Your job as a driver is not to tell the engineer what to change on the car. Your job is to report what the car is doing and what you’d like it to do. Too many drivers try to engineer the car themselves. Do your job and let your engineer do his.
Data acquisition is an extremely powerful self-coaching tool… but only if you synchronize it with your driving. What do I mean by that?
The first time I was paid to drive a race car I literally laughed in my helmet…
Squirting out of the 120-degree right-hander, I stretch second gear to redline, accelerating hard, flicking the shifter up to third, foot buried to the floor, and catch fourth gear just before my reference point, the change in pavement surface: A good corner exit.
The moral of the story is to not immediately write off an approach to a new driving technique or a chassis setup. Sometimes you just need to alter and fine-tune how you use it.
I’m often asked by young drivers how best to market themselves, to sell sponsorship. My response is always the same: surround yourself with the right people.