How “easy” it was to drive! And so much smoother than the F4 which felt like a tractor compared. Here is a slightly longer version of my experience including more of the F4.
I have a triple 40” sim set up and the view is comparable. The throttle pedal is very easy to push and has about ten centimetres or less of travel. The brake pedal has very little play but requires 100kg of force to properly slow the car ... I only managed a third of that! You can do F1 experiences with older cars but this one I don’t think is widely available. I have Huegensfeld (sp) pedals but they are v different.
From doing a little track day here and there in quite fast but still slow compared to proper formula cars. I have always said to people who think they can just jump into a formula car and go to the limit because they can in sim,are kidding themselves. I have always said I admire the f1 guys because of the forces they have to battle,it would make mere mortals turn to jelly and all they think they know would be out the window,because the forces are over baring. I bet most of us couldn’t even spell our names out loud while trying to just drive these things aroun
thanks for answering. Just 2 more if you let me: are you a professional driver(or was)? do you know if some aspect of the car was "dumbed down" to make the experience more pleasant? (like smoother brakes, highest downforce aero package, throtlle sensitivness...) cheers
Ha! No not a professional driver Nothing was dumbed down on the car except that I had no DRS or KERS...I think the downforce package was for the circuit.
so, just the equipment between seat and wheel was dumbed down Just kidding. Amazing experience. Congrats
I don’t recall the wheel feeling particularly heavy - the F1 has power steering - but the F4 was heavier at low speeds obviously without the power steering.
In the other videos I 've seen they usually tune down the engine and set up shortshift gearing. If that wasn't the case then you were lucky to have full potentail of the car.
That is interesting, I would imagine the learning curve was very high. Did the acceleration shock you? I have heard many times that it is the braking, don't know how much you were using them though.
Wow, just watched the footage. Lucky, lucky b*st*rd That would have been amazing. I can see how much your head moves when changing gears. I see what you mean about the normal neck. Well done that man.
Nice vid, thanks for sharing! Working for BBC has some nice advantages i see, i m jelly hehe. My god the forces when changing gear, u cant really understand "kick in the back" unless u watch the vid. I just recently noticed how Daniel Ricciardo's neck is bigger than his head...
Yes the forces were strong! Also, I found that going down the straight the force of air on my helmet was pushing it up, and therefore my head backwards. I countered this by looking down almost into my lap so that the airflow didn't push my head back...and as a consequence sort of looked very much upwards! So the head being thrown back was partly as a consequence of my head in a lower position too
