"Hey Pat Dotson, Can I Try Yer Setup?" - ARCA Sim Racing

On Apr 21, 8:30*am, Tony Whitley >
wrote:

> Jim Clark.

That's the one person I would have mentioned off the top of my head,
although I wonder how true it is. It seems hard to believe that any
successful Lotus driver could be a bad test driver, due to how
sensitive Chapman's cars were to setups. On the other hand, test
driving (at least in F1) didn't really come to the forefront as an
essential skill until Jackie Stewart and Nicki Lauda as far as I can
remember.

On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:42:47 -0700 (PDT), jason moyer
> wrote:

>On Apr 21, 8:30*am, Tony Whitley >
>wrote:
>
>> Jim Clark.
>
>That's the one person I would have mentioned off the top of my head,
>although I wonder how true it is. It seems hard to believe that any
>successful Lotus driver could be a bad test driver, due to how
>sensitive Chapman's cars were to setups. On the other hand, test
>driving (at least in F1) didn't really come to the forefront as an
>essential skill until Jackie Stewart and Nicki Lauda as far as I can
>remember.

Ronnie Peterson was another who had a reputation as a bad test driver,
but he was such a skilled driver that he just adjusted to whatever the
problem was and drove around it. It's said that he used to infuriate
Colin Chapman by being unable to provide any feedback whatsoever as to
car behaviour and how to improve it. He also used to infuriate his
teammate, Emerson Fittipaldi, by loading whatever setup EF had on his
car and immediately going faster.

On Apr 21, 1:55*pm, wrote:

> Ronnie Peterson was another who had a reputation as a bad test driver,
> but he was such a skilled driver that he just adjusted to whatever the
> problem was and drove around it.

Yeah, that's another good one. I have a few books on Mario Andretti,
and there are bits in there talking about Ronnie and his testing
ineptitude (also about how well they got along, and how devestated
Mario was the day after Monza 78). Apparently during their one year
together, Mario would do his normal non-stop testing routine and
Ronnie would jump in the car and be like "feels great Mario".

> wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:42:47 -0700 (PDT), jason moyer
> > wrote:
>
>>On Apr 21, 8:30 am, Tony Whitley >
>>wrote:
>>
>>> Jim Clark.
>>
>>That's the one person I would have mentioned off the top of my head,
>>although I wonder how true it is. It seems hard to believe that any
>>successful Lotus driver could be a bad test driver, due to how
>>sensitive Chapman's cars were to setups. On the other hand, test
>>driving (at least in F1) didn't really come to the forefront as an
>>essential skill until Jackie Stewart and Nicki Lauda as far as I can
>>remember.
>
> Ronnie Peterson was another who had a reputation as a bad test driver,
> but he was such a skilled driver that he just adjusted to whatever the
> problem was and drove around it. It's said that he used to infuriate
> Colin Chapman by being unable to provide any feedback whatsoever as to
> car behaviour and how to improve it. He also used to infuriate his
> teammate, Emerson Fittipaldi, by loading whatever setup EF had on his
> car and immediately going faster.
>

But isn't any good driver a good test driver? Even if he hasn't got a
clue about setup/design, being able to drive the car at 10 10ths is
obviously of most importance. Obviously any feedback from someone alleged to
be cluey with setups would be worthless if they're only at 90% of that
car/setup combo's potential. I'd say as an engineer that tyre temperatures
and wear, not to mention lap times, would be a lot more important than
anything that any driver is ever going to tell you. Any driver who can drive
at 10 10ths and report basic oversteer/understeer and any other glaring
problem, is a good test driver.

jason moyer wrote:

> In RL racing, a driver who can't provide input into setup changes is
> almost completely useless. I can't think of anyone who has been a
> successful race driver and a bad test driver.
>

Tom Cruise.

"Dave Seven" > wrote in message
news:zCEPj.215821$pM4.50311@pd7urf1no...
> jason moyer wrote:
>
>> In RL racing, a driver who can't provide input into setup changes is
>> almost completely useless. I can't think of anyone who has been a
>> successful race driver and a bad test driver.
>>
>
> Tom Cruise.

Jean Alesi