When driving any manual or F1 car I shift into neutral and keep it there while I'm waiting for the time to go. If I am still rolling and the light changes, just use either paddle and you will get a gear. Whether that is the 'official' way or not, I really don't care. It works for me and I am very easy on clutches. I also manually downshift, rather than let the car do it. If you want long clutch, just don't slip the clutch.
It is just a technique, which I also use, because that is the way I drive 3 pedal cars. The late Ferraris have a constant contact throw-out bearing, so putting it in neutral when stopped does not save the T/O bearing like it does in a Corvette or Porsche. Plus whenever you are stopped in an F1 Ferrari, the clutch is always open, even in neutral, so the T/O bearing is fully engaged. As a technique, I never let my F1 system automatically downshift, if I want to go down through the gears, I do it manually. If coasting to a stop in neutral and traffic starts moving, pulling either paddle will get you a gear. That gear will be too high for comfortably accelerating. As a technique, I use the downshift paddle to get a gear and then almost instantly downshift to get a usable gear. Most important thing to remember is drive the F1 system just like you drive a 3 pedal car, except the clutch pedal is missing. If you are a downshift to 1st guy, do that, if a roll to a stop in neutral guy, do that. For those who have never driven a 3 pedal car, not sure what to tell you. Just practice a bunch until you are comfortable with however you drive her.
I do the exact same thing, I am with Dino on this, don't care what anyone else thinks, it became a habit a long time ago and I do it without even thinking about it. It always has bother me other cars I've owned (Alfa, Porsche, BMW), do not go to n like my F1 cars have.
I demonstrated a while ago that the clutch closes slightly when a gear is selected from N even with no throttle input (F1 360, CFC231 CS TCU). This slight closing occasionally causes my car to creep. Because of this I select neutral when stopped but as Terry says this is nothing to do with release bearing wear and probably makes no difference to clutch life. View attachment 2531465
You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action. And for the Tony Tonino: Nice discussion resurrection back from 2007 The vast mysteries of the Ferrari 1st gen (?) F1 -system are living really strong at 2007, 2018 and prolly still at 2025
Yup, and the same old wives' tales will still be propagated as long as the F1 Ferraris are still running. Mike- If you are getting creep, your PIS is likely set too low. A good tech adjusts the PIS to where the output shaft is just not moving. Yours sounds like it is just moving. An easy fix.
Terry, When is Neutral the clutch release bearing on my car is 2mm 'farther open' than when it is in 1st or reverse gear. There is no output shaft movement in N and obviously none in gear when stationary (it can't as the brakes prevent it from moving) I agree opening up the PIS would reduce the drag but it has been set-up exactly as you describe. Ask your techs to record the clutch position in N and 1st as they are setting the PIS. It would be interesting to see if this a quirk of the CS TCU.
Mike- The creep I am talking about is without brakes, of course. My readings will not do you much good since she is a 575M with a thicker clutch disc. Same F1 system with slightly different parts attached like the clutch, T/O bearing and clutch position sensor.
Thanks Terry.....I understand now. Your techs set the PIS with the car in gear whereas mine set it with the car in N. After watching the clutch movement in my car I couldn't see the point in setting the PIS with the car in N by observing the output shaft.
My PIS was set in my CS TCU by a tech friend who was in the car with me. You need to do 3 tests to find the right setting. Flat, slight uphill, and slight downhill. We set my PIS to about 3.78mm. I had about 80% clutch wear left and it work s great. I always grab N when approaching a stop sign or light. On F1 you want to downshift as little as possible, even though it sounds awesome on the CS TCU. This saves clutch wear from engine braking when you don't really need it. When cornering, with clear traffic ahead, then by all means downshift and have a ball. Drive with ASR off to get a more aggressive launch and learn a deeper throttle mash to get that launch. I even use a 2 lobe approach with a little crack to nudge the car and another deeper one to seat the clutch more firmly and avoid "luxury slip."
