As a new fan of the sport, watching these races for the first time, there's one thing I couldn't help but notice.

作為一名首次觀看這些比賽的新車迷，我不禁注意到一件事。

F1 drivers are all over the road.

F1 賽車手在路上飛馳。

To make a left turn, they go all the way to the right of the track, then swing back left.

左轉時，它們會一直轉到軌道右側，然後再轉回左側。

Through 90 degree corners, hairpins, turns that lead into other turns, and if I learned anything in geometry, it's that the quickest path between two points is a straight line.

如果說我在幾何學中學到了什麼，那就是兩點之間最快的路徑是直線。

But what do you do when you can't take the straight line path?

但是，當你不能走直線道路時該怎麼辦呢？

For race car drivers, where they turn is one part of a larger strategy based on physics, practice, and a lot of skill.

對於賽車手來說，轉彎的位置是基於物理學、實踐和大量技巧的更大策略的一部分。

F1 racers drive laps through different circuits around the world at ridiculous speeds.

F1 賽車手以驚人的速度在世界各地的不同賽道上跑圈。

The highest speed they get up to is something like 215 miles per hour.

它們的最高時速大約為 215 英里。

That's Brad Philpott.

那是布拉德-菲爾波特

I've been racing since I was 8 years old and I've been teaching people how to drive on track for the last 15 years.

我從 8 歲起就開始參加賽車比賽，在過去的 15 年裡，我一直在教人們如何在賽道上駕駛。

I think the one area a Formula One car is better than pretty much all other cars is cornering speed.

我認為一級方程式賽車比其他幾乎所有賽車都強的一個方面就是轉彎速度。

This is important because unlike other big motorsports like NASCAR, which require drivers to travel in mostly a symmetrical oval, F1 circuits contain every kind of corner you can think of, and racers want to get through those corners fast.

這一點非常重要，因為 F1 與納斯卡等其他大型賽車運動不同，後者要求車手在對稱的橢圓形賽道上行駛，而 F1 賽道則包含各種你能想到的彎道，車手們希望快速通過這些彎道。

The racing line is purely and simply the fastest way through a corner, or a set of corners.

賽車線純粹是通過一個或一組彎道的最快方式。

If you had unlimited grip and the car wasn't just going to roll over, you would always hug the inside.

如果你有無限的抓地力，車子又不會翻車，你就會一直靠內側行駛。

You would always go the shortest possible distance, but the fact is that the more your steering wheel is turned, the less speed your tires can cope with.

你總是會盡可能地縮短距離，但事實上，方向盤轉得越多，輪胎所能承受的速度就越低。

Hugging the inside track means you'd have to slow down pretty severely to avoid losing grip and slying out.

緊貼內側賽道意味著你必須嚴重減速，以避免失去抓地力和側滑。

Hugging the outside edge might theoretically let you go faster, but you would be going a lot further, like massively further, depending on the width of the track.

從理論上講，緊貼外側邊緣可能會讓你跑得更快，但你會跑得更遠，比如非常遠，這取決於賽道的寬度。

And as you can see from these F1 simulator shots Brad showed me, you'd also have zero margin for error because if you had a fraction of understeer or oversteer, you're immediately on the grass and in the barriers.

從布拉德給我看的這些 F1 模擬器截圖中可以看出，你也不會有任何失誤的餘地，因為只要你有一點轉向不足或轉向過度，你就會立即衝到草地上或障礙物裡。

The ideal racing line for a turn like this is a combination of both approaches.

在這樣的彎道中，理想的賽車線路是兩種方法的結合。

The driver can hug the outside of the track on the way in, then turn in to clip the apex, or the center of the inside track, and end up back on the outside edge without losing too much speed.

車手可以在進彎時緊貼賽道外側，然後轉入彎道夾住頂點或內側賽道的中心，最後回到外側邊緣，而不會損失太多速度。

By starting out as far wide as you possibly can and then getting to the inside in that smooth flowing arc, you're literally minimizing the angle that your car is having to take, which means you can carry more speed.

起步時儘量開得更遠，然後以流暢的弧線向內側行駛，這樣就能從字面上最大限度地減小汽車所要承受的角度，這意味著你可以獲得更高的速度。

So far we've been using this fake 90 degree turn example because it's simple to explain.

到目前為止，我們一直在使用這個假 90 度轉彎的例子，因為它簡單易懂。

But in real life, corners aren't that straightforward.

但在現實生活中，拐角並不那麼簡單。

The closest real world example is Stowe on Silverstone in the UK, but...

最接近真實世界的例子是英國銀石賽道上的斯托，但...

Stowe isn't really like that normal typical 90 degree corner.

斯托並不像一般典型的 90 度拐角。

It is a bit longer.

時間稍長。

You reach the apex of Stowe and you're there for a little while, at least a few tenths of a second if not a second or so.

到達斯托的頂點後，你會在那裡停留一小會兒，即使不是一秒左右，也至少有十分之幾秒的時間。

So you still feel like you're kind of hugging the inside for a while, but you are definitely taking pretty much that typical line we spoke about.

是以，你仍然會覺得自己有一段時間是抱在裡面的，但你肯定是在走我們說過的那條典型的線。

You can see that in this clip from the 2022 Grand Prix.

您可以從 2022 年大獎賽的這段視頻中看到這一點。

Carlos Sainz leads the pack and takes this nearly textbook ideal racing line.

卡洛斯-塞恩斯（Carlos Sainz）一馬當先，走上了這條近乎教科書般的理想賽車線路。

But most corners are a little more complicated.

但大多數拐角都比較複雜。

A corner does not exist in isolation.

一個角落並不是孤立存在的。

So the racing line you take for a particular corner is almost always a compromise.

是以，你在某個彎道所採取的賽車路線幾乎總是一種折衷方案。

Take this set of corners from that same Silverstone circuit.

就拿銀石賽道的這組彎道來說吧。

Brooklands is the super tight one and it goes straight into Luffield.

布魯克蘭茲（Brooklands）是超級狹窄的路段，它直通拉菲爾德（Luffield）。

You're at the end of a very long fast straight.

你在一條很長的快速直道的盡頭。

You then end up in a sweeping left-hander where it gets tighter all the way around and it's then followed by a really long right-hander.

然後，你會遇到一個橫掃的左彎道，一路上都很狹窄，緊接著是一個很長的右彎道。

So judging by what we've been discussing so far, you'd probably say that you need to compromise your exit a little bit in the left-hander so you wouldn't go all the way wide.

是以，根據我們目前討論的情況來看，你可能會說，在左彎道時，你需要在出彎時稍作調整，這樣就不會全速前進了。

However, in this example, you do almost the counterintuitive thing based on what we've already been learning.

然而，在這個例子中，根據我們已經學到的知識，你做了幾乎與直覺相反的事情。

Luffield, which is the second corner, the right-hander, is a very, very long right-hander.

路菲爾德是第二個彎道，右彎道，是一個很長很長的右彎道。

Well over 180 degrees.

遠遠超過 180 度。

It nullifies most of the benefit you would get from going wide and then cutting back towards it.

這樣一來，你從大範圍前進然後向後切入所獲得的大部分益處都會化為烏有。

It's not an apex that you kiss, like in our 90-degree right-hander example.

這不是一個讓你親吻的頂點，就像我們的 90 度右彎例子一樣。

You meet the inside and you have to stay there.

你遇到了裡面的人，就必須待在那裡。

By trying to compromise the initial left-hander, you're actually just wasting time.

如果你試圖對最初的左撇子進行妥協，實際上只是在浪費時間。

You're wasting distance.

你在浪費距離。

And this is why this is such a complicated thing and it doesn't have an easy answer.

這就是為什麼事情如此複雜，沒有一個簡單的答案。

You can see all drivers having a slightly different approach to this particular set of corners in this clip from the 2022 Grand Prix.

在 2022 年大獎賽的這段視頻中，您可以看到所有車手都以略有不同的方式通過這組特殊的彎道。

While the leading car tries to use the most ideal path, hugging the curves, the following cars are more spread out.

前車儘量選擇最理想的路線，緊貼彎道，而後車則較為分散。

And did you catch that?

你聽到了嗎？

These two cars almost collided, and to avoid it, this driver went off the track, screwing up his racing line entirely.

這兩輛車幾乎相撞，為了躲避，這位駕駛員衝出了賽道，完全破壞了他的賽車線路。

Once you have to contend with other drivers, racing lines become a lot more complex.

一旦需要與其他車手競爭，賽車線路就會變得複雜得多。

What you have to do is compromise based on the track that's available to you.

你要做的就是根據現有的軌道做出妥協。

So you're still going to be going outside, inside, outside as much as you can, but that will be on maybe half the track width.

是以，你還是要儘可能地往外走，往裡走，往外走，但這可能只有軌道寬度的一半。

If the weather is wet and rainy, that adds even more complexity.

如果天氣潮溼多雨，那就更復雜了。

Racers may compromise their line even further in search of areas of the track that have more grip.

賽車手們可能會為了在賽道上尋找抓地力更強的區域而進一步影響自己的線路。

Formula One drivers are constantly making calculations to adapt to any condition and still maintain a good racing line.

一級方程式賽車車手不斷進行計算，以適應任何情況，並保持良好的賽車路線。

And they can do that because they're not thinking of the line as they're driving.

他們之所以能做到這一點，是因為他們在開車時不會考慮線路。

They just do it.

他們就是這樣做的。

If I went to pretty much every F1 track, even tracks I've never actually been to before, I would probably know pretty much where I want the car to be from driving on simulators or watching videos and all that kind of thing.

如果我去了幾乎所有的 F1 賽道，即使是我從未真正去過的賽道，我也能通過模擬器駕駛或觀看視頻之類的東西，大致知道我想要的賽車在哪裡。

So it's not a guess.

所以這不是猜測。

Once race day arrives with all its variables and rivalries, the focus is no longer on ideals.

一旦比賽日到來，各種變數和競爭也隨之而來，關注的焦點就不再是理想了。

It's on the strategic compromises a racer is willing to make to get ahead of the competition.

這是賽車手為了在競爭中取得領先而願意做出的戰略妥協。

That's really what separates drivers.

這就是車手的真正區別。

You've got various inputs that you're making as a driver.

作為一名駕駛員，你要進行各種輸入。

Throttle input, braking, steering, changing gear, communicating with pits, conversing with your engineers, strategy.

油門輸入、制動、轉向、換擋、與維修站溝通、與工程師對話、策略。

But the biggest one of all of those is the steering, it is the line you're taking.

但其中最大的問題是轉向，這是你要走的路線。