Ayrton Senna is known for his bizarre throttle technique in F1. Other F1 drivers, engineers and his fans have always been amazed by Senna’s aggressive throttle while turning a corner.
The insane technique made him the fastest on the track and he used to gain a massive advantage over his rivals in just one corner of the track.
The sound of the accelerator when he would rapidly hit off the throttle made the fans get on the edge of their seats because that was when the fans knew that their hero was on the edge.
Williams co-founder Patrick Head once said that everyone went out on the pit wall to watch him qualify the moment they heard his throttle go ‘Pah-Pah-Pah-Pah’, they could see he was on the edge.
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What was Ayrton Senna’s throttle technique?
Usually, drivers are smooth on the accelerator as they make their way through the corner but the same was not the case with Senna.
Drivers avoid putting too much pressure on the throttle to prevent too much transfer of weight around the car. The reason is that because of the suspension, braking makes the nose of the car go down and acceleration makes the rear squat.
This leads the car into understeer and oversteer around the car and brake traction to slide earlier than it is needed. This could also lead to the spinning up of the wheel and which further disables the drivers to moving quickly around the corner.
Many believe that Senna used this technique during his days driving a turbo car. This technique hypes up the turbo and reduces the turbo lag.
“When Ayrton went out to qualify, everyone went to the pitwall to watch it. That ‘Pah-Pah-Pah-Pah’ on the throttle! you could see he was on the edge.”
Patrick Head#AyrtonSenna #F1 pic.twitter.com/35PIy9kF4E— Petrolhead 🏁 (@NuvolariTazio1) January 25, 2023
Senna could have been 4x champion
Senna drove for McLaren for 6 years and won 3 championship titles with them. But in the 1992 season, the Mclaren lost a lot of performance and Williams had the fastest car.
Nigel Mansell took advantage of the situation and won his one and only title in that season while Senna finished P4.
But things could have been different had Senna shifted to Williams but he was too loyal towards Honda. Senna’s manager revealed in the Beyond The Grid podcast that Senna wanted to go to Williams but his loyalty stopped him.
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