The GENIUS Reason Why F1 Steering Looks BROKEN
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When you look closely at the tyres on an F1 car - they look broken! Look at a normal car - the inside tyre turns tighter than the outside. On an F1 car, the outside tyre turns more!
Have you ever noticed that F1 tyres don’t always point in the same direction?
And yes, I dont mean after they have crashed.
With steering angles, there are three ways to do it.
Parallel -Both wheels turn the same amount
Positive Ackerman - Inside tyre moves more than the outside
Negative Ackerman - Outside tyre moves more than the inside
You may think that when you turn the wheel on your car, both wheels turn the same amount. But they don’t. Here’s why.
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#Formula1 #F1Explained #Steering
Must've been hard to do a front end alignment on a horse.
Oh how times have changed haha
Lol
No, actually it's super easy, barely an inconvenience.
Nothing a hammer can't fix, call Clarkson
@@Tminus89 a hammer solves all as we know 🔨
Adjusting Ackerman is one of the most underrated setup changes on karts as well
not adjustable on my kart
So anti ackerman doesnt only work on high downforce vehicles but also carts. Lets just say we could change the steering geometry and tie rod lenght and angle on a roadcar, could we also achieve higher corner grip? Because he said in the video roadcars would be terrible to drive slow and fast so what gives? Why is it faster on certain vehicles but not on others?
@@benistingray6097 it is only good if you intent to push the car to the limits all the time. and that you dont do on public roads.
@@andrejrockshox Ackerman is what make it possible for F1 to make the hairpin at Monaco. It would make it easier to park you car I guess? Roadcars go so slow it barely matters tbh
Casper Akkerman
I loved your overhead simulator example, it really cleared it up
This is exactly why I love this channel, I learn things that I never imagined existed! Thank you!
Same here. Gives F1 tech videos on the F1 channel a run for their money. Great stuff
Well, they explained ackermann and tyre wear wrong. But overall it's possible to learn things
I second that!
I have my steering setup to Levi Ackerman
as far as I understand, Anti-Ackerman actually REDUCES tire-wear on the inside tire because the outside tire is driving with a certain amount of slip angle and therefore the inside tire is actually not scrubbing over the tarmac at all. The normal Ackermann behaviour would lead to massive amounts of scrubbing, because the outside tire does all of the work and the inside tire would just understeer
Yep, correct. Glad someone spotted this!
Yup, a slight explanatory error in the video. Kinda surprised they didn't catch this while filming or editing. But, Ackerman is one of the more niche setup topics out there (like Castor in karts), so it's understandable.
The ackermann optimizes the grip. Not just affecting the outer tire but also the inner. It can be spotted on the graph. The simple fact that the dashed line is not vertical shows that some type of ackermann would optimize the grip. With less tire load (inner tire because of load transfer) the tire needs less slip angle to get to its peak performance -> anti-ackermann.
Positive Ackerman would perhap increase tyre wear on a track, but to clarify, I imagine in a road-going car, exercising next to no slip angle, positive Ackerman would surely result in very low tyre wear
@@matthewmcewen1 It helps a bit in road cars. But actually, Ackerman has surprisingly little influence on tyre wear with road cars, because on normal road cars most tyre wear occurs in straight line running. In fact, most road cars don't have 100% positive Ackerman, hence most cars squeal horribly in multi-story car parks... What Ackerman does do is change your steering feel rather dramatically, so road car designers tend to choose the Ackerman that gives them the best steering feel. The other thing negative Ackerman does to road cars is to increase the turning circle, which incurs the wrath of the marketing department. Even in F1 the dramatic change in steering feel cannot be ignored, and can present limits to how far the designers will push radical Ackerman settings. (And look at Monaco races, to see if you think negative Ackerman is being run there...)
short answer: to maximize the slip angle effectiveness for each tyre
Ty
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RIP to that Established Titles sponsorship😅
Established titles is a scam. You should look them up further and not support a scam company.
I just noticed recently that Driver61's video about Alonso's bizarre steering technique was taken down. It's such a shame, I would love to rewatch that video after watching this video.
I was looking for that but couldn't find it
I have Anti Akerman setup from factory on my Giulia Quadrifoglio. This is a great video explaining why it’s used as it is and how it works. At low speed on cold tyres and high steering input you can fee the front end skipping
Thats so cool to see it incorporated into road car tech, its probably one of the base reasons why the Quad gets such great reviews out of its driving experience outside of the more well known theatrics!
How is your tire wear? Do they get used up quicker?
@@ggbirdymill1618 not too bad. Bought the car with tyres that needed replacing soon, replaced them 12 months ago and done about 8-10k mile. Still loads of life left in them. Hope for at least another 10k before they need replacing again
@@dannyrobbo That really isn't bad at all 👍🏻
Regular Giulia owner here. I can actually feel the wheel slip at low speed when I tried to make a sharp turn. Maybe ordinary ones also have Anti Akerman. The regular Giulia is known for being a huge bang for the buck in terms of driving experience and it shares most components with the QV. If it also has anti American setup that would be nuts.
The way I understand it for a track car set-up is for keeping the proper wheel track while pushing the limits. The outside wheel under load will pull out while the inside with little load will actually end up turning in more. So when not under load it looks weird with outside turning more but under race load it tracks correctly.
It's exactly as scott said. The tyre with more load will be able to use more of the slip angle. The outside tyre is the one with most of the load. How I understood your statement is that in ur mind the steering system angle is ther for bumpsteer correction. This is not the case because correctly designed cars don't have bumpsteer that needs to be corrected. The slip angle was very well explained in this video. More load more slip angle.
Kudos to Scott for having an advert timer bar just like donut so you know just were to skip too 🙌
The intent of the timer bar is exactly the opposite: making us know that the ad won't take too long 🤫
@@rodolfoptx yeah everyone else uses those timers to skip the sponsored ads, nobody wants too hear every single KZheadr shipping the exact same vpn sponsor deal every video, its actually painful to watch
@@roryevans4295 Keep it quiet, man. We're screwed if they find that out 😆
There's also a significant aerodynamic reason for the F1 teams to run anti-ackerman; a shallower angle of attack on the inside wheel means that the wheel wake of the inside wheel is not sent as far inboard, thereby wreaking less havoc aerodynamically downstream.
Dang I didn’t even think about wheel wake lol
I like it for a long wheelbase, heavier front end truck, as well. It's already "pointy" in front. Improve the outer wheel for weight transfer and stability in the turn. Along with better weight balance throughout the truck/SUV, and you get better handling. Especially with plus-tires that handle more weight/ load; go the sway bar, coilover, equalized setup route, and it's hanging with sedans, anywhere.
Even go-karts steering is like this.
There are SO many details in an F1 car and this is another one you explained beautifully. Keep up the great job!
You explained it in such a great manner, thank you for this beautiful video!
Great video! Would be great to know how velocity affects the graph. And after all, that reminds me of go karts, where steering is quite mainly on the outer wheel, as usually the inside one in a turn is quite unloaded, due to steering geometry(it lifts, when you rotate the steering,). Keep up the great work!!
What about Casper Ackerman
I was waiting for a clip of Alonso at Renault (2005-2006), back when he was actively inducing understeer in order to turn...
Ackerman steering was a question thrown at me during an interview for a university place. No idea what it was at the time, especially since the place I was going for was computer studies. I failed. But my major car concern right then was all the water leaking out of the radiator on my journey over. My first car, a 1959 Ford 100E, reg no 2668 CR. Would love to have you back.
Now that established titles is a scam, you need to re-upload this without the ad.
Scott, would you be able to do a feature on the 2026 F1 power unit rules? They seem to be pushing the cars into more lit-and-coast and burning fuel to generate electricity, possibly making the racing worse.
How is the anti-Ackerman steering accomplished mechanically?
Usually done by having the steering gearbox and the control arms ahead of the front axle while for Ackerman everything is behind the front axle. But its F1... they'll have some complicated solutions🤷♂.
Search for anti ackermann and read the analysis by f1dataanalysis
@@NassimFTW Thx!
It's the angle of the steering arms between the rack and the upright. Bob Bolles has a good description of it in his book.
I love this channel!
Ive always wondered why this was. Super helpful thank you!
The white line simulation reminds me of Andy Green and Thrust SSC/Bloodhound LSR going over 600MPH. I wonder what they used on the Ackerman angles. I wish I had asked Richard Noble this when I met him!
The ThrustSSC was steered with two rear wheels behing each other in the middle of the car, so no Ackerman involved. Don't know about the Bloodhound though.
Thanks for this insight, We know that's there is far more than what just the commentators talk about there's so much that goes into the setup for each track for each driver but it's good to see it's a different subject thank you
It would be nice to have a follow up video explaining how the teams mechanically adjust it from track to track 🙌
Forward or backward placement of the steering rack is the best way to control Ackerman, but you can also adjust it a little with the position of the steering arms on the knuckle.
It is awesome to find who make this sport and it's technology understandable. Magnificent work bro. All the best 👍🏻.
This is not only a great video for F1 but for automotive physics as a whole as well. The charts are also super helpful, thank you!
Almost the same concept of how you turn on the outside ski when carving. This is very important in GS racing.
been watching your channel for a while.. this is the best to show my students on how a car works,,,,a few will drop out of class.. they just want'a'be a racer bmw driver.. the ones that stay are the best students.. they dont race on the road,, and they always tell me about there driving exp.. how the car handled with this or that.. the ones that dropped out.. well thru the grapevine.. they get lots of tickets,, and a few have wrecked there( or daddys ) car,,,great channel,,keep it going
I have made anti-ackerman geometry in my team FORMULA STUDENT car we will see how it will perform
All this my friends depends from slip angle of your tire
Ackerman angles! i don't know much about it but I can thank assoluto racing for teaching me what it is
yes! didnt expect another assoluto player here...
Adding a time bar to your ads? Simple but nice addition. Also I learned a lot in this video
Hey! I think you have the best explanation of understeer (and potentially oversteer)/slip angle I've seen yet! A layman (regarding car/racing knowledge) can understand the concept of the wheel being pointed farther than the real steering direction with this explanation. Might you do a stand-alone video explaining this? It would be a useful resource for explaining the concept
Great content and subject man, never knew this - Thanks 🙏
I'm F1 fan for over 20 years now and never heard of this, thanks for the lesson!
I absolutely love this channel, very well done!
I've been asking this for years..... thanks for explaining.
Sorry but I think you missed the key reason. The reason stays in the graph 5:53 “Line of peaks” Before load transfer, assuming 6000N on each side, and after 2000 of load transfer, outer wheel can accept more steering angle while inner wheel needs less steering angle to keep maximum. I can’t agree that F1 cars use anti-ackerman because they rely on outside tire. They do on both tires, trying to maximize total grip.(anti ackerman offers the peak grip by finding optimum slide angle on each tires)
Amazing! I had no idea how F1 cars steer... often vaguely wondering about that very question. Lankensperger steering. Thanks!
I feel like this is the kind of topic which requires a longer video and some in-situation examples. It's fascinating but a crash course is way too short for this 😥. Thanks though I learned something interesting today !
For dirt racing, I adjusted the Ackerman to work in reverse, so the wheels pointed the right way when the car went sideways. Edit: I split the cross steering arm in the middle and had adjustment holes in a pivoting 'spade' arrangement.
What a video. Congrats guys. More of this pls
You can create a car setup for each circuit and save them to custom configs. If the steering wheel doesn't work then you have to go into settings and activate the wheel animations in player setup.
Fantastic content Scott! 👌
Woah, this is really amazing, never thought of it in this way !!
so in general anti-akerman used to reduce outside wheel slip angle because its contribute more then inside wheel on cornering on F1 speeds and to have overal slip angle less to lessen chanses to lose a grip?
@driver61 the orange bar at the bottom of your videos is the best thing on KZhead. We the viewers really appreciate it! Thanks.
Another legendary video 💯 Thanks for the breakdown 🙏
Fascinating. Great example of why this channel adds value to the ecosystem!
For road or other than F1 cars with FrWD or FWD front tires not only steer, but also drive, and use of front differentials enhances this even more, so different principles apply to steering
Always wondered. Thank you
I totally never knew this. Learned so much.
Frindly reminder that buying a tiny plot of land does NOT give you a title, that ad is a lie
Wow can't believe they're talking about this now we understood this in the 80's when I was karting Kali karts didn't use Ackerman
Great job as always thanks :)
As a skier who learned backcountry, I taught at Vail one year and they teach anti-Ackerman but it’s slower and I set the staff daily vertical feet record for the season one year skiing Ackerman wedge down backbowl pitches
i learned something new today. thanks driver61.
At first, i though it's just an angle of the camera, I didn't know it's an innovation
I never knew this. Thanks
Everyone knows that Established Titles thing is a scam, right? Shame to see it promoted here.
It is?? I never bought into but I was considering it. How do you know it's a scam?
Hey @Driver61 could you maybe do a video on F1 running 4 cylinder engines. I know that might not be everyone's cup of tea and the chances of running v10's 12's or even 8's being so slim, if you look at how powerful bmw's 4 cylinder f1 engine was that brabham and Benetton used and how successful the Japan Super Formula series is with their 4 cylinders I'm sure F1 could make a success out of it. Sure the engines that is used in the Japan Super Formula series doesn't rev as high as F1 today but in my opinion they sound better. With the planned removal of the mgu-h and an inline 4 cylinder being slimmer than a V6 it could possibly mean slimmer and shorter as well as lighter cars. The Japan Super Formula cars weigh only 660kg with the driver included. Also manufacturers like Mercedes, Redbull with Honda and Renault for Alpine all have big experience and great success with 4 cylinders, I'm not sure of Ferrari but even the new comer Audi or at least VW has experience and success with 4 cylinders so that would mean no team would have a major advantage by being more experienced with those engines and it would be something fresh for F1. Also there were talks of increasing the power output of the mgu-k so with a 2l turbo 4 cylinder engine that makes about 600hp (not impossible the super gt cars make 600- 650hp and uses the same engine as the super formula) with the mgu-k you could be looking at 800 - 900hp in total.
Inline engines can't be stressed members of the chassis and so need reinforcement, pretty much the reason they've disappeared. V4s are, unfortunately, an Elephant in the room, it's just cheaper and more straightforward to make Inline 4s for road cars where performance doesn't matter that much, because of that they have no road relevance for cars (not considering bikes, ofc).
@@afoxwithahat7846 I understand what you're saying but if Japan Super Formula can make a success out of them then F1 could too considering the money, resources and technology F1 engineers possess. Also look at the new c63 amg that uses a 4 cylinder and makes over 600hp to counter your argument of performance for those engines don't matter much on road cars. Lotus for another example uses 4 cylinder engines for how long now and are great cars to drive on the street and take to the track. The A45 amg is still the most powerful production hatchback on the road. Alot of private owned race car companies still use 4 cylinder engines for their track cars like the Honda K series or the Ford Duratec engine. Also look at Super GT and DTM before DTM switched over to Gt3 cars they had major success with 4 cylinders. Rally cars also still use 4 cylinder engines. Also if inline 4's are cheaper to produce that could invite more manufacturers to F1.
I think this video really would have benefited from a simple top-down animation of the starring assembly geometry, with lines to indicate the forward direction of the tires. I think the concept is easier to grasp when you realize that even with a positive or negative Ackerman geometry the tires do remain straight when the steering is neutral, and the difference in the angles only occurs in the geometry when steering.
Oh. My brain has always been 50/50 between: "It's a perspective error given by the cockpit cam" and "well, seems the tyre on the outer side does actually steer more than the other".
01:45 It looks like some dope machinery. Instead of Pirelli it had wood. And 1 wheel in front (for steering) and 1 in the back. It really needed to turn fast. Especially when carried in hand. Amazing! 👍 The steering wheel looks badass! Without LED.
I figured it was down to slip angle. The overhead sim footage was cool
Tune to win by Caroll Smith has it all, and maybe the graph shown of slip angle vs lateral force isn't really of a slick tyre, it's more representative of a passenger car tyre.
I thought the reduced slip angle on the unweighted (or lesser weighted) is inside tyre was to increase its contribution to cornering force because it is in the performance window where the turning angle brings the tyre into a slip angle where it can contribute to lateral force, instead of just scrubbing off speed, though some scrubbing can help to rotate the car. To help the inside tyre do this, suspension geometry can be set to reduce the camber on the inside tyre so the contact patch is bigger. The contact patch of the outside tyre is increased by the vertical load and tyre deformation so increased camber stops the inside of the tyre from lifting
Tires don't necessarily have a higher saturation peak with more load. Some race tires have a negative trend, with more Fz resulting in a lower saturation peak. Either way the deltas are not big on actual tires most of the time.
@@ArchOfficial what I'm referring to is the effect of REDUCING vertical load on the inside tyre. Without enough load for a given steering angle, the tyre will skid. Anti-ackerman reduces the steering angle to avoid this
@@Da5idc Yes, and some tires will need MORE steering angle with LESS load. I remember seeing two tires that do that.
🤯 thank you. Must to know for everybody!
Yup I always test the car Ackerman when I first drive it. Just to get the feeling. Personally I love some anti Ackerman, but that's just a personal preference
Awesome! Learning something every day
Established tittles is a giant scam.
Fantastic content.... Very instructive
Brilliant! thank you.
For some reason i enjoy listening to ur voice
very very good video and explantion, the sim is what did it for me:)
“Slip angle where you get too much and the car understeers” - Hockenheim 2018 flash backs
I was worried you werent going to mention the actual REASON for the anti-ackerman. But until I got to that part of the video I did have a feeling it was to keep the inside tire warm. I couldn't think of any other reason.
5:14 that hás to be a Nickelback meme reference.
I would have gone with the meta: "Look at this timestamp: 5:14"
I would like for you to analyze Fernando Alonso's driving style ( well, prior to 2022 ) with respect to slip angle, and how he had the team setup his car. As I recall, he used to put a LOT of steering input on corner entry, almost a "jab" or "excessive turn input" for a brief moment as if to put heat into the fronts.
More likely the sudden jab adds some weight transfer and gives the fronts a bit more grip to initiate the rotation of the car. It's safer to get the same effect with a jab of brakes, but then it takes away from the traction budget.
Doesn't the inside tire actually experience less wear with anti-ackerman? So the outside tire takes all of the load and the inside is preserved, according to the load distribution in a corner. Could we say that parallel steering in a fast race car (tires at load limit) would already be an improvement over positive ackerman for the same reasons?
One simple statement or thought was missing at the summary. The inner tire has decreased slip angle allowing it to not saturate the curves and still contribute as much as possible to the turning of the f1 car. The decreased load and slip angle combine to lower the maximum slip angle of the inner wheel.
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Sad you never used an ice skate analogy, I find that works best for explaining slip angle!
I was looking up different types of steering mechanisms last night and then this pops up this morning. Am i loving in a simulation💀
Question is how do they engineer the steering rack and uprights etc or whatever is involved to produce Ackerman or anti-ackerman steering
I'd imagine the process would be something like this: Driver experience (Understand what the driver wants) - Analysis of current/previous designs (What works, what needs to be improved) - 3D models/FEA/Prototypes - Analysis of results - What went well, what needs to be improved, driver feedback - Necessary modifications/adaptions to steering system - Repeat until happy and ready to manufacture. Most of the important information and hard work would be built on top of existing information/data and understanding what the driver of the F1 car needs, then its just a case of design and implementation, which for the Engineers in F1 is just another day at the office :)
Very underrated transition to the ads.
Oof, hopefully Driver61 wont be accepting Established Titles sponsorships in the future with all the evidence coming out of Established Titles being a scam.
Book recommendations for engineers : Race car dynamics (Millikan&M) Tune to win (Carroll smith)
Please can you guys make a video on the super license?
Hey, really interesting video as per usual, but in this one the background music is quite loud and for me at least it is very distracting.
I used anti-acreman in the original Xbox Forza. Didn't know what it was but left out the lap with a draft of 4 car's. I was in the games 3rd fastest car a Jag XJ 220 the rest in Enzo's. We set the 1st 2nd 3rd and 6th fastest all-time times at the test track 5 mile Oval. Yeah I got passed at the line but that's how close it was at 325 MPH.
After 1 minute THIS earned you a SUB!
Are you referring centripetal force as lateral force
not only, Anti Ackermann gives more stability in fast corners
Wow this is nerdy! I love it!