How exactly do these two types of driving require the same level of skill?

Question

Just wondering how doing this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvL4Keav56s

requires anything close to the driving skill required for doing this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIztBeQP0F4

Wow, driving around in a super smooth circle with your foot to the floor really looks tough...pah. the only talent needed for that is to avoid contact which has nothing to do with driving skill.

Racing in the rain is gods gift to racing fans. Sorts the men from the boys.

Sorry to burst your bubble tartar sause guy but Jeff gordons fastest lap that day was 9 seconds off the previous years pole lap...

9 seconds in the 2nd best car that year is incredibly slow!!! He was close to montoyas time that day because montoya wasnt exactly trying now was he? Please respond to this FACT with yet more nonsense, im sure you will.

And why would Schumacher go to piece of **** race series that has nothing to do with driver skills? All that matters in NASCAR is how good you are at setting up your car and managing it through the race.

NASCAR has nothing to do with driving skills!!

And T-bone. Where did i say anything about NASCAR being slow? By the way they didnt "chicken" out because the speeds were too fast, they pulled out because michelins shitty tyres were exploding on the banking. There is a difference between "chickening out" and being stupid. A driver would have died if the race went ahead. Indy isnt even close to the fastest track in F1.

Beth, you do realise your Q & A is private as well dont you?

Here look if one person here can give me a logical explanation of how dring an oval is technically difficult i might change my mind. Most ovals only have 2 braking points and therfore 2 accelerating points? How the hell is that difficult to master? The corners are banked and well sighted. Its just not a driving challenge.

Are you seriously trying to complain about a caution in F1? They rarely happen, that race spent the first 15 laps under caution, that was it. How is that an entire race and further more most nascar races spend 1/6th of their time under caution. that was a really stupid point you just made.

Suzette, yes they do race motorcycles in the rain...have you ever seen a motogp race?

Im a hell of a lot more informed about motorsports than the coots here who only watch nascrash. i watch pretty much everything with an engine in it

Answer 1

Yet the F-1 drivers who have tried Nascar say Nascar is harder.


The last F-1 rain race I saw had all the best drivers off the track while doing 45mph. I could have won in my Chevy pickup plus it can drive out of gravel!

I also think having your Yahoo answers Q&A showing rather than hidden is what seperates the women and men from the little boys.

My Q&A is not private. I have you blocked from the last time you asked this kinda question. Sign out and look if you want.


"Here look if one person here can give me a logical explanation of how dring an oval is technically difficult i might change my mind. Most ovals only have 2 braking points and therfore 2 accelerating points? How the hell is that difficult to master? The corners are banked and well sighted. Its just not a driving challenge."

OK I will answer your question seriously.

Do you think driving an F-1 car would be harder if the drivers could change the rear wing angle of OTHER DRIVERS CARS at will? Like when they were entering the fastest corner on the circuit? You bet it would and that is what happens almost every lap in a Nascar high speed oval. Stock cars move so much air traveling 200mph that they affect the aero downforce on cars ahead of them and those behind. Driving 6 inches from where you should be could take air off the back of your car and spin you into the wall. There are thousands of senarios that can happen and you have to be aware of them every moment while always driving on the edge where one pebble could spin you out.

The cars are so sensitive that a set of exactly matching tires can handle so differently that you either slow down 3 miles per hour, adjust your driving style and line or hit the wall. Similarly one tiny dent in a body panel in a critical area could do the same thing.

Instead of one perfect line around the track Nascar drivers have to change their lines, they have to find the line to take when alone verses the line to take with someone behind them. If the handling is off they can run higher or lower and affect the handling greatly.

There are hundreds of these kinds of things going on most all of the time.

You really have to watch more than a few minutes on TV to understand what is going on. In fact it takes some research to understand just like F-1 does to understand the complicated technology.

Answer 2

While driving Formula 1 does require significant skill, stretching out 25 cars over a 3-mile road course cannot be adequately compared to running 43 cars side-by-side and nose-to-tail within literally inches of each other at over 180 MPH. In either case, mental acuity and hand-eye coordination are critical. Other than that, we're talking apples and oranges, my friend.

Even my own personal experiences between a Formula Ford and a stock car on the same track (Infineon) just further reinforces that we're talking two completely different animals.

Consider also that the F1 cars rely so heavily upon aerodynamics that helps adhere the cars to the track, whereas a stock car doing 175 MPH on an oval is constantly on the edge of tire adhesion and barely adhering to the most basic laws of physics.

And the second most important person behind the F1 driver is the computer geek that programs the cars' numerous functions, including shifting precision. Hell, an F1 steering wheel often costs more than an entire NASCAR-spec motor!

Oh, and you can't compare the cars at all, really. I mean, to place a 3500 lb, 800 HP NASCAR racer side by side with a nearly 1000 HP F1 sled that weighs half as much is unreasonable. The fact that the gargantuan NASCAR race car averages 100 MPH on a road course (such as Watkins Glen) when compared to the F1 car averaging 224 KPH (such as the Australian GP)... it only sounds like an incredible difference until you realize that 224 KPH converts to only a tick shy of 140 MPH. Now the difference doesn't sound so vast.

Bottom line: each version of racing has its nuances that make it special to the fans and a challenge to the drivers and teams. To dog another racing series just because you don't personally like it does not make that racing series or its drivers and cars any less worthy of attention or admiration.

Answer 3

the difference in skill between F-1 and NASCAR is quite obvious if you stop your trolling and think just a bit...

F-1 is all about technical track skill and very little about "overtaking".

NASCAR is more about traffic management, car management, endurance, and pit support.

I'll grant you. One car on one track, NASCAR is f***ing boring! But when you put 42 other cars out there, it gets very exciting very quickly.

F-1. Qualifying is great, the technical skill needed to hustle those cars around those tracks is incredible. The problem is, most of those same tracks are SO technical, once you get a full field of cars on it, it turns into a parade. Very few passing points, and those are governed by breaking zones. More passing ends up being done in the pits than on the track.

Answer 4

Okay, this question is getting overdone. I have raced both open wheel cars and stock cars and can tell you first-hand: Both are difficult, but they are VERY different from each other. I love F1 and don't really care for nascar, but they both require a good amount of skill, but the skill-sets are different. One is not better than the other; if you like nascar, great; if you like Formula One or Champ Car or any other open wheel series, that's great too, just don't hate on the other.

Answer 5

I like them both. They both take allot of skill. To say that either does not is absurd. I see you are taking it a bit personally though. There are open wheel rooms that you can visit that may be to your liking. This way you would not have to rant and rave and waste your time in a room where you do not like the sport. NASCAR also has a rain tire that they use on road courses where they actually keep racing as it rains. Also there are smooth oval tracks that open wheeler compete on with their foot to the floor the whole time.

Answer 6

Listen
NASCAR is more than going around in circles and to be more technical they are also tri-ovals, ovals, cookie cutters, triangles, and the SUPERSPEEDWAYS!!!! NASCAR is way better than f1 and nothing will beat it!!

F1 "fans" should shut the h*** up and and quit coming to the NASCAR section here. All the f1 is better than NASCAR is load of bologna and there is no way f1 will even be able to compete against NASCAR. f1 does not have one good driver at all! And secondly why are f1 drivers coming to NASCAR?
So for all people that say NASCAR is boring go to a live event or like others say take a stock car ride around Talladega and then come tell us.SHUT THE HE** UP

NASCAR Nation Rules!!!
VROOM VROOM VROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 7

Why even bother to come here and RANT (against Answer rules, by the way), about something you don't like? Do you like making people mad?

To each their own. NASCAR may not be your thing, so ignore it. I don't like baseball, but I'm not ranting up a storm over in their part of the site! Go educate people in a part of the site that you actually care about.

Answer 8

one car has a much lower center of gravity and one has less horsepower, one drives on the chicanes and one drives on the high banks, one is for rednecks and one is for pinheads. I'ld rather be a redneck. Since your so misinformed on the subject of motorsports, they don't race stock cars or dragsters in the rain. They don't race motorcycles in the rain either.

Answer 9

Sssssssssssss ! Ssssssssssssssssss !
SSSssssssssssssssss !!!!!!!

Answer 10

Who cares. People like you and Roderick crack me up.

OF-COURSE Stock Car's have less technology and can't pull 4G's. THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT!! They weigh 3400 pounds because that's how Nascar wants it. Nascar fights tooth and nail to keep 'all out' technology out of the car's.
You guy's couldn't think your way out from underneath a bed sheet.

From your opinions, one would assume you think Football is better than Baseball just because they continue to play Football in the rain but Baseball stops and covers the field!

Why are F1 only fans so narrow minded? Your truly comparing Hockey to Tennis saying Tennis players suck because they don't ice skate! Seriously, get a life. Your insulting my intelligence.