Having just returned from the European Grand Prix in Germany, Sudhir Matai can barely contain the excitement of his first F1 experience. The lucky sod…You’ve heard it all before, the glitz the glamour, the crowds, the speed, but the MOST amazing aspect of an F1 car for me (ridiculously loud soundtrack apart), is the sheer braking force these ground-bound projectiles can generate.
Picture the scene if you can, its my first trip to a real F1 race (I’ve been to the Minardi F1x2 and GP Masters events held locally) and my excitement levels are through the roof by the time we get to the track on Saturday morning. Our group mulls around for a while and I head off to collect my media accreditation (a few kilometres away, near the gate to the Nordschliefe, with an interesting array of speed machines in the car park – but that’s a blog for another day), and by the time we regroup at the decided time and place, the day’s first practice session is about to begin.
The tension in the air is palpable as thousands of F1 fans from around the world are now all making a beeline for their seats. We get a bit delayed, thanks to some stragglers and can only listen as the cars take to the track for the first time, and MAN OH MAN, what a noise. We’re a few hundred metres from the track, but the violent screams of V8 engines being thrashed to within an inch of their close tolerance lives, is ridiculous.
I can’t wait any longer and apparently, neither can some of my colleagues as we’re all now at a quick trot on our way to the grandstands.
Courtesy of BMW, we have seats on the outside of Turn 1, and THAT’S where I see it.
The pit-straight is long enough for the drivers to be travelling in excess of 300 km/h by the time they arrive at turn one.
At the 100 metre brake-marker, the driver still has his foot buried deep into the footwell.
At 75 metres, he’s just started to think about braking.
At just a few feet short of the 50 metre board, he unleashes the full might of a near physics-defying amount of g-force upon the car, and himself, as he sheds 225 km/h in a matter of seconds.
He effects five rapid-fire downshifts and turns in for the 75 km/h, first-gear right hand, Castrol Curve.
SIMPLY MINDBENDING!!!!
Of course that each and every driver does it with such precision and regularity, the carefully choreographed mechanical ballet of car and driver is pure genius, and don’t let anyone ever doubt the skill levels of any one of the pilots in F1.
An earlier discussion with BMW test driver Timo Glock says that between the best cars and the others (not for a moment calling driver skill into the equation) there must be just two metres in difference between the earliest and latest braking points.
The noise too is amazingly loud. I thought I was going to revel in that aural experience for lap after lap of the race, but after just a few laps of the practise session, I’ve planted my earplugs deep into my auditory canals. If you haven’t already had the pleasure (displeasure??) of hearing an F1 car at full chat, turn up your Dolby digital, 6.1 channel,12 000 Watt hi-fi, as loud as the wife will allow, and you still won’t be close.
Of course media accreditation does have its upside, and while I watched the action-packed race from trackside, I did spend parts of the weekend in the pit paddock and pressroom.
I got within sniffing distance of some of F1’s most famous names, Schumacher, Lauda, Dennis, Briatore, Todt and Massa. More notably, I watched the first half of qualifying in the Ferrari motorhome, and received a guided tour of the HondaF1 garage from chief mechanic and all round good guy (local boy) Alistair Gibson – good on yer mate.
Only problem is, now that I’ve caught the GP bug, I’m gonna have to work out how to attend every race that we’re invited to. Now, which way did the boss go…