Stoffel Vandoorne and McLaren – 2017 Guide to driving an F1 Car

Stoffel Vandoorne and McLaren – 2017 Guide to driving an F1 Car 

Thanks to McLaren‘s new F1 dynamic online feed, we can now see a little insight into what it takes to drive a 2017 Formula 1 car and here, Alonso’s new team-mate, Stoffel Vandoorne gives readers the lowdown.

“In 2017, everything in Formula 1 will take a step up!“

If reports are anything to look into, this year we should be seeing much more aggressive cars, fast lap-times, more noise and of course – excitement and thrills!

It’s Physically Tougher

For all the drivers, the training they’ve had to go through this winter break (and still ongoing) has been harder than ever!

With all the new regulations, aggressive cars and faster lap times – everyone needs to be in the best condition possible.

Corners and Straights

There’s been a lot of discussion about corners and straight for the 2017 Formula 1 season however Technical Director, Tim Goss explains what the corners and straights will be like with the 2017 F1 cars.

Tim Goss – “Engineers define a corner on the track where the driver has to lift and essentially drive and handle the car through a corner. Even if he’s going round a bend and his foot is flat to the floor on the accelerator, we class that as a straight. As cars will be going faster, some of 2016’s ‘corners’ will now be classified as ‘straights’.”

For Stoffel Vandoorne, it’s an appealing prospect and he doesn’t have to wait too long to be able to experience the moment with the new McLaren-Honda Formula 1 car.

Stoffel Vandoorne – “I’m really hoping that we’ll be able to take Turn Three at Barcelona flat this year. It’s a corner than I’ve been able to take flat in the junior series, such as Formula Renault 3.5, so you’d expect it to be flat in Formula 1 as well – even though there’s a lot more horsepower.“

Continuing – “Obviously, I’ve still only driven it in the sim (simulator) so whether it will actually be flat is something that we have to wait and see.“

Stoffel Vandoorne on Corners and Straights 

“When a corner is flat, you don’t really think about it too much. You know you can’t do anything else except put your foot to the floor and be as smooth as possible with the steering wheel so as to not scrub too much speed off.“

“Your focus then shifts towards other parts of the circuit, if some corners become easy-flat, then you shift set-up focus elsewhere – towards the slower parts of the track.“

“We’ll all be working harder to extract the most performance from those areas of the track.“

“I think everything in Formula 1 will take a step up – high-speed corners will probably become flat, or close to being flat. Mid-speed corners will probably become high-speed corners and I think low-speed stuff will still be very similar.“

“Overall, it will generally be a step up everywhere.“

Stoffel Vandoorne on the 2017 Season and his year racing in Japan

“I definitely feel it was good for me to race those cars, they were very quick in the corners and in Japan, the tracks were very high-speed focused as well so it was definitely a good opportunity.“

“Whether it was good preparation or not for this year, I won’t be able to give you a better answer until after I’ve driven this year’s car!“

We have lots more coming soon from McLaren so make sure you check back for all the latest F1 News! 🙂

McLaren

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