Driving to work every day – well, it’s just like being an F1 driver, isn’t it.
Hmm. Not something you’d normally think on the commute around the Wolverhampton Ring Road. But really, take out the glamour and the grid girls, and the two processes are very similar.
See, even if you’re Lewis Hamilton, what you actually want is not to get the tail out each and every time, catching it with an act of God (and do check out 0.50 and 1.30 here…) No, you want consistency.
It’s actually quite boring, this F1 driving lark. What you’re aiming to have is no surprises, just metronomic consistency, lap after lap – same lines, same feelings, same response, same position of the car on the track each and every time. Yes, being fast is, really, rather dull and formulaic. (Ahem.)
Just like, really, your drive to work. you go on the same road each and every day. Do the same things. Use the same gears.
So, tomorrow, why not try analysing this, as an F1 driver would do?
Consider your lines. Think about the placement of the car. Monitor what the car’s doing, and compare with what it did yesterday. Try and pick out exactly the same lines, exactly the same potholes to kiss with the rear wheel.
Ensure you have an entire month of seeing exactly the same rpm when exiting that second-gear bend after the railway bridge.
You want the same lines, the same feelings, the same response, the… well, you get the idea. Ah, you may ask, but what about traffic? Ah indeed, but F1 drivers are not immune to this either. Their skill comes in how they solve it, to get the car back on the ideal as fast and as loss-free as possible.
Believe me, it’ll transform your drive to work. Yes, you’ve followed exactly the same route for 8 years, which probably adds up to, ooh, 2000 ‘laps’. But that’s only what Hamilton, pre testing ban, would have done in testing at Jerez.
No, take F1 to the roads instead. (But maybe without doing this sort of stuff in the 318d, perhaps…)
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