Driving Senna's Lotus 98T At Monaco

1986 was the year of the Turbo in Formula 1. From a relatively small 1.5 litre engine the cars were capable of producing 700+bhp in race trim and a staggering 1,250bhp+ in qualifying trim, running somewhere north of 4.5bar of boost.

Some of you may remember back to a period in Formula 1 where teams were allowed separate engines for qualifying and the race. Better times. In real life stretching one of these engines beyond a couple of qualifying laps would be rather difficult. Luckily for us, Assetto Corsa has a version of the Lotus 98T that we can drive without the risk of damaging/detonating a now priceless piece of racing history.

Driving any car in sim is a slightly odd experience. You're never directly connected to the car as you are in real life. You feel no g-forces, neither do you feel the heat from the fire breathing monster that propels you. However, in VR you DO get a sense of speed and...my god. The amount of effort and concentration you need to keep this car out of the wall was enough to make me sweat.

I came out of this video with a new sense of respect for the people who drove these cars. This era of Formula 1 was before my time, but through sim racing I'm given the opportunity to experience one of the greatest periods of the sport's history. It was spectacular.

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Jimmy Broadbent

I like to make videos. Simple as that.