Hamilton"F1 cars are not hard enough to drive"

he should try the Ferrari then

 

When your Merc is perfect each race.

Not sure if LH would be saying this if driving the Williams

 

I dare him to trade cars with Leclerc next race.

 

He's been part of Mercedes since almost forever.

A Ferrari engine would be too alien, unless he relishes a genuine challenge.

 

Agree with him : when u see gasly, Grosjean, Norris, stroll ans all the youngsters in F1 ...lots of us could do it too.


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What he is saying is true. These days, most teenagers are able to set competitive lap times by lunch time. The cars are just too easy to drive, and the challenge actually lies more in mind management, tyre management, and other nonsense. The cars are just not terrifying to drive anymore. Even the sound is crappy as hell.

An F1 car is supposed to be intimidating, and driven b%alls out all the time. You know everything is wrong when a teenager can handle an F1 car these days.

 

The 2017+ cars have a silly amount of grip, aerodynamic and mechanical. Pouhon at Spa, is FLAT! Grip out of hairpins is insane. Remove the powersteering and clever diffs + all the other stuff I always talk about.

 

Part of what makes them easier to drive isnt just their speed, but that they won’t kill you as readily if you do get messed up.

Plus there’s few real risk takers after turn 1 in the top 6...the real dogfighting is in the middle tier.

Lewis wouldn’t know anything about that though as he doesn’t have to roll up his sleeves very often anymore. Sprint at the lights to p1-p2, and cruise for the next 90min, the podium usually represents the least entertaining drivers of the race.

 

Hamilton is correct: F1 cars have become too easy to drive, and the technology can be blamed for that.
For example, le paddle-shift gearchange is a big help for drivers who don't need to worry about clutch syncronisation, over-revving on downshift, or simply missing a gear. Also, they can keep BOTH hands on the steering Wheel at all time; a massive help.
Talking about steering, modern F1s have power assisted steering, that takes a lot of the strain. No Wonder they finish the races without a sweat!
Brakes, grip, suspension have also improved to make cars easier to control.
It's the spectators who are losing out of it: we don't see the effort and the cars appear to be very easy to control now.
F1 has become less physical, and more cerebral, with the driver having to analyse informations received from his dash and through his radio, and drive less on instinct than before.

 

Taking the third pedal and stick shift away from F1 was the equivilant of the PGA removing putting from professional level golf tournaments. You can’t just remove a skill from the top echelon of a sport and say the new sport is as challenging as it use to be.
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I am wondering if they still teach "heel-and-toe" in racing schools these days.
It used to be the bugbear of apprentice racers, and caused many incidents (and breakages) if not mastered correctly.
Even in the lower categories, how many race cars still have a H-gate now?
In sportscars and rallying, modern cars have sequential gearboxes.

Really, the old skills are only found among those who race in historic racing now.
Am I glad I saw the 60s and 70s !!!!!

 

I've been driving manual cars since 1974 and I've never been able to figure out heel and toe shifting. As far as I can tell, it's an excellent method for spinning out. I just hold the clutch in while I'm braking, go through the downshifts until I'm in the gear I want to exit with, and then engage the clutch. It's always seemed easier and safer to me. I don't think I lose that much time.

Just a few months ago I watched some heel/toe videos on YouTube. Nope. Still don't get it or see any reason for it.

 

I don't think they do any longer, after the latest formula ford was introduced with sequential gearbox a few years ago.

It's a skill they can all learn and should be able to.

Sadly, with FIA introducing DRS even at F3 level I think we're ever further away from true racing. Real overtaking is now dumbed down to pressing a button on a designated straight...we're seeing fewer than real passes than ever in all DRS equipped series.

Masters Historics at Brands Hatch this weekend...Should've flown over to see my brother and do that instead!

 

Like I say, I see no advantage to learning that. I have no talent as a car racer anyway. Never been completely comfortable on four wheels. I'm very talented on motorcycles, though - I've embarrassed many squids on sport bikes while on my slowpoke Beemers - because I've been riding since I was a boy and the controls make much more logical sense. Matching revs on a bike requires no contortions.

Bottom line is, my lap times are much better when I don't spin the car.

 

He's also known for "rabbiting" the throttle as noted in the video.

 

Holding the clutch in removes all engine braking...by popping the clutch you get a lot of engine braking. Doesn't make much sense on the road but LOADS on track. Can brake a whole lot later

 

I don't doubt that, but I go to the track with a car once every couple of years, and then I'm just sightseeing with the beginners. On a bike it's a different matter.

I never take my foot off the gas when I downshift until I must brake, same as I just inch the throttle up on a bike when I downshift.

I can brake and rev match shifts on a bike at the same time, but not in a car.

Never will understand the heel/toe thing and that's all there is to that. And I have zero motivation to learn it.

 

I tried it years ago as well, with very unconvincing results.

 

There’s something to this....there is a nearly one-armed driver on Williams this year. And while he isn’t competitive, in a better car, with some more experience, who knows?

 

Sure looked like Hambone was white-knuckling it when he almost put the car into the wall at Rascasse corner.

 

Going the way you do, you don't use engine braking and only your brakes to slow down.
If you use both, you shorten your braking distances.
Competition engines have a high compression ratio, therefore a lot of engine braking on downshift if heel-and-toe is used. .
I am talking the way it was taught to me in the 60s.
I attended the Paul Ricard racing school in the early 70s, and if you couldn't master heel-and-toe at the end of the first day, you wouldn't go any further in the tuition course. In fact, the first day was spent going up and down the gear on a straight line perfecting the technique.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't bother with a driving school. I enjoy driving the way I have for over forty years.