Managing Sebastian Vettel & taking ice baths with Bottas! | At Home with Sky F1 | Ted Kravitz

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waiting for the season to start we thought we'd all take the opportunity take a look at some of our favorite features from the last eight years and toast to give you a new insight into how were made, today I have four for you. Firstly, I follow Formula One. We took a day with the former Force India team to see what a driver looks for when he drives. Then I spent a day in Singapore with Sebastian Vettel as his manager, then I decided to explore the power of music for F1 drivers and finally we spent a day, a weekend really between sauna and ice bath with Valtteri Bottas in his first year in Mercedes. but first in eye tracking in Formula One and I came up with this idea when I was driving down the highway at 70 miles an hour, obviously, and I thought, do you know what Formula One drivers go three times as fast and if I keep an eye on the target? ?

The lines are the cars behind me or the traffic signs, what are they actually paying attention to and how quickly do they have time to look at that and process it in their head? So we did this with Mika Hulkenberg and to do this he had to use some high tech Goggles which, I hope you agree, gave some pretty spectacular results. If you're used to using highway roads, you'll know what you're looking at when you're driving at high speed with a couple of cars in front of you. A strange white line and maybe some road signs, but what Formula One drivers look for and what they really focus on when driving at full speed on a track.

We've teamed up with Toby, the world leaders in eye-tracking technology, to find out. To help, we have one of the most talented drivers in world motorsport, Nico Hülkenberg, in L'Amour, as he competed in a full F1 season last year, demonstrating the sheer speed and versatility of him. Their Force India team is also at our disposal in the afternoon to try to discover the secrets behind the visor, these state-of-the-art glasses are actually just mounts for five small infrared cameras, they detect the movements of the eyeball and transpose them to a forward-facing microcamera, so this not only tracks the Hulkenberg-sized position and focus, it all allows us to measure reaction times while giving us the first real camera angle of what a Formula One driver sees, while everything is a new point of view for us, it is something old for the driver, do you ever think? or analyze what you're looking at when you're driving on a circuit or what you're looking for, not to be honest, I think it's something that you know is very natural for us and you do it instinctively on a fast lap, you know?

We're really looking from one vertex to another, obviously looking forward, but yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens there. There may be some surprises. Firstly, the eyes have to adjust from a dark garage to a bright, sunny circuit once they go big. The surprise is how busy the eye is. This is partly because the human eye has a relatively small focal point, so the camera is pretty lousy, but luckily the brain is a brilliant processor and fills in the empty spaces to create what we call peripheral vision, the rapid movement . of the eye between the focus points is called bag assist and what makes the best F1 drivers different to you and me is that they can train their brain to speed up these movements and understand new information faster, absorbing and processing more information than us. mere mortals could ever hope to do so.

It's like some kind of super sense, for example, let's analyze leaving the pit lane and joining the track. Nico instinctively looks in the mirror but it only takes 100 milliseconds, which we know is a tenth of a second. about the shortest amount of time a human can look at something and assimilate the information they see on the road. URI would normally need a minimum of half a second to look in our rearview mirrors and be able to recognize an object, okay? Let's see. how fast their reaction times are to light, so I'm being Charlie Whiting. I have control of the starting lights, we'll see what he's looking at, how aware he is, how hard he focuses on the lights and then our fastest is him.

The reaction sounded pretty quick, let's take a closer look at when the red turns green. The eye tracking data reveals that Nico's reaction time is superhuman enough, she fixates on the red light and when she turns green, her reaction time is just below. one hundred milliseconds, which is faster than a tenth of a second in athletics, anything less than a tenth of a second is generally considered inhumane and therefore a complete exit, but they are reacting to the sound of a starting gun. F1 drivers' visual reactions to light are on a different level now let's focus on how to be fast and part of that is making sure you reach your apex as you approach the corner.

Niko concentrates on the apex he can clearly see outside his left front tire by combining what he can see with the speed he can feel. Through his body, his brain knows the maximum speed at which his car will go on that curve without turning. Curiously, Hülkenberg spends a few seconds fixed on the apex, not looking at the road because, in a sense, that doesn't matter, he is

taking

the right turn. That gives a good lap time, the other thing to note is how little he looks at the buttons, instruments and steering wheel, since the tachometer and dash screen are at the bottom of his peripheral vision. .

Hulkenberg can absorb all that information without specifically changing his focus. and continue to do all the complex calculations he needs when he drives, for example when entering the pits. Hopkin Berg looks for the very clear black and white pit sign that indicates the start of the pit lane speed limit. It's a quick turn left, then right, then an automatic reflex to press the green neutral button, but what the eye-tracking technology shows us is that you're not even looking at the button, what you're looking for is the left front mechanic's striped glove which are your visual reference points for a pit stop or a quick nose change When you consider all this, it's understandable why people like Nico Hulkenberg seem relaxed and calm outside the car, while they may seem Relaxed athletes, what you're really doing is just saving mental energy for what really matters when the visor goes down on a Sunday afternoon and that's the race, let's expand on what distinguishes a good driver from a great driver and talk about the period from braking point to Apex.

Yeah, I'm not just talking about the braking process itself, you know? It's all about feeling the grip and then feeling that the grip is what the car does and then reacting, you know, with the slightest movements, whether it's the steering, or releasing the brake pedal a little earlier, you know. it's all these little things that we feel that our body is our sensor and that tells us, so okay, you have to adjust here a little bit, but everything happens, you know, in a fraction of a second and that basically comes down to feeling and it all depends on skill and talent, yes ok of course we couldn't show how you react with other cars around you, yes how much do you look at other cars and in your mirrors and how much do you concentrate on what you are doing ?

When doing it in the air packs, it depends at the beginning of course, you know you have to look around, obviously, concentrate on the front, but still in the mirrors and stuff, you try to follow what's going on around you if you have a car next. up to you whether you can surrender or not there is a lot going on yes I really have to adapt and react and some people might be surprised how little you can see from the front and especially you have no chance of knowing how you know where it is your front spoiler and your end plates.

I look at it now to know where it is, but yes, when you sell the car you don't see that you eat the nose or the front wing, but you know that you have those measurements again in your feeling in your you know measurements also visual many measurements if you raise someone who you know more or less you know well, that's how close I can get now I need to get Anika out thank you very much, it's a It's the first time in the world and you're the first to do it so thank you very much.

It has been very revealing. Yes, it really was about mental energy. We'll actually talk about mental energy in an article with Sebastian Vettel later, but it's very intense. That experience of driving a Formula One car and the eyes do so many things as well as the rest of the body does so many things that the whole game in the garage made sense to me, that they were actually reserving their mental energy for what they have to do. do while they're on the court because that takes a lot of energy out of their bodies, but first of all, some interesting things from that to achieve that reality.

I have an overview of what drivers are seeing during the The first time I thought it was a very interesting pink dot and it was all an interesting line that I was actually told by a doctor that the eye is a pretty lousy camera but the brain is a fantastic processor, so while the eye can only focus on little things here and there at a time when the brain compensates with what we call peripheral vision, as I said in the article, I thought it was interesting because there was a reference to me starting the green light race for Charlie Whiting. because Charlie Whitting, the late FIA ​​race director, we still miss everyone a lot, but yeah, really interesting stuff, thanks to Nico Hulkenberg, who is not on the grid for 2020 and maybe not for 2021 either, but he really made it That piece will shine, speaking of which.

Our second feature film is taken from 2013. Now is when Red Bull Racing gave me the opportunity to be Sebastian Vettel's timekeeper, effectively his manager, his personal assistant for the day of the Singapore Grand Prix that year. This is normally a role that his manager and personal assistant Britta Ruska takes on and this was in the middle of four championships with Red Bull that Vettel had and it was my task to keep him on his schedule, but I also wanted to learn a little more about the man I It's about Formula One. Race time Lap time, but I control the drivers' time carefully most people think they just sit by the pool at the circuit, do some meetings and then go and drive the car. , but today I am in charge of Sebastian Vettel's time.

I won. I'm not ready. I have a local time clock here in Singapore and a European time clock because that's what the team works on, but I've heard that he's very detail-oriented and negotiates very hard with his people, and that's me today. So I'm a little worried. You know he's already a minute late. No, yes, this always happens. You have to make up for it somewhere. You have to make up for it. See even the Burmese here in time. You know you just have to compensate. that, I don't know, is your challenge today, don't do a different talk with Bernie, don't schedule to kiss Bernie's wife, you also know we will, we're going to write the Casio event, so you're Britain, oh yeah , only feta cheese is an ugly man. version of that, don't forget to sweat, oh, and then we know some people, you cut a ribbon in five minutes and then you go to the trash and in five minutes you cut the ribbon, tapas bracelet, yeah, and you say it's wet , it's dark, it's wet, yeah, I know and you don't know, Adrian didn't leave any room for that, I mean, in this cut, so we have 20 minutes from now to do all this, 20 minutes to cut the tape, This is the arrival of Sebastian Vettel, we have the right. place where we reach our marks what do you think you could do with some new shoes?

I mean, look even homeless, they have better cool scarves. I have world champion Sebastian Vettel now. I would like to invite the best that is not for sale. actually stand behind the ribbon for the ribbon cutting ceremony to make sure it doesn't get left with the younger creatures, they have a porcupine driver, there's a long way to go, it's 20 minutes, 20 minutes, thinking it might scare you , I mean, in a little scared Indian I'm just driving a car You know I'm not saving lives Okay, that was fun I must say a little crazy Yeah, how do you not let it go to your head?

This is not normal. The normal thing for me is when walking down the streets no one cares just as I don't care who you know who else walks with me down the street the funny thing is that some people know you and think they know sports and shouldn't boo them sports yes, but yes I can speak for the British fans, you know, I don't think they do it in a bad way. Everyone in life wants to be liked. First of all, you learn again from experience that you can't please everyone. I would say my number one rule if you are true to yourself you are honest to yourself then you know you like or accept who you are, what you are and what you do.

I'm not, I'm not always as nice in life or on the court, as much as I can be. I can't imagine what you observe, I can'tI might not be beatable, that's just the way things are, no, I don't think anyone. It's so unbeatable, that's what I think, but obviously it may sound crazy, yes I know, I've only done a few seasons and I haven't won a race, but that's how I think and in this part you have to sell the confidence you need. believe in yourself and that anything is possible if I joined this team and if I thought that way that there is no way to beat Lewis, I should tend to stay at home, that's what I believe, what you would be happy with in the end . of the year, winning a lot of races and helping the team win the Constructors' Championship, that's also the kind of job they expect you and Dan Lewis to do.

Yes, so it's definitely important for me that the team meets two objectives and of course, Of course, the previous service is really to be the Constructors' Championship and I'm going to do everything I can to help that and you know, no I think that way about my own goals and positions, you know, it's now or never for the title. I feel like I have time. I'm not putting too much pressure on myself that way. You know it has to be now because I know I have time and I know I'm still getting into my best form in the first form.

That's how I feel and this year especially it will be a huge learning curve and I will learn a lot from this year. I think after this kind of season I will be much better stoned, okay listen, thank you very much for showing us your Finland I hope you enjoyed it. You know, maybe it's nothing special, but for me I hope you understand. Is something special. Okay, meet the great Oh Matthews, yes, it's great to spend a few days with Valtteri Bottas. Thank you for inviting us to your house in unpleasantly in the south of Finland, that was your summer house where you went, but obviously you go there in winter when the lake is frozen and it was your father who actually made a hole in the lake to That we could take that very refreshing bath there really took my breath away for a few seconds when that thing didn't go on it takes your breath away, but then you feel fantastic when you come out of it very quickly, as it turned out, but I thought it was quite interesting what Valerie was saying about if she does.

I don't think she can't beat Lewis Hamilton, so she shouldn't even run and I guess all the Formula One drivers think no, if they think that somehow someone is invincible there's no point in running, but Valerie Potter learned and I've learned. Since then Lewis Hamilton may be unbeatable on his day, but Bottas will try to beat him for the world championship anyway, so I thought it was also interesting that he talked about his physical transformation, Valerie, from an overweight girl to a skinny one. bad machine we see it today right that's all for this edition of at home with sky f1 thank you very much for watching take care of yourself and take care of others and see you soon goodbye