EYES UP
Distraction while driving. It’s probably why most people aren’t Formula 1 drivers.
It’s certainly why we here at The Good Oil miss the correct motorway off-ramps, let alone the apex of a fast corner on a demanding race circuit at 250-plus km/h.
But how do you get inside the head of a Formula 1 driver and figure out exactly where they’re looking and what information they’re processing in the heat of battle?
Actually, quite easily as it turns out, thanks to some ultra-awesome goggle technology and a willing F1 peddler.
Saraha Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg – who of course managed to dash off and win Le Mans last year while competing in the reasonably stressful cauldron of Formula 1 – dons some eye-tracking technology to show would-be track dayers and kart kids just how it’s done in a new YouTube clip.
The glasses Hulkenberg wears under his helmet house five tiny infrared cameras that track eyeball movement and transpose it on to a forward-facing micro camera. As the video reveals – surprise, surprise – F1 racers are processing colossal amounts of information about the track ahead at every second. In fact, as it turns out, racing is almost more about brain-power than straight-ahead vision. Regardless of what can be seen ahead, there’s no time for wondering about what’s for dinner tonight.
Also unsurprising is how casual Hulkenberg is about the fast-forward feats he accomplishes every time he ventures out on a circuit in anger. “I’m just looking from apex to apex,” he suggests, although the video reveals his eyes are doing so much more; reacting to everything with lightning-quick rapidity while scanning every fast-approaching metre ahead.
Search out “Eye Tracking on an F1 car” on YouTube to see the clip for yourself and feel slightly humbled.
Fear not Aucklanders: US cities have worse traffic
To most commuting Aucklanders, congestion is as unavoidable as death, taxes or a curled lip when revealing your home address to a South Island dairy farmer. It’s a factor in almost every car journey taken before 9am and after 3pm. It can feel even worse on the weekend too, when the only thing that dictates traffic patterns is the weather or a sale in a superstore.
But in the US they do proper traffic congestion.
According to new data released by real-time traffic measurement analytics company Inrix, American city-dwellers waste more time stuck in traffic than any other commuters anywhere. The company releases an annual scorecard on traffic woes in major US cities.
The overriding statistic, says the Inrix data, is that on average Americans waste nearly 50 hours each year sitting in traffic.
That’s only the average though. Apart from one entry, the top (or bottom, depending on your perspective) 10 US cities for traffic congestion all score much higher than average.
Possibly of little surprise for anyone who has ever visited and attempted to get the family to a theme park before sunset, Los Angeles is the worst performer.
ngelinos spend the equivalent of almost two working weeks a year — a whopping 81 hours — snaking along in first gear.
Surprisingly, San Francisco is next and ties for second with Washington DC on an average of 75 hours. Rounding out the top 10 slowest moving cities are Houston in fourth place (74 hours), then New York (73), Seattle (66), Boston (64), Chicago (60), Atlanta (59) and Honolulu (49).
Inrix suggests American commuters waste a colossal eight billion hours in traffic overall. So just remember that enormo-number next time you’ve spent 11 minutes staring at the back of a bus while travelling at 14km/h down the Northwestern Motorway.
Porsche 935 reminds us how cool Newman was
He was Paul Newman, actor, to most. But to many he was Paul Newman, racer. And the stunning Porsche 935 in which Cool Hand Luke made his 24 Hours of Le Mans race debut is about to go under the hammer.
Impressively Newman and the car placed second overall — that’s overall, not just “in class” — in the 1979 event of the famed endurance race. Newman at the time was 54.
Apparently that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans still boasts the largest-ever crowd to attend trackside at Circuit de la Sarthe as well. Much like another hero of the silver screen who loved motorsport — Steve McQueen — Newman was a serious racer. He eventually became a team owner too; first as one half of Newman Freeman Racing in the North American Can-Am series, then forming Champ Car team Newman/Haas Racing with Carl Haas (not to be confused with Gene Haas of the current Haas F1 team who is, rather improbably, no relation).
Newman’s Porsche 935 continued its racing success into the 1980s, winning first overall at the 1981 24 Hours of Daytona with drivers Bobby Rahal, Brian Redman and Bob Garretson at the wheel, as well as first overall at the 1983 12 Hours of Sebring.
The car continued winning silverware even after retiring from the race track. After being restored in 2006 by Porsche specialist Paul Willison back to its Hawaiian Tropic-sponsored 1979 Le Mans livery, it won Best in Class at the 2007 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.
Speaking of sponsorship, during its 1980 campaign the 935 was sponsored by Apple Computers. Interestingly enough it remains the only race car Apple has ever supported.
Gooding & Company will be auctioning the car — along with a jaw-dropping assortment of other historic metal ( Google the full catalogue during your lunch break) — at the famous Pebble Beach Auctions next month.
Number Crunching
1969 YEAR Paul Newman discovers racing, while prepping for the feature film, Winning
70 YEARS OLD Newman becomes oldest member of winning team in class at 24 Hours of Le Mans
300 LAPS Driven by the Stommelen-Barbour-Newman Porsche 935 at 1979’s 24 Hours of Le Mans
04 YEAR Newman competed in the gruelling Baja 1000