The Drivers Teams Love: An Insider's View
How to develop the qualities that make teams work harder for you
As a driver, you're the powerhouse behind everything that happens away from the track. In the pits with your team, or if you don't have a team, with your coach, mechanic, or family - all the energy they put in stems from you. The performance difference between drivers who energize those around them and those who don't is massive.
This was happening all across the team personnel, it wasn’t just me. No wonder these drivers are down the road. They are taking the majority of what the team can offer, while the neglected drivers in the tent just accept what they are given!
I've witnessed this first-hand as a data guy and coach within racing teams. I want to share with you what I've seen from the other side, so you can understand how your approach as a driver impacts everyone around you and learn to leverage it for better results.
The Danger of Doing the Bare Minimum
Many drivers feel that everyone around them just needs to do their job and everything should go correctly. If that's done, they think all they have to do is drive well. It's a "just doing the bare minimum to get by" approach.
If you simply pay for a team or mechanic, you'll get the service you pay for - just about. Most people will adjust down and do as little as they can to get by and get paid.
If you treat your team like that, you're leaving enormous performance gains behind. You don't need "good enough" or "get what you pay for." This isn't about money. You need the very best available. You need people around you firing on all cylinders, enthusiastic, focusing on you, even neglecting their other clients who just pay.
This is a competitive environment. You're not trying to be as good as the next driver - you want to be better. You need to leverage the energy of everyone around you to achieve that.
The Magnetic Pull of the Committed Driver
I've been on the other side, working as a data analyst and coach within racing teams. Racing people love demanding, high-expectation driven, slightly insane racing drivers. Even if we try to hide it and play it cool, we're all suckers for committed racers. We favour them because racing life can be hard and disillusioning at times. It's unfair, and various things happen that make you wonder why you do it.
The drivers who turn up and behave like ideal racers make the job worth doing. Many people in racing could earn more money elsewhere, especially in karting. We stay because that's where you get to work with superb drivers at their peak.
When you as a driver, make everyone around you remember why they love what they do, then guess what, you’ve got them all on the hook and they will do just about anything to see you win!
When you put in that extra focus I'm about to describe, you don't just get the benefit of your own efforts. Your focus is leveraged through everyone else around you getting totally sucked into your world.
Drivers Who Monopolised My Attention in Teams
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