F1 cockpits

I just came across this video of Jackie Stewart taking us through all of the controls available to the driver in a 1986 car. Now, if you are anything like me, you thought cockpits were far simpler back in those days. Pure driving and all that. Well... just take a look at this.





I hear lot of people saying that today's steering wheels have "too many buttons". Well, maybe the key to fooling people is to put them all BEHIND the wheel instead? It certainly makes it look cleaner. But, I actually quite like the complicated look of today's wheels... as long as they don't take it too far. But, as I was saying, this video has completely the way I look at the older cars. It's funny how we think they were radically different back then, but, at the end of the day, they were actually very similar. What goes around, comes around...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]

To be fair, there's only one gauge they used to frequently use - checking the revs. The rest are just there to glance at every now and then. Same with switches, buttons and knobs - they didn't adjust brake balance for each corner, just every now and then. I think Senna was one of the first to start adjusting brake balance during a lap and Schumacher was the one who popularised changing it for every other corner, certainly in qualifying. Before that it was nearly just a case of finding the balance and leaving it. Same with the anti-roll bars and I assume turbo boost.

Now drivers have, as well as the couple of dozen buttons, a whole world of information under endless lists and functions available through the scroll menus and button combinations. There was a point in 2010 was it, the year of the with the f-duct, when some drivers were driving through 180mph corners one-handed, and down the straights with no hands. You did that in the 80s and the least you would get is hurt.