As you have probably witnessed by now, effective driving on the road or track, is based largely on proper technique. In particular, race driving in a track revolves around the ability of the driver to perform ideally in the ideal technique. Without enough seat time, reading the theory of these techniques can create a mirage that developing a driving style is performance limiting. After all, on a track, we need to strive to be driving at100% of perfection, which does not leave much room for different style, right?
But, saying this is merely a result of not having enough seat time. The seat time makes the driver aware of the difference between theory and practice, between our current reality and the desired outcome. The seemingly slim but surprisngly large gap marked in the word "striving to perfection".
Racing Spartanism
Activities of popular sport have created the illusion amongst ameatures, that in any sport -- and motorsport not being an exception -- the participants rely solely on their skill. So many enthusiasts with basic awareness to vehicle handling, are under the false belief that race-cars are set to oversteer so that they could turn really well. They fail to understand that all racing drivers are in fact just people. There are very well-defined bounderies as to what they cannot do. No driver, not me, not you, not Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Loeb, Colin Mc'Rae or Ayrton Senna -- none of the above can:
- Enter a corner fast (fast as in -- above the maximal corner speed)
- Control sudden oversteer when driving the limit at full speed on the track.
With all do respect for skill, it is not the only thing drivers, even expert drivers, rely on. No driver (except for Colin Mc'Rae) would trust solely on his skill to drive a car that naturally oversteers. Yes, they might manage to drive it, but they prefer not to. They adjust their cars with some minimal understeer, for reasons of efficiency, but also for some safety and consistency. Do not confuse these with either fear or hesitation. A driver that adjusts his car so that his consistenty and safety rely solely on his skill -- should never set-up cars!
Another example is the point of Skid Recovery. I have already expressed myself again short tuitions that pretend to teach a driver about Skid Recovery. It is a fragile and problematic field: Average drivers cannot acquire true skid recovery skills, but expert race drivers also find themselves lacking the need to apply it: Either they avoid it, or otherwise they find themselves reaching a state of skidding at a speed and pace that do not allow to recover. Skid recovery is a practice mainly for drivers in the broad midrange of skill, and even than -- prevention preceeds correction.
Furthermore, it's easier to learn how to slide than it is not to slide. Many drivers find it easier to have the rear wheels turn them into the corner and use the front wheels as a "stability control" of some sort. It also gives a sense of fast driving through the feeling of the jerky car and the constant application of steering inputs. In a certain way, this is what rally drivers do on gravel -- the slide not to reduce safety, they slide to increase it. If you drive the limit, any small mistake leads to a sudden, sharp breakaway of the car at speed. If you drive within the limit, intentionally provoce the car into a slide and control it through the slide, you will remove the element of surprise because the slide is intentional and you will get a more controlled slide because the speed and pace in which you initiated the slide are reduced.
To quote Ross Bentley: "The most succesfull racers of all time, people such as Jackie Stewart, Alian Prost, Al Unser, Rick Mears, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt all have one thing in common -- they finish races...Never forget: "In order to finish First, first you have to finish." In racing, playing safe is playing smart and playing smart is driving faster.
In fact, if you remember my modell of Effective Driving -- where Safety is just one of the byproducts of good driving habits, the above statement still hold true. Even though the goal of effective driving is to give you not just safety, but also milleage, comfort, etc. I always stress those benefits because I don't like it when certain people neglect them by talking just about safety and/or speed. Still, I have to agree that safety is the main concern: If you concern mainly or largley about things like comfort or milleage, than you live in an illusion of safety -- and you think you are safer than what you really are. Safety is your number one concern, period.
Professional Training
I believe that, in a certain way, the popularity of motorsport (or any other sport) stands in contradiction to the level of professionalism amongst begginers: In the US and in several regions of Europe and the UK, track days have become so accessible that driving around a track has been degraded from the prestigious status it once held. By itself, there is no problem with this. In fact, it could have been great. The problem begins with groups of people in different levels of skill -- which are "autodeducted" drivers.
Driving is an activity with very strong psychological aspects relating to one's independence and freedom. We, as drivers, thus search for autonomous improvement: We want to get better on our own and we admire those who we think have succeded in that path. Psychologically, a driver that "grew up" himself as either a road driver or a race-driver, gives the same impression as modern buisness man that came from a poor family and made himself into what he is today.
My point is to challenge this school of thought. The basis of this way of thinking is that we favor innovation -- we like making NEW things, we like doing things differently than we were taught. However, maybe imitation -- following the lead of a person that has earned our respect and appreciation -- is not so bad. Maybe it's even honorable for people to follow the lead of those who they themselves deem as "professionals"? Well, if you ask an anthropologist, he will tell you that whether you judge imitation to be worthy or not, it is very widespread. Much more common than most people believe. The fact is that most human actions and decisions are made based on imitation and not based on someone's personal ideas and judgement. Many historical cultures, some of which are considered to be very glorious, attributed imitation with a high degree of respect. Only our culture, the modern culture, has started to question imitation and favor innovation instead. Over the human history, we are the exclusion and the exception, not the "normal" people.
Furthermore, this modern perception has little effect on the actual reality. Relating to driving and motorsport as a part of the field of sports, we can safely say that people get into the world of professional sports and advance therein, through some training with instructors, coaches or whatever you would call them. They provide a third-party point of view which is crucial at initial stages and maintains it's significance as the student improves. You cannot teach yourself Tennis, Swimming or performance driving. Well, you CAN do it, but the result might not be very good.
The problem is that without professional observation and training, the driver is not likely to even distinct "good" from "bad". He might do something very badly, or at least not as good as he can do it, and not being aware of it. A driver simply cannot measure success by himself. It's not that he nessecarily won't succedd, but if we define success as a goal, we want as much of it as possible. As I say, we don't want to go FAST, we want to go FASTER. Even competing race-car drivers can spend a career of driving with several basic technical mistakes in their driving style. For something to "work" does not mean it's working as efficiently as possible.
What I'm getting at, is that there is no lost in dignity when someone turns for a trainer to work with him on improving his driving, and there is not lack of dignity in taking procautions, even on the most competitive track enviornment.
Vehicle as a Varient of Technique
The question is whether other cars demand another technique. The short answer is yes. The basics of effective driving are/should be shared by all drivers in any enviornment/car. In the level of a personal driving style, the car carries a considerable change, in terms of driveline, weight distribution and suspension geometry which have an impact on the variant of DRIVABILITY.
Drivability is the criteria for how well a car drives. Unlike the question of how much grip or power it has, drivability is largly subjective. Certain cars benefit from drivability which is better in certain respects over cars which are superior in different aspects of drivability. One car might handle with greater obedience to the driver, but another might have superior communication with the driver.
Some cars demand more accuracy, some demand more smoothness, some demand more decisiveness. Some cars demand more input through the throttle/brakes and are literally driven with the feet, other cars might have a balanced that is slightly more inclined towards control through the steering wheel and the driver's hands. A driving style, whether in relation to a different car or a different person, is not in the big picture (and is therefore not crucial for performance). It's about the perception, it's inside the driver's head: it's where he places the stress. It's a manner of perspective: Let's say that an effective turn-in requires turning the wheel at a certain timing and pace. One driver might view it as being a relativelly "quick" turning of the wheel, while another driver might turn the wheel just as quickely and relate to it as being "slow" and "smooth" relative to something.
Driver as a variant of performance
A known American driving trainer, named Peter Krause, has a saying: ""The driver is the greatest performance variable in the high performance driving equation"." If there is a thing that can be said with certainty in the field of racing, it's this saying. Driving skill and good driving techniques (which are adopted by training with a trainer) are better than any car improvement. A bad driver will mess the ride in the best cars. In fact, the rule states that the faster the car, the slower is it's driver. Performance cars, and especially professional racecars, are very hard for ameatures to drive and will not see mistakes kindly.
In French Racetracks, the local instructors often have the tradition of taking students between sessions to a lap of the track with a Van. The point of such a lap is to allow to carefully inspect parts of the track that are hard for the students, by driving the track more slowely, but it also has anoter purpose: To show that car control and effective driving at speed are possible in every car -- all that has to be changed is the driver's attitude. This brings us back to driveability: Some cars are more difficult to drive effectivelly, but can be more rewarding, some cars are easy to drive fast, but can be less rewarding, and some are both easy to drive and rewarding. I have witnessed very impressive car control skills practiced in vans, trucks, trailers, old roadcars, etc.
Still, there are other levels to be considered:
1. The car: Like I said, racecars should be adjusted or performance, but allow for a certain margin of error. If you don't give yourself that extra safety gap, you are not going to be driving fast. In fact, you risk the chance of not being able to drive further at all. Likewise, driving skill should never be used as an excuse to drive in a badly-maintained vehicle. A good driver only drives on a car that let's him drive effectivelly. If the car has worn or old tires, it will work against the driver.
2. The road: My point that limiting performance to allow for a margin of safety is legitimate, is tenfold more important on a busy or slippery track, or in places of high speed, small runoff areas and surely on the public road. Trusting solely on your skill to keep you safe while not paying attention to the changing conditions is simply dumb. We are humans. Humans naturally make mistakes. Know your limits, on the track and off of it. Even on the track, in order to drive fast, you need to know WHERE and WHEN you can drive fast. The Nurburgring is a place where a "smart" driving style pays off. The Nurburgring is not a racetrack, it is a ROAD, and has the safety runoff areas of a road. There are various areas and situations where you CANNOT drive fast.
3. The road users: They can be related to as part of the road. This is especially beneficial in competition, but less beneficial on the road where other road users interact with you. For an example, we know that the winter and rain present hazards for us, but other than being more dangerous and difficult to us, do we consider how much more difficult is it for the other road drivers? Think, other road users are probably as challenged as you, making them less likely to notice you, maintain the nessecary safety gap from you, etc.
Getting back to Driving Styles
So, one driver turns the wheel more sharply, another turns it with a stronger stress on finesse, without either of them being just balanced as they should be. However, before criticising them, understand the torment of sports -- no matter how much you constantly strive to perfection, perfection is not hard to achieve, it's impossible to achieve. The idea is to get as close to it as possible, which can be done in several ways and from several directions. The differences appear slim to the ameature, but mean a lot to the experienced. The only way to discern them is to have practical experience and, based on what I said before, such an experienced better be with a trainer.
N. B. If you like conspiracies and you believe that I'm cynical and all I want is to get money out of you -- you can be certain that I'm not instructing driving anywhere near you, so I have absolutly no financial gain from what I write about driver's training. I simply believe in it, as a trainer and as a student.
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