Downforce and driver skills.

[Murmur]

Good day,

my question is not strictly related to F1, but also intended for other motorsport categories in general.

I was wondering if the downforce level (intended as the general downforce available in a racing car of a given class) has an effect of leveling off or bringing out the driver skills.

In other words, if the F1 cars would have a lot less downforce, would it level off or bring out the driving skills of each driver? I know that there could be a lot of factors that can level off or bring out driver skills, so I'm just referring to downforce without considering all the other possible effects.

Thanks,

Marco

[Jersey Tom]

Overall downforce level I'd say can make a car more or less difficult to drive. But I think driver talent is what it is regardless of whether downforce goes up or down a bit. Might have a slight reshuffling if some drivers prefer the car sliding a bit more or less - but raw talent is raw talent. That's my opinion anyway.

The vastly larger issue in F1 is how much driver talent is overshadowed by quality of car they're in.

[mertol]

It's bringing driver qualities out. Because everything is happening much quicker, it brings out reaction times, physical toughness (pulling lots of G-s), concentration (mistakes are harder to recover from).

[PlatinumZealot]

Good day,

my question is not strictly related to F1, but also intended for other motorsport categories in general.

I was wondering if the downforce level (intended as the general downforce available in a racing car of a given class) has an effect of leveling off or bringing out the driver skills.

In other words, if the F1 cars would have a lot less downforce, would it level off or bring out the driving skills of each driver? I know that there could be a lot of factors that can level off or bring out driver skills, so I'm just referring to downforce without considering all the other possible effects.

Thanks,

Marco

Depends on a lot of things. Car aero balance and stability. Horsepower.. the tyre grip... A car with a tonne of down-force can also be a handful especially if it a regulation that has no power steering. Thank God F1 has power steering but a tonne of down-force on the front axle can make steering very hard. It would be only the strongest and fittest men keeping their driving form through to the end of races.

[DiogoBrand]

From my perspective aerodynamic grip really levels out driver skill. You can clearly see that on racing categories that rely more on mechanical grip as opposed to aero: it makes for more unpredictable and exciting races, and shows the difference between drivers a lot more, a very good example is formula one itself before the 90's.
In my opinion the regulations on F1 should further limit aerodynamical grip and allow for more mechanical grip, it would bring the sport to a whole other level of excitement and popularity, that's why I'm very optimistic about the changes for wider and lighter cars and wider tyres.

[Andres125sx]

More grip means it´s more difficult to control any slide as car reactions are faster and sharper, so driver skills are more important.

I can control my car sliding in the dirt easily, but on tarmac that´s different, require more skills and reflexes. The most extreme example is when it snows, it´s a load of fun sliding, like slow motion drifting, very easy to control. Same on dry tarmac would be a lot more difficult and I´d never do on dry tarmac what I do on the dirt or snow


If grip increases driver skills must be up to the task.

What some people is saying about differences in different categories is not due to driver skill differences, but because of different perfomances between teams.