Driving Under Real Pressure Without Blowing It
Part 3 of the Home Driver Lab
Some lucky buggers actually drive more accurately, and more consistently under pressure. Their mind locks in, they get more of the flow-deep-level focus when the stakes are highest.
But there aren’t many of those freaks!
Most of us either completely lose the plot, or just miss that little edge, because when your lap time counts in qualifying, or you simply must not make a mistake in a race, a safety system kicks in.
Here’s what that safety system sounds like in your head…
Don’t f*** this up…
That’s all you need to completely change the context of your driving from free flowing relaxed magic, to a task of trying not to make mistakes and falling into a spiral of slower and slower laps, combined with more and more effort to get worse results.
It is even worse if you have had a ballistic practice day topping the time sheets, but in qualifying you can just sense the hopes and expectations ebbing away as your lap times turn to shit before your eyes.
To make it even worse, we blame:
set-ups,
a duff set of slicks
they all put on their quick motors,
suddenly the kart sucks,
the track went away
And to make it even more impossible, all of the above may be true, there’s no way of knowing!
And on a competition day that is costing a fortune, you won’t be in the mood to properly observe yourself to see the almost imperceptible signs that you are tightening up just a touch, so you can’t feel the tiny and multiple grip changes in the track that you would normally exploit naturally.
So, you’re knackered really. Completely in the dark, changing axles and lasering the kart up again wondering what went wrong.
Because they knew it was there, they never really suffered performance pressure any more. The voice in their head that says ‘don’t f*** this up’ wasn’t needed, because they had a system ready that means that just can’t happen!!
Here’s where your home driver lab comes in to save the day
People dismiss sims as just not real, not dangerous physically, nothing at stake etc.
But, us drivers have pride and ego. If we have a race, especially with other real drivers and reputation is at stake, then we go into the same mode - hyper competitive.
It might not be quite the same thrill, but for absolute certain heart rates go up, nerves start and drivers who make a mistake on the sim lose the plot just the same as in real racing
When it counts!
