Stamina and G-forces in Monte Carlo

[Jason]

I know Monte Carlo needs high stamina but how G-forces will a driver face?

[manchild]

Lowest G-forces in whole season. Monte Carlo requires high mental stamina (contrentration) not physical stamina.

[Steven]

Exactly. Since there are only slow corners there, and one bumpy chicane, there's not much strain on the driver physically.

Although for concentration it's something totally different: barriers, no run off zones, most gear changes of any GP, ...

[Jason]

Be gentle on the gearbox, 3000 gear changes will occur during the race

[Tp]

On the subject of G-Forces, I wonder if someone could clear this up for me - Are lateral G-forces positive and longitudinal G-Forces negative? I've wanted to know this for some time.

[Jason]

On the subject of G-Forces, I wonder if someone could clear this up for me - Are lateral G-forces negative and longitudinal G-Forces positive? I've wanted to know this for some time.

Somewhat I think negative means no G-force, positive means G-forces are high. The faster you go the higher the G-force when you negioate a corner

[DaveKillens]

Many Formula One drivers have stated that the most difficult part of conditioning is for the neck strain experienced by fast corners. They are all world cless athlets in conditioning, but the repeated neck strain in races where there are many high speed corners makes it very hard on the neck.
When I took a stab at motorcycle road racing, one of the things that was drilled into me was to keep my eyes parallel to the horizon, not allow my head to flop over or perceive the world from an angle. You see that today, in almost alll racers. But to do that, you have to fight the natural tendency to allow your head to flop over, or lean it too hard against the cornering forces. Coupled witht he fact you have a helmet on the head, it magnifies the strain a lot.
But in a Formula One car, you also get punished physically. Very little suspension movement, and it's definitely not a smooth ride. Many drivers wear knee protectors too. As well dehydration can happen, a very serious threat on hot events. And although it happens less these days, drivers have finished a race physically damaged. Muscle strains, blistered hands and feet, and even burns from heat.
But what separates Formula One drivers from us mortals is the need to maintain total concentration and focus each and every millisecond on the track. They have to stay sharp despite everything thrown at them. The car thrashing their body, the neck muscles pushed constantly, high and sustained vibration that truly makes it uncomfortable. Heat, humidity, and even exposure to carbon monoxide. On top of that is the emotional wearing down, having to deal with the constant pressure of delivering, other drivers screwing you up on the track, and car or handling problems. And they have to maintain the focus until the very end. especially the end, when their bodies are limp rag dolls, where they have very little energy remaining, and where any mistake is magnified. Just miss a braking point by a few centimeters, and you can throw away a race win. Kimi did that in France a few years ago, it can and does happen.

[manchild]

On the subject of G-Forces, I wonder if someone could clear this up for me - Are lateral G-forces negative and longitudinal G-Forces positive? I've wanted to know this for some time.

Somewhat I think negative means no G-force, positive means G-forces are high. The faster you go the higher the G-force when you negioate a corner

It has nothing to do with lateral and longitudinal but with acceleration and deceleration.

[DaveKillens]

The term negative and positive G forces is from the aviation community. Negative force is when you are pushed into your seat, positive when the opposite happens and the blood rushes to your head (redout).
Lateral is side to side, what a driver experiences under cornering.

[Tom]

In some ways the drivers are under a lot of physical strain, for example, according to Brundle's book anyway, the cambers are constantly trying to throw the car into the barriers and the bumps, manhole covers, small stones etc are a constant horror for the drivers.

[Reca]

On the subject of G-Forces, I wonder if someone could clear this up for me - Are lateral G-forces negative and longitudinal G-Forces positive? I've wanted to know this for some time.

I’ll try
The concept of positive/negative G you are thinking about, as Dave said, is conventional and related mainly to effects on human body.
In aeronautical terms positive G is by definition when the normal (= perpendicular) mass forces applied to the airplane are in the direction going from upper side of the wing to lower side of the wing (pull the bar and you have positive acceleration).
That means that in reference to human body positive accelerations are the ones causing the blood to go from head to feet, negative ones cause blood to go from feet to head; for various physiological reasons human resistance to positive accelerations is lot higher than to negative ones.
Think about an elevator, it’s the typical example. When it starts to go up you have positive acceleration on your body, when on the contrary it starts to go down you have negative acceleration on your body; if you pay attention you’ll notice that, although acceleration is minimal, the negative one is a bit more disturbing.
Obviously you have always to consider while talking about effects on body, besides the intensity, also the duration of the force application, hence of the acceleration.

Thinking now about the car, for lateral acceleration is pointless to make a distinction (unless you need to decide, as for example while using accelerometers for data logging, that left is positive and right negative or viceversa but it’s purely convention), while longitudinal are judged in physics terms, increment of speed is positive acceleration, reduction of speed is negative.
Thinking in aeronautical conventional term, for the driver, given the driving position, the deceleration (up to 5g) causes to the body what is a positive acceleration (blood from head to feet), while negative, blood from feet to head, is for car acceleration, rate lot lower, less than 2 g. Fortunately I would say, because if they were lying down with head at the front of the car the situation would be reversed and they would have a very hard time to cope with 5g negative so many times during a race.

Hope I didn’t increase your confusion.

[Scuderia_Russ]

Not to mention the back pain Dave.

[DaveKillens]

As Reca has pointed out, the driver's reclined driving position complicates things. Under hard deceleration, the tendency is to slide forward, and the blood to want to leave the head and migrate down toward the feet. And of course, the opposite would happen where under hard acceleration. The driver would have increased blood pressure in the head. The forces are never sustained for long, 2 to 3 seconds for hard braking and maybe twice to thrice for accelerating. Blood flow probably isn't an issue apart from giving some unhappy drivers bad migraines. As well, under hard braking the driver tends to slide as far forward as the belts and straps will allow. So funny thing, but the feet peess even harder, and it takes some effort to lift the foot off the brake pedal.
But the neck has to hold the head up, and it's a constant battle. I've been in aircraft where I experienced three to four G's sustained, and you find yourself looking at your feet. The head just gets forced down, and that's where you wind up looking. So under very hard braking, if the driver didn't fight the tendency for the head to drop, they would be looking at their laps. Under hard acceleration they are probably gazing above the horizon. But it's the side to side motion that just wears a driver down, lap after lap, corner after corner.

[Tp]

Thanks a lot Reca and Dave! I Really appreciate you answering my question so well

[Ciro Pabón]

Negative G-forces are not restricted to aviation. You can accelerate downwards "faster than on free fall" on F1.

Sometimes is easy to forget that the track not only has horizontal curves but it has vertical curves as well. With the aero package pushing the car downwards, I bet that on some hill crests you can get negative G-forces (or at least this is the sensation I have on the simulator at Laguna Seca or Spa.. ).

It is a common rookie error for road designers to forget to check the horizontal versus vertical alignment of the road which leads to many unsafe spots. In a vertical concave curve, the friction available to your tires diminish, because your car weighs less. I suppose that in F1 this can get you quickly into negative G-forces.

I guess that in F-1 you need a strong neck, but in some circuits you need a strong stomach...

Finally, the oscillations on the vertical plane of the suspension can cause the pilot to experiment brief negative G-Forces, because they are thightly restrained to the cockpit. Some kart circuits can give you sore shoulders.