It’s the difference between a marathon and an obstacle course.
Nascar has some really crazy shit, like building a twisted car to turn left, canting the engines to perform better in turns, making the car as flat as possible on the right to get better aero when up against the wall. They do some wild stuff with the cars, and stretching the rules or “cheating” was, and probably is, a huge part of the sport.
When it comes to the racing itself, the track layout is usually designed with top sustained speed in mind, which means that a lot of the driver’s finishing position is determined by their ability to battle it out with the other drivers, instead of their ability to optimize the course. Not to mention, that simple “left turn” is deceptively complex. Drivers account for track conditions, like foreign debris, rubber “marbles”, bank angle, and temperature, atmospheric conditions like air density, car conditions like damage, fuel, tire wear and tire temp, and race conditions like remaining laps, position and proximity to other drivers, when they make that “simple left”. Throw in make-or-break pitstops, where the car gets fuel, tires and repairs in less than 10 seconds, and the fact that almost all of this is happening at 170+ MPH, and you realize that oval racing isn’t just a bunch of hilljacks turning left, but a modern gladiator-style chariot race.
frank@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
Massive F1 fan here.
It’s more of an engineering sport than a driving sport. Don’t get me wrong– the drivers are absolutely top notch and do an incredible job and it’s entertaining to watch. But since it’s sooooo engineering and development based, you cars that perform different on different tracks (cuz of elevation, temperature, track design, surface).
It’s pretty neat; worth a watch sometime!
Rodeo@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
This is like the argument that football is exciting because it’s a highly strategic sport: the most interesting and exciting things about it are happening on the sidelines in the coaches’ heads while 40% of the time nothing is happening on the field.
So if the most exciting part of the race is the engineering that went into the car, then what’s the point of watching the race? You’d be probably be more interested watching Bill Nye.
creditCrazy@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Testing is also a part of engineering like dusten didn’t just build a super sonic baseball gun and just left go yea I built that no he actually shot it sirusly we don’t just engineer random shit for the sake of engineering something we engineer to make a thing to accomplish a task so of course we’re going to want to see these machines used that’s what engineering is all about like imagine if we had pro soccer players get ready for the game and we just cut straight to the end of the game
frank@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
Like I said, some exciting racing. There was a photo finish (0.053) for the podium last race!
www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-p…
But for someone who is a nerd about it, some of the most exciting parts are Thursday and Friday when the teams show up with upgrades. Seeing it come together on a Sunday is awesome, but sometimes less dynamic.
If you want insane racing, just watch motorcycles
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 11 months ago
To me a lot of games seem like they’re going from one end to another constantly with sudden passes to the opposing end.
Haven’t watched that much but some WC games
Kill_John_Lennon@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I think they were talking about American football.
uis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Isn’t all engieneering banned in F1?
frank@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
I’m not sure what you’re referring to but not at all! It’s the inverse of a “spec series” (which still benefit greatly from engineering) where you get handed parts to use. Teams can design the vast majority of parts themselves and do
uis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’m not sure which one, but I think it is F1 where making car too good is banned.
SARGEx117@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I know I don’t have the skills to drive one (at least not yet lol) but those things are engineering marvels.
I’ve always wanted to see one invert at speed to see if their downforce really is enough.
I can’t imagine all the materials sciences that go on behind the scenes.
UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Driver61 on YouTube is trying to do that exact thing! He’s still in the planning stages but it’s exciting
frank@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
So much cool matsci!
The exhaust is no longer titanium (it’s inconel) because they 3D print the complicated bits of it now instead of traditional forming techniques