Hey guys, George here from the F1 Chronicle.
And today I want to talk about simulators.
I want to talk about racing simulators in Formula One
teams because these are a very important tool in the
arsenal that is,
you know, trying to make their cars and drivers as
fast as possible and get the best results out on
track.
So they're very, very important.
They've been F1 for a very long time now,
probably 20-30 years. It's something,
you know, in some kind of form.
In that time they've evolved massively to the point where
you know these simulators,
aside from the G Forces and you know the weather
and things like that,
they can't replicate. And by weather I mean actual like
raindrops and stuff.
They can obviously replicate like if it rains out on
track and things like that,
but you know the actual elements and stuff like that.
But yeah, apart from that,
like they are near as dammit like just like driving
the F1 car to the point where they have things
like the actual,
you know, steering wheel for the real life car.
They have one of those on the on the SIM
and it might seem like,
oh that's not such a big deal.
But these Formula One racing wheels,
costly I think like 10s of thousands of pounds,
they are very, very expensive kit for sure.
So how do they do this?
How do they make an environment that is so realistic
to the point where it's just like the real thing?
How does it go from being a video game like
the Formula One game that we could all pick up
to being a full on simulator?
Well, if you look at the actual simulator itself,
you'd be left in no doubt as to why.
I mean they have like a cut out of the
car,
the cockpit, like the the front bit of the car
for the drivers to actually sit in.
So not only does it look like it'll feel like
it too.
And they have all these push rods that you know,
determine that sorry that move around when there's a steering
impulse.
So for example, if the driver turns the steering wheel
to the right,
the the push rods will tilt the car to the
right to make it feel like it's you're actually turning
to the right like you would in your own Rd.
car or something, you know.
So there is that too.
They also use a lot of data.
That's the key thing. It's all about data,
all about collecting the data and using it.
So they use real life track data.
So they actually scan the tracks that use this laser
technique to scan the tracks to the point where it
you know it is it is a carbon copy a
virtual copy if you will of the actual work it
in the simulation and the same with the OR how
the car you know performs at everything.
And and this data that they collect during the weekend
in practice sessions,
in qualifying. They actually use this for the simulator teams
because they have a full team of people simulating and
everything.
It's not just a few people on a few computers,
it's full outfit. It's a division of every Formula One
team.
They use that data that they've collected so far during
the weekend to,
you know, to update their program to see if something
went wrong.
Why did it go wrong?
Why did this guy spin out,
you know, things like that.
They can all react to that in lifetime pretty much,
and be like, OK, why did that happen?
And then they can investigate it and then they can
discover something in the simulator that out on track they
might not notice.
And it's vice versa as well.
You know the, the data from the real world can
be used to update the program within the simulator.
So it is extremely impressive and I dread to think
how much these things actually costs.
I mean you're talking hundreds of thousands probably at least.
So that's why these Formula One teams have them.
It is. And the thing as well is that you
know,
the days of testing unlimited time has gone.
You can't do that just from a cost point of
view as well.
It costs way too much,
is way cheaper to do it in the simulator than
send your track out car on track And if you
have a crash obviously as well,
you have to repair that.
In a simulator you don't do that,
you just press the reset button.
So, so yeah, there's a hell of a lot more
information on the
F1 chronicle.com if you want to check it out.
If you just search up how does a Formula One
simulator work?
Understanding Racing SIM Technology, you'll find an amazing article by
our wonderful Jared Partridge on there going into far more
detail than I can in this video.
But yeah, I hope you found this involve and save.
Check out the full article if you're not already,
and also keep it tuned to
F1 chronicle.com for all your news,
reviews and everything in between on the in the run
up to the Miami Grand Prix this weekend.