Driving a formula 1 car

Monday 1 November 2010

Top gear is one of my favourite programmes in fact it's one of the few programmes that I watch apart from "master chef and "coming to dinner". In Norway we don't get the up to date programmes but lots of re runs however I didn't see them first time around so that's ok. Recently I saw an edition from about 2 years ago where Richard Hammond tries to drive a formula 1 car. The problem is that its impossible to drive slowly. Formula 1 cars are pretty light so the friction between tyres and road is small (F=μN) however their design is such that when they go fast the air pushed them downwards increasing N and hence the friction. This reminds of my first winter driving on the snow covered roads of Norway when I tried to follow a bus round a corner and ended up in a field.


Tags: EE, top gear, friction, normal force, cars