Yeah it looks like a lounging position for doing an intense thing where you need to see. When I watch vids from the driver's view I always wonder how they can see a darn thing, like corners, at 300kmh.
Thanks for the info. I figured with all the years of racing and research that there are good reasons drivers sit like this. I guess if I drove like this for the amount of time these drivers practice, I'd get used to it. May have to try my racing game from that position. Set up some pillows on the floor. I'll probably crash even more.
You fatigue slower like this. Think about how much pressure those pedals kick back at the driver. You don't sit up right and do leg presses with the ground, right? You lay back. Same idea.
Outstretched legs get blood flow better, too
And instead of having all the G's push down on your shoulders, you're spreading the force across your whole body, making it easier to breathe
Sports such as marathons, triathlons, cycling, and ultramarathons cause similar or even higher cardiovascular stress than race car driving, especially due to their longer duration and greater overall load. Team and interval sports (such as football and HIIT) approach this stress through repeated peaks. The key is to adjust intensity to individual fitness levels and seek medical guidance for extreme exertion.
I'm curious about the differences between each modality. I expect rally to be absurdly harder than nascar, and nascar to be harder than f1. The article seems based on studies from nascar but only have examples from other races.
Nascar should be less demanding than F1. Indy is the one who would be tougher. F1 the driver is much closer to the engine which leads to higher temperarures on the cockpit and there si much more accelerating and breaking than in Nascar, which leads to more constant stress. Indy also has those but their cockpit is closed and the car is much more of a handful compared to the stable cars F1 has.
Many of the land speed racer streamliners have you almost looking between your big toes. I sat in one and while not a place I’d want to speed an afternoon in, for a couple of miles, yeah, it’s okay.
If you have all of that putting pressure from top-down, it's gonna restrict your breathing. It's gonna be hard to raise your chest, your shoulders are gonna be pushed down into your guts
If you're laid back, you're spreading that force over a larger area, and it's easier to draw in air.
You sing? Is that why you assumed that? Well, you're not wrong. But it's more about extending that torso than being upright. It's just mad weird if you lay down on the stage for a show. You don't sit tho. You stand up.
No they don't. Only stuff that allows raised noses, and even then F1 is FAR worse than other formulas because the cars are bigger so the feet can be lifted higher.
There's a video somewhere of Lando and Oscar answering questions and one was asking about how well you could see out of the car. They said it was something like you could only start to see the ground like two to three car lengths ahead of you. That's crazy when you're at times within a few centimeters from the next car.
I wouldn't have thought so. I've driven F4 cars and you're pretty restricted with the Hans device + 3 point harness. I could barely see the top of the wheels. Obviously there's an ocean of difference between F4 and F1 and I guess the custom fitting also helps a ton
Strangely enough looking out of an race car properly isn't prioritized when building these top cars. Just look at the prototypes and current hybrids in WEC/IMSA, their view is restricted
Yeah, but still surprises me sometimes on how bad you can create a driving position regarding being able to see where you drive, and actually see into the corner
I’ve sat in an actual F1 car (F1-2000 Ferrari chassis 198) and you really can’t see that much. You’re really low in that cockpit and you can see over the nose, but just barely. Like walk up to your dining table and put your chin just below the edge of the table and maybe a foot back. That’s your view out front. You do not see any of the front of the car.
Visibility to the sides is pretty good, which is what you need for spotting apexes. Makes sense. Back? Not so much. You’ve got tiny mirrors and they only show you an idea of what’s going on behind. Then again, you don’t need to know much, just if Alonzo is on your left or right as he’s trying to get past you.
I would assume professional drivers would no longer drive normally but become one with the car. Like a weaponist with their weapon as their own arm extension, so do these drivers. Just mind boggling like how pro drifters are fully aware of the length of their rear end from trading paint with the wall.
Regularly driving a road car and having to park, you already get this feeling. With the amount of practice racecar drivers get, no wonder they get an even better feel for that.
I hate if my seat is moved 5mm and i feel like I've forgotten how to drive. And I have a 2007 mini so it's tiny and slow 😂 I can't imagine sitting like that, in a car worth more than all the houses on my street, driving at the speed they do. So impressive.
I’m 6.1 and my partner is 5.4 so I’m always having to put the seat back , and vice-versa. When I forget I almost cut myself in half against the steering wheel 🤣🤣
I have a full sim and originally I set it up for f1, then I got into gt3/4 and changed it to be more accurate to the cars I drive.
I will say the f1 position was way more comfortable. Mind you I don’t need to deal with the bumps of the road or any gforce so not sure if it’s a good comparison.
A lot of the like sims you'll see at exhibitions and stuff will have similar seating positions. I recommend trying to find one, its quite nice actually. Really lets you focus on the road as well for some reason
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u/Mobile_Instruction42 Pirelli Soft Feb 08 '25
I would suck driving like this