Is drifting really faster?

[banpei]

Apolan Wrote:PS: formula 1 does drift! watch the slo-mo's.. even now when when they have all this electronics and downforce... in history when mechanical grip was on the hi and downforce wasnt exploited so heavily, cars drifted almost every corner.. it was faster. well this is boud to come back into formula 1 in 2007 or 2008 as the rules will change drastically. slicks are also coming back. the return of the "mechanical" grip. F1 will become more exciting, more difficult, more dangerous. cooool. =)

The "drifts" you see in the re-runs are mostly whenever they already exited the corner and driver over the curbstones on the outside of the exit. The curbstones don't have as much grip as the asphalt and thus the car is loosing grip which results in a small tail-slide. This has nothing to do with drifting.

I do agree in the 60s and 70s a lot of F1 cars used to slide now and then due to lack of downforce, grip and having tight corners at the circuit but they never really drifted on purpose: don't forget drifting with a high powered light car without sufficient grip is taking a huge risk if you want to win a race which is all about speed: you can easialy spin and loose the race.

Also, back in the late 80s till late 90s the drivers hardly ever slided, drove with a lot of downforce and since the late 90s most tracks have changed so much that the corners are even wider (due to regulations).

I don't think we will see a combination between F1 and D1 in the upcoming seasons.