we are a new team on the 2009formula sae!so we donnot have many experiences in driver`s train!is someone could tell me something?

We use a local go-kart track, also try reading Drive to Win by Carol Smith.

1st
safety: choose a spot that is far from posts and sidewalks, they damage the car pretty bad when you hit them, especially right before comp.
Also make sur ethey always wear their safety gear, helmet suit and arm restrains!!!!

2nd
Try and find the best surface you can get, nice smooth big open parking lot, the better the asphalt the beter chance you have to break your car before comp which is esential.

3rd
make a track by the rule of comp, no point it being wider or less then comp otherwise it is not good for drivers as they might get habits that dont help in comp.

4th
Every cone they hit equals 1 big kick in balls, they learn pretty fast not to hit the cones!!!

5th
Recruit competitive karting drivers from your school, those that have driven in some sort of comp can perform under stress, actually real driver get better the more stress thier is.

6th
Make sure that you dont just let the guy or girl that designed the most of the car drive, usually the driver skill is inverly proportionate to their inteligence!!!!


Jude Berthault
ETS FSAE 2003-Current
Vehicle Dynamics

Don't get into the habit of sending each driver out there to see who gets fastest lap. That will do you no good in endurance. Make sure your drivers push hard right out of the gate and do not hit cones. Overall time is much more important that fastest lap.

Simulate each event a competition and do it often. Even acceleration takes some practice When the difference between a good time and a bad time is .2 seconds over 75 points, IT MATTERS!

We found gokarting to be extremely beneficial in choosing drivers and continuing to train them. It's also a great social activity to keep the team interested. They're simple enough to let your drivers focus on learning lines and throttle control before stepping up into the FSAE car.

another thing that you can do is look at track data. Two drivers will almost always be faster or slower than one another in different parts of a course. If you have data, you can compare lines, brake points, etc. and the two drivers can help each other get faster.

quote:

usually the driver skill is inverly proportionate to their inteligence!!!!

Tough statement. OK, take a look at Montoya, or Jimmy Vasser, they fulfill your theory exactly
But on the other hand, how dumb must have been a Senna or how wise a R. Schumacher???

I'd be pretty keen on seeing what other teams are doing regarding this as well since it's kinda been part of my job as testing manager this year.

quote:

Originally posted by terra_dactile:
1st
safety: choose a spot that is far from posts and sidewalks, they damage the car pretty bad when you hit them, especially right before comp.
Also make sur ethey always wear their safety gear, helmet suit and arm restrains!!!!

Would definitely agree there, you really don't need to hit much in these cars to do major damage. Look into local kart tracks, often during weekdays they are pretty empty and happy to have you. If possible try find one with a bit of runoff though, just in case. Again, with safety gear, there are so many things that can go wrong and at the end of the day the drivers will be wearing that equipment at comp, they should be getting used to it.

2nd
Try and find the best surface you can get, nice smooth big open parking lot, the better the asphalt the beter chance you have to break your car before comp which is esential.

Not much of a choice over here unfortunately, we have to take whatever we can get.

3rd
make a track by the rule of comp, no point it being wider or less then comp otherwise it is not good for drivers as they might get habits that dont help in comp.

I've found this a bit harder than it initially sounds, mainly because we don't have a truckload of cones or space to play with different layouts. Definitely try and throw slaloms and a hairpin in where possible though.

4th
Every cone they hit equals 1 big kick in balls, they learn pretty fast not to hit the cones!!!

Definitely reinforce this one early on, the fastest driver may actually be the slowest once cone DOO's are added to their time.

Also has anyone got any good info on using datalogging to train drivers? This year is the first time that we've been able to implement it. We mainly use throttle pos, brake press, steer angle and lat and long accelerometers. Is there anything else that would be handy. Also anyone got any good resources for using data to train drivers? We basically just compare plots from different drivers to try and work out where times can be improved.
Cheers,