Driving the punishing new F1 simulator – so realistic Ferrari uses it

While many other motor sport industry-standard driving simulators have a 20-50-millisecond delay between an input, such as moving the steering wheel and the simulator reacting, the Dynisma DMG-1, which I’m driving, delivers feedback at 3-4 milliseconds. If you’re an F1 driver with heightened senses, it makes the experience noticeably more realistic and far more useful.

Warne tells Motor Sport he had a vision to push beyond what was currently being achieved in the simulation world – the speeds of information delivery were sloth-like in his opinion.

“I could see that there was a massive gap, that the whole industry was underachieving,” he says. “Other [sim] manufacturers were targeting, say, 20Hz of bandwidth, whereas we’re now at 100Hz – what that means is more information through the system and giving it more promptly.”

These stark statistical differences are what, according to Dynisma, makes its products “the most dynamic, realistic and scalable driving simulators in the world”.

The secret behind it is, as a certain Ferrari F1 driver will appreciate, a uniquely smooth operation. It’s based on a platform which moves forwards, backwards and side-to-side. On top of this sits the chassis, supported by six legs, which move individually. These add up to what Warne calls “nine degrees of freedom”, allowing three-dimensional movement and rotation.

“We call it the ‘High Frequency Platform’ – this is what differentiates us from our competitors.

“Some manufacturers do also have nine degrees of freedom, but they don’t take advantage of them in the way that we do. They haven’t developed a system that isolates one from the next.

“Significantly, our legs are ‘highly backdrivable’, which means that you can move them with your hand like this [Warne gives the machine a good rock to demonstrate] – it’s in contrast to other systems whereby they’re kind of locked up with friction [and are therefore slower]. This is much more like a real vehicle’s suspension, which we’ve taken inspiration from, where you can press down the corner of the car and it will move.”

Fast movement is crucial when it comes to keeping up with the computing element. “The software system is incredibly responsive,” he says. “Certain elements of the system are running at 4000 times a second, and so we need to be able to ensure that every part of the system is operating quickly enough so that there are no delays.”

Testing the Ferrari F1 simulator

So what does it actually feel like to drive? Once we’ve inspected the tech, the team gears me up to take on two simulated F1 tests, one using Dynisma’s giant 20ft x 10ft screen, illuminated by six powerful projectors, and the other using VR. My previous driving experience was limited to pootling along in cheap hatchbacks and, in the virtual world, finishing mid-pack on Gran Turismo during the Daihatsu Invitational, so this all represented a slight step up.

In these circumstances, it’s de-rigeur to choose Spa-Francorchamps for the semi-useless-journo-does-simulator-test-feature, in order to answer the much-hyped question: ‘How does it really feel to drive Eau Rouge in a [simulated] F1 car?’ As many of my predecessors have attested, it’s actually quite tricky.

Beginning from a slightly indignant standstill on the Spa start/finish in Dynisma’s generic approximation of an F1 car, you can only put your foot fully down once in fourth gear – I found this out the hard way coming out of La Source – otherwise the wheelspin is simply too much to contend with.

Although slightly embarrassed by the fact that this simulator – in its various iterations – has been pushed to its limits by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, as well as Le Mans winners such as Darren Turner and Will Stevens, I commit to at least having a good go.

Screaming down to Eau Rouge, Dynisma engineer Nikhil Garrett – formerly of Toyota and Ferrari – is on the ‘team radio’ to gently advise a “mercy lift” into Eau Rouge.

I oblige, but things are a challenge from the off – unsurprisingly, the compression before you rocket uphill runs through your whole body, the steering becoming incredibly heavy as you feel the aerodynamic loading come into play.

I manage to get a few (not that fast) laps in without incident, but in trying to up the pace the very-real effects of a simulated F1 drive begin to take their toll.

Clinging on for dear life through the fast Blanchimont section is, as Warne predicted, hard work and I can feel my heart racing. My hands begin to cramp up, I’m gripping the steering wheel that hard.

Each lap feels more and more like doing weights in the gym, as my body – and stomach – begins to feel the strain. From here the mistakes creep in: one or two offs a lap, then a few, then several.

If you explore the full extent of Spa’s terrain thoroughly enough – I did do this – the simulator’s movements can become so violent that you have to stop and allow the system to reset.

Once I’ve embarrassed myself enough and enforced this process several times, I take a quick break and try not to look too flustered.

Warne explains the inspiration behind a system, which has been awarded five patents, and his plans to incorporate even greater levels of realism with VR.

“When VR headsets are a little bit lighter and the resolution is a little bit higher, this will just be the ‘the way’. It’s transformational in terms of being able to install a simulator in a given facility, but being much more compact because you get rid of the projectors.

“The thing that hasn’t been done before, to our knowledge at least, is having that working on a moving motion platform – it brings an extra dimension of complexity.”

Driving the first F1 virtual reality simulator

It’s then time for me to get a sneak peak at the technology F1 teams will be using in the future by putting on the virtual reality headset and getting back into the car.

Compared to the pin-sharp giant screen, the VR image swims slightly at the edge of the image – though this makes it slightly less realistic, I do feel like I’ve fallen into the back end of Tron.

This is all because part of you actually is in it – Dynisma uses a ‘mixed-reality’ system where you can see your own hands on the steering wheel, but with these projected into the virtual world.

Whereas when looking at the big screen nothing happens when you move your head, with VR another high-rise will emerge from behind the one in front if you move it enough at Monaco, and another tree will pop out at Spa etc. Once the system loses its slight graininess and is 100% smooth, it will give drivers an unprecedented sense of being at a circuit for a more immersive build-up to a race weekend.

Hurtling out of the first corner in ‘Belgium’, this makes things seem all too real in the most surreal way. So intense is the experience for a novice like me that I find myself focusing even more intently on the track ahead, tracking my gear changes and revs through my periphery so as not to disorientate myself too much.

I again exhaust my limited abilities fairly quickly, but the experience truly is adrenalin pumping, my hands shaking as I gingerly lift myself out of the car at the end.

While my eyes were mainly glued to the track, for the pros that have the luxury of taking in the scenery as they drive, VR is likely to be a startling step up – the world of simulation now suddenly seems a lot more real.