The 2023 Formula One Season

[IanW]

Tennis players don't have multi million dollar computer simulators to test and train with?

Tennis players can practise with other tennis players or with machines that put the balls wherever they want them, with whatever spin they want on the ball. So they have very useful simulators and the real thing to help them train, as often as they want.

Driver In the Loop Simulators are very impressive devices. They allow the driver to feel much of what they feel when driving at the race track and as such can use them to help develop the race car to feel how they want and to a lesser extent to practice driving a particular circuit (they learn new circuits very quickly). They do however use the DIL Simulator to go through a range of setup changes prior to going to the race event, so they (engineers and drivers) have a better idea as to what to change if certain things happen.

But a DIL Simulator is not able to load up the driver's body etc as it would be on the track, so a different type of body loading simulator, with weights etc has been developed for many years now and is used on occasion to help keep their muscles built up to the required level.

 

[Tony Lockhart]

Let’s hope they don’t need a
Driver In the Loop Dynamic Output simulator. Although Ferrari have had a few over the years

 

[Space is the Place]

I'm interested in the effect the age of the driver has on the equation. When you get to a 'certain age' you perhaps don't feel you have the same raw speed you used to as a younger driver, perhaps this is something you can't help as your brain changes so your more cautious and willing to take less risks. Does advantage of having more experience, knowing the tracks, being more consistent make up for what you loose in speed?
Many of the younger drivers have raw speed but make more mistakes, have less experience and consistency.
Obviously Lewis proved in 2021 that he's still top of his game despite the outcome of the final race. Hopefully we'll see a season like 2021 repeated, i'd like to see Lewis win an 8th title. I always liked the the younger "heart on his sleeve Lewis" i always thought he was sharp and funny, amongst a very corporate sea of golf slacks, now he's matured into someone who trying to change F1 for the better.

 

[Tony Lockhart]

I'm interested in the effect the age of the driver has on the equation. When you get to a 'certain age' you perhaps don't feel you have the same raw speed you used to as a younger driver, perhaps this is something you can't help as your brain changes so your more cautious and willing to take less risks. Does advantage of having more experience, knowing the tracks, being more consistent make up for what you loose in speed?
Many of the younger drivers have raw speed but make more mistakes, have less experience and consistency.
Obviously Lewis proved in 2021 that he's still top of his game despite the outcome of the final race. Hopefully we'll see a season like 2021 repeated, i like to see Lewis win an 8th title.

F1 is about winning, not about safe seconds. So while older drivers can have their place in development, making fewer mistakes will lose its value once a younger driver has a season or two under his belt.

I think.

 

[RJohan]

In 1979 I did an exam job at something called 'The Swedish Road and Traffic Institute'. They where at that time developing a car simulator that included G-loading of the driver. It was a big monster thing moving sideways and 'dipping' front and back to simulate cornering, braking and accelerating. I got to test drive it, the G-force thing was out of order, but it simulated feedback through the steering wheel very well. I actually got a bit of panic when I drove it 'snow' conditions with rear wheel drive and ended up in a spin! The G-forces was probably well under 1 G, doing a machine that would do todays F1 cars loadings up to about 5 G would simply be impossible.

Now everyone can buy a steering wheel that simulates feedback and use in ones favorite computer game.

 

[Space is the Place]

Do the older drivers loose some of the ruthlessness i wonder (obviously Alonso hasn't, i was listening to a podcast recently that described him as hand grenade with the pin removed!), obviously the younger drivers have something to prove, i can see that in Russell, he always looks on edge to me, it's a very thin sheen of calm, the comment he's made above comparing F1 to tennis illustrates it perfectly, he just wants to get on with it and prove to himself how fast he is, he must be under more pressure this year especially if Mercedes have a fast car.

 

[RJohan]

I'm interested in the effect the age of the driver has on the equation. When you get to a 'certain age' you perhaps don't feel you have the same raw speed you used to as a younger driver, perhaps this is something you can't help as your brain changes so your more cautious and willing to take less risks. Does advantage of having more experience, knowing the tracks, being more consistent make up for what you loose in speed?
Many of the younger drivers have raw speed but make more mistakes, have less experience and consistency.
Obviously Lewis proved in 2021 that he's still top of his game despite the outcome of the final race. Hopefully we'll see a season like 2021 repeated, i'd like to see Lewis win an 8th title. I always liked the the younger "heart on his sleeve Lewis" i always thought he was sharp and funny, amongst a very corporate sea of golf slacks, now he's matured into someone who trying to change F1 for the better.

Well, Mario Andretti did win a race in Indycar at the tender age of 53, so Lewis has plenty of time left...

 

[Tony Lockhart]

Do the older drivers loose some of the ruthlessness i wonder, obviously the younger drivers have sometime to prove, i can see that in Russell, he always look on edge to me, the comment he's made above comparing F1 to tennis illustrates it perfectly.

Back in the 90s Damon Hill said he realised his time was up when, as the race started and everyone else was fighting hard for that one piece of track into the first corner, he thought to himself “What’s the rush guys?”

They’ll all have different reasons.

 

[Space is the Place]

Back in the 90s Damon Hill said he realised his time was up when, as the race started and everyone else was fighting hard for that one piece of track into the first corner, he thought to himself “What’s the rush guys?”

They’ll all have different reasons.

Ha! i can imagine him saying that to himself.

I can't remember if it was posted here, but when he got caught for speeding and had to go on a speed awareness course- where your not supposed to give your real name to the rest of the group and can use any name you like- he'd written on his stick on name tag "The Champ"

 

[Tony Lockhart]

Ha! i can imagine him saying that to himself.

I can't remember if it was posted here, but when he got caught for speeding and had to go on a speed awareness course- where your not supposed to give your real name to the rest of the group and can use any name you like- he'd written on his stick on name tag "The Champ"

Those courses have such a silly name, even for us mere mortals.

If you’re caught doing 150mph on the motorway, you were going too fast to go on a ‘Speed’ Awareness course.
If you were doing 85 on the same stretch of motorway, you can go on the course.

But who needs to be made more aware?

 

[Rodrat]

The speed awareness courses are interesting but I don't know anyone who has changed their driving other than looking out for speed cameras more closely.

 

[Space is the Place]

Those courses have such a silly name, even for us mere mortals.

If you’re caught doing 150mph on the motorway, you were going too fast to go on a ‘Speed’ Awareness course.
If you were doing 90 on the same stretch of motorway, you can go on the course.

But who needs to be made more aware?

If you're caught at 150 MPH your not going on a speed awareness course, your going to prison (a pretty boy like me wouldn't survive).

I used to drive to London a fair bit in late evening on the M4 and the "tiredness can kill signs" would be on the gantries, if your bumbling along it's easy to nod off if your tired or just monotony of driving, we'd often get passed by people going a fair bit faster than we'd be going, i'd estimate about 130-160 MPH for some of them, got me thinking i bet no one's falling asleep at the wheel doing 150 MPH, your eyes are out on stalks!

 

[Tony Lockhart]

If you're caught at 150 MPH your not going on a speed awareness course, your going to prison (a pretty boy like me wouldn't survive).

I used to drive to London a fair bit in late evening on the M4 and the "tiredness can kill signs" would be on the gantries, if your bumbling along it's easy to nod off if your tired or just monotony of driving, we'd often get passed by people going a fair bit faster than we'd be going, i'd estimate about 130-160 MPH for some of them, got me thinking i bet no one's falling asleep at the wheel doing 150 MPH, your eyes are out on stalks!

But the point remains that if you lose your license, or go to prison, you don’t receive any speed awareness training, but doing 36 in a 30 you would if you chose to.

 

[palindrome]

The speed awareness courses are interesting but I don't know anyone who has changed their driving other than looking out for speed cameras more closely.

This would make SAC a Speed Camera Awareness course - an SCA. Just need to shuffle the letters a bit.

John

 

[Aethelist]

But a DIL Simulator is not able to load up the driver's body etc as it would be on the track, so a different type of body loading simulator, with weights etc has been developed for many years now and is used on occasion to help keep their muscles built up to the required level.

F1 has certainly come a long way since the days of the FW14B. A 64kb Psion Organiser that could be programmed to adjust the active suspension for every corner of every track?

Paddy Lowe was a genius.

 

[IanW]

F1 has certainly come a long way since the days of the FW14B. A 64kb Psion Organiser that could be programmed to adjust the active suspension for every corner of every track?

The Psion organiser was used to set offsets in the actuators and as such was just a file editing tool. The control code on the car managed the actuator positions based on the requested position from the file. I do not know how far they had got with setting parameters for each corner as whilst distance based logic was about to be used elsewhere, it was not that reliable for some time and changing ride heights mid corner etc was risky, so safest to stick to breaking zones triggered by large decelerations.

Paddy Lowe was a genius.

Well, he wrote the control code used on the car, but he did not understand how to utilise it to deliver performance. That was down to Frank Dernie who sometimes posts on here.

 

[Tony Lockhart]

I love it when the fuzziness in my head is clarified by someone.

I’ll have forgotten it all by tomorrow

 

[Tony Lockhart]

The Cosworth GMA V12, which powers Gordon Murray Automotive's T.50 supercar.



Ok, tenuous F1 link, but it’s the weekend

 

[RJohan]

The Cosworth GMA V12, which powers Gordon Murray Automotive's T.50 supercar.



Ok, tenuous F1 link, but it’s the weekend

Sure it's not a wristwatch?

 

[Graham B]

The Cosworth GMA V12, which powers Gordon Murray Automotive's T.50 supercar.



Ok, tenuous F1 link, but it’s the weekend

Whoa! The speed and the forces in there must be incredible!

That led me to thinking about current F1 engines - I know they use pneumatic valves for reliability and due to the engine speeds, so don't have camshafts and the associated timing gear, but do they use belts / chains for things like the water pump, or would everything driven by the crank use gears like above for precision and reliability?