Driving a fast car slowly is pointless, just as driving an F1 on racetrack asphalt is (almost) pointless. This is an example of how to drive a fancy, illegal vehicle in a straight line without using any maneuvering skills. Instead, most racers’ nervous systems are broken by the crazily fast pace at the race pit. This is a nervous fashion diva, strutting down the catwalk in the strangest outfit that she could never wear in public, let alone in other settings!
Formula One is the best example of science at work, created in whitewashed labs by brilliant engineers and crazy professors. The only fun in this expensive engineering showdown between the marvels of the auto industry is having to endure repeated 5G lateral forces while making multiple left and right turns. Unless he blows off his piston by throttling to the redline, any steel-nerved noob with a 10-2 clocking can clutch a V8 or V10 in a drag race and beat a quarter mile! Hypercars and Bloodhound SSCs would be in charge of the racetrack if speed and automotive engineering were the only factors that mattered in motorsport.
The spec class/performance series is where the real excitement is. NASCAR, Rallycross, Gymkhana, and Le Mans are just a few of the driving disciplines that only an experienced driver can master with a stock or tuned car.
The racing competition that takes place on heavily banked race tracks is called NASCAR. The NASCAR chassis literally bent to the left due to the intense centrifugal force produced by the drivers as they raced their stock cars at 200 mph continuously to the left at 2G force. Rallycross uses specially designed, street-legal vehicles that travel in a straight line, as opposed to the F1’s circuit-style racing. Neither telemetry nor laptops are used in the NASCAR and rally sports. Rally drivers lack the technological luxuries that F1 drivers enjoy, such as mobile tuning.
Gymkhana is a time or speed event that focuses on acceleration, braking, and drifting, which is essentially a first- and second-gear play. To master the gymkhana, one needs to be skilled at hand braking, drifting and sliding, left-foot braking, grip driving, and—most importantly—strong mental focus.
Dubbed as the “Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency”, the 24 hours of The pinnacle of driving endurance is Le Mans. The drivers must maintain maximum speed while navigating closed roads and racetracks for a full 24-hour period without experiencing an engine failure. This prestigious driving format demands ruthless submission to endurance, faultless mechanical design, and automobile innovation that necessitates cars that last a long time on the tracks and spend the least time in the pits.
Despite beginning at the same time, these racing formats took different turns. Rally sports, NASCAR, and the Formula One were all started by rich playboys and their expensive race cars on clean circuits, while moonshiners ran around mud and gravel in the early stages of those sports. It was still just a competition between cheap and expensive. elite, dogs versus hors d’oeuvres. Prior to the development of speed cars, only Gymkhana races used horses for transportation and included pylons and obstacles to display good horsemanship. The Le Mans, on the other hand, followed a more illustrious and solid course, beginning with the most dependable GT cars that can push performance, endurance, and speed at the same time.
All of these racing disciplines require specifications that are compatible with the art of racing, performance that is complemented by years of endurance, and a driving skill set that no racing school or simulator can impart. It’s all in the non-F1 play: learning to heel-toe downshift at the hairpin and chicane, and exploring the symphonies produced between clutch shifting and crankshaft banging. It makes sense that former F1 drivers would retire and join the derby and rally sports.
For those who only view F1 as a sport, it is the everlasting magic. Autosmiths understand that it merely serves as a gateway to the real racing.
