What Makes Professional Drivers Faster?

Fitness

Before we talk about the steering wheel or brakes, we need to talk about you. Because, after all, you are the most important thing about your car. Professional racing drivers work on physical fitness like it’s their job—because it is. No breakthrough in tire technology is worth a cent if the driver can’t maximize it every moment of the race. We’re not talking about becoming an Olympic powerlifter either. Many racing drivers are built like jockeys, which means they put an emphasis on cardio and building lean muscle. As the body fatigues, the mind also suffers in the form of brain fade. Keeping in shape is a large part of how professional stay consistently fast. The more relaxed you are, the more consistent you can be when it comes to clocking off lap times. 

Repeat It

Pro drivers have access to testing and tuning on a 24/7 basis. While you likely don’t have a fraction of the funds, you can be smart with your money and maximize your efforts by getting a secondhand spec car or something cheap to beat up on. Seat time is seat time, and it often matters very little if it’s in a six-figure sports car or a $2,500 beater that you have no concern for. Driving a lot develops the innate ability to predict what the car will do before it does it. Professionals in any discipline hone in on this and it creates a unique advantage. Any kind of seat time you can get from indoor karting to full-blown racing is going to benefit you in a substantial way. Professional drivers might not even be more naturally talented than you or me, they simply have more access to explore their limits. 

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Mentally Prepare for High-Pressure Situations

A racer’s mind is often compared to a computer. Sensory input comes in from what the car is doing. What separates a pro from really good amateurs is the ability to keep processing data when things get intense on the track. Freezing up is actually more common than you might think. Even the pros freeze up sometimes. Much of driving is between the ears, and top professional sportsmen perform well under pressure. This is also why repetition and seat time are so important. If you have a lot of experience under your belt, you are less likely to panic, less likely to make a mistake, and more likely to keep your lap time grouping tight. 

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Communicate the Car's Behavior to Engineers

One of the greatest skills of those who reach the absolute pinnacle of the sport of racing is the ability to communicate effectively to an engineer exactly what the car is doing. "But I don’t have an engineer with me at the track,” we can hear you say. That’s true, you don’t. But what you do have is a giant community of enthusiasts, shop owners, tuners, and people you likely speak to on a day-to-day basis about your car. As many of us deal with shop owners who also race, you can make leaps and bounds when tuning just by effectively communicating what the car is doing.

Watch a documentary about any great F1 driver and you will likely hear someone at some point mention how “he was so good at setting up the car.” Remember, these guys don’t work on their own cars. They are communicating to someone effectively so that person can make the required adjustments. You might not have an engineer, but you should pay attention to how your car handles and in what kind of turns it was exhibiting those traits. Bring a notebook to the track and work on effectively describing what your machine is doing. Relaying this information at a later point to the person who helps tune your car could knock seconds off your personal best. 

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Go Back to School

Great racing drivers know that the car matters just as much as all of the other things on this list. Pros spend enough time around engineers that—if they’re good—they become a bit of an engineer themselves. Having a basic understanding of what a radial tire is compared to a cross-ply tire is one example of this as they require different camber specifications to maximize the contact patch. As much as you can, you should strive to learn about how things work, how to disassemble them and how to put them back together. Getting faster is all about knowing the platform you are tuning and how it responds to changes. 

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Final Thoughts

Racing is a dynamic sport that requires physical strength, mental determination, and an analytical mind. Keeping all of these things to a high level is what the best athletes do on a day-to-day basis. And while you might not have the Monster Energy team behind you, there’s no reason you can't emulate what they do to get better. Apply all of this to your driving and you will see an improvement in your ability as well as your understanding of what is going on with the car. 

PRO TIP: Have fun.