What is an F1 Driver’s Workload Like During a Lap?

[Music] monaco is one of the toughest tracks in terms of driving workload because there's very little time where the driver can make changes on his steering wheel first of all you're thinking about the the driving lines the braking points your driver inputs in terms of your steering your pedals you're thinking about the tires you're thinking about the settings how you can make most out of those during each corner of the lap and you're really in the moment and you always when you go to a corner you recall the last time you've been through that corner before and what can you do better on top of that you can adjust the balance of the car with the rotaries and the buttons on the steering wheel you can adjust the brake balance or the shaping of the brake balance within the braking event you can adjust the differential which can make the car more understeer over steering and it can also increase or decrease the engine braking again to affect the balance of the car one lap is is just maximum performance over the 3.3 kilometers of monaco and is only 70 seconds so it's a very quick lap there's practically no straight lines even what is classified as straight to monaco you always have some some steering lock on and the time between corners it's minimal it's at best five seconds into the first corner and seven seconds uh around the fast corner in the tunnel the driver is so busy with steering wheel throttle and brakes that there's very little time left for any other type of adjustment [Music] monica is a very punishing track there's no runoffs you just go up barriers or concrete walls so the drivers needs to build up his speed through the weekend step by step if you make a mistake it's a big expensive crash and sometimes can get you out of qualifying all together if you make a mistake in fp3 for example [Music] as a driver during a hot lap there's quite a few things that you're consistently thinking about it's not just you know driving obviously there are some inputs that with practice they become pretty automatic example goal of hang laps in practice you're really trying to bring on the muscle memory for certain things and you start to know exactly in which corners which settings you prefer to use and also i would say shift points that's a pretty common thing that first becomes pretty automatic and we obviously have to shift lights but we also have shift beep into our ear so that really helps that there are about 25 upshifts and 25 downshifts around monaco and you can adjust your div for break balance a couple of times maybe in some specific places on top of that you have loves where you have more than 180 degrees of steer so you tend to cross your arms there and sometimes actually we see some unwanted um button changes there because the steering wheel gets very close to his legs and maybe the driver's bumping a rotary or a button so we tend to install some specific guards glue on the steering wheel some guards that will protect the rotaries that are getting close to the driver's legs there's many things in the steering wheel that corner by corner were changing in terms of brake bias we have a bit of radio communication with the team with different engine settings obviously we're shifting non-stop you know up and down and you want to be accurate with that um the drs at the back of the wheel and these things so it's all about practice all about repetitions and preparation and it doesn't come easy but easier for sure it's a slow track the top speed is around 290 kilometers so we don't get to eighth gear we have only seven gears to play with and luv's is the slowest corner of the whole championship where we take first gear there and we get very close almost to the idling speed of the engine being only 3.3 kilometers and a slow track the the upshifts and downshift not as many as other venues but i can guarantee that the driver has got on his plate your vision and being able to react what you see is crucial where we are actually looking at in in the car normally on the straights it's a lot of the times it's the shift lights on the wheel you want to be accurate in the shifting you're always looking at the lines as well trying to avoid any any bumps on straight not to scrap any speed and then when you're coming to a corner you're looking at the line and then you're looking at the break point and during breaking you start to shift your focus to the apex and during the apex you start to shift your focus and your eyes towards the exit of the corner to make sure that you use the accept line that you really planned to do and then that kind of repeats corner by corner it's important to be consistent it's important to build your speed throughout the weekend and making sure you're not putting your foot wrong so it's just a continuous crescendo trying to build up that ultimate lap time for me personally in terms of workload monaco is the toughest because there's no time to to rest it is literally corner after another and even the straights they're not really straight it's always turning a bit and also the main straight in monaco is the the biggest breathing space we we get but even that goes pretty quickly with it with a car it's really challenging really mentally loading and you're all the time picking up different reference points to make you fast

Channel: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team

Views: 1,976,208

Keywords: Formula One, Formula 1, F1, Formel 1, Grand Prix, GP, Race, Racing, Racetrack, Track, Circuit, Automotive, Auto, Car, Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes, Benz, AMG, PETRONAS, Team, Silver Arrows, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Valtteri, Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Ferrari, W12, F1 2021, 2021, VB77, LH44, Valtteri F1, Bottas F1, Monaco, Monaco F1, Monaco Grand Prix, Monaco GP, Circuit de Monaco, Driver Workload, F1 Workload, F1 Driving, F1 Steering, Steering Wheel, Tech, Explainer, F1 Explained, Engineering

Id: Uj4s08jpqXc

Length: 5min 59sec (359 seconds)

Published: Tue May 18 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Mercedes-AMGF1]

Hey everyone! With Monaco being the toughest lap of the calendar in terms of driver workload, we wanted to find out more about exactly what a driver does during a hot lap! It's much more than just steering, accelerating and braking! 👀 We hope you enjoy the insight 😊

[u/jadeelf254]

Yesss more amazing content! I’m off to watch it now :)

[u/tesla2011]

Amazing, thank you!

[u/Martiosaj]

Great content, I always wondered how drivers can do all this stuff and still concentrate to communicate via radio.

[u/RobertGracie]

Its incredible how much work they have to do in the car, on top of battling everyone else for position, staying cool under the intense heat in the cockpit, this is Multitasking on the next level of all next levels, its a lot of work, they are tossed in at the deep end and everyone thinks its easy to race car...well...its not, the driver has to be many things all at once, tyre whisperer, engineer, racing driver, top level athlete and most of all...a gentleman (for those situations when niceness is needed) or a caveman with a very big club (when it comes to defending the position from an attack)

That last bit about being a caveman is reference to Ben Collins "How to drive" book he wrote a few years back about defending himself from other drivers at Le Mans, he has to ditch the gentleman and become a caveman to keep his position in defence you have to be able to defend with extreme prejudice when required unless its the teammate then if its for position then it has to be a switch required

[u/AMRacer89]

Nice video. Not that I've ever not respected what it takes to race these (was a racecar driver myself, years ago), but racing the F1 car in iRacing over the past several months has given me a while new respect for it.

Trying to get the maximum performance out those cars is insane, and I'm not having to deal with g-forces, intense heat, or risk to life or limb. It blew my mind when some guys mentioned changing settings over the course of the lap, much like Bottas talks about here.

[u/Vermillionbird]

NGL I was most impressed by Valtteri whipping the car around in the runoff @ 1:50. Gotta be one of those skills you develop driving around on icy Finnish roads!

[u/GeneralOrdinance]

Hey Mercedes, where can I find the full set of Monaco GP 2019 Photos? They are brilliant!

[u/cereal_killa22]

Are there any resources to all the settings at the drivers disposal on the steering wheel? Ive always been so curious