How Alonso's Strange Steering Won Two F1 Titles

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•May 30, 2020

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Driver61
181K subscribersFernando Alonso had a really weird steering technique during the 2005 and 2006 F1 season. He'd shock the Renault F1 car into understeer with a rapid steering input, a technique which had not been seen before in Formula One.

No one else on the grid was doing it, no one had previously driven in this way and no one has done it since. So what was this strange driving technique, why was Alonso using it and how did it make him faster? All of that, coming up in this video. Watch the steering wheel of Alonso’s car and notice how aggressively he’s turning into the corners.

A traditional style for steering input in F1, or any other type of racing, would be to introduce the car into the corner to prepare the car to turn. Typically, the best style for initial steering input is to allow the car to roll over and the tyre to flex, until both are supported. This allows a driver to maintain the highest amount of grip in the tyre and car, ultimately meaning higher cornering speeds and a lower lap time.

This is why you’ll see F1 drivers creeping on to an entry kerb before a fast corner - this allows them to start the turn a fraction earlier, with less steering angle, giving the car chance to roll over and the tyre to deform before the main load is added.

But Alonso was causing the front tyres to break traction on purpose, ruining the balance of his Renault F1 car and making the car understeer at the corner entry.