F1 trans question

When slowing down and coming to a stop is it better to just use the brakes or shift down at the same time? Which is easier on the tranny? THE Bruce

 

Bruce- When coming to a full stop, just pull back on both paddles and put her in neutral. Saves wear and tear on all components. If traffic starts moving when in neutral, hit the downshift paddle and that will give you one gear lower than hitting the upshift paddle.

When stopped at a light in neutral, make sure you keep depressing the brake pedal, or she will not select 1st gear when you hit the upshift paddle.

Note this is my technique. Others downshift all the way down or let the system downshift for them. Mine never auto downshifts because I consider that wasted wear on components.

 

I rarely disagree with Taz and in this case he is technically correct but I don't think that it makes any real difference. If you let it, it will downshift so you get a few extra shifts but the difference in wear should be negligible. When was the last time you wore out the gears in the transmissions. There will be slightly more wear on the clutch as well but again, negligible.

Manually downshifting technically puts additional wear on the motor. This would be the same as if you were driving a manual. Do you perceive that the added wear on the motor has been a huge issue in your past?

I can say with certainty that there is no difference between sitting in gear foot on brake and sitting in N. The throw out is full contact so it spins no matter what.

 

Brakes are cheap, is my philosophy to this, I agree with Taz - look ahead and if you see traffic showing or stopping, maybe go one gear down eventually. But then to neutral once revs go below 2000.
When i'm "flogging it" I do downshift alle the way though, helps braking and a lot more fun too.

 

Just like driving a standard. No sense banging all the gears coming to a stop.Slow down and drop it into neutral. Thanks, Bruce

 

Have you seen Taz's brakes? They are not cheap.

 

Bruce- Affirmative, drive it like a manual trannie and you will love it. Drive it like it an automatic and you will hate it. John is correct on the T/O bearing. Ferrari uses constant contact bearings, plus the clutch is always open when the car is stopped, even in neutral. One of our pros, however, estimates an F1 T/O bearing gets used around 3 times as much as a three pedal's would be.

If you sit in gear for 90 seconds with your foot off the brake, the system selects neutral for you, so there must be some advantage to neutral.

But, like I said, just my technique.

 

Hey guys, in F1 when slowing down I downshift, but notice my car always downshifts from second to first. I will be downshifting and when I get to third about to shift into second it autoshift into second and I downshift into first. Happens at the same time. Is this normal?