Pole Position: Training can be a vital part of achievement on a race track

Pole Position: Training can be a vital part of achievement on a race track It continues to amaze me how some racing drivers will spend huge sums of money on their racing, yet spend nothing on driver coaching. Every time he or she gets into the car, the rate of improvement is staggering. What's worse, because most people are unaware of what goes on during the five to 10 years that their F1 heroes spent between kart racing and their first GP, the assumption is often made that being able to drive a kart or car quickly around a circuit must be an indicator of world championship capabilities, which leads to the all too common statement, "I want to be a Formula One driver". Here's a phrase I guarantee you will never hear Michael Schumacher or Jenson Button say: "That's it, I've cracked it. Their cars are, as far as is possible, identical. The depth of experience that the coach brings enables him not only to interpret that data and relate it to driving technique, but also to provide solutions that help the driver go faster. We witnessed the outcome of extensive training at Yas Marina Circuit last weekend when all the young drivers in our junior single-seater championship qualified within 1. At the start of the season, the gap was about 10 seconds. This is strange when you consider most people have a reasonable understanding of what it might take to win a gold medal at the Olympics. So the only difference in lap time is accounted for by driver technique. Then their parents and swimming coach spend many years taking them through hundreds of competitions to help improve their technique. The nice thing about young people is that they are eager to learn and they have one crucial attribute - they listen. Our driver coach raced single-seaters against the likes of David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello, raced a GT2 Dodge Viper in ALMS (American Le Mans Series), was chief instructor at the Jim Russell School, was appointed chairman of the Association of Racing Drivers Schools and has spent seven years training drivers in Formula BMW. Many years ago I worked in IT, where they would budget millions on hardware and software and then, when they felt they were spending too much, would immediately chop the training budget. Pole Position: Training can be a vital part of achievement on a race track Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 31/03/2012