it was snapped back pretty forcefully with each upshift. It's also hard to work the tires enough to get any heat into them, so you won't be cornering at anywhere near the car's potential- but it'll be enough to make your neck sore after a few laps!
The second guy is very brave, and vastly more talented than I'll ever be. More power to him- pun intended.

 

Andreas knows more about this subject than I do, and I defer to his greater wisdom. As to starts, I concur that a push-start in 2nd gear is, in my limited experience, easy. Starting in 2nd without help isn't bad if you've got some experience driving racecars, but the clutch and flywheel are really small.

 

Makes sense.

BTW: You're way too modest. You're twice the racer I'll ever be.

 

Interesting question. One one hand you have a car you are familiar with and on the other one that is immensely more powerful but you only get a few laps.

I'd say no, the GT3 times will stay.

Last track event I was at there was a guy in a Miata chasing 360s and passing them. It is all about seat time. If the drivers in the 360 had more of it, they'd make chop liver out of the Miata.

 

The problem is that you have no idea on the limits of the car particularly it's aero and ground effect. Unless you build up seat time in monoposti with lots of downforce it will be hard to go fast enough into the corners for the aero to work. Russell racing offers classes with such a car at Infineon. Alternatively it helps if you can do a program where you follow the lead car. The Andretti experience is such a place.

As for looking slow: We all do. Watch the drivers/owners of the client corsi program and you see the same thing and those guys have a good deal more seat time.

 

SO true. Running an Alfa 179 a few times taught me that the experience was counterintuitive. It was my first time in an aero car and it was a major readjustment. Go in faster to get the car to stop and turn better. If you overslowed the car, it would just wash out. Got down to 1:02 at Roebling (this on the old pavement twenty years ago), over 117 mph average!

The good guys at Clienti are pretty quick. I've also worked with a bunch of HGP guys here in the US and it's pretty cool to look at what these cars are capable of on the data. Some video with an overlay from the Monterey Pre-Historics, where Clienti driver Bud Moeller put this car on the pole and won the race the next day. Lots of confidence... Enjoy.
http://youtu.be/Jz1syOwnS2w

 

I used to vintage race an '87 March/Cosworth Indycar. I had come from Karting, FF and FF200, and it took me months of practice to really even scratch the surface of what this car could from an aero side.

For a novice to be put in an F1 car for half a day and to expect anything more than a need for underwear change is optimistic at best. Fast road cars, even in the hands of good drivers are a different league. An entirely new skill set is necessary.