f1: driving styles

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe Rubens Barrichello is a right foot breaker. Not necessarily the best or the worst but it's different and works for him.

 

I imagine the easier a driver is on tires and their cars in general will make a difference sometime down the road in reliability and overall faster laps near the end of a race.

Last year F Alonzo seemed rather choppy with the Renault. He would go into a low speed turn and just hammer the wheel over and I was surprised he didn't lose much grip. I would assume the front tires {at the limit} would have a tendency to "wash out" more but it worked for him last year didn't it?

I will also assume the well educated F1 driver brakes with their left foot, keeps the steering wheel as still as possible, adapts the car to the enth degree for each track, brakes as late as possible without locking a wheel, hits as much of the apex as possible, uses as little fuel as possible while going as fast as possible and straightens out all of the turns as much as possible.

I figure the great drivers' advantage over the very good drivers is getting that little tiny bit out of the skills he/ she has. eg: Going into a turn just a hair faster means that 0.05 seconds as well as getting that extra 0.5 MPH additional corner exit speed for the 2 km long straight all the while at every meter down that straight you're still increasing speed 0.5 mph over someone who didn't quite take that last turn as quickly as you just did, might equal 0.2 seconds right there. Now factor in very late braking. You're at top speed longer, getting to the apex quicker, left foot braking {no hesitation of getting the right foot off the gas, on to the brake and back over onto the gas}, if the car gets unsettled coming out of the turn, you can juuuussst barely dab the brake with the left foot as to keep the tires from slipping and all the while getting on the gas with the revs still high.

Now go ahead and do it!

 

He was when he joined Ferrari but I don't think that is the case now. I can't imagine that anyone brakes with their right foor these days in the current F1 cars.

 

This is a good video comparing button, Kimi, FA, etc...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6qi1MbTo-o

I was looking for the video that showed MS's pedal positions. It was posted on fchat a few years ago.

 

Great post!

 

You make a good point on carrying more speed into the corner but there are a number of variables that come into play. Braking as late as possible is not necessarily how the better drivers gain extra speed and neither is mainting the wheel as still as possible.

The extra momentum is obtained by keeping the car at the edge, mantaining a greater average speed and exiting the corner faster.

 

No he is still to this day, I remember him saying in an interview that it's most comfortable for him. The speed f1 commentators last season also mentioned this.

I was reading Damon Hill's book and he said that he was a right foot braker. He tried in his left foot, but because he started racing so late, he wasn't able to develop the same sensitivity in his left foot.

He also said that some drivers brake later and are more aggressive "like rally drivers", while others are very smooth, braking earlier and finding the most ideal line. He said the more aggresive ones were Jean Alesi and Mika Hakkinen, while the smoothies were himself, Prost and Fisichella.

Damon also said that when he crashed in Monaco while he was at Jordan, he sat there for 10 minutes or so and watched everyone. He said that Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher were doing somthing that everyone else wasn't, especially Michael. It was that their braking and throttle transition was much better than everyone else, and they were faster coming out of the tunnel and through the chicane.

Currently, I think driving styles in F1 are less diverse thanks to all the aero and traction control. There are still some differences. Jenson Button is known for being very smooth, while Fernando Alonso is said to be more rough and tosses the car more.

 

actually Rubens is still a right foot braker. he tried left food with honda in the early stages last year and it was a disaster.

so the team decided to switch back to his more natural way of braking. i remember, in 2000, when he joined Ferrari, the engineers had to build special pedals and more legroom for him...

 

So breaking late doesn't have anything to do with "being on edge"? As I said, little parts here and there over an entire lap do add up. The braking story was only and example {eg:} and I did mention leaving the corner more quickly.

Keeping the wheel from moving the car side to side on the straights is important. Did you know an F1 car at full speed {for whatever track it's setup for} may need hundreds and hundreds of HP just to increase the speed by one more hp? Which is why teams don't look for more hp, they look for better use of the hp they have and how to get it from A to B to the track better.

Also, being sloppy with the wheel in turns upsets the car causing more input by the driver hands and feet = not quick.

 

Well..... there is a fundamental difference between breaking late and breaking "as late as possible". Being on the edge at the entry of a corner is not best if it somehow compromises mid/exit corner speed. Average/exit speed through a corner are key. I encourage you to try this next time you are at the track.

Extremely late breakers in F1 include, among others, the brave Andrea de Cesaris and Jos Verstappen, and we all know how good (or bad) they were. MS was a late breaker but did not break the latest. No question he was the quickest though.

In a corner excesive steering is obviously bad. In cany case, Jenson Button is one of the smoothest drivers in F1 although not faster than Alonso or MS that have much more hand/wheel movement.

There's an interestng video comparing MS and Johnny Herbert.

 

here it is....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk2p2nRK-p4

 

Awesome! What I'm trying to coach my drivers to do every weekend!

 

Holy Gebus now you're splitting hairs.

Yes, being late on the brakes soo much that you miss the turn is bad and being smooth with a steering wheel won't give you millions of dollars and a racing seat with the fastest race car in the world? Did I really need to type that out???

 

^^ you clearly missed the point..... but in any case you need to relax.

 

I read what you wrote and it basically said, "slow in fast out" and "don't drive so fast so you lose control". Those are the first rules of any track outing.