in a stride for realism, how about a button for neutral, at least in the BF1, but maybe also for other single seaters?

I've never seen a single seater with a neutral button or anything of the sort that allows you to go directly to neutral without shifting down/up or whatever.

Nor do I really see any purpose to be completely honest.

It wouldn't really be useful, I mean, how many times do you go from 6th gear all the way down to neutral? Surely when stopping you don't go from 150mph to 0mph? Besides, you can of course pull in the clutch and go down from 6th to neutral

To be fair to him (I am fair, when it's deserved ), F1 cars do have an N button to jump to neutral. It might even be regulated, so that cars can be pushed by marshalls easily.

Such a button would only be realistic in the BF1. I spose it would be warranted in that, then.

I stand corrected
Then again I never really got what any of the single letter buttons on an F1 wheel meant , then again nor do many other people.

I can find the following in the regs

Quote from Article 9.4, 2008 F1 Technical regulations :

All cars must be fitted with a means of disengaging the clutch for a minimum of fifteen minutes in the event of the car coming to rest with the engine stopped. This system must be in working order throughout the Event even if the main hydraulic, pneumatic or electrical systems on the car have failed.
In order that the driver or a marshal may activate the system in less than five seconds, the switch or button which operates it must :
- face upwards and be recessed into the top of the survival cell no more than 150mm from the car centre line ;
- be designed in order that a marshal is unable to accidentally re-engage the clutch ;
- be less than 150mm from the front of the cockpit opening ;
- be marked with a letter "N" in red inside a white circle of at least 50mm diameter with a red edge.

Not sure if it is relevant, or if it means we will have to have an N sticker on the cars

A neutral button would probably be realistic:
a) In a sequential gearbox (I only know bikes' gearboxes) you can shift "between" the gears, where you end up in neutral, and
b) with the h-pattern you can always immeadiatly shift into neutral,
so the neutral-button might be a good idea.

I'm not sure how you shift into neutral on sequential gearboxes but I think a neutral button (that works on all cars for those of us who sequentially shift road cars) would be a nice touch but more importantly if it was the only way to get into neutral so you couldn't accidentally end up in neutral.

Quote from ajp71 :

I'm not sure how you shift into neutral on sequential gearboxes

In bike gearboxes, there is a neutral between each gear. I'm not sure if this applies to proper sequential boxes though...

In real racing, presumably all sequential cars are obliged to have a neutral button for safety purposes.

Quote from ajp71 :

if it was the only way to get into neutral so you couldn't accidentally end up in neutral.

Exactly. All racing cars (with seq gearboxes) that I've seen the inside of had a neutral button and a lever for reverse.

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

In bike gearboxes, there is a neutral between each gear. I'm not sure if this applies to proper sequential boxes though...

In real racing, presumably all sequential cars are obliged to have a neutral button for safety purposes.

In bike gearboxes there is a neutral between 1st and 2nd (which is why bike 'boxes are usually written as 1 down, 5 up), not between each gear.

In real racing there is no regulation about jumping to neutral that I know of, but I'd guess that most have some sort of system. A conventional, mechanical sequential doesn't need a system, as you just pull the levers around until neutral is found, but a hydraulic system would need a fail-safe neutral button in case of hydraulic failure (either by the engine not running, or by mechanical fault).

Quote from XCNuse :

Then again I never really got what any of the single letter buttons on an F1 wheel meant

One of them is probably a death-ray that is mounted to the front of the car.

Quote from tristancliffe :

In bike gearboxes there is a neutral between 1st and 2nd (which is why bike 'boxes are usually written as 1 down, 5 up), not between each gear.

Well, in bike gearboxes, some have "neutral" between every two gears, some don't. But that "netural" isn't really neutral. It's just some void that you fall into if you mis-shfited. I've ridden bikes with and without it.

How a sequential can mechanically jump from any gear to neutral is beyond me... Or is it just a pre-programmed sequential shifting back to neutral? All of F1's shifting goes through the computer anyway.

Quote from tristancliffe :

In bike gearboxes there is a neutral between 1st and 2nd (which is why bike 'boxes are usually written as 1 down, 5 up), not between each gear.

On my bike, there is a "false neutral", as its called, between every gear. It happens on every shift, unless I get off the bike and kick the lever with quite a bit of force .
Every bike has them, but in some bikes they're not noticable. Obviously, the MRT most definatly should not have them, as the gear up/down selector is a button. If it was made analogue, then maybe we could have them...

Quote from yoyoML :

How a sequential can mechanically jump from any gear to neutral is beyond me... Or is it just a pre-programmed sequential shifting back to neutral? All of F1's shifting goes through the computer anyway.

I've never used a real sequential (apart from bike gearboxes), but presumably there is some sort of "escape" emergency gear in the box, that is disengaged when the neutral button is pressed. This would allow marshals to engage neutral when pushing a car. That's just my thinking, I don't know...

I've never ridden a bike with false neutrals between the gears, except on one bike that had a badly worn gear selector (probably caused by a chap called dougie riding it in the past and knackering the 'box)

Quote from tristancliffe :

I've never ridden a bike with false neutrals between the gears, except on one bike that had a badly worn gear selector (probably caused by a chap called dougie riding it in the past and knackering the 'box)

Well, my bike is a '94 trialsbike, so it has probably had some abuse in the past

The false neutral between 4th and 5th happens every single time, even if I get off and pull it with my hand...

The false neutrals between the higher gears are actually easier to get into than the real neutral between first and second

+1. The H-plate cars should definitely have this ability...

yes, have a neutural and reverse buttons for if you select sequential box (like when you have a DFP!)

Sorry, I started another thread about this, didn't see this one, but it really does the same thing, prevent people from shifting to neutural or reverse if they use sequential transmission.