"Psychological" upgrades

[raymondu999]

Hey all. Just thinking about the damaged chassis of Vettel. Some people on the net have speculated that there is in fact nothing wrong with it, just that it was to give Vettel a psychological boost. Some people I believe also said this when they gave Raikkonen a lighter chassis in 2008 or 2009...

Does the psycho really matter that much in terms of laptimes? I would've thought maybe a few tenths at most. What other times have there been documented cases of "psychological" upgrades? I know we'll probably never be able to prove that it wasn't really an upgrade to rectify a real problem in the first place, but surely there must be some more which some people have labelled as "psychological" comfort upgrades?

[engineguru00]

If a driver knows/thinks they can get the car to do exactly what they want all the time, they are much more willing to take the car to the edge of its performance. Its all about making the driver feel comfortable in the car, even if you have to lie to him and tell him the car was bad.

The mental standpoint of the driver has a huge impact on lap performance from what I saw in FSAE. Biggest point I saw it was on braking and corner entry. Drivers who were confident that the car would do something they wanted were willing to brake later/harder and carry more speed through the corner. Drivers who weren't comfortable and thought something may be wrong wouldn't do this.

I would think this impact would be larger in F1 where the speeds are so much larger, but then again the drivers are also much more experienced so the impact is probably less so.

[Pandamasque]

Placebo-tub.

How's this one for a term? You read it first at F1T.

[raymondu999]

Lol. Is that what the cat is in?

[megz]

That's entirely right, by playing on the suggestability of people you can make people believe many a thing. Should the chief engineer grant Vettel a new chassis stating his last was faulty/the new one is lighter, stiffer, more favourable for some reason will have him likely believe it and try harder or just believe it's better and therefore DO better.

[Giblet]

Like in the Tom Cruise racing epic Days of Thunder (trying to contain laughter here... ) his pit boss told him on the headset during the race that he put on special staggered tires on that would allow him to pass on the high side of the track.

He was lying.

[WhiteBlue]

Of course such things may work if the driver isn't technically minded. But if the driver knows that there is no such thing as a staggered tyre it cannot work. Now, Seb is a pretty educated fellow who tries to understand the engineering side of his job. I guess you would have to find something substantial to induce him to unlock more potential.

If you read the comments by Mark Webber about this years tyres and how they suit the Red Bull drivers you have a pretty good idea what that technical issue is. Depending of driver style time can be found before or after the apex of a corner. If the tyres demand a change of style to go fastest in dry condition it makes sense that it can take some dry races for a driver to find that new setup and adapt his style.

Schumacher did have a similar problem with the tyres which was compounded by his long absence from the sport. Massa also suffers from a problem with adaptation to the new tyres. Kimi had a serious problem in 2008. These things happen and are real.

Unless you see the traces where Vettel is loosing time on Webber you can have no idea. But those guys see the traces and they are rational about it. So I think it is much more an issue of changing the driving style than self hypnosis to gain confidence.

[marcush.]

there is a difference between -the tyre suits my style /the car and setup suits me and How do I adapt my driving to make those tyres work for me as they do for my teammate..
You may be able to see the inputs in the data but without knowing the reasons or strategy behind it is pretty useless.Maybe your teammate can explain,but pretty sure it is more about confidence and something not easy to quantify and even harder to describe that makes a certain tyre suited to one driver and not to the other.
If it were purely a thing of analyse and adapt those differences would be erased till Q3 at latest but obviously Vettel had no ways of driving the RB as quick as Webber in the last 2 races.

[lebesset]

there are first class drivers and there are great drivers , much rarer
the great drivers can adapt their style to the characteristics of the car , tyres included

graham hill , a first class driver, when at lotus , burnt the midnight oil with the technical staff tuning the car to his needs

jimmy clark just told the team to set up the same car so that it was as fast as possible , even if it was more difficult to drive ; that's why he was a great driver , he could get the maximum out of any car

apart from senna perhaps , the only driver that I have seen since who looks like being able to reach that level is hamilton ...we shall see

[nipo]

I don't believe there are PURELY psychological upgrades, as in you don't make up a story and go to the driver and say, "hey I have put a magical upgrade in the car and it is going to mitigate some of the understeer you had, so you can attack more now..." F1 drivers don't make it there by driving slowly or being foolish...

What I think more practical is to adapt a car so that it will behave in a way that is deemed more "controllable" by the driver's taste. That way, maybe the overall performance did not improve, but the trade-off becomes more acceptable to a particular driver for him to fight for a quicker lap time.

... In other words... a "setup change"???

[ESPImperium]

I think that there is a phycological effect that can be gained in a driver in a way, change what he wants without actually doing it to make him quicker than before.

Anthony Davidson has said this before, you start out the weekend with a set-up, and change it away and loose time in FP3, but change it back to the default for Quali, and you will gain the time you need to be whare you want to be.

[raymondu999]

In that case they should ban Rob Smedley from the sport. He's an unfair advantage and the best "psychological" upgrade an F1 racer can have

[BreezyRacer]

Well, I only hope that if Vettel is beat again that he takes it well. He was pretty troubled by the last two races, and showed it too much IMO.

It's easy to be a team player when you're always in the top slot .. a lot harder when you're not. Webber has done very well at dealing with his previously faster teammate .. I'm not sure Vettel will be able to "man up" if he's not on top.

[marcush.]

you cannot and will not deny psychological elements playing a part in sports ,no matter if it is Weight lifting ,baseball or driving race cars.
To state there is no influence is just ignoring the facts of human performance.

[The FOZ]

you cannot and will not deny psychological elements playing a part in sports ,no matter if it is Weight lifting ,baseball or driving race cars.
To state there is no influence is just ignoring the facts of human performance.

=D>

Button, during parts of last season, epitomized prime psychological condition. He was on top of his game, his car was fast, and he was thoroughly unstoppable.

Button also showed a great deal of psychological weakness. "I couldn't get heat into the tires all weekend" is a very telling quote that was repeated in many of the races in which Button did not perform up to his ptotential. Once he got the concept in his head, no amount of tweaks over the course of the weekend could overcome what his state of mind.

Schumacher will be a good one to watch over the course of this season...as he gains confidence, you'll see a large increase in performance and result, more than can be explained by the car itself.