[Trevor Legate]

Not only McLaren but Arrows and Minardi built two-seaters to give poor unsuspecting fools the ride of their lives...! I know a few people who shelled out circa $2000 to experience 3 laps of Brands Hatch. Although the g-forces under acceleration are amazing and cornering even more bizarre, nobody is ever prepared for the braking forces. This can only be compared to running into the side of a very solid building and this is what has destroyed F1 since the braking zones, even from 200+mph are just a matter of a yards, so passing under braking is all but impossible. Brilliant technology, but returning to steel brakes would actually (whisper it quietly) make for Better Racing. But that aint gonna happen, so we just have to watch the thrill of 'overtaking' during pit stops. Wow, lucky old us.
It seems the two-seaters rarely come out now as I think the teams got a bit fed up with passengers either passing out or throwing up. Also- they had no forward view, so the passenger could only look sideways which was a bit disconcerting and, of course, was so tightly srapped in, it was impossible to move at all.
Whatever, you do have to totally re-adjust your brain for an F1 car as they are like nothing else - they are fighter aircraft that don't take off. (Actually if they had wings that pushed the air up, they could fly. The downforce is such that, if the tunnel at Monaco was long enough, the cars could drive along the roof at anything above 150mph...now there's a thought.)
I've stood alongside an F1 car during a pitstop and that's an experience in itself. I was also watching this year McLaren trying to drive around the Mercedes test track at Brooklands last weekend, and the car really suffered as it couldn't stretch its legs - the traction control kept cutting in and it popped and banged around. The commentator was a long-time race driver who tested a 3-year old F1 car recently - he did three laps at what he thought was a fast pace and had to come in as his neck muscles had given up! If nothing else, those F1 guys are Fit!!!