I've heard it a million times, both in the pits and on tv. Even racer-turned-F1-announcer David Hobbs has said many times, "He out brakes him on corner entry and closes on his bumper but that BMW power just pulls away on corner exit."

Well, not really. If two identical cars are running exactly the same lap times (and same corners speeds) the distance between the cars will vary with speed. In the 30mph hairpin a 1 second gap is 44 feet (measured from nose to nose) but at 200mph that 1 second gap will grow to 233 feet. So it will always seem the following car is 'catching up on braking' but the lead car is powering away from him.

No, you're not better on braking than every car in front of you.

No, everyone behind you is not out braking you when they close the gap going into turn 1.

No, you're not carrying more corner speed than the car behind you.

No, you shouldn't buy a BMW because of the way the BMW F1 cars pull away from the competition down the straights.

Yea, it's a pet peeve. I need help.

 

Yea that has always bugged me too... The racetrack is a good place to turn your pet peeve forcefield on; racetracks are the epicenter of misinformation.

 

I thought I was the only one

 

Hahaha! Truth.
Like when people think they "almost had you" in the corner….

 

David actually knows that's true. He and Matchett had a discussion about the "concertina effect" during a race a few years ago.

While I lost respect for Hobbs due to the level of bias and favoritism his comments show for LH, I gave him credit for realizing the distance between two cars varies with speed at a given point on track and always thought that he was eyeing more subtle variations in the car to car distance.

At least we don't have to listen to Ralph Sheheen anymore… that was horrible.

 

BTW, the Mercedes are the ones blasting down the straights in the full castration why does my F1 car sound like a prius with a hole in the muffler era.

 

I did notice that David Hobbs hasn't mentioned the 'closing up, pulling away' thing in a couple of years so someone must have brought it to the broadcasting team's attention.
Yea, the new sound of F1 on tv is atrocious. To me it sounds like a slightly mistuned Ducati two cylinder Superbike. Some say live it's not too bad. The sound of F1 has always been very different live versus tv. When I saw my first F1 race live in Phoenix in '89 I was shocked at how 'guttural' the sound was. On tv you only heard the high pitched whine.

 

This maybe true but only stands with similar cars. I out brake tons of cars to keep the same lap times and its evident when you can see in your rear view a gap building on corner entry. A perfect example of this was at miller motorsports park at nasa nationals last year. you can see Gregs red and black lotus in the ST race out braking the entire field. So if that skill fits your driving style then yes you should buy a lotus or s2000 (something of that nature) rather than a heavy car. But a street car is a street car and has absolutely 0 similarities of a formula one car. If you bought a bmw over a Ferrari because you saw Juan Pablo have a later braking point than Barrichello then you are an idiot.. and I wouldn’t put it past some BMW owners ive met. lol

 

Wow. That's great info. Thanks for setting me straight.

 

Zero similarities? Uh they both have four wheels... Lol. Both run on gas? Idk I'm sure I'm missing a few more similarities lol