Question: Ayrton Senna throttle blipping - Honda NSX @ Suzuka

[GaryS]

Okay I watched this Senna video, and in my opinion, you guys all got trolled. Everything in this video is staged. It's so theatrical. Senna acts like a movie star. Keep in mind the cool split screen view was planned in advance. So he makes these cool exaggerated steering inputs and does all this fancy dancing on the pedals. All of that is Senna hamming it up for the camera.

[jkoral]

Originally Posted by GaryS

Okay I watched this Senna video, and in my opinion, you guys all got trolled. Everything in this video is staged. It's so theatrical. Senna acts like a movie star. Keep in mind the cool split screen view was planned in advance. So he makes these cool exaggerated steering inputs and does all this fancy dancing on the pedals. All of that is Senna hamming it up for the camera.

OK, perhaps it is exaggerated, but be sure to watch the second video, specifically Hebert's comparison of Schumacher's driving style to others (starting around 0:58):

Johny Hebert: "Well it's nothing extra special, it's just the way that he (Schumacher) controls the car almost with the throttle instead of where I think the majority of drivers that I've known, someone like Damon, I know David, Gerhard as well, Mika Hakkinen, exactly the same, when they brake, normally you brake, change down the gears and then you might go on and off the throttle and I think Aryton was the biggest example of that, when he used to be in the middle of a corner, his throttle movement was so quick, and it was always, bop/bop/bop/bop (hand motion up and down as if pushing throttle pedal), where Michael has this braking, change down and then he's constantly on the throttle straight away."

Certainly the quote above about Aryton's driving style (in bold) backs up what we see in the "staged/theatrical" NSX video.

[Sauce]

Well what the hell, I may as well throw my guess into the pot. Truthfully many things Senna did in a car are contrary to schools of thought and reason, however his results speak for themself.

I believe his abrupt throttle inputs were done for the sole purpose of manipulating the angle of the car. His goal is to get the car pointed straight as early as possible allowing him to get on the gas earlier. If you really study it, his speed remains constant. Let's try to break that down. The purpose of the throttle mid corner obviously has some other result for him than to control his speed. Lets think, what could it be?
-Traction: Maybe he was being a human computer system, however that doesn't fully explain his abruptness
-Balance: The movement of any pedal shifts weight around, maybe he is changing the character of the car
-Aerodynamics: F1 cars in that era had diffusers that were HUGELY dependent on exhaust gases, no throttle meant less downforce.
-Slip Angle: As I said, I believe this to be the most logical. The sooner you are pointed down the straight the sooner you are on the gas. The abruptness of the throttle keeps the car from sliding formula D style, but is enough to rotate the car while maintaining grip.