How to Make Someone Think Twice About Firing You Off Again.
If you get bullied on track it tends to continue unless you do something about it, but not many drivers have the nerve to settle matters properly.
In theory, when unfair driving occurs on track the hawk-eyed officials spot it immediately, they settle the affair on the spot with a carefully considered penalty and warning flag to the guilty party.
But they just can’t spot every incident. So that theory isn’t relevant.
Instead, drivers need to sort things out themselves - and in the real world that’s exactly how these things are settled. For the most part drivers either decide to get revenge by dishing out a blatant takeout during a race, or they do nothing because they are scared. For that they are usually berated and told to go out and fire off that kid, or forever be bullied.
That seems to be the law of the jungle.
But…
I don’t think getting revenge on track is the way to go - I’d go so far as to say it’s a display of weakness. Here’s why:
Every time a driver comes to me and says I want to take that driver out because they took me out, I say this:
‘Don’t do that, instead walk into their tent on your own, and calmly tell them in front of everyone what’s what.’
To me that takes a lot more courage than driving them off the track and leaves an impression that lasts. It also embarrasses the guilty party far more than anything you can do on the track. It kills the problem dead and word spreads fast that messing with you is not worth the grief, or the awkwardness. Even if they try to style it out in front of everyone they still quit, because deep down they’ve been shamed.
The vast majority of drivers I speak to don’t have the nerve to do that, so they take the easy option. Sadly the ‘easy option’ often leads to a prolonged war of incidents that can go on for a year in some cases.
That doesn’t mean you do nothing on track. I think within the rules action is warranted. For example, aggressive overtakes that are timed perfectly to ruin the other driver’s opportunity to take you back, or feeding them to the sharks by clever use of your lines, are all reasonable.
In fact, out-driving your enemy delivers far more pain than a straightforward take out.
So think about it - next time you encounter a bully in a race take the opportunity they have gifted to you, shame them in front of everyone and put them in their place with a cool calm verbal dressing down.
Until next time
Terence