FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[mckieguy]

Hi all, I'm a racing fan who has recently been drawn into Formula 1 and I'm loving every minute of it! I have a very simple question that I'm wondering if you could shed some light on for me.
Is there simple way to tell which driver is which from the same team?? I don't really notice much, if any, differences on their cars so I'm trying to memorize their helmets. Am I missing something??
Thanks for your help!

[texasmr2]

The different helmets are just one way to tell and the other is the cars number.

tex

[mckieguy]

Thanks Tex, where do they post the car numbers? Certainly not all that visable! lol.
Thanks again.
M.

[PlayDog]

Thanks Tex, where do they post the car numbers? Certainly not all that visable! lol.
Thanks again.
M.

Notice the number near Front wings of every car

[scotty]

One car will have a red camera on top of the airbox/roll hoop, the other car will have a flourescent yellow one...

[bud]

One car will have a red camera on top of the airbox/roll hoop, the other car will have a flourescent yellow one...

yup that is the reason for the differing colours.

The team #1 car is the red,while the #2 car is the yellow.

[Rivelution]

One car will have a red camera on top of the airbox/roll hoop, the other car will have a flourescent yellow one...

You can do that too, but I prefer looking at the helmets.

[madbrad]

One car will have a red camera on top of the airbox/roll hoop, the other car will have a flourescent yellow one...

You can do that too, but I prefer looking at the helmets.

But your sig highlights the very thing you don't prefer!!!!! lol





Anyhoo, they have over the years done different things to tell the 2 cars apart. Not all the cars have a camera on the roll hoop so they would use another method. Different colour mirrors, or one car having a special colour on the tip of the nose, things like that. The numbers used to be large and on the rear wing end plates. Mansell's number was usually red, at least when it was 5.
The driver's name and national flag is really tiny right behind his head on the side of the airbox. It's also on the belt of his racing suit if you can see in there lol. Back of the grid teams don't usually bother to differentiate their cars. At least not in the past. This season, maybe they do, I never checked. The numbers also used to be bigger on the top of the nose. Hill was Zero and it was a Renault logo.

I can usually tell which car it is in a race by what is in front of or behind it or who he's fighting with.

[kerc]

I wonder why don't they go back to having numbers. Is it that hard to have a readable number on the rear wing and on the nose? Sheesh.

[darwin dali]

I wonder why don't they go back to having numbers. Is it that hard to have a readable number on the rear wing and on the nose? Sheesh.

Would take up too much high-price real estate.

[Frosty]

I just remember all the drivers, which team they drive for and then using the yellow or red camera I can tell which out of the 2 drivers it is. For example I see a McLaren and I know the two McLaren drivers are Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen then I look at the camera mount if it is red then i know it is Lewis if it is yellow then I know it is Heikki.

[h-tomek]

I just remember all the drivers, which team they drive for and then using the yellow or red camera I can tell which out of the 2 drivers it is. For example I see a McLaren and I know the two McLaren drivers are Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen then I look at the camera mount if it is red then i know it is Lewis if it is yellow then I know it is Heikki.

As simple as that. Yes, that is the best way. But, commentators always get confused and they don't know which of two drivers is on the screen.

[madbrad]

I wonder why don't they go back to having numbers. Is it that hard to have a readable number on the rear wing and on the nose? Sheesh.

Would take up too much high-price real estate.

So many cars do have that room though, because they can't get sponsors.

[headless]

Usually teammates helmets can be told apart.