Step inside Senna's MP4-4

Excellent!!

Thanks for sharing.

 

Monaco, full lock, mid turn, shifting with the left hand.... Incredible.

 

Yeah. All I can say is, "wow." To do that in an F1 car at F1 speeds. There's obviously not much aero grip in a turn like that, but the mechanical grip is pretty nuts in its own right.

 

Very cool video with some interesting insight into Senna and his driving technique. Thanks for sharing.

 

And thats why he was a genius in his driving ability

 

Old news.

 

We are to believe that Senna was steering through Lowes with his right hand
and reaching across his body to downshift with this left? BS. This video
contradicts the statement:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3nnAtVq74o[/ame]

And, were it not for the absurd F-1 points scoring system where drivers had to
drop points back then, Prost would have won the Championship 106 to 94.

They may have forgotten this in the "Senna" "documentary" as well.

BHW

 

Nevertheless, he was still a great driver.

 

This ^^^ and that was one awesome car.

 

The presenter, whom I'm guessing is a McLaren team historian or media representative,
should not have to embellish the story.

It's akin to stating that Kim Jung Un shot eight holes in one the first time he ever
tried to play golf.

BHW

 

H gate shift-and no pwr steering either in 1988. Love the old footage of this guy fighting the wheel and he won Monaco 6 times!

 

So let me get this straight-a 2 minute video and you're the expert on how he drove his car? How would you know he didn't use his left hand to shift during the race at any point?

Its easy to contradict a story and bad mouth someone from the keyboard of a computer. Lets see how well you do in a race car around the tight monaco circuit.

And yes i'm a Prost fan as well as an overall F1 fan.

 

Is it even possible to use your left hand to shift the gear situated on the right side, given the lack of space?

 

In my opinion, Yes. The cockpit is so confined and small its almost similar to riding in a go-kart size wise. As long as your arm is long enough to reach the right side of the cockpit.

I've shifted left handed while driving right handed and holding a soft taco-That's exactly the same as driving 150mph in a race car and shifting left handed.

I just don't like people badmouthing a dead man in such a disrespectful manner. He was a genius behind the wheel and changed F1's history forever. Prost was more of a calculated machine like driver while senna was get in and see what happens.

 

For interior spacial reference here's some cockpit pics of his and Andretti's MP4-8 I took. Thought I had at least one with the shifter visible. Not alot of real estate to in there to work with.
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Now I have to waste hours of my extremely dead work day looking at Senna videos and backup my argument.

 

I find it hard to believe that he could shift left handed while belted into the car, but who knows.

cool video anyway, one of the greatest F1 cars of all time.

 

You and I both.

 

I say it would be pretty hard for anyone on this site to comment on that, due to lack of significant seat time in that specific car

 

I wouldn't bother. I watched every race that occurred during Senna's career live either in person or on tv and I never saw anyone shift like that, and if you watch the in-car footage of Nakajima in the King Lauda thread you will see that the gearshift is located around the lower right thigh area in that car and all others from that era that I have seen.

I feel it would be almost impossible to reach as the steering wheel would be in the way. This dude at Mclaren seems like a bit of a goof. I don't even know why he would bring it up, was he there? F1 drivers are athletic but not WSM competitors. A bit silly I think.

A pic of said car and driver I took in 88, I could see into the cockpit from my position at that turn, he didn't do it then, .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86552444@N05/9134672575/sizes/k/in/photostream/
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First off, why would you even do that? I mean, i still drive a manual, right hand drive. Theres no way i would use my right hand to shift my gear situated on my left.

 

Well i didn't say i minded staring at his video's, its quite entertaining.

I wish i could've been at any of his races in person.

I wouldn't put it past him to be able to shift left handed, just the way he knew how to keep the turbo in boost while breaking through a turn and be able to slingshot out of a turn just showed how gifted he really was.

For the Prost lovers, Prost was probably the most technical and precise driver i've ever seen in a car. He knew exactly how, where and when to put that car for the best times.

My analogy-
Prost was a robot. Knew every track upside down and how exactly to run that race to minimize lap times without errors.
Senna was a natural. He knew how to bring the car to the edge of its performance level just before it would lost grip. Sometimes he would actually lose the grip, but when he didn't, man was he fast.

 

He won it so many times I thought Senna won Monaco in 88, his first championship year, but just noticed that year he lost to Prost. What a rivalry

 

All these guys, the top ones, were amazingly consistent. Look at their lap times in the races and look at their qualifying times. These guys shifted the same every lap in the same way, nothing haphazard about it. So seeing Senna's 88 lap on page 1 kills the idea that he shifted the way the suit in the Mclaren video claims now. PLUS, he would have had to reach further down and forward, with his forearm prone to get to the shifter. I doubt he could, knowing that he was strapped in so tight that his torso can not budge including his shoulder.

Great drivers, great tracks, and turbo power. A lot of enjoyment.