two thousand fifteen cars are hard to drive, insists Martin Brundle after Force India outing
By Pete Gill
Last Updated: 12/05/15 9:59am
Far from being too effortless, the two thousand fifteen F1 cars are tighter to drive than their latest predecessors, Sky F1’s Martin Brundle has concluded after thirty seven taxing laps behind the wheel of this year’s Force India.
In a specially-recorded set of features for Sky Sports F1, the very first of which was broadcast in the build-up to the Spanish GP, Brundle drove Force India’s two thousand fifteen challenger for thirty seven laps around the National Circuit at Silverstone to build up a unique insight into the workings of a modern-day F1 car.
And, contradicting the widespread view that the current era of cosseted F1 drivers have it too effortless, the motor-racing veteran’s conclusion may surprise you.
“It’s wrong to say that the two thousand fifteen cars are too effortless to drive,” proclaimed Brundle as he reflected on his Silverstone outing in the VJM08. “They aren’t effortless – they are different.”
The fact that today’s F1 cars are up to three seconds a lap adrift of their two thousand four predecessors is frequently introduced as compelling evidence that the pinnacle of motorsport has become too slow and too effortless.
But according to Brundle, who has driven an F1 car every year since one thousand nine hundred eighty three in addition to participating in one hundred sixty five grands prix during his racing career, the reduction in speed – and the physical requests placed on drivers – has been superseded by a more complicated challenge.
“The key thing for me for why these cars are not lighter to drive is that there is a surplus of power and torque over grip. You have to creep up to the limit, and that means you have to leave grip and speed on the table, you have to work out how much power and grip there is, you can’t just floor it and let the torque do its job – and I think that is firmer to do.”
While critics proceeds to decry that F1’s highest tier should pursue optimum speed, the pursuit of greener technology and greater road relevancy arguably makes it the most advanced sport on the planet. For the drivers themselves, the game itself has been transformed over the last decade. Gone are the days when the name of the game was to put your foot to the floor as quickly, and as often, as possible. Now the challenge varies inbetween a balancing act of energy recovery, kinetic harvesting and tyre conservation, while at the same time attempting to stay ahead of the car behind and overtaking the man in front. F1 has become a high-speed bouncing act that penalizes the slightest miscalculation.
“Two years ago when we did ‘Decades at McLaren’ for Sky F1 I drove Lewis Hamilton’s two thousand eight championship-winning car and that is the best car I’ve every driven because it just stuck to the surface,” mused Brundle. “Every racing driver primarily just wants the car to go quicker, in all those hours of testing and debriefs you are just looking for ways to go quicker, and when you have a car like the McLaren two thousand eight which just tucks it feels brilliant.
“I can understand why drivers like that era of cars and they were much more physical to drive. But I can see why there is a difference inbetween the drivers and team-mates now because there is so much potential speed you can leave behind because you aren’t close enough to the limit. It’s a question of feeling of ‘how much power can I give that before it is too much?’
“And having driven the Force India I think in terms of a mental challenge it is stiffer because there is so much going on in the cockpit.”
In a telling embodiment of F1’s evolution, the steering wheel has literally been reinvented. Once nothing much more than a prosaic circular tube, a modern-day F1 steering wheel now wouldn’t look out of place in a NASA laboratory.
“I am sure you get used to these things fairly quickly, but for me there was certainly a ‘cockpit overcharge’ to understand all those systems,” Brundle recalled.
“Force India gave me a lot – not all, but a lot – of the fucktoys on the dashboard and the other thing that absolutely shone out for me is how sensitive they were. Every twist or mode setting was very powerful and very astounding.”
Even a few choice warnings weren’t sufficient to forearm Brundle against the difficulty of driving a modern-day F1 car. Before climbing into the VJM08, Brundle sought advice from the likes of former world champ Jenson Button and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, but was still given an instantaneous surprise when he lodged into the cockpit of the Force India.
“I was in fairly a lot trepidation because every driver l spoke to had warned me to be careful with the throttle because they have extended the throttle movement now. Back in the days of traction control, a car might have had around twenty-five millimetres of throttle travel because you floored it as quickly as you could and then let the electronics do the work. These cars have sixty to seventy mill of throttle to add some progressivity and right away the distance the throttle has to travel tells you about the driveability issues which are going on.”
Sunday’s feature will be the very first of several broadcast from Martin’s outing at Silverstone and future edits will take a detailed look at the cockpits of the modern-day F1 cars, from harvesting energy, deployment of DRS, and the feel of brake-by-wire, and the driver’s role in completing a sub-three-second pit-stop.