Sergio Perez's has a monkey brain!

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Originally Posted by SGWilko

Errr, how do you keep the laptop dry? :p

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I surf the sand dunes out in Glamis. It's only about 80 miles away :s mokin:

http://www.wunderground.com/data/wxi...to5150/380.jpg

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Originally Posted by jens

I have heard in the past F1 drivers talking about being "in the zone" with their mindset, like being in another dimension. I have been experiencing the levels of concentration in computer games. :p : On occasions I have felt that special feeling of being "in the zone", I have noticed I could cut down a full second from my laptime. It is complete confidence, lap is driven inch-perfectly. But such automized confidence demands complete knowledge and trust from the car behaviour, conditions and also the circuit characteristics, because if you know these like the back of your hand, you can automatically get everything out of the car without needing to think.

For me it has worked in qualifying and also when I am catching someone in the race (in dry conditions). But once there are some distractions and I actually have to battle with another car, I have started think and analyze the situation, what are the weaknesses of the rival and how to overtake. I'm wondering about Pérez - catching was one thing, but once he caught Alonso, he needed to re-adjust his driving and concentration, because he couldn't keep delivering laptimes in the same manner he was used to doing.

Hmm... I assume this subconscious mindset may mostly apply to plain flat-out driving. But if we go to 80's - the Prost era - F1 races were quite complicated and instead of flat-out driving it was needed to take care of tyres, fuel, etc, all the time. Everything was so fragile that you needed to adapt all the time to make the car last and actually maximize its potential.

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This.

I think the state of mind you're describing is pretty close to what people try to achieve through meditation as well, and I think its not a coincidence that the development of meditation was closely linked with the martial arts in China and Japan. I can imagine that if you're in that state of mind you can react to your opponent's move even before you're aware that you've registered it so it bestows an advantage in combat.

Some of the other stuff on this thread refers to different aspects of mind management like risk analysis, I remember being very impressed by Sato going off the back of a horrendous season at Honda where he crashed into anything that moved to becoming a very mature racer at SAF1 a year or so later. In an interview he was asked what was so different and he said that he'd gone to see someone about risk management which was why his overtaking manoeuvres weren't so crazy anymore.

I'm surprised that this kind of mind management training doesn't play a bigger role in junior formulae where I think it could make a big difference in fields where most drivers are using the same equipment and have a similar level of experience.

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Originally Posted by Malbec

This.

I think the state of mind you're describing is pretty close to what people try to achieve through meditation as well, and I think its not a coincidence that the development of meditation was closely linked with the martial arts in China and Japan. I can imagine that if you're in that state of mind you can react to your opponent's move even before you're aware that you've registered it so it bestows an advantage in combat.

Some of the other stuff on this thread refers to different aspects of mind management like risk analysis, I remember being very impressed by Sato going off the back of a horrendous season at Honda where he crashed into anything that moved to becoming a very mature racer at SAF1 a year or so later. In an interview he was asked what was so different and he said that he'd gone to see someone about risk management which was why his overtaking manoeuvres weren't so crazy anymore.

I'm surprised that this kind of mind management training doesn't play a bigger role in junior formulae where I think it could make a big difference in fields where most drivers are using the same equipment and have a similar level of experience.

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This reminds me of the Visualisation/Mental rehersal part of NLP (Neuro linguistic programming) that's used by all the top athletes around the world today. For example when Johnny Wilkinson takes that stance before the drop kick he is preparing the neural circuit required with 'muscle and touch memory' and visualising his much practiced technique before he runs up to take the kick.
In F1 where you have many repeated laps with relatively few (or consistant at least) performance affecting variables, Its easy to see the similarities to this mental rehersal part of NLP and that circuit racing should lend itself well to this getting 'in the zone' mindset. I can also totally relate to Jens description of it and how Perez coming across Alonso would/could knock him out of it.

My Mrs is a trained practitioner of NLP, years ago when she 1st told me about it I was a bit dubious but she demonstrated some quite incredible techniques to me such as being able to 'wire' even my feelings of emotion to a touch on a specific point of my arm. She would then touch this specific point and I would experience an intense rush and feeling of happiness... crazy stuff.
Essentially its just part of us and our psychological make up and now that its better understood it can be manipulated for many different purposes/reasons.