Benetton B198 F1 Driving Experience @ Circuit Magny-Cours Club with LRS Formula 12-06-2019

[@muaz05]

What a nice experience 👍🏼👍🏼 just a random question what happens if someone crashed an F1 car in there?? Are you covered by some sort of insurance that is included in your purchase??

[@dreamitraceit]

Hi M E E Z, thank you for watching and for your question. The main part of accidental damage will be covered by the included insurance, when meeting its terms. However the own liability of the standard included insurance is considerable (up to €20.000,- for the Williams FW33, but for this Benetton it was €4.000,-). Therefore I opted to reduce the own liability by paying an extra insurance fee of €190,-. Nevertheless an own liability of €2.000,- remained. That's also a reason for driving so cautious; I would rather drive an extra F1 Experience than paying an own liability with this amount of money ;-)

[@muaz05]

@@dreamitraceit thanks for the response appreciate it 🌷

[@mathertom]

What was the chassis number if you don't mind me asking?

[@dreamitraceit]

I can't remember have seen it, but it's the car that LRS founder Laurent Redon drove himself in the time he drove/tested F1.

[@bopperda]

Thanks for the great video. I signed up for driving this car in June. Does it have a clutch pedal, or is the clutch on the steering wheel?

[@dreamitraceit]

The pedal position is the same as in a normal road car. It's a bit narrow however for your feet, especially in the Formula Renault. You only need the clutch pedal at departure and arrival. Further gear-shifts are without clutch. At the F1 car pay attention to the point of engagement of the clutch. As soon as you notice it, stop further releasing the clutch pedal for at least 20 metres and you will be off and fine. Have fun in June! Please share your experience by giving some feedback or uploading your footage. Which circuit will you be attending?

[@bopperda]

@@dreamitraceit Thanks for your reply. I will be at the Magny-Cours Club Circuit from on June 3-4. I'm driving the McLaren and Ferrari on the first day, and the Renault and F1 cars on the second. Of course, I have a hundred questions, but you have answered the most important ones. You drove both the Prost and Benetton. Did they give you a choice? Did they give you a rev limit? I have signed up for 10 laps and would like to drive both, if possible. Have they modified the cars, like adding power brakes? I see you had a small lockup on the left front in the Benetton. I am told the braking pressure is huge, and wondered if you could confirm. Thanks in advance.

[@dreamitraceit]

Hi Dave, feel free to ask. You just help me reliving it all ;-) Excellent choice to drive the GT cars the day before. In this way you get to know the circuit a bit, before you approach it with the F1 car(s). At the day of the driving experiences all is scheduled in a time frame, so I wasn’t asked, which F1 car within the bronze category I would like to drive. However I already gave a preference, when ordering. So if (of the 10 laps you ordered) you would like to drive 5 of them in the Benetton and the other 5 laps in the Prost (I would desire just the same), I advise you to contact Chantal of the LRS Formula Office in advance and explain your desire. I guess, they will be happy to cooperate. When they do, check it a second time at the day of the experience itself. I wasn’t really given a rev limit, but instructions instead. I was supposed not to shift up, before 3 green led lights lighted up at the steering wheel (at each gear change). And I was supposed to ultimately shift up, when the red led light at the steering wheel lighted up. And on down-shifting: first brake, then down-shift. Because this circuit doesn’t have long straights, you will not exceed 5th gear. And they have you depart in 2nd gear (so you won’t spin the car in the pitlane or break the wheel axles). So in the end you will only use 2nd to 5th gear at this circuit. Which is fine by the way, because the corners follow each other so quickly, so you will have a lot on your mind anyway. Advantage is, that this circuit is very safe. No concrete walls, but lower speeds and a lot of run off area instead. That gives a lot trustful feeling than driving approximately 250 km/h at Magny-Cours GP or Dijon-Prenois. Be sure to exercise a lot, because the Magny-Cours Club circuit is demanding on muscles in the F1 Benetton. The F1 cars are modified. Purists hate this, but since F1 cars are modified for every race, I don’t see much harm in modifying for a purpose. As long as the big picture is OK. And everyone can decide for him-/herself. The biggest modification is the engine. It’s not the original one, but a Ford F1 engine from another era. Those are more reliable and less expensive to run. The gearbox is added with electronics to prevent over-revving while down-shifting. It will refuse to down-shift, until the electronics think it’s OK. It will also refuse, when you only have the slightest pressure on the throttle pedal, so be sure not to touch the throttle pedal on down-shifting. However you will not have a power aided braking system in the Formula cars. Neither will you have ABS. While instructing LRS Formula told me 30kg of brake pedal pressure is needed for the Formula Renault at full speed. And 70kg for the F1 cars. I weigh only 68kg and I am not very powerful. At top speed (I also drove at Magny-Cours GP and Dijon-Prenois) I could press the brake pedal as firm as I could and still not lock it up. The small lock-up in my Magny-Cours Club video is a driver error. Although at full speed you can push the brake pedal as hard as you can, because downforce of the wings is maximum and rotating masses of the wheels are maximum, when nearing the end of the breaking zone downforce is less and rotating forces of the wheels are less as well. Therefore degressive braking is necessary, but I feel, that’s easier in theory than in practice. My lock-up was also aided by a bit of steering input. When steering the angle of the front tires changes. In result the contact area between tire and road reduces, which speeds up the possibility of a lock-up. For more driving theory you can watch the videos of KZbinr Driver61; he explains very well. For my driving experience in the Ferrari 458 Italia you can watch: kzbin.info/www/bejne/monJm4mwrqukock And for my driving experience in the McLaren MP4-12C you can watch: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5i0nZxurL2Gmrs

[@bopperda]

@@dreamitraceit Thanks for all the useful information. I did look at your videos on the GT cars. Pity they would not let you use full track mode, but I suppose it reduces maintenance costs and mitigates excursions into the weeds. Have they disabled ABS on the McLaren and Ferrari? Looks like they disabled rear wing air braking on the McLaren. One of my biggest concerns with driving the formula cars is the size of my feet. They are US size 13, which I think translates into EU size 47. There was no mention of maximum shoe size when I sent them my money, but it's there in black and white in the letter I received. I can certainly imagine that the pedal box is cramped and that I will be in for a challenge. I will take your advice and ask for 5 laps in the Benetton and 5 in the Prost, but the first thing I will do when I get there is find an opportunity to sit in each car and see how bad my feet feel in both. It may be that I will choose one over the other for all ten laps, if I can get away with it. One other problem. I have a big head, literally. I have never been to a circuit where they have a helmet big enough for me, so I will be taking my Simpson XXL helmet with me. Did you take your own helmet? Was that an issue? Did they require you to use a HANS device? That's not clear from the videos. I take your point about the short and open circuit. I figure I'm better off doing a lot of laps on a simple track layout so I can have my wits about me when I get in the F1 car. I looked at other opportunities on other tracks in faster cars and decided I will probably be sufficiently terrorized by starting out small. I am also embarking on a workout routine to strengthen neck, shoulder, and leg muscles. The universal comment made by rookies getting in these cars is that they feel like their head is going to fall off after the third lap. One last question: do they time your laps, and do you get a timing sheet when it's all over? Thanks for all your help.

[@dreamitraceit]

@@bopperda Hi Dave, I understand your concern regarding the size of your shoes. Probably LRS Formula doesn’t have this size of racing boots in their wardrobe. I think, you will be better off by getting a pair of racing shoes yourself, that fit like a comfortable second skin on your feet. Regardless whether those are dedicated autosport racing shoes or ‘just’ go kart racing shoes. I bought a lot of my racing gear second hand and saved myself a lot of money. You will benefit from your purchase in the GT cars as well. Without racing shoes I personally think, it’s not safe and maybe not even possible to drive the Formula cars. Space is tight, especially at the pedal box. Your biggest challenge will be to operate the pedals in the Formula Renault, as there is more room in general in the F1 cars, which are bigger cars even in the pilot area. So forget about left foot braking with the size of your shoes. Only use your left foot at the clutch pedal on departure and then stick it away as far left as possible, until you return to the pitlane. In some Formula cars (but not all of them) there’s a support left from the clutch pedal, where you can leave your left foot during your ride. The advantage of feet is you can tilt and rotate them a bit, so use this in such a way, that you will only operate one pedal at a time with your right foot. My racing shoes are EU42/US9 size. When I first used left foot braking in the Formula Renault at Magny Cours GP 15th May 2019, my right foot on releasing the throttle pedal got partly stuck under my left foot stamping on the brake pedal at the end of the straight resulting in the throttle pedal to be pushed in again, while nearing the U-turn fast. I can assure you, this wasn’t confidence-building and I missed the apex a few times with a big margin. I solved this by very softly tapping the clutch pedal from the right side with the left side of my left foot during driving on the straight and in this way positioning my left foot as far left as possible on the brake pedal preparing for full braking without pushing my right foot and throttle pedal back in. This is, what I meant in my previous post, when I mentioned you will have a lot on your mind, while the corners follow each other quickly. Forget about heel-and-toe down-shifting too, because these cars are too modern for it or the electronics are adjusted, so it will not work. I have never had any issues on using my own race gear, and I wasn’t the only person that did so, whether entirely or partly (a mix of own gear and of LRS Formula). So just bring with you, what you have, and use the items, which suit you most comfortably and safely. No HANS device or anything similar is used. I used a neck support in the Formula Renault at Magny-Cours Club, because my neck muscles weren’t up to the job. They weren’t very happy with it, because they felt, it would diminish the freedom of movement of my head and therefore my vision and overall safety. LRS Formula asked me not to use my neck support in the F1 car and I obeyed. I don’t think either of the Prost and Benetton has more driver space over the other, so personally I would like to drive them both if possible. Just for the sake of experiencing them both. More continuous laps will improve your rhythm and therefore laptimes, but might be exhausting, especially the quicker you go. Laptimes are not recorded, as far as I know. I have never received a timing sheet. But if you have footage of your experience, you can extract it yourself by watching your video and the time frame on returning to the same point on the circuit again. Some action cameras even have GPS and might produce laptimes, but I am not sure. The rear wing air braking on the McLaren was not disabled, the day I drove it. If you look closely at 6:07 minutes of my video kzbin.info/www/bejne/monJm4mwrqukock you can see the rear wing air braking activated on the McLaren, as I am about to overtake it in the Ferrari 458 Italia. I don’t know about ABS on the GT cars. I can only tell you, I wasn’t impressed by the brakes on the GT cars. They felt spongy to me and I missed stopping effectiveness.Might be due to ABS, higher weight of the GT cars compared to the Formula cars, less grip of the normal road tires, overheating of the brake system, missing aero aided downforce or a mix of these factors. Only the brakes of the Porsche felt confident to me, but the Porsche lacked of engine power. The other GT cars, I drove, were the other way around; an abundance of engine power, but a lack of stopping effectiveness instead.

[@Bastien827]

C'est quoi ce circuit qui n'est pas fait pour essayer une F1 ? On peut rien faire !

[@dreamitraceit]

C'est vrai. Néanmoins une belle expérience pour moi. Les circuits plus longs sont meilleurs pour une vitesse maximale.