THEQuagraine

Yes I wrote “he”, it’s easier. This blog isn’t PC.

After some time with hardly any really good new junior drivers, there seem to be a lot of them popping up now. There are now a number of Italian youngsters, and also Spanish, German, Finnish, and American drivers beginning to make a name for themselves around the world. Oh and a Polish guy.

At first they all sort of looked equal, but now after a few more years, you can really tell a difference in their career trajectory. Of course talent and dedication plays a role, but when it comes to young drivers, I think there is one thing that is more important than anything else, and that’s the people behind them.

Here are a few ways to spoil a potentially good driver:

• It’s never his fault. He is awesome, always, the equipment let him down when he didn’t do well.
• Any on track incident is never his fault, always blame the other party. Retaliation is encouraged.
• No need to try other people’s setups or ideas, as I know what’s best for my kid. Don’t listen to others kid.
• After kid goes nuts on track and blows out, no words of wisdom are spoken, “Car didn’t look good, you will get them next time.”
• Basically, always looking outwards instead of inwards, for blame, and for excuses, and always looking outwards for ways to improve, different equipment being the first step.

What the above leads to is a driver that doesn’t develop his own driving because he is awesome, he never settles with car brand, tyre brand, etc, because they are never good enough for him, he never achieves greatness because he can’t maximise his own and his equipment’s potential as the focus is on the wrong things.

Here are a few ways to make the most of a potentially good driver:

• Be fair with feedback regarding mistakes and bad races, and offer solutions and improvements to driving and setup, not even hinting at different equipment.
• Give objective feedback regarding on track incidents, and condemn retaliation.
• Listen to other people, but do your own testing and gather your own data.
• After kid goes nuts on track and blows out, share some words of wisdom that help to stop that from happening in the future.
• Basically, always look inwards for blame, and reasons, what could we have done better with our equipment, what could you have done better as far as your driving is concerned?

What the above leads to is a driver that develops due to constant honest feedback and instruction, and understands the value of settling for a good brand and maximising it’s potential. He has a great chance of achieving greatness as the people around him don’t give any room for excuses.