F1 RACING AUGUST 2019 37battle you andwas nervous all the time. Assoon a s you went
to steer it, the back wasn’t connected with the front. When
you put an y yaw through the car and a bit of load through the
tyre, it became edgy and you carried that through the corner,
so you couldn’t get onthe power.”
An unbalanced car not
only depletes a driver of
confidence, so they can’t
brake or accelerate in the
ideal parts of a circuit,
it’s also more susceptible
to other environmental
factors such as cross-
winds, bumps on the track
or kerbs. In addition,
poor cars are likely to
suffer a lack of tyre grip.
In a championshipwith a
control tyre, the rubber will
be designed to withstand
the loads and forcesput
through it by the best cars
on the grid with greater
downforce. That means
the tyre will be more
durable than necessaryfor
the weaker car, thereby
offering lesspeak adhesion.
“A good cariso ne tha t
works at every track, nomatter what the temperature,or type
of asphalt,be it low or highgrip – andon every compoundof
tyre,” saysKarun Chandhok, who raced brieflyfor back-of-
the-grid F1tea ms suchas HRTand Team Lotus/Caterham. “A
bad car is just unpredictable – whenyou arriv e at the track on
Friday forfirst practice you don’t know what you’re goingto
get. Youcan change springs, ride-heights, the aero map, but,
as the car isfundamentally poor, there is little you can do.”
After a number of years driving for Lotus in the early
1990s, Johnny Herbert got the opportunityto drive the
race-winning Benetton B194, the car in which Michael
Schumacher secured the 1994 championship.
“It was different toevery thing else I drove because there
was a buzz in the monocoque itself,” Herbert says. “There
was a direct connection between myself and the road – it
was like an extension of myself. It was probably the only car
that gave me a feeling that it was alive. It waslike a little Jack
Russell Terrier dog, tail-wagging, asking to be driven. It was
exciting and that instantly fills a driver with confidence.”
In his work for Williams’s heritage department, Chandhok
has experienced driving the 1992 title-winning FW14B and
describes the car as “flawless”.
“When you turn the wheel, it turns – instantly. Mid-Russellhasatleastexperienced
theothersideofthecoin,driving
oneofthebestcarsinFormula1on
anumberofoccasionsthroughhis
roleasaMercedesyoungdriver
PICTURE:ZAKMAUGER“A GOOD CARIS
ONE THATWORKS
AT EVERY TRACK,
NO MATTER WHAT
THE TEMPERATURE,
OR THE TYPE OF
ASPHALT, BE IT
LOW OR HIGH
GRIP – AND ON
EVERY COMPOUND
OF TYRE”
KARUN CHANDHOK