Driving an F1 car - how hard is it really?

[RS]

After seeing James Rossiter jump into the Force India today, 5 years after last driving an F1 car, and within 19 laps and one hour of driving set a time around 2seconds slower than Paul di Resta, I thought I'd ask the question..

I'm not saying myself or any of us forumers could jump in and being any good, but if you're a half decent professional racing driver is it really that difficult to be capable of being on the F1 grid? Sure the extra few tenths to be a race winner or title contender might take something super-human, but for the rest of them?

Discuss!

[Koz]

I also always wondered this.

It would have been very nice to see Loeb in F1 - he was less than 2 seconds off the pace.
Formula 1® - The Official F1® Website

Shame he couldn't get a Super License.

And of course, simulators would no doubt be very helpful.

[Zico]

I've often wondered that myself.. its a very difficult question to answer.

If you were heavily into motorsport/F1, and were a half decent driver ie; above 95% of the population, I think once you had re-calibrated your brain, written off a few cars and driven one all day, every day for 2-3 months you could probably get within 2 secs of the top guys?

Although that might sound very unrealistic, it's actually still a huge margin in F1 laptime terms.

[TheFamousEccles]

I am sure I could jump into an F1 and be instantly competitive pinhead:

[keysersoze]

Somewhat OT, but Mario Andretti once claimed that, in the days that pole position was 225, in less than an hour he could get an Indy newbie around the track at 185 mph (48 seconds), that it would take the rest of the day to get to 200 mph (45 seconds). After that, progress was slow and incremental. 225 mph takes a 40 second lap.

[Warriwa]

I am outright positive that I would be intatntly competitive. They are sitting! How hard can it be!!!!!!

[henners88]

I'm pretty fast on my Playstation so I'm confident.

[Mark]

Most people couldn't of course, or get anywhere near. Whenever we've been non-F1 drivers e.g. Richard Hammond, try out an F1 car, they've struggled, and Hammond is a good 'normal' driver.

However if you've competed anywhere near the top level that's a different story, you could pick it up quite quickly.

[Tazio]

I'm pretty fast on my Playstation so I'm confident.

How many negative G's do you experience when decelerating on your Playstation?

[henners88]

How many negative G's do you experience when deceleration on your Playstation?

It depends how annoyed I get and whether my body follows where I decide to throw the controller.