But like this year’s F1 machinery, McNish’s hybrid Le Mans winners were also highly automated. “So in 2014, when they brought in the new regulation for an energy per lap, with that first year, it was very manual, and it was just impossible for the drivers, to the point where I was sitting on the pit wall happy I wasn’t driving because of the brain overload,” McNish said.
Quickly, the power unit control was automated to give the drivers mental bandwidth to manage all the other tasks required during a race stint. “What strategy of tire feedback, the information, maximizing different things on differential… whatever it may be that he’s getting spoken to about. But at the same time, he’s racing. And so the more you can take away from the driver, the better it is,” McNish said.
“However, ultimately, the driver has got to maximize. So there’s a lot of communication with the driver and there’s a lot of adaption as the race goes on. As fuel load comes down, as tires degrade, a circuit grip comes up, as maybe the track cools off as it should do here on Sunday afternoon. So it is definitely adaptive,” McNish told me.
Zzzzzz
Credit:
Clive Rose/Getty Images
Soon, Antonelli will be F1’s youngest champion.
Credit:
Clive Rose/Getty Images
The race itself was not one of the season’s more exciting contests. Antonelli scored pole on Saturday and disappeared into the distance on Sunday to win comfortably, extending his lead. George Russell needs to score 23 points more than Antonelli in Mexico City to remain in title contention; Lewis Hamilton must score 24 points more than Antonelli to remain with a mathematical chance. Neither is likely to happen, and we’ll almost certainly see Antonelli seal the deal next time out.
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