Mental attitde.

[gfm]

The older I get, the more obvious it becomes that as a racer, your mental attitude was equally important as your ability to translate chassis data or a fresh set of tyres when it mattered. Actually, I was in some bookshop this afternoon trying to see whether there were any new decent sports psychology books on the shelf.
Then I noticed this comment from Jenson Button on Michael Schumacher on ITV's F1 site. It read:
“Michael is not unbeatable. The position he’s in (in the Ferrari team) gives him confidence and he’s able to relax. He’s never on edge.”
I have to say that absolutely spot on. When mentally you're 'tight' through nerves or whatever, you'll be 'tight' physically and might even get unwanted stiffness of movement which won't do anything for our on-the-edge- car control.
Even by just saying the word 'relax', one's shoulders immediately drop and your capable of much smoother and sensitive steering inputs.
makes me think Jenson is perfectly ready to try to out pace MS ... and Ferrari.

[Russfeld]

Button has the wrong attitude, and the attitude displayed by most F1 WC aspirant drivers. He's worried too much about the other guy.

[Mackmot]

When I ask aspirant drivers what their ultimate goal is, I hardly ever get someone saying 'I want to be the best driver i the world, I want to win 10 world championships, Manaco, Le Mans, 500 etc'. Its always 'I want to get a career driving', 'I would like to get to F1' or 'do something like sportscars or touring cars where I can get paid'. They are all defeated before they start.

On the other hand, its not the only thing that matters. I have heard no hopers say the right thing but you have to mean it. You have to have the determination to find the best career route and do as much as possible to learn. YOu have to put a lot of hard work into testing, training, understanding and getting the support of your mechanics and engineers.

I dont want to mention money because if you are determined enough you will sell your mother.

[Russfeld]

Id be more impressed with a driver who said "i want to do my best and have some fun along the way"

[Simon Mason]

Originally Posted by Russfeld

Id be more impressed with a driver who said "i want to do my best and have some fun along the way"

Totaly with you on that.

The big seperator between the best and the worst is not in my experience anything more complex than the best work harder at trying to be better at what they are doing, as opposed to trying to prove something to somebody else. That is mentality.

[dtype38]

Originally Posted by Mackmot

I have heard no hopers say the right thing but you have to mean it.

True, but you also have to have the capacity to learn. I've met people who say the right things but their learning curve is very "shallow" and I would be surprised if they could ever make a living as a race driver. Personally I think you have to relate "mental attitude" to a certain level of intelligence and the opportunity for some good tuition and advice along the way to be a really good driver.

[gfm]

I think the interesting thing here is D Type, that it actually takes quite a smart would-be to work out that he will be a bit better off with a bit of coaching.

It obviously is a bit of an obstacle for most youngsters to concede that they perhaps would learn quicker if they accepted coaching, tuition or whatever. Most blokes would rile against being told they weren’t doing it right – rather like hinting that they were a bit short in the boxer-shorts region; it wouldn’t be admitted/welcomed, their manliness being questioned etc

Thereby hangs the crux (!); if a racer opens his mind up to say ‘yes, I’m not getting around here fast enough – where am I losing time?’ then that’s the biggest hurdle out the way. It means his/her mind’s open and receptive, looking for it in fact. And that’s an intelligent attitude.

[Mackmot]

Well said gfm. Although some advice I try to give drivers is that a driver coach can only make you as good as they are, the key is to learn from your engineer who can make you as good as the car.

[StephenRae]

Originally Posted by Mackmot

Well said gfm. Although some advice I try to give drivers is that a driver coach can only make you as good as they are.....

That doesn't explain football coaches etc. I found that often beginners would find it hard to accept that there is a technique involved. Telling them they had a lot to learn was not what they wanted to hear.

[dtype38]

Agree, with StephenRae, a good coach doesn't need to be able to actually "do it" to extract the maximum from an individual. They just need reasonable personal experience, a good understanding of a range of techniques and styles (I don't think everyone can fit one imaginary perfect style) and an eye for where a driver is loosing time.

Mackmot.. surely the same applies to race engineers... they don't have to be super quick drivers either.

If anyone is interested in a good book (IMO) covering this whole subject then I would recommend "Think to Win - a new approach to fast driving" by Don Alexander, published by Robert Bentley Inc.

[Mackmot]

A good race engineer can understand an advanced data system like PI Sigma or Magnetti DAS 3, or above and use it together with the drivers descriptions and a good understanding of the tracks and car to work out how to make the car and driver work in unison.

For a beginner its certainly beneficial to get a driver coach like Fluxie or Kelvin Burt to help you get to grips with the basics. But there are plenty of ex drivers who havent made it who think that means they can coach, all it means is that you learn bad habits of them. The problem with race engineers is they get too frustracted with teaching the basics because they want drivers to be at a winning form almost straight away.

Back to my original point though, I basically mean that a driver needs to have a whol package of personality, physical and monetary traits in order to 'make it' and if they dont have the basic desire to be the best and win then they are losing from the start.

Its not easy otherwise girls would be doing it. (as my father would say)

[dtype38]

Originally Posted by Mackmot

But there are plenty of ex drivers who havent made it who think that means they can coach...

I did say a "good" coach. And I don't actually think we're disagreeing here. An ex-driver who calls himself a coach but teaches bad habbits is certainly much worse than a race engineer who is helping a driver understand telemetry to improve his performance an is, in effect, coaching by a different name. They both need to be good at their job, but not necessarily able to do each other's job. Different horses for different courses.

As for having a "whole package".... some of us start off much better endowed than others with the monetary bit. Unfortunately I am rather lacking in that department... but no one has ever questioned the size of my "whole package"

[Mackmot]

No I never said we were disagreeing, the whole thread has really been everybody adding there twopennies worth along the same lines.

[Tracey]

There is a lot to be said for teaching someone to positively focus their mind to achieve their targets and 'get monkeys off backs'. A friend of mine always used to go backwards in the wet. A few magic words and targets set, and he wins his best race ever in just those conditions, and now says 'Rain? Bring it on!' He also used to get stressed about Oulton, so last time he went there I did some relaxation exercises with him, and he took pole!

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by SkyRedButton

There is a lot to be said for teaching someone to positively focus their mind to achieve their targets and 'get monkeys off backs'. A friend of mine always used to go backwards in the wet. A few magic words and targets set, and he wins his best race ever in just those conditions, and now says 'Rain? Bring it on!' He also used to get stressed about Oulton, so last time he went there I did some relaxation exercises with him, and he took pole!

It sounds like you could help me, I don't get stressed about Outon, I just won't go near the place. I used to love racing in the wet but now, the moment the track gets wet I am ready to put the car back on the trailer.