How can they raid the curbs so much?

[dud]

Seriously. If I go at the curbs in a simulator (or my real car for that matter) I lose grip and cannot hold a curve. Yet at the same time it seems to be a clear win in current F1 to hit the curbs everywhere.

How do they do that?

Do they make their entire suspension setup subordinate to the curb-raiding needs?

I wonder how the math works out with centrifugal force, higher speed, more downforce. Maybe increasing the curve radius by that much is making a bigger difference than I think. Time to get some paper...

 

[Turk]

Seriously. If I go at the curbs in a simulator (or my real car for that matter) I lose grip and cannot hold a curve. Yet at the same time it seems to be a clear win in current F1 to hit the curbs everywhere.

Taking curbs can be a bit of a skill. They can throw you around but if they do it in a predictable manor you can use that to your advantage. Curbs can even help you turn the car around a corner as they can pull you into them. You can use all that to your advantage.

I'd imagine F1 cars are built with taking curbs in mind.

I've recently moved from driving a Citroen C4 van to a BMW 3 series. The way the BMW can take some bumps actually surprised me, I was expecting it to be worse. Even though it's much stiffer than the C4, it can soak up bumps much better, I don't even feel them. Whereas with the C4 it bounced off a bump. So good suspension can help a lot, the big fat tyres on an F1 car probably also help.

I'd also say the down force helps a lot, the car being forced down into the curb means it can't rebound off it the same way a normal car would.

 

[Antony Snook]

The secret to riding curbs is camber. This is tilt angle for a tire. If you look close at any car from the front the tire always tilts a few degrees out. So tire is sat on inside corner with a small contact patch. Expanding due to wear.
That Angle allows car to ride a curb as exes rubber on outside slots into curb angle. Otherwise you will twist chassis and damage floor. Which is low at the front even at slower speeds. It also helps keep the outer edge of tire cooler as air travels bellow on straights.
The only time this rule changes is on ovals both front tires tilt toward the outer edge of the track. So the left tire dose the same as the right side. This forces car low to the apex coming into turns, and drift up high coming onto the straights. To the middle and down.
I hope this answers your question. Of course the new thinner tires for 2020 will change the approach as there will be a drastically thinner tire more like on a road car.