Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
Note: This post was split out of the Alpine A521 topic
we use road cars and we switch cars and able to adopt steering wheel quickly. I know the complex of F1 but why it is important to have steering suited for specific driver.
example: Russel jumped to Mercedes and last year and beat bottas. how is that possible for him to do? is Williams and Mercedes using similar steering wheel?
Last edited by Steven on 16 May 2021, 16:26, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:Topic split
Note: This post was split out of the Alpine A521 topic
we use road cars and we switch cars and able to adopt steering wheel quickly. I know the complex of F1 but why it is important to have steering suited for specific driver.
example: Russel jumped to Mercedes and last year and beat bottas. how is that possible for him to do? is Williams and Mercedes using similar steering wheel?
Maybe the cars aren't that different? Maybe it was the track wasn't that complicated? Maybe Bottas had a off race? Maybe it was a track that Russel does well on and a track Bottas does not? Wonder how well Russel would have looked against Hamilton?
I think you could say that any kind of feedback is important to a driver. For Russell in the Mercedes, he spend many hours in their simulator. Good chance the Mercedes gives better feedback than the Williams of course.
In F1, contrary to a road car, brake pedal feedback is one of the most important things, change of direction is so fast, that it's more visual feedback (how fast the car is rotating) then a "seat of the pants" style.
Having said that, I do remember Kimi sitting out a session with Lotus because he didn't like the steering.
Note: This post was split out of the Alpine A521 topic
we use road cars and we switch cars and able to adopt steering wheel quickly. I know the complex of F1 but why it is important to have steering suited for specific driver.
example: Russel jumped to Mercedes and last year and beat bottas. how is that possible for him to do? is Williams and Mercedes using similar steering wheel?
Don’t forget Russell has driven the Mercedes before and spent time in their simulator. It shouldn’t be a surprise he knows how to use the steering wheel to an extent. I’m sure they dumbed it down for him a little though and gave him the maximum help they were allowed to.
Note: This post was split out of the Alpine A521 topic
we use road cars and we switch cars and able to adopt steering wheel quickly. I know the complex of F1 but why it is important to have steering suited for specific driver.
example: Russel jumped to Mercedes and last year and beat bottas. how is that possible for him to do? is Williams and Mercedes using similar steering wheel?
Outside Drivers like Martin brundle, Mazepin and Karun Chandok praised the Mercedes for sweet it is to drive. I'm really keen to see what Romain Grosjean hasto say about it when he gets his test a few weeks from now
I'm unsure if this topic is about the general steering (dynamics) force feedback, or the function and operation of the switches and gauges on the steering wheel.
example: Russel jumped to Mercedes and last year and beat bottas. how is that possible for him to do? is Williams and Mercedes using similar steering wheel?
F1 cars all have hydraulic power steering (with, presumably, quite minimal assistance) so one presumes they are all going to have quite a lot of steering feedback from the tyres.
It's a two-way system after all -- driver to contact patch, contact patch to driver.
As an ex FF1600 and FF2000 driver, pretty damn important. That's how you know what is going on. I know that watching F1 TV it looks like a drive on the freeway, but it's not. There are constant feedback loops that tell you what the car is doing and it's critical that you get feedback from the wheel. A person who has never raced would be amazed at the constant movements of the wheel.
As an ex FF1600 and FF2000 driver, pretty damn important.
How does steering feel in "ultimate driving machines" like the E39 BMW M5 with recirculating ball steering compare to vehicles with rack & pinion steering?
In many ways it is surprising that an enthusiast brand like BMW was using recirculating ball steering as late as 2002!
The first-gen Mercedes SLK sportscar also used recirculating ball steering I believe. Is recirculating ball steering highly suitable for sportscars, or is steering feedback reduced?
The way I heard it (sorry no citations) is that the general populace drive using effort, ie steering wheel torque, as their main control parameter when cornering. On a properly set up race car the driver uses demand, ie steering wheel angle, most of the time. That's rather like having fixed braking points for a corner. However, when conditions change, or they are doing a hot lap, then SWT becomes important as well.
As to BMW, once they switched to run-flats they stopped being the benchmark.
In my early 20s I autocrossed a Miata. I depowered the rack to get feedback. Having driven karts, I was use to a heavy wheel and feeling everything through it. Nothing a bit of caster can't take care of either, and it's not like the Miata has any downforce either. Night and day difference, but it's not for everyone. I can't imagine most of the general public enjoying that, especially while parking.
A lot of fast drivers are "seat of the pants". At some level, they need to learn the analysis side of it, but on the amatuer level, there are plenty of front runners who couldn't tell you where / when they brake / turn in / etc. they just drive by feel.
So that said, it's very important. It can be tuned now with the higher end systems. You get enough feel, but without a tiring amount of effort. If you look at late 80s / early 90s in-cars, you see how heavy the steering wheel is. You can drive a car like that fast over one lap, but over the race, it's going to add up (hand / arm / shoulder cramps). As badass as those guys were, they would have been faster over the entire race if they had power steering. The guys today could drive those cars if they had to, they just don't.
So from a driver perspective you need it, but not be so great that it tires you out. If you can be as comfortable at the end of a race as the beginning, then it allows you to use brain power to focus on going fast / race craft. You see this in the amateur world where fitness levels are all over the place. Drivers we raced against who are not lacking in the mid-section, who were fast over a lap, would get sloppy later on. A family friend who was a multi-championship /lap record holder in the 1960s and 1970s, and had a successful vintage racing career in the 2000s, we could see age catch up to him in the race... he would be fast over one lap, but as he got into his 70s he would fade earlier and earlier in the race. It was sad to see, but he had nothing to be disappointed at, he was still beating guys 20-30 years younger.
