2006 China, Shanghai

[si|verfish]

It is without question that F1 cars nowadays are light years ahead in terms of safety. Barring a few isolated incidents, there is no real sense of danger for the drivers when they crash. Compare that to the olden days when you will get seriously hurt or even die if you had a crash. Back then, there was also less downforce, less grip, less protective gear, and safety precautions are probably a joke compare to now.

 

[butthead]

and he rev few times with brake on at the corner, I don't know the effect of doing that, but as I know, Kimi and Alonso don't do that. Maybe someone at here can give some technical bit?

it is actually heel and toe technique... where he blips the throtle to match his revs for the next gear he downshifts... this will help to lessen the jolts to the driveline and prevent any instability in the car when braking and downshifting...actually their sequential boxes are programmed to do that automatically everytime they press the the downshift paddle...but Michael does it to aid the transmission to downshift faster... trying to lessen the downshift times... F1 sequential boxes are known to upshift at about 80ms i think.. but their downshifts are slower because te system has to blip the throttle and wait for the revs to go up...

It is without question that F1 cars nowadays are light years ahead in terms of safety. Barring a few isolated incidents, there is no real sense of danger for the drivers when they crash. Compare that to the olden days when you will get seriously hurt or even die if you had a crash. Back then, there was also less downforce, less grip, less protective gear, and safety precautions are probably a joke compare to now.

still it does not mean the drivers are trying any less harder... it just meant that the gap between teams are actually smaller... so i don't think it is blamable on them for not giving us the side to side.. wheel banging...rear ending actions anymore...hehehe

and nowadays car can't take a lot of forces from the wrong directions.. a small bang on the wheel from the side and the suspension breaks off....

 

[prodigy]

Cars nowadays are engineered to be supremely precise with the minimum amount of materials used so to minimise weight. Thats why the cars are so fragile.

 

[simonchangwaimun]

i dun understand why should they wear watch during racing...
not like got chance to see oso
swt
for advertising purpose...wear la AFTER race...for podium or press conference or smtg

 

[Daniel Lee]

simon, they really did wear the watch after the race for those who manage to grab those podium spots. Mainly for promoting purposes. If they wear it during racing, it will contribute to the car's weight which is bad.

 

[BlackSamurai]

Cars nowadays are engineered to be supremely precise with the minimum amount of materials used so to minimise weight. Thats why the cars are so fragile.

the car is not fragile, those carbon fiber chassis absord the impact and slow the car down and minimize physical damage to the drive in the cockpit, it's design to be broke once heavy or direct contact happen.

 

[si|verfish]

still it does not mean the drivers are trying any less harder... it just meant that the gap between teams are actually smaller... so i don't think it is blamable on them for not giving us the side to side.. wheel banging...rear ending actions anymore...hehehe

I believe there is a difference in how hard the drivers try.

Imagine the top 100 metre sprinters in the world today. Now imagine if they had to run with hungry tigers chasing after them. When there's a real sense of danger, you just try that much harder. And in a way, this will separate the men from the boys. Those who can't take the heat will falter, while those who can will push harder and become better.

I don't blame modern day F1 drivers though, its not like its their fault.

Put it this way, if you were to put them in context of F1 as an evolving sport, Fangio would be lesser than Schumacher (because Schumi is more successful in the sport). But put them in the context of driving as a skill, Fangio would be equal if not better than Schumacher. IMHO.

 

[butthead]

I believe there is a difference in how hard the drivers try.

Imagine the top 100 metre sprinters in the world today. Now imagine if they had to run with hungry tigers chasing after them. When there's a real sense of danger, you just try that much harder. And in a way, this will separate the men from the boys. Those who can't take the heat will falter, while those who can will push harder and become better.

I don't blame modern day F1 drivers though, its not like its their fault.

Put it this way, if you were to put them in context of F1 as an evolving sport, Fangio would be lesser than Schumacher (because Schumi is more successful in the sport). But put them in the context of driving as a skill, Fangio would be equal if not better than Schumacher. IMHO.

i get wat u mean... from a cars point of view... the cars today are a bit fragile... compared to the steel framed cars of yesteryears.. any knocks and bangs on the car would have parts cracking and later even cause a crash... drivers would not risk it like the drivers in the old days doing all it takes to overtake someone...even if it means touching wheels...

from a drivers perspective... when i have a car that is almost simillar to you... it is very very hard to be zig zagging around the track trying to overtake people, doing banzai moves braking into a turn... the point is... the cars are so closely matched nowadays that the margin of advantage between some of the teams are so minimal that it is not even logical to try their luck on... not even to mention the fragility of their cars...in the late 80s and early 90s... more noticable in the turbo eras... there were sometimes big gap in between teams...

so it is quite pointless to pit juan manuel fangio, senna or anyone else with drivers like kimi, alonso and michael... cos we will never know how would old drivers in this eras car and how would this eras driver do in the old cars...

i don't know if you get my meaning with all the crappy examples above... but to easily put it... if i were to race you in a Porsche with you driving a typical Merc... surely i will win you and the race would be more exciting as i would be all over your back and overtaking and braking over you would be easy... if you and i were to race in simillar porsches and you and my driving skill is almost the same.. surely the outcome would be less interesting... unless we are willing to put both out lives and other peoples lives on the line... we would be banging each other and nudging each other...you can have this type of actions in lower speed dtm and other slower tye of races... but when you do it in sports that involves speed of up to 300Kph... any wheel put wrong could flip, barrel roll or put a drivers car in the air...

in other words you would be wanting all the drivers to win at all cost... so to make the sport more exciting... i would be putting it this way...

 

[prodigy]

i dun understand why should they wear watch during racing...
not like got chance to see oso
swt
for advertising purpose...wear la AFTER race...for podium or press conference or smtg

The drivers definitely don't wear watches during races. I think they're not allowed to. Similarly, there's a ban on wearing rings and neck chains which came into effect this year. They call it Ban On Blings.

I think i've seen a couple of times whereby on the parc ferme, one of the team representative would hand over a watch to the driver to wear as he emerges from the car into the podium. I can remember seeing Mclaren rep passing Kimi a watch before he enters the building for podium.

 

[butthead]

The drivers definitely don't wear watches during races. I think they're not allowed to. Similarly, there's a ban on wearing rings and neck chains which came into effect this year. They call it Ban On Blings.

I think i've seen a couple of times whereby on the parc ferme, one of the team representative would hand over a watch to the driver to wear as he emerges from the car into the podium. I can remember seeing Mclaren rep passing Kimi a watch before he enters the building for podium.

is there such a thing "Ban On Blings"???

but i do see that they mostly hand them the hat... watch i never really noticed...

 

[David_1211]

MSC using trail braking?throttle to aid and speed up the downshifts...
Ferrari have a technologies that very very identical to heel and toe move...not the driver that stab the throttle...actually is the software do...
i think all of us know heel and toe rite....ferrari apply this into the ferrari..so the throttle is open fraction of a second when downshifting..

 

[si|verfish]

What the...?

With the advent of semi-automatic gearboxes in F1 since a millenia ago, heel and toe ing is no longer necessary.

Throttle control and late braking on the other hand are still skills that are used by F1 drivers.

 

[David_1211]

not heel and toe by the driver...u know what i mean..?
trail braking i know its a great technique
the program told the throtle to open when downshifting
so that the rpm drop when the gear is engage...if like any other team...the rpm rise when the gear engage..u notice that?
all of this happen very fast...even commentator telling about this b4..but since last few GP...Ferrari have less onboard cam with gauge at the side of our screen

 

[si|verfish]

Like I said, that automatic throttle blipping that your are talking about is part of having the semi-automatic/sequential/whatever-you-want-to-call-it gearboxes in F1 cars. It changes the gears thus it does the blipping and so on.

 

[butthead]

MSC using trail braking?throttle to aid and speed up the downshifts...
Ferrari have a technologies that very very identical to heel and toe move...not the driver that stab the throttle...actually is the software do...
i think all of us know heel and toe rite....ferrari apply this into the ferrari..so the throttle is open fraction of a second when downshifting..

trail braking...i was talking about his driving style...

yes Ferraris F1 Sequential boxes in the F355, F360, F430, is capable of bliping the throttle automatically when you down shift...but assisting the system by blipping it when you change can help gain some time on downshifts...

let me put it this way... the system that controls the transmission will have no idea when the driver is going to downshift... hence it will only blip the throttle a fraction of the moment after the drivers hits the downshift pedal...

a driver on the other hand would be sure on when he is going to downshift...he can help the system by blipping the throttle before the system does and help increase the revs to match the lower ratio... this will take a slightly shorter time to downshift...just a short stab and let the system continue the rest...

not heel and toe by the driver...u know what i mean..?
trail braking i know its a great technique
the program told the throtle to open when downshifting
so that the rpm drop when the gear is engage...if like any other team...the rpm rise when the gear engage..u notice that?
all of this happen very fast...even commentator telling about this b4..but since last few GP...Ferrari have less onboard cam with gauge at the side of our screen

i never said the heel and toe is done by the driver... the driver just assists the system in doing it... faster...

as you said... the program will need to tell the throttle to open.. which is a time lag of some thousands of a second while the driver can already be ready to stab at the throttle the moment he engages a lower gear...

it might not make a whole lot difference in timing...hence you don't see a lot of teams and drivers doing it...

 

[David_1211]

Sorry butthead...i was refering to silverfish reply...
trail braking is that the driver brake at the very late and reduce speed til the middle of the corner??

 

[butthead]

Sorry butthead...i was refering to silverfish reply...
trail braking is that the driver brake at the very late and reduce speed til the middle of the corner??

ohh...my wrong then...

yes trail braking is the act of braking past the usual braking point deep into the corner...