Thursday 11 May 2017

How much race preparation is enough? Ask Alonso....


Something just caught my attention on Fernando Alonso's 'rookie' orientation for the Indy 500 live stream.

Mclaren Boss, Zak Brown, was asked about Alonso's preparation for Indy, he replied with something like:

"...on the plane he watched Ed Carpenter's entire race on-board"
and
"...he's watched 25 complete races"

So, on top of all the standard training a professional racing driver does, arguably the world's best driver will sit and watch a 3 hour on-board video of a track with 4 corners! (I realise there is a lot more to the Indianapolis Speedway than 4 corners - but it's not like he is learning the layout)

Then, after he's watched 24 Indy videos, he thinks "oh, I've got a spare 3 hours on the plane, I'll watch a whole race on-board"

Just think about it, Alonso has done it all and can choose to do anything he likes, at any time. Can you imagine how valuable every second of his time is?

However, to him, another 3 hours more watching on-board of Indianapolis is going to pay off so big, that it is worth it....

So, just in case you are wondering how much detail the very best drivers go into when studying race tracks between races, the answer is they go very very deep...

...and every little bit of extra time you put into understanding a race track is going to pay off, big!!