Left-foot braking/heel 'n' toeing

[Tweed]

A question for you racers:

Andy Priaulx said that before his F1 test he had a test with his old F3 team to get used to left-foot braking again, but I always assumed you used your right foot in a Formula 3 car. Can anyone shed any light?

[Gabrio]

If your feet are small enough, you can use left foot braking in places like eau-rouge in Spa. My size is 11 1/2 so I can't do it and anyway when I use left foot braking whether in tin tops or open wheels, I either do not brake enough or smash my helmet on the steering wheel.....

[JustinDawkins]

A lot of it comes down to where the steering rack is. Very often they come between the clutch and the brake pedal and so you can't move your left foot over onto the brake. Some have racks are much higher than the top of the pedals, and some arn't. it can sometime sometime come down to foot size as tweed says.

That said you only have this problem if you are going to use the clutch as well and will be constantly changing (i.e. using a left foot brake in quick corners where you do not need to change down a gear).

How do F3 drivers change down a gear without using the clutch (this usually isn't too clever for the gearbox and is not very smooth)? I don't Know! They have sequential gearboxes, but that shouldn't make any difference.

Mackmot?

[Tweed]

OK, so why would a test in an F3 car help before an F1 test (other than the fact that they're both single-seaters) if the pedal layouts are so different?

[Gabrio]

Originally Posted by Tweed

OK, so why would a test in an F3 car help before an F1 test (other than the fact that they're both single-seaters) if the pedal layouts are so different?

To discover the track from a low perspective (which you cannot do with a touring car) and get a feeling of lateral grip and open wheels braking distances.

[Tweed]

I know, but he did actually say "to get used to left foot braking again."
Still puzzles me slightly.

[Slippery]

Nearly everyone left foot brakes in F3 and Formula Renault, its the best way and you dont need the clutch on the down change of the sequential box. A lot of teams tell there drivers not to bother with heel & toe - i believe this is JLR's take in the Renaults? Whilst others such as Manor tell the drivers to blip the throttle (using their right foot) when the gearbox momentarily goes through neutral on the downchange. Clutchless downchanges are used in the wet as well as the dry.The same principal applies to BMW's although some teams are a bit funny about clutchless downchange as the box isnt as good as the Renault and F3 boxes which can easily cope with clutchless down changes. Steering racks are not an issue in any of these cars as they are in older Formula Fords.

Upchanges - Renaults have an automatic ingnition kill on the upchange, so the driver keeps his foot nailed and bangs it up through the box without the clutch. F3's similar, but a manual ignition kill is normally used - paddle on the steering wheel which is used in conjunction with pulling the gearlever back.
BMW's dont have an ignition kill so the driver needs a slight lift - bit like a Ford.

Hope this makes sense & helps!

[Tweed]

Thanks Slippery

What about the last spec F3 cars, they had H-pattern boxes, right?

[Slippery]

Hmm, not sure.... a bit before my time in afraid!

I would assume, being a normal H-Box that it would of been the same as todays Fords i.e Slight lift on upchange and clutch for down change - hence no left foot braking apart from when a gear change wasnt required ... I could be wrong though! Perhaps someone else knows?

[Simon Mason]

All the top slicks and wings "with sequential gearbox" drivers left foot brake. Simply because the gearboxes dont require a clutch to change gear, infact the clutch slows the action down. This leaves your right foot reduntant which is a waste of a tenth or two. They don't left foot brake for any other reason than they might as well. In an F3 car its actually a physical impossibility to h&t as fast as they come down the box. They litterly slam it down as fast as thier little wrists will move. Go to Beckets at Silverstone and listen, you'll hear what I mean.

As for Andy Driving an F3 car in prep for an F1, F3 cars produce colosull ammounts of grip so corner speed relative to straight line is very close and therefore good mental preparation for an F1 car. An F3 takes Puon at Spa flat in the dry (about 135mph) with a small lift in the wet, thats the sort of pace we are talking. Also F3 cars can be hired very readily if you have the money, F1 cars can't.

[dtype38]

Originally Posted by Simon Mason

They don't left foot brake for any other reason than they might as well.

Unless, of course, you learned to race in karts.... in which case Left Foot Braking feels much more natural than right foot braking and the transition can be made much more smoothly than only using one foot

[Slippery]

You can definetly heel and toe an F3 car, its just like a Renault. When you hit the brakes hard in a Renault you just bang it down the gears - say three for a particular corner as fast as you can move your hand. You H&T by just very quickly pushing the accelerator with your right foot - synchronised with your right hand going forward on the gear lever i.e as quickly as possible. You dont wait to find the neutral part of the gear change... if that makes sense!!?

BMW's are slightly different, the brakes, speed, aero grip arent as great as Renaults and F3, so there is a more pronunced gap between gear changes under hard braking/downchange

[DSM]

Hewland publish detailed instructions of the best and fastest ways to shift gear, both up and down. Slippery's last post comes nearest to describing the technique that Hewland recommend, which is basically to put pressure on the lever in the direction you want it to go then lift off, momentarily, for an upchange and dab the throttle, momentarily, for a downchange.

[Chucky]

Even the older pre-2002 F3's had shift without lift. H&Ting on the way down the box is something shunned by a lot fo modern drivers. You can usually spot them as they are the ones facing the wrong way when the track gets slippery or rains.......