Managing Stress at 300kph.

Blink and you’ll miss it.

Keep hold of that mistake and you’re not 2 10ths down on the lap, you’ve compounded and you’re now 5 10thsdown dropping you out the top 10 in qualifying.

Sometimes there is so little time between T1 (turn 1) and T2 that there simply is no time to think about it, without destroying any chance of a decent lap.

So, the drivers go through a rapid process.

A learnt response.

A choice.

To not engage with the mistake, the stress and deal with it later. 

When a driver gets stressed, they hold their tension in their body as we all do.

The most common areas for drivers are in their grip, shoulders and they can also get heavy footed. 

A driver needs to be smooth and move their body with ease and flow.

Because smooth is fast and fast is smooth.

So, at the end of each lap on the start/finish straight a lot of the drivers (I know of at least 5 of the F1 grid doing this), will do this…👇

😮‍💨 Exhale
🦾 Relax their grip
⬇️ Drop their shoulders 

Yes. I’ve been banging on about a physical reset for years, and not only do the Special Forces do this, but F1/2/3 racing drivers do.

I talk about the 3R’s of Recognise-Reset-Refocus.

But these guys already know they are in a stressful situation, that’s obvious.

They focus on the reset, which is physical and it clears the mind and gives permission to zoom in on the next task.

If these tactics can work at 180kph, then they sure as hell can work in everyday life. 

I’ve been using these tips for years and they absolutely work a treat.