Thundermoose

brakes

dctc42

Yes, brakes of course. Thanks!

TXE36

Well yes, if they work. If they don't you may be using the word "breaks" more than you want to .

-Mike

dctc42

Nice one. ;-)

zzyzx

I've always found it interesting how top-level drivers can have such different driving styles.


I seem to remember that back in the 90s, Mika Hakinnen didn't do any left foot braking, whereas Schumacher was famous for it. Yet they were probably equally fast, with some people claiming that Hakinnen was a better qualifier.


Then there is Senna's very unusual use of the throttle. I always laugh when I watch that video of him driving the NSX. If he wasn't Senna, somebody would have yelled at him and told him not to drive like that!


Here's the famous Monaco video which shows his unusual style. By the way, how much more exciting was F1 back in the day compared to the computer game it is now...

Thundermoose

I only seem to remember him heel-toeing in loafers in the NSX video. Please elaborate on this unusual use of the throttle that you speak of.

TXE36

He did more than that, lots of stabbing at the throttle IIRC.

Yep:
I have to admit, I would likely criticize a student for doing that. However, perhaps not if I was taking in the total of his driving as he is obviously one with the car.

Andy Lally had very wild steering wheel movements when he drove my car, but it was smooth as butter. Didn't have to stifle a need to criticize .

-Mike

Thundermoose

Thanks Mike - definitely not something that is taught in HPDE.

zzyzx

Good thing Senna started with karts and not by doing track days. Some club instructor would have nipped his genius in the bud.





Some time ago an Atlas F1 forum, there was a discussion of his driving style, and some said, completely serious, "yeah, he was fast, but he could've been faster if he was smoother with the throttle."

TXE36

catch breath

The lack of humility on the internek knows no bounds. I'm sure if Senna was still with us that he would seriously consider that "advice".

-Mike

Manifold

I think the differences in driving styles of top drivers aren't as large as they may seem. For each car on each track, physics dictates that there's an optimal line with optimal inputs to achieve minimum lap time. The top drivers fundamentally get very close to those optimums, and the differences in their styles are mainly in the pattern of corrections they're making at the limit. Those patterns of corrections may look visually different, but an observer of the trajectory of the car won't see much difference.

Cogito_Ergo_Zoom

Senna started in karts and was very successful in them of course. If you've ever driven one you know you tend to use both pedals like light switches to make them go fast. You don't hesitate to get back on the power unless you like getting passed.

What do all three of these have in common:
-Kart
-NSX
-Early 90s highly oversquare design Honda V10

None of them produce a tremendous amount of torque relatively speaking, hence I think Senna is just "traction sensing" and exercising a bit of manual traction control before he mashes the throttle back to wide open because that's simply the quickest way to get these cars around. I have a 91 NSX and it has a huge flywheel effect and the quickest way to drive it is exactly like he is doing in the video. Plus I'm sure he was just having some fun, too.

Btw, my excellent 91 all original NSX is up for sale should you want to live out your own Senna fantasy. Trip to Suzuka not included though.
https://rennlist.com/forums/vehicle-...l-stunner.html

ProCoach

^THIS^

zzyzx

I've always wondered why Turn 3 at Laguna Seca makes most cars understeer. Looking at Google Earth, it looks like the track narrows. Maybe that is the reason? I guess this is a question for the California pro coaches.

DTMiller

So here's a fun one, I guess.

I played around with going to second gear at turn 5 at Summit Main. It works pretty well.

But then I'm in a weird spot at turn 6; I can either stay in 2nd but then I have to go to 3rd while I'm in turns 6 & 7 with the car pretty fully loaded, which seems wrong and tricky and generally uncomfortable. The alternative is to UPshift while I'm braking, which seems like an insanely counterintuitive thing to do. I could upshift slightly earlier than while I'm braking but if I'm going to go through the trouble of getting down to second at 5 it seems like I should use it for as long as it's sensible to do so.

Which of these two evils is better?

Start at :50 or so for the entry to 5 (which wasn't always this rough, I did this better other times).