There are plenty of racecraft tips for developing on and off the track in this edition of the Racecraft & Race Cars Roundup.
I bring you advice on racing in the rain, tips on sensing limits and some wellness hacks that can come in handy. I also bring you the latest race series news and developments as well as a look at the hand controls that Robert Wickens has been using to such success.
All this and more in this week’s edition of the Racecraft & Race Cars Roundup on Motorsport Prospects.
Racecraft Tips & Techniques
On-Track
Grassroots Motorsports looks at the unique hand-control setup that Robert Wickens uses to win. “Former Bryan Herta Autosport Technical Director David Brown designed the current system. He had worked in Formula 1 as an engineer on the Williams championship-winning teams for drivers Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost. While David designed the pieces, Jonathan Ghormley helped build them. “There are a lot of moving parts,” Jonathan says. “As soon as you move something in the column, it changes the geometry of a lever.””
Here are some great tips and advice from Ross Braun of Speed Secrets.
First up, Ross explains how to use a 3-legged stool to sense the limits. “To sense what your car is doing you need all three legs on the “floor.””
Then, In his column The Heist, Ross explains how he came to realize the importance of visualization.
Finally, Episode 19 of Ross’s No dumb questions with Jeff Braun podcast is out. “On this episode, Jeff and I tackle two great questions: is there ever a time when you would use understeer to your advantage; is there anything in racing/car setup that is definitive and absolute or does the entire motorsport world really always come down to doing what works best for an individual scenario?“
Finally, you can check out my two-part interview with Ross from 2020 called Whatever it Takes – In Conversation with Driver Coach Ross Bentley. Part 1 can be found here and part 2 can be found here.
In the latest free edition of On Racing Drivers by Terence Dove, Terence talks about racing in the wet. “If you learn to love the wet, when it rains suddenly you get a huge advantage, because at least half the grid suddenly is not so confident. Take advantage!“
Formula Scout looks at how Feed Racing in France helped prepare Team Canada Scholarship winner Kevin Foster to race in Europe. Launched in 2019, FEED Racing France is a scheme founded and fronted by 1997 Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve and former CART driver Patrick Lemarie and has so far provided scholarships for three drivers to race in Formula 4.
“But FEED Racing is the way how to learn how to drive a racing car. So you can, with the technique you learn in FEED Racing, you can adapt to all these F4 cars. So having a little bit more power [in French F4], it wasn’t a problem for Kevin. For example, the first test at Nogaro, we went there and he was P2. He’d never driven the car before, it was just the FEED car before. I think the Gen2 is pretty similar, with everything a little bit better. So it’s not a big change.”
Can any geek off the street be a real racer? If you are reading this you are probably asking that very question. For a no holds bar look at what it takes to become a race driver, have a look at the experience of Jeremiah Burton from Donut Media in the video above.
Off-Track
FlowRacers recently had a chat with clinical health and high-performance psychologist Sabine Tyrvainen. Sabine is CEO of the Winner’s Institute UK, and she offers various services with the aim of helping athletes set and achieve their goals. They discussed the role of psychology for motorsport. “Brain processing capacity is really an individual thing and it’s something that can be trained. You can improve it and train for better brain processing capacity, so that you don’t hit that level so quickly where you actually exceed your capacity, so you can make fewer errors. In motorsport, errors can have devastating consequences.”
Formula Career News has published some wellness hacks for every motorsport professional and those aspiring to be one. “Let’s discuss an essential part of the motorsport tapestry that’s not really talked about enough: wellness. Both physical and mental wellness play a crucial role in every motorsport career, and affects everyone regardless of abilities. And the earlier you can begin to take this into consideration, even before you’ve entered the industry, the more physically and mentally strong you’re likely to be. We’ve touched upon it in our Guide to Careers in Motorsport where we have a section on dealing with rejection and tips to navigate this common issue, however let’s dig a little further into the wellness side of the industry.”
Race Car & Series Developments
British racing car manufacturer Ginetta has agreed a new partnership with the British Racing & Sport Car Club, which will see the BRSCC become the organizing club for Ginetta’s racing portfolio for the 2024 season and beyond. “The unrivalled motorsport ladder offered by Ginetta has carried young drivers from entry level competition all the way to international racing stardom, demonstrating a passion for meaningful driver development and high quality racing programmes shared by the BRSCC.”
The Spanish Formula 4 championship has announced it has partnered up with Gedlich Racing, the German-based promoter of Spain’s Formula Winter Series, for 2024. “It will result in the FWS recieving championship status for its second season, which will begin next February. The inaugural season ran from February to March this year, and was won by US Racing’s Kacper Sztuka. It attracted 21 drivers in total, with the biggest grid of the four-round campaign consisting of 15 cars.”
Registration for the 2023 SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Virginia International Raceway is now open. You can get all the details here.
MotorTrend test drives a Prodrive P25 rally car. “The Prodrive P25 is most assuredly a Subaru for the enthusiast. It still has a flat-four slung out ahead of the front axle, but this one pumps out a muscular 440 hp. Its all-wheel drive layout is familiar, but is now managed by a sophisticated, rally-tuned center differential. It looks like a 22B, but almost every panel is carbon fiber. Oh, and it costs about half a million bucks.”
Track Days
In order to prepare the next generation of race drivers, Dragon Racing are organizing an exclusive and intensive 3-day race license course at Dubai Autodrome. “Over the 3 days, you will have the opportunity to complete an advanced race licence course starting with a multiple choice test, followed by a practical assessment on the race track, finishing with 10 races in your own race car or a hired race car, provided by Dragon Racing. On successful completion of the course, the participant will then be eligible to apply for an International racing license.” You can get all the details here.
Author: Mark Boudreau
Mark is the publisher of Motorsport Prospects. As a former lawyer, he applies his legal background and research skills to assist race drivers by showcasing the resources they need to make their motorsport careers happen.
