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Sobeyet, on 01 October 2010 - 10:50 PM, said:
Most people would have trouble driving a Formula 1 car in a straight line due to the throttle control it requires, and you can forget about a sequence of chicanes at +120 mph. Here's some footage from my favorite F1 driver, Ayrton Senna:
Fast-forward to 3:18 for some insanity. It takes superhuman reflexes to do anything at that speed, but to read the course, feel the grip of the car, keep track of other cars, and make absolutely precise adjustments with both your hands and feet (a few millimeters off and you can crash into a wall) is madness. Senna also drove back in the old days with no driver assists (traction/stability control, automatic shifters, etc.) so sometimes he'd be driving one handed to downshift into a turn going +100 mph while employing a heel-toe movement with his feet.
Beyond all that, in terms of physical toll the hardest part is the G forces imparted on the body at that body for that length of time. F1 drivers can get hit by +5Gs during certain sections of the course - astronauts pull 3gs on the space shuttle to escape orbit. It's hard to even breathe under those conditions. Most drivers retire in their 30s and 40s due to the physical toll and degradation of skill/reflex (like the majority of professional athletes). Funny story, my friend went karting in a 250 cc engine and was pulling about 4gs while breaking, after a couple of hours he noticed his ribs hurt... turns out one fractured from the g load.
Fast-forward to 3:18 for some insanity. It takes superhuman reflexes to do anything at that speed, but to read the course, feel the grip of the car, keep track of other cars, and make absolutely precise adjustments with both your hands and feet (a few millimeters off and you can crash into a wall) is madness. Senna also drove back in the old days with no driver assists (traction/stability control, automatic shifters, etc.) so sometimes he'd be driving one handed to downshift into a turn going +100 mph while employing a heel-toe movement with his feet.
Beyond all that, in terms of physical toll the hardest part is the G forces imparted on the body at that body for that length of time. F1 drivers can get hit by +5Gs during certain sections of the course - astronauts pull 3gs on the space shuttle to escape orbit. It's hard to even breathe under those conditions. Most drivers retire in their 30s and 40s due to the physical toll and degradation of skill/reflex (like the majority of professional athletes). Funny story, my friend went karting in a 250 cc engine and was pulling about 4gs while breaking, after a couple of hours he noticed his ribs hurt... turns out one fractured from the g load.
Saw a magnificent documentary on Senna over the weekend, I'd recommend it to anyone that's even a casual fan of motorsports or sports in general. Just ridiculously well done (in terms of storytelling I'd put it ahead of the 24/7 hockey stuff I linked before) and the way the actual events unfolded is totally engrossing - I can only imagine how crazy the media would have gone if the same stuff happened in today's world (the rivalry between Senna and Prost, the crashes, the politics between Senna and the FIA).
The trailer:
Top Gear's (UK auto show, pretty popular outside the states) tribute to Senna:
It's only playing in NYC and LA atm, but it should be expanded to other cities in the coming weeks.
