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octagonal | 5 years ago

The only safe way to drive an F1 car is with remote control.

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sjwright|5 years ago

No, you could also safely drive an F1 car from the driver’s seat by limiting your speed to 40 km/h.

bzbarsky|5 years ago

Maybe. Last I checked, the tires on F1 cars are optimized for traction at actual racing speeds (when they get hot and stickier), which means that at low speeds F1 cars actually have much poorer traction than one might think. Only matters on turns, presumably, and 40km/h might be slow enough that it does not matter, but I'd really want to see some experimental data before deciding on anything that happens so far out of a vehicle's intended-use envelope.

jodrellblank|5 years ago

Could you? Here[1] is Richard Hammond driving an F1 car on Top Gear, and he says it can't go slowly, safely - no downforce, no heat in the tyres, no heat in the brakes. If you're coming off a lot of fast laps into the pit lane they will still be warm, if you try to drive it at 40km/h all the way they won't be.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGUZJVY-sHo

occamrazor|5 years ago

I doubt a normal driver would be able to drive a F1 at any speed. Just keeping it below 40 km/h would be impossible.