Re-watching British GP free practice 2 from last summer and I caught this pretty remarkable bit of commentary from the BBC 5 team:
Andrew Shovlin [Mercedes GP race engineer on radio to Michael Schumacher]: "Be careful where you're using the brakes and keeping the throttle on because the engine can switch off."
Anthony Davidson: "So that suggests to me that he's, um... corners like this one in Stowe that he's riding the brake. By that I mean what Andrew Shovlin just said, he's using the brake and the throttle at the same time to try and balance the car. And in a way to try to stop the... to eliminate wheelspin, and this is what McLaren were doing a couple of years ago with an extra pedal in the cockpit. They were using that on the rear brakes to aid the car under traction by keeping the brake on.
"But what they build into modern Formula 1 cars these days is an override mode that, if you're full throttle and it's stuck on full throttle and you hammer the brakes as well, the ECU thinks, "Oh, God, there's a problem," and it shuts down the engine. Which is actually a pretty safe thing to do if you think about it."
David Croft: "But not what you'd want if you're Michael Schumacher going around the track."
AD: "No, so it obviously shows that he's awfully close to the limit of being full throttle and using... I mean it's governed by a measurement measured in bar, pressure, and if that bar pressure goes up too high then it will cut the electronics of the engine because it thinks that it's unsafe, like you're stuck in full throttle, because that's what you'd naturally do as a driver if you're stuck on full throttle. You would go for the brakes very, very hard and therefore the engine would shut off.
"So that's not really what you want to do. Actually I think it caught out Jenson once in Bahrain in practice, going in towards turn 13. How's that for sad?"
DC: "No, how's that for accuracy? Isn't it something that you do in karting as well?"
AD: "All the time. You do it a lot in the wet as well but obviously in the dry you need heavier forces applied on the brake pedal. And when it gets up to that danger zone like the engineers can see, they can see that he's getting close to the limit of the engine actually cutting out."
DC: "Interesting. Not sad at all. Absolutely fascinating if you ask me."
4 comments:
I remember hearing this in Speed's coverage. I think they aired the radio traffic.
Have you ever tried that technique in rFactor? I've thought about doing it but never while I had the game running. I don't really get when or why one would choose to left-foot brake rather than simply ease off the gas, but there are several spots on the VIR track where wheelspin is the limiting factor in the Atlantic.
I've left-foot braked exclusively for several years in sim-racing. (Interestingly, I've tried transitioning in Real World driving, but pedal positions aren't very comfortable, and it presents a dangerous condition should I get confused.)
In rear wheel drive vehicles, I don't think I ever brake during exit portions of turns, though there might be some overlap in braking zones. In front- and four-wheel drive vehicles, I do practice Blomqvist-style left-foot braking while under throttle. In fact, that technique often requires so much engine power to offset front braking that the entire turn is performed under full throttle - modulating rear end attitude with the brake pedal.
Yeah, I've never used my right foot for braking in driving sims. My set doesn't have a clutch pedal, and the layout just lends itself to two-foot driving. (I know you're an enthusiast for make the driving experience match the era and vehicle to the extent possible. I haven't been as committed to that.)
And like you, I've practiced of left-foot braking in road cars on occasion. It's beginning to feel more natural. And there isn't very much cause for confusion for me as it's been a while since I've driven anything in the real world with a clutch pedal either.
I'm thinking that what Davidson talks about might essentially amount to a reverse of Blomqvist's technique, a way of promoting understeer--or maybe better to say countering a natural tendency toward corner-exit oversteer, since it takes extra lateral force at the rear to stop the vehicle's yaw rotation leaving tight corners.
Maybe I'll remember to try it in rFactor next time I drive. Definitely I'll try it there before trying it in the Reynard.
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