A dream becomes reality - driving your own Formula 1 car
04/19/2017
After 37 years as a GP photographer and always just missing the mark, thanks to "Passion4speed" I was able to experience the driving dynamics of an F1 on my own body for once and enjoy it better.
Of course, the AGS two-seater with its ageing Ford-Cosworth engine is already a long way from today's hybrid turbo engine. Added to this is the higher weight due to the extra weight of the passenger and the reduced driving dynamics due to the extended wheelbase in order to be able to accommodate a passenger at all. But no matter, because this car was once the measure of all things.
Once in the cockpit behind the driver, strapped tightly to the chassis, the V8 transfers its 650 hp to the drive wheels and pushes the car vehemently. But it's not really impressive, it's actually exactly how you've always imagined it in your dreams.
After a long straight, you hurtle towards the first real braking point. However, we've been driving past it for a long time and I've been standing on the brakes in my mind for several meters. When will the driver in front of me finally brake? It can't go well like this. In my head, however, I know that an F1 brake can't be compared to anything else in the world. It dissipates the enormous kinetic energy in just a few meters. And that's exactly what happens. At the point where I would feel like releasing the brakes again in order to slowly steer into the bend, the driver first hits the brakes, but then does it properly. The head is pulled forward and with every centimeter the feeling of being related to the giraffe increases. This form of energy destruction can hardly be described; only those who have experienced it on their own body can understand it.
The second indescribable situation are long, fast corners, where you can clearly feel the aerodynamics and the associated suction of the vehicle on the track. No tire in the world could keep the vehicle on the road like this with mechanical grip alone. Even in these driving situations, the centrifugal force has to be processed by the neck. If you can already feel lateral centrifugal forces in fast bends in a racing kart, these G-forces increase many times over in an F1. After just one lap, you begin to understand the hard neck training of professional racing drivers. You can't do without it! During the 53 laps in Monza with the three super-fast right-hand bends, the Curva Grande, the two Lesmos and the Parabolica, the drivers' heads are torn to the side 159 times by a rhino running away. Absolutely unimaginable.
What is also impressive about the ride in the F1 two-seater, however, is how pleasant the ride is on the whole. Despite the hard suspension, there is no bumping or bouncing at all. You can concentrate fully on the driving dynamics and simply scream loudly into your helmet with joy, because nobody can hear you anyway.
In my opinion, the yellow alarm button between the two handles to prompt the driver to slow down in an emergency could be swapped for a green button to knock the driver from one qualifying lap to the next.
But what impressed me most was the driver's patience. Waiting for the moment to accelerate out of tight corners is dependent on opening the steering. He explains that you have to imagine a wire with a pulley from the steering wheel to the accelerator pedal, which responds 1:1 to the accelerator pedal when the steering is opened. If you don't have the patience to do this and press the accelerator too early or disproportionately, the spin is already initiated.
I can really only recommend every motorsport fan to take a passenger ride like this, because it is the only way to imagine the hard job of a racing driver and all those who believe that "driving around in circles" is not a sport will be proven wrong in no time.
For all those interested in an F1 passenger ride, further information can be found on the organizer's website.
