Maturity in racing terms and race car
- Filed under: Auto-cars
- Date: Jun 8,2008
Maturity in racing terms is different than in regular life, he said. It comes earlier than in the past, he added, because drivers now start to race much sooner.
“When they start karting when they’re eight years old and they experience all the highs and lows and the discipline,” Symonds said, “the maturity that they have by the time that they get into Formula One these days at 21, 22, 23 years old is absolutely incredible.”
“But being young, they just sometimes trip over in those little ways that the older person won’t,” he added. “It’s in things like self-confidence.”
Experience and maturity also have a paradoxical downside, according to Patrick Head, a part owner and director of the Williams team.
“Maturity means experience, and with experience usually comes a certain amount of wisdom,” Head said. “But sometimes with that wisdom comes a certain caution, as well. So sometimes as a driver becomes more experienced he maybe loses a little bit of speed. In some conditions, say in wet conditions or difficult conditions, sometimes they lose a bit of speed.”
Most team directors aim for a combination of age and experience, as Toro Rosso has done with Sébastien Bourdais, 29, and Sebastian Vettel, 20.
“You certainly would never want two young drivers in a team,” said Brawn. “It’s too easy to get lost in terms of the direction the team takes. And I think it is important that you have at least one senior driver in the team. That is the optimum: To have that old stagehand and the young apprentice coming through.”
The Force India team hired the experienced Giancarlo Fisichella, 35, to race with Adrian Sutil, 25, who is in his second year of Formula One. Sutil said that Fisichella’s experience not only helps the team, it helps him.
“It’s very helpful for a young driver because you need to learn so much in Formula One,” Sutil said, “and it takes years to have this knowledge, to be a race winner, to be able to win races with your experience.” Read the rest of this entry »
