What makes a F1 Driver??

[Nafe]

i was thinking back to an interview he gave where he was talking about what it took him to get a seat, ie bring with him a certain amount of money worth of sponsors.. i think it was around 10mill, but i may not be remembering correctly.

and as for Mark who
http://markwebber.com.au/about/history.cfm

Webber hasn't paid for a drive out of his own pocket. His dad helped pay for Karts and FFord, then Yellow Pages, David Campese, Merc were the benefactors/sponsors.

1995 = sponsored by father and Yellow Pages (Aust. FFord)
1996 = factory driver for Van Dieman FFord (supported by Yellow Pages)
1997 = bankrolled by David Campese and Mercedes Benz (Alan Docking Racing F3 Team)
1998/99 = bankrolled by Mercedes Benz (FIA GT Sportscar Championship/Le Mans)
2000 = bankrolled by Paul Stoddart (European Aviation/Arrows F3000 team)
2001 = bankrolled by Benetton (SuperNova F3000 and Benetton F1 test driver)
2002 = bankrolled by Paul Stoddart (KL Minardi F1 team)
2003/04 = paid driver for Jaguar F1
2005/06 = paid driver for Williams F1

[Zac]

Well said Nafe.

These guys do need reactions but they also need to know what the car is going to do in the corner before they are in the corner so they're not always waiting for feedback and losing time.

[Sturmovik]

Webber made $5mil last year, his best result was 3rd?

[MarkMash]

1. What makes a F1 Driver a F1 driver???
Inner game. The inner drive to win. The belief that you CAN and WILL win and always be trying to improve and excel in what you do.


2. What do these guys possess that puts them above novice drivers, or even us??
This question assumes we dont believe we have the same talent as they do. Put me in a forumla 1 car and I have the belief that I could get within 3-4 seconds of pole. (might need a few days of practise though)


3. I know that the car plays a huge role in everything but what would happen if you raced everyone in the same car?? Would Schumacher or Alonso defintely win??
Who knows...


4. What sort of a breakdown would people expect in terms of results eg 45% Driver, 45% Car, 10% luck???
Sounds about right. I'd rather it be more on the driver though you still want the cars to be improving all the time.


5. What sort of training would they be doing? Playing xbox or PS??
I'm pretty sure montoya and eddie irvine used to play car sims. I think it was to just learn the tracks corners...

6. What sort of physical training would they be doing or any at all?
yeah like the post above - lots on the neck, lots of running and cycling and gym work etc etc... I'd say a fair bit fo mental preparation aswell.

Comments appreciatd[/QUOTE]

[Spammy]

I read an interview with Jacques V. where he was proud of the fact he used play station to practice for tracks he didn't know that well.

As for fitness, there was a show on Foxtel that showed the Williams driver testing lab. They get the drivers to do some exteme stamina exercise for 15 mins and then jump on to a reflex/perhripal vision testing rig. The guy who was hosting the show tried it(keep in mind he was pretty fit)....firstly he nearly threw up trying to complete the stamina test and the had to lifted on to the test rig where he then scored 1/20....the best drivers score 19/20 !!!

[dirtyrex]

2. What do these guys possess that puts them above novice drivers, or even us??
This question assumes we dont believe we have the same talent as they do. Put me in a forumla 1 car and I have the belief that I could get within 3-4 seconds of pole. (might need a few days of practise though)

What openwheelers have you driven before? Unless you've been very competitive in F3 or F4000, I don't think you'd be able to do a lap faster than a roadcar.

Nafe: I say the only way to do it these days is the Courtney/Briscoe route. Get very good in karts, race karts in Europe, start driving F Ford over there.
Or do well in F3 here and take a bunch of money to drive for a team in Europe - that can still work. If you have the cash, you'll always get a test drive with someone.

[Hypo]

Money and height!

[John]

I heard a group of F1 engineers talking recently, discussing various drivers they've worked with. Everyone of these guys, all in their mid 30's (worked in various forms of motorsport their whole careers) were saying that the "envelope" that an F1 car is driven in is what seperates these drivers from other levels. The cars are incredibly sensitive on turn in they were saying, in that first 5-10 degrees of steering wheel rotation, pulling the car off straight ahead. On top of this, they run VERY fast steering ratios.

I think anyone who doubts their ability is not living in reality.

J

[F|sh]

my understanding is this

If you want to go further in your racing career you need to go to europe. If you don't make it into F1 from there. Then your limited. The davidsons realised once over there and they couldn't do a full season (no money or it had run out) that the dream was over. They didn't get the sponsorship. AMRS(cams) was basically sponsoring them over there.

I think Hotgemini summed it up

TAlent + no money = no where.
Money + talent = go anywhere
Money + no talent = buy it where you like ( ie. porsche cup - David (speedy) Thexton - V8 supercars.

[itsnotagsr]

No talent + save the kid of Toll owner = lifetime V8 taxi sponsorship (Tratt's story from what I heard).

Nafe. I heard about the Campo link on the weekend. Do you know the full story behind it?

[St00ge]

No talent + save the kid of Toll owner = lifetime V8 taxi sponsorship (Tratt's story from what I heard).

Nafe. I heard about the Campo link on the weekend. Do you know the full story behind it?

That storey about toll is not true I belive, IIRC Tratt was asked that in a interveiw one day, But there they are friends/mates I think and Toll at the time just loved the corperate entertainment of the v8 supercar circus and wasn't super worried about places

The Campo link is that they are good family friends of the Webbers or something like that I think.... Nafe might be able to confirm.



And a with enough practice alot of half decent drivers should get within a few seconds of top guys i reckon, but those last seconds and tenths are bullshit amount of talent/skill are needed to make it up

[Stix Zadinia]

Have a look at this clip to give you an Idea, remember, Tiff was an F1 driver years before...

http://www.f1fanzone.net/movies/fifthgearf1.wmv

Chad

didn't he only run at Zolder and Monte Carlo? for ensign. i suppose 2 races are better than none



and anyone who can race cars upside down in the air must be good. - he's still beating the viper.

[InsaneAsylum]

2. What do these guys possess that puts them above novice drivers, or even us??
This question assumes we dont believe we have the same talent as they do. Put me in a forumla 1 car and I have the belief that I could get within 3-4 seconds of pole. (might need a few days of practise though)

if you put me in a formula 1 car i'd probably write it off in 3-4 seconds

[AndyMac]

If you want to try and relate to a F1 driver, go get a Formula A sprint kart and try and do 25 laps race around a 1km long kart track on race pace.

Its not F1, but it would give you an idea of the skill of these guys.

Alot of books and magazines have pointed towards karts being one of the most closely related racing sensations next to a F1 car (I diagree to a point that I believe a GP2 or similar would be closer to the real F1 thing)

If all the where cars the same.....Schumacher would win hands down in my opinion. Read his book by James Allen "Driven to Extremes":.......Quote Eddie Irvine : "People will only appericate how good he (MS) is when he retires......To beat Michael in equal equipment isn't possible, to beat him in a superior car is, thats what Villeneuve, Hill and Hakkinen have done (and Alonso for that matter IMHO)".

ALL RACING IS 90% CASH 10% SKILL AND 10% LUCK..Yes you need 110% to be at the front.

Skill...Buckloads as mentioned, ability to think 3 corners ahead at the same time as passing a backmarker on the current corner.

Fitness....No McDonalds Sorry.........there all 68-75kgs! - Karts will give you a good feeling for this.

Simulators are used to fimilarize themselves with tracks.

Probably close too the fittest altheletes out there. Schumacher for example used to do quailifing (the old 12 lap way) and then play a game of tennis!

[Levin]

My 5c...

The car or the driver?
The car certainly has a lot to do with it, but there are still big gaps between many of the team mates in identical cars, proving that driver skill does have a lot to do with it. Look at Webber, he smashed his team mates at Minardi and Jaguar, and finished above Nick last year at Williams (although Nick missed a few races, so who knows what could have happened). Look at Schumi and Alonso, they've always belted their team mates, and so has Kimi to a lesser extent. Sure Schumi couldn't drive a Super Aguri and win the race, but he'd be much, much faster than Sato and Ide. As an example, a few years back Schumi borrowed one of the Minardi 2 seater F1 cars to take sponsors and friends out for hot laps. The 2 seater cars are far less developed than the race cars as they are designed to pound around the track all day with an extra passenger and never break down. Schumi was able to lap the track in that car faster than the regular Minardi driver could do in the race car. Amazing? Yes. Surprising? Not really.

It's all about money
It's true that most drivers will need to take money to a team with them (even Schumi paid $150k for his first F1 race with Jordan, paid for by Mercedes), but it's how they get that money that makes them the full package. Companies won't just hand over sponsorship dollars because you asked nicely, you have to demonstrate to these companies how well you can drive in the lower categories and how well you can help promote their company with your PR skills. It's sponsorship dollars that often gets drivers into F1, but importantly it's how well they can drive that gets them the sponsorship dollars in the first place. Most 'pay-drivers' are only in F1 for one year, the driver has to prove to the teams and the sponsors that they're worth supporting, otherwise they're dropped from the team to make way for the next young hopeful. A good driver will grab that opportunity with both hands and make the most of it. Yes it would be nice if teams could hire drivers purely on driving tallent and nothing else, but racing is so expensive now, they can't just take a punt on someone who has won a few F2 races and hope for the best.

What makes them different?
I was reading something recently (and now that I want to quote it I can't find it!) about this kind of natural 'spirit level' located in your inner ear. It helps you detect movement, specifically sideways movement. It's not something that can really be developed, you either have a strong one or a weak one. Turns out most F1 drivers have been blessed with a particularly good one, and it helps them detect (and then compensate for) the slightest movements the car is making. A good F1 driver will feel the back end of the car drifting sideways long before any 'normal' person would because of this, combined of course with experience. The rest of us would be in the wall before we knew what was happening, because you're not in your sick S13 anymore, you're in a car with around 700hp travelling at well over 200kph on many corners.

There is also more to it than just being given a fast car and then winning races. A good driver can do things like overcome problems with the car by adjusting their driving style, they can compensate for various car and track issues, they can conserve a car that is on it's way out. There's much more to it than just knowing how to drive a fast lap. You also need to be able to adjust your driving style from one category to the next, an F1 car is a whole different kind of beast to most others. There are plenty of pay-drivers who we like to have a laugh at and say they're crap drivers, however take a look at their CVs and you'll see that most of them have won countless karting championships and F3/GP2 races and championships on their way to F1.

Okay I'm bored now, there's much more to say, but it can wait for another day...