So...what are you sayin'? It's possible for F1 drivers to withstand 8-10Gs for 1 1/2 hour through just physical training? I can understand withstanding 200Gs on an impact crash; that's only m' secs. But for a whole race on 8 - 10Gs has got to be tiring enough that the drivers won't be 100% coherent on their reflexes and judgement.
Location: Covilhã, Portugal (and sometimes in Évora)
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j4kwan wrote:So...what are you sayin'? It's possible for F1 drivers to withstand 8-10Gs for 1 1/2 hour through just physical training?
No...those amount of g's are only felt for a few seconds at a time...if you experience them for a long time you'll blackout.
The link JHB posted is from a race that was canceled due to some drivers fainting when getting out of the car....they only did Friday free practices and then it was decided to cancel the race.
The 8 or 9 g limit on pilots is based on a short duration turn (10-15 seconds). In a fighter during a turn, the pilot’s feet are towards the outside of the circle and his head is towards the center. Just like in a centrifuge, his blood is forced towards his lower extremities where it pools. Where did the blood come from? His head of course and thus the blackout. To avoid this, the g-suit squeezes the lower extremities and trunk to squirt the blood back up into his head. Flexing all of the muscles in your body can have the same effect. (Try it in front of a mirror.) Thus, a driver on a banked track would have blood forced to his feet like a pilot and 5 – 6 g’s with out a suit is the limit. However, in a flat right hand corner blood would be forced to the left side of his body, making a brief stint of more g’s a possibility. Lastly, blood does not rush away from the head on a 10 ms time scale making blackout a moot point in 100g crashes. Sorry to be so long winded.
I don't know if you guys remeber that Cart race at the Texas Motor Speedway was cancelled after qualifying in 2001 because of high g's. Most of the drivers complained of dizzeness after practice. The drivers expierenced 5 G's for 6 seconds through each of the heavily banked corners. Officials concluded that the drivers were subject to G-forces extreme enough to cause loss of consciousness and therefore the race had to be cancelled.
Thank you Merk. The repeated exposure to high-speed turns on the 24 degree banking drove the blood to their lower extremities. The CART drivers, who normally avoid the banked speedways, did not recognize the symptoms.
