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The 2021 F1 Season.

Speaking of Senna, did he really pump the throttle through the corners, or is that some kind of myth?
It's true. There's a video clip of him testing a Honda NSX round a circuit and they filmed his pedal action showing him doing it.

Found it:
 
Thanks for posting. He makes some interesting points which have given me some things to think about as I have my own views, built up from analysing a lot of drivers and using simulations to understand what they are doing.

Driver61 talked about Max's "squarer" racing line which he shares with Schumacher and Hamilton and allows him to keep the platform (the new word for car apparently!) flatter which allows him to use more of the cars grip for acceleration which overcomes his earlier breaking and lower apex speed.

 
Driver61 talked about Max's "squarer" racing line which he shares with Schumacher and Hamilton and allows him to keep the platform (the new word for car apparently!) flatter which allows him to use more of the cars grip for acceleration which overcomes his earlier breaking and lower apex speed.

They are driving around a limitation that F1 cars have always had, which is the wide variation in aero performance which is mainly dependant upon the front ride height, the rear height, vehicle yaw angle and steer angle. By reducing the peak longitudinal acceleration on entry (but getting higher overall acceleration (lat+long)), they are making it easier to drive the car to closer to the limit throughout the corner, thereby maximising overall acceleration and hence reducing laptime.

I can see why they use the term flatter platform, but it is not a term that I have ever used and is not quite correct. What they are trying to do is to minimise changes in front and rear ride height through the corner and the car at its most efficient will have a pitch angle, i.e the car is not flat and if it were flatter, it would be slower.
 
A slight deviation from F1, one of my loves in the 80s was rallycross. I even managed to help and hinder a successful team for a couple of years. But one of the most astonishing sights was when Norwegian Martin Schanche turned up in his Gartrac Xtrac Escort. Mad.
Fast forward to 15 mins 30 seconds to see a ridiculous thing:

 
A slight deviation from F1, one of my loves in the 80s was rallycross. I even managed to help and hinder a successful team for a couple of years. But one of the most astonishing sights was when Norwegian Martin Schanche turned up in his Gartrac Xtrac Escort. Mad.
Fast forward to 15 mins 30 seconds to see a ridiculous thing:

That was an amazing start and drive.

You could see his car moving around because of the varying grip level, but also because he had so much power to control.
 
That was an amazing start and drive.

You could see his car moving around because of the varying grip level, but also because he had so much power to control.
The tyre, chassis and transmission technology has moved on so far since then, but rallycross is just plain boring to me now. I just think “So what?” instead of “Wow, what have I just seen?”
 
The tyre, chassis and transmission technology has moved on so far since then, but rallycross is just plain boring to me now. I just think “So what?” instead of “Wow, what have I just seen?”
For its time it was quite something.

I have only occasionally watched rallycross and have no idea what it is like nowadays.
 
For its time it was quite something.

I have only occasionally watched rallycross and have no idea what it is like nowadays.

The only difference between the cars appears to be the sponsorship.
Artificial circuits with spectators over the horizon.
No soul.
Shouty commentary when not a lot is really happening.


I’d rather watch someone else playing Gran Tourismo on a PS1.
 
They are driving around a limitation that F1 cars have always had, which is the wide variation in aero performance which is mainly dependant upon the front ride height, the rear height, vehicle yaw angle and steer angle. By reducing the peak longitudinal acceleration on entry (but getting higher overall acceleration (lat+long)), they are making it easier to drive the car to closer to the limit throughout the corner, thereby maximising overall acceleration and hence reducing laptime.

I can see why they use the term flatter platform, but it is not a term that I have ever used and is not quite correct. What they are trying to do is to minimise changes in front and rear ride height through the corner and the car at its most efficient will have a pitch angle, i.e the car is not flat and if it were flatter, it would be slower.

Just to get everything into a layman's head:

- Longitudional acceleration = breaking or accelerating?
- Lateral acceleration = cornering?
- Pitch angle = leaning forward or backwards relative to when viewed static?
- Yaw angle = the car leans outwards under cornering forces?
 
Just to get everything into a layman's head:

- Longitudional acceleration = breaking or accelerating?
- Lateral acceleration = cornering?
- Pitch angle = leaning forward or backwards relative to when viewed static?
- Yaw angle = the car leans outwards under cornering forces?
All correct apart from yaw angle. What you have described is the roll angle, which due to the very stiff chassis and setup in roll, is very low, typically a peak of 2 deg roll and 1 deg comes from the tyres.

Yaw angle is the rotation of the chassis when looked at from above and is therefore equivalent to the roll angle, which is the rotation of the chassis when looked at from behind and the pitch angle, which is the rotation of the chassis when looked at from the side.
 
All correct apart from yaw angle. What you have described is the roll angle, which due to the very stiff chassis and setup in roll, is very low, typically a peak of 2 deg roll and 1 deg comes from the tyres.

Yaw angle is the rotation of the chassis when looked at from above and is therefore equivalent to the roll angle, which is the rotation of the chassis when looked at from behind and the pitch angle, which is the rotation of the chassis when looked at from the side.
All familiar stuff to aircraft blokes

 
Thanks guys!

So what Max and others is doing is the old 'The highest speed coming out of the corner wins'? But in a new way?
 
Thanks guys!

So what Max and others is doing is the old 'The highest speed coming out of the corner wins'? But in a new way?
It is similar to how Senna used to drive and as such is just another way of describing how to get more out of the tyres and hence reduce your laptime.

With more pundits understanding this now, it has been given more air time.
 


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