Engineers, not racers, are the true drivers of success in motor sport

Re:Engineers, not racers, are the true drivers of success in... by WalterBright on Saturday October 17, 2020 @03:34AM (#24808154)

I've watched a couple documentaries on Senna. They'd all say Senna just drove faster than the others. Nothing said about just what Senna did to be faster, which was very frustrating. I didn't believe that Senna did anything magical.

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Re:Engineers, not racers, are the true drivers of success in... by romanoderoma on Saturday October 17, 2020 @05:13AM (#24808696)

He drive differently

He used techniques that helped the car to use the maximum possible grip, avoiding sliding or throttle partialisation

For example at Monza, in times of manual gear, he could switch from 4th to 5th in between the two turns of Lesmo, nobody else could, it meant gaining a tenth of a second every single lap and the pole position

For reference, this is how Senna throttle technique sounded at Monza's parabolica

https://youtu.be/LId5SKxljqs

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Re:Engineers, not racers, are the true drivers of success in... by WalterBright on Saturday October 17, 2020 @06:15AM (#24808950)

Thank you, that video and the explanations is great.

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Re:Engineers, not racers, are the true drivers of success in... by TheGallopedHigh on Saturday October 17, 2020 @08:11AM (#24809386)

This video might help explain specific techniques that he used to be faster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4kcLyYhThE

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Re:Engineers, not racers, are the true drivers of success in... by WalterBright on Saturday October 17, 2020 @07:13PM (#24814175)

Very illuminating, thanks! I've also heard you can get slightly more lateral grip in a turn by rapidly moving the steering wheel back and forth - for the same reason as the throttle stamping and brake stamping.

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