Prologue

I know that you’ve been stuck for a while finding the best racing line, the perfect setup, those tenths of a second on every track, that impossible overtake. Sometimes, you lose motivation and realize that the path ahead is incredibly challenging and terribly long. Even if you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, please never give up. Don’t surrender in all those frustrating situations where every training session seems fruitless.

Humans are born to fail, so fail once again, but fail better.

I know it will be tough to hear the silence of your room when you wake up at four in the morning to do your stint in a 24-hour endurance race. I understand better than anyone that feeling of having completely failed despite giving all your time, dedication, determination, hope, and ability. But now, you can’t give up.

Touching the ground with your back has never been allowed.

Don’t give up because the world needs what you have to offer. As you climb to the top, you’ll encounter millions of corpses telling you over and over again that you can’t do it, simply because they couldn’t. Many have fallen by the wayside; you just have to look at  Social Media to see the multitude of excuses that most people write on their timelines. They will criticize you repeatedly, talk behind your back, reproach every word or attitude, and your failures will be exposed while your achievements remain buried. Welcome to the world.

I repeat, never give up. If they criticize you, it means you’re doing things right. Because behind this shadow is the person who one day decided to get their first steering wheel and showcase their talent to the world. And while your victory is yet to come, enjoy the journey, every race, every overtaking, every save, and every teammate hundreds of kilometers away, acting as your spotter.

Passion, drama, action, suspense, adrenaline, joy, sadness, speed… It’s not a science fiction movie; it’s Racing. Don’t give up. Because you will achieve it, because even if you don’t feel it yet, you’re already succeeding.

Introduction

Sometimes we wonder what is the psychological factor that has the greatest impact on the motorsport world. I am convinced that many of you, with whom I have shared the track for many years, will defend, with very good arguments, that the key is motivation, others will defend that one of the most important factors in racing is concentration, which is also unquestionable. Even the way you control your ego, impulses and nerves, as these are factors that can play a trick on you. As you can see, it is very difficult to reach a unanimous response, since all concepts are part of a whole.

In this article, I will talk about a skill, which I consider as a final objective for a professional drivers novice or experienced: consistency.

What is consistency?

If I had to define consistency, I would define it as the ability of a driver to always face and respond in the same way to the situations he is presented with.

Drive any race with the same state of mind, no matter what position you start in, track temperature, vehicle number, cars on the grid and race length.

A significant majority of real-life professional drivers have achieved remarkable accomplishments not solely due to their ability to set fast laps, but rather because of their exceptional lap-to-lap consistency.

When a driver manages to be consistent, all other psychological variables are shown in harmony (concentration, emotional control, control of anxiety and pressure, motivation, self-confidence, security…etc).

Alberto Segovia: Once I’m inside the car, my mind completely disconnects from what’s outside. Lap after lap it’s like a cassette tape repeating itself over and over again.

You Are Your Own Worst Enemy

Your worst enemy is a monkey and it lives inside you.

The concept of the monkey mind is commonly used by Buddhists to explain how our minds deal with the endless distractions we encounter in our lives.

Proverb: “If the internal enemy does not exist, the external enemy cannot harm you.”

“The monkey is in the forest. From a tree, he turns his head, looking for something. Suddenly his eyes light up and, determined, he jumps. He is on another branch. He stays calm. Not enough fruit. He looks at the trunk next to him. He repeats the ritual and launches himself again. For five seconds he feels calm, until he realizes that his dream place was not what it seemed. From the tree, he turns his head. He looks for something.”

Remember, your mind is like a jar full of glitter. If it is constantly shaken, the glitter will keep moving in all directions. But if you stop shaking the jar, the glitter will settle at the bottom and stop moving. That’s how you should see the mind—a chaos of information that doesn’t give you time to think.

Alberto Segovia: “My teammates often ask me how I felt inside the car, and most of the time, I don’t know how to answer. My mind is so focused on the track that I forget everything else.”

Calming the Mind

In all races, minutes before the start, we can observe that the majority of the drivers are in their vehicles with their eyes closed, focusing on a fixed point, alone and without any external distractions. They are emptying their minds, silencing the monkey.

There are numerous practical exercises to calm the mind, most of which focus on controlling the breath. Meditation is the best tool for mind control.

Alberto Segovia: “Breath is the key and nothing else, breathing in, one, two, three, and so on continuously, your mind will automatically transition from a state of irritation to a state of emotional control. At this moment, your mind will calm down, your blood will begin to flow slower, and you will start taking control of your body.”

Finding Consistency

In the last 20 years, psychology has played a very important role in sports. Having good physical condition is not always enough; mental strength has become the key to success. It is the difference between winning and losing. The mind plays a very important role when you’re going at 250 km/h.

Alberto Segovia: The connection between the car, the driver, and the mind is essential for success. The mind is of vital importance because races are tests of psychological endurance.

Once we have calmed the mind and achieved a state of concentration, it is time to work on consistency. To do this, we should set a lap time in which we believe we are most comfortable, without pushing the vehicle or our driving. We should perform multiple stints with gradually increasing durations to accustom our mind to long periods of time.

Can you maintain consistency within a 0.2-second interval of your fastest lap?

Take note of everything you deem important, such as the corner number and corresponding gear, braking point, turning point, acceleration point, etc. All this information should be ingrained in your mind.

We also need to consider factors that affect our lap times, such as track temperature, tire wear, fuel consumption, etc. We cannot always maintain the same time interval.

Alberto Segovia: In the race, you gotta keep an eye on the car in front, the one behind, listen to your engineer’s advice, tweak the car settings on the wheel, and most importantly, never take your eyes off the road. It takes serious mental toughness to handle all that.

Internalisation

Many times people ask me which gear I use to take a certain corner, and many times I don’t really know how to answer, I have internalised every part of the circuit so much that I do everything automatically. My hands know how to turn at the right moment, my fingers know how to press the cams at the right moment and my feet know when it’s time to brake and accelerate. It is the result of experience and acquiring the skill of consistency.

Alberto Segovia: “It’s an automated process, sometimes you really don’t know what you’re doing or thinking, I’m just concentrating on what I’m doing.

An exercise that I recommend and that is used at a professional level by some drivers is to do a mental lap of a circuit, and with the help of a watch or stopwatch stop at the exact time of arrival at the finish line. If the time is within 2 to 3 seconds compared to reality or the simulator, you will have internalised the circuit in your mind and will be extremely consistent. Use your steering wheel to help you.

Discover your talents and exploit them. If you uncover your strengths, you will forge your most powerful weapon; if you uncover your weaknesses, you will forge your strongest shield. Reaching the top is easy; the challenge lies in staying there. If you have made it this far, I wish you the very best in your career. From here on, begin writing your own story.

See you on the track!