Yelloly surprised by accuracy of simulator

Nick Yelloly admits he was surprised by high number of similarities between a simulator and a real F1 car.

Yelloly received a test outing for Racing Point last week at the Circuit de Catalunya, following the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Briton last tested for the team in 2015, when it was known as Force India. 

He has been working as a simulator driver for the Silverstone squad for a number of years, and managed a 1:18.212 as his fastest lap time at the test.

After his extensive periods in the Racing Point simulator, Yelloly admitted surprise at being able to draw comparisons to the real thing.

“Compared to the simulator I was surprised on how close to reality the real car felt,” he stated.

"It definitely helped me with adapting to the car fast. We learnt a lot during the two days on track, and we now know in which areas where we can take another step with sim correlation.”

“As always, being an F1 driver for the week is a pretty cool experience. The coolest thing still has to be the speed of the car, without doubt.

"The current spec F1 cars are so capable at high speed and in the braking zones, so to feel what the top level of racing car in the world was able to do was amazing.“

Yelloly shocked at high speeds of current cars

Yelloly added that the first laps in the modern high downforce F1 cars were a bit of a shock, due to their high speeds.

"The first couple of laps were a bit of a shock to the system if I am honest. Having not been in single seater competition for a while you do forget how quick the things are.

“After a few runs though, I adjusted pretty quickly and could get straight into some good running.

"Since 2015 the cars have come on massively. My lap time was 9.1 seconds faster this week than I did when I was driving the car back in 2015.

“This mostly comes from the extra downforce levels and new spec tyres, but also I could really feel how the power unit has developed over that period of time too.”