Autosport – 01 August 2019

(backadmin) #1
Drivers don’t always need
engineers to make fixes for them

Gurney was amazed by Peterson’s
commitment on his F1 return in 1970

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1 AUGUST 2019 05

someone who just seems to be faster.
Every now and then circumstances
may lead your rivals to a better result.
I see on a daily basis when I’m training
people that it is possible to fi nd neutrality
out of a car that you would ordinarily
have taken back to the engineer and said,
‘Fix this’. Using the rate of weight transfer
with the steering, the braking and even
the throttle, you can shorten corners up
and fi nd yourself getting into a rhythm.
If you can get that little bit of extra
rotation to get the steering out of the
car, so that you pick the exit rather
than the car, it also saves the tyre
degradation and then the next eight
car lengths are in your favour.
For drivers who are feeling like
they’re struggling to get into a rhythm,
it’s worth bearing this in mind, especially
when they get thrown in for a one-off
outing. In such circumstances, even
the very best drivers can fi nd it tough,
forgetting just how much they had to


put themselves out and how many
things had to go their way to achieve
their previous success, and end up
overdriving to make up for it.
I think of Dan Gurney stepping
back in after Bruce McLaren’s death in


  1. He’d been out of F1 since Eagle’s
    departure at the end of 1968, but he was
    still Dan Gurney, the driver Jim Clark had
    most respected. Yet when he arrived at
    Zandvoort in 1970, he couldn’t believe the
    commitment that Ronnie Peterson was
    showing in his debut season in the March.
    People will look at a driver’s previous
    success, put them in the car and assume
    things will be just as they were, but there
    has to be a rhythm to their driving, a
    pulse. It’s not a mechanical process. It’s
    actually a bit like being a musician –
    there’s got to be a rhythm to that, and
    people have often compared driving a
    racing car to playing music, doing the
    same processes lap after lap.
    That doesn’t mean you have to know


the diff erence between a B major and B fl at
minor scale, but you do need to be attuned
to the car and the rate that you tell the car
what’s coming. That way, if you make a
mistake, it’s only a small one.
Look at Sebastian Vettel currently up
against Charles Leclerc. Vettel is not a
four-time champion for nothing – he can
lap as fast as anyone when the going is
good – but he seems to be trying to fi nd
time in chunks now, which is leading to
some confi dence-damaging mistakes.
He just needs to click it back one degree
on the dial and get into that rhythm.
Of course there is always something the
team can do to the car to give him better
messages, but equally he could perhaps
build a little bit more shock-absorbing
into the way he moves his hands and feet.
As a racing driver, you need to keep fl exing
your joints – don’t be too mechanical
about it and you’ll be amazed at what
comes back. Your pace will improve and
you alleviate the little mistakes too. Q
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