5 Ways I Get In The Zone Before Racing

If you guys want to get in the zone just

like I do before stepping on the card

either for a testing session or for the

race, you know, maybe even just for

quali, if you want to get in the zone

and in the zen mode, as I like to call

it, then these five tips and five

basically activities are definitely

going to help you to get into the zone.

All right? And for sure if you can get

into the zone, you’re definitely going

to get in set better lap times and get

better results. But first of all, what

do I mean with you know getting in the

zone and like having this sort of zen

mode? All right, probably you’ve already

seen some movies or some videos or heard

stories about zent you know basically

the concept of zen starts from the you

know the Buddhist um yeah the Buddhist

meditation practice. So it basically is

when you are so focused and you’re so

you know um yeah you’re just in in the

zone basically or you’re so focused that

you are you know forgetting about

everything else around you and you’re

just you’re directing all your attention

towards a single goal and you know you

forget about the past you forget about

the future. There’s no noise around you.

It’s like you’re in a complete bubble

and you’re super uh yeah just focused in

into what you’re going to be doing

ahead. And this is really like the the

the key flow states that you want to

develop and all the athletes um you know

at the top level are being able to

develop and if you want to become one of

those and if you want to become the

number one in the world what you do

which is in this case you know carting.

If you want to do that you got to make

sure you enter this this state of flow

this zen mode and it’s not something

which is uh going to happen to you

automatically. You need to put

deliberate practice and deliberate

effort into achieving that because it’s

not going to happen automatically. I’m

telling you. So here’s five te

techniques basically I just uh u I like

to I like to do and I like to stack also

together not just they will not always

be done individually. All right they can

always stack one of the other. And the

first one that you probably have already

been doing by yourself. And you know,

maybe you’re not doing it uh

consciously. You’re just doing it

because you like it. But you know, one

of the easiest things to do to get in

the in the zone is to do just like I do,

you know, get these

uh you know,

you know, uh noise cancelling headphones

like the Air Max from Apple, but you can

get different ones. And this one

basically. Okay. So the number one is

basically music, but it’s not just music

actually. It’s it’s noise like noise

cancelling. That’s the thing because

once you put this this, you know, these

amazing headphones on, you’re definitely

going to not feel any noise around you.

And it’s it’s crazy. And if you press

this button over here, you know, it’s

going to be making even more noise

cancelling. So already by putting them

on, they’re going to remove some noise.

If you actually click on them, it’s

going to kind cancel that noise almost

completely. And it’s unbelievable. I I

use it all the time. And I mean all the

time whenever I go driving because

unfortunately lately I haven’t been able

to to find the time for that. Too busy

with with the all the activities at at

Bay Race and obviously here at Send It.

But um yeah, I uh every time I get to,

even if it’s just a random test day and

there’s nobody else on track, it’s just

me, I really want to use these ones

because they are helping me to to really

uh just block out the distraction, block

out the noise, and they help me to to

focus right before getting into my card.

And I like to uh you know listen to

music, but to be honest, I don’t listen

too much music. I I actually sometimes

just like just staying completely by

myself my and listening to my breath you

know just you know going through my um

just doing through my thought I just

don’t want to hear external noise from

you know other mechanics around me other

drivers around me like anything in the

paddock I just for those 20 minutes

before driving I want to you know try to

block myself out and this is going to

help you and you will see in other in

the other in the in the other task below

that you can stack them. For example,

you can stack them with number two. What

what do you mean by stacking? Stacking

is doing one thing and the other at the

same time for example. So we said music

is a number one which is very easy

everyone can do. You don’t necessarily

need like fancy air air max like these

ones that cost I don’t know like my

girlfriend gifted it to me actually is

like 300 like €400 or something. Uh so

they’re quite expensive but you can you

know can get for cheaper ones. Um, you

can even just use the other AirPods. But

to be honest, the great thing about

these ones is that they are noise

cancelling, but you can get other

headphones that are noise cancelling. I

think the fact that are noise cancelling

are key because if you just get random

like uh like air like uh you know,

AirPods like that, you know, they’re not

going to be too great because they will

not cancel the noise. So if somebody is

doing noise around you, they will still

distract you. At the end of the day, the

only reason why you want to block out

noise is because you want to block out

distraction the distractions. Now, if

you ask me what kind of music I like to

I like to listen to, I like to listen to

like Eminem. All right, a bit of Drake,

but just stuff that gets me in the

rhythm. Okay, I love Eminem because, you

know, if I listen to Not Afraid, for

example, with that kind of like there

are few songs that are really getting me

in in the zone and they’ve done that for

times and times and times again. And um

yeah, I mean it’s just uh it’s just been

uh yeah been uh it’s just been a

repetition. It’s been like engraved in

myself and I just feel like now it’s

like an on andoff switch when I listen

to few like like certain songs they

create some sort of uh yeah just like

mood and just like they get me into the

zone honestly. That’s that’s like that.

It’s it’s yeah it’s just like a series

of habits that get me in the zone and

like ready to ready to shoot, ready to

kill in a sport sense. Of course, don’t

get me um don’t get me in the word by

word but that’s what yeah what we say in

sports but then number two which is

connected to the first one but a little

bit more uh specific is called

visualization. Now you probably know

what I talk with vis visualization. This

is not really meditation. Visualization

is basically um you probably have seen

this from F1 drivers like Versappen. Uh

you’ve seen other drivers as well doing

this kind of exercise. Basically

visualizations mean you’re like uh

either with headphones on or without. I

like to do with headphones on. Not

necessarily listening to music but just

like to block out distractions because I

like to just visualize the perfect lap.

So basically I just held on the steering

wheel most of the times. I don’t have a

steering wheel here. Otherwise, I would

do that. But I would hold the steering

wheel. I would just have AirPods on.

Okay. Air Max. And I would just

visualize. All right. Just going, you

know, I would just do everything that

it’s required for me to to do a perfect

lap. For example, you know, I’m going

I’m going through the gears in case, you

know, I’m going down the gears. I’m like

shifting even my body as I have to. I’m

going on a throttle the same way. I’m

trying to go up the gears. I’m trying to

listen in my in my head the same the

sound of the of the of the gears of the

engine etc. I try to really like just do

the exactly the same things that I would

do in in a optimal lap and uh yeah I

feel this is just something um that is

easy to do. It’s going to take uh what

am I like five minutes of your time. I’m

not asking you to do well you I’m not

asking you anything. I’m just telling

you what what is working for me. In my

case, it works for me to do like five to

10 minutes max before a session. And not

only I do that to just focus on on

getting ready for the next session, but

I also like to do to correct the

mistakes that I did in the previous

session. For example, if I finish the

session, I do data or watch my own

videos and I notice that I’m losing time

in the specific corner. After that, I’m

like, okay, I know where I’m losing.

Then I’m going to go and do the

visualization exercise just because I

feel that by doing so, I create some

sort of muscle memory and I’m like

programming myself so that when I go

out, I know exactly what I need to fix.

And I’m pretty sure most of the F1

drivers do and uh it’s just super super

effective. I mean, I use I use

visualization a lot. And if you watch

the documentary from Kim Antonelli,

which was which is on Netflix, it’s

called The Seat. You will see that he

also mentions that he visualized a lot.

And that’s what I also do a lot. I mean,

when I was racing full-time, I would

visualize everything. Like even my my my

warm-up laps, my my yeah, my just

starting procedure, my overtakes, etc. I

would visualize pretty much as much as

possible. Think about it. Visualization

is like you’re using your brain, your

your your Yeah. just brain capacity as

as a simulator as a mental simulator. So

you can you can simulate stuff. You can

simulate scenarios. Oh, if I if

everybody defends then I can try to do

this. If everybody’s open, I can try to

do that. You know, if the car is

sliding, I can try to do this. If the

car is too grippy, I can try to do that.

You know, I mean, if I have a gap in

turn one, I can do this. If they’re at

all close behind me, I got to do that.

Stuff like that. I visualize a lot

different scenarios, especially in the

race. But I also want to always

visualize the perfect light because I

think it’s you never get you’re never

that you’re never good enough to to say

that you don’t need visualization.

Everyone needs it. If F1 drivers like

Versappen those goats of motorsport

needs to do visualization, it means all

of us humans let’s say below them uh

below below Max which is I guess super

human. Um all of us we should do

visualization too. If he does it then

all of us by definition we should do it

then. So this one is really the thing

that probably of all of these five is

that gives me the most uh goosebumps.

You know it really it’s really effective

but you need to get used to it. At first

it’s going to feel weird like you will

not be but after that once you’re able

to visualize perfectly in your brain

like corner by corner like literally the

the sound of the engine the vibration on

your seat everything like every little

bump you need to try to visual as much

as possible the braking like you need to

try to do that try to get even yourself

in a seat are they in your cart or try

to get in another seat like just a

random seat as long as you have a

steering wheel a seat some headphones

on. Another thing I like to do which is

really good you should try is um is for

example I I I use my headphones and in

my headphones instead of having nothing

instead of having music I just have my

my onboard lap. So I’m like having my

onboard lap in in the background like

for like 10 minutes long session and I’m

just like I know the noise so I know

where where basically the noise is

directing me to to you know to to to

each corner. So I I I it’s more like a

guided meditation like it’s more of a

guided visualization sort of thing and I

I like it a lot. Number three is

reaction times. Now you have probably

seen a lot of drivers in F1 doing those.

Okay. I feel reaction times are

extremely extremely useful. Well I mean

reaction times it’s uh it’s reaction

times at the end of the day we all have

them. Some some of us have more

developed and more trained reaction

times. We all have reaction times. I

mean of course by definition but you can

train them. So when I talk about

reaction times is reaction time

exercises actually. So reaction time

exercises. So I mean things like you

know the the the tennis ball exercise

for example you can have someone

standing in front of you and he has you

know one ball and uh he’s basically

going to throw the throw the ball and

you you need to know on the no actually

going to have two balls and you need to

know where where he’s going to throw it.

So you need to know where um you know

which ball to catch based on on the

reaction time. That’s one of the very

important exercises which is the easiest

way to do. You just go to Decatlon or

anywhere on Amazon. You just buy two

tennis balls for like two years or

something. You just buy the the balls

and you make sure that somebody is

standing in front of you and and they do

this exercise. It’s easy to catch. Like

you need to get used to catch as quickly

as possible and obviously you’re going

to get better and better. You’ll see.

Then another one one I really like a lot

is the you know the reaction times on

the you know on the wall for example you

can do uh you know brand like brands

like u yeah blazebot

or you can also use other brands like

mitis misreact there’s different

different ones but I mean at the end of

the day the only goal is to to do some

reaction time so that you you know you

get your adrenaline because you get some

adrenaline from that you just start to

go into like race mode you start to be

like okay channeling your attention and

by definition when you’re focusing on

reaction times you don’t have the time

to distract yourselves with any other

things you know for example like playing

with your phone or just like watching

Tik Tok or just like uh you know messing

around with your teammates etc. So by

definition when you’re doing an activity

like this it forces you to focus which

is great. Okay number four which I like

to do a lot is watching my onboard

videos on board videos and I would add

telemetry. Okay so you will be like oh

but Allesio isn’t this like part of the

the like the daily routine of the track?

Yes and no. I mean like you can consider

like the onboard videos. Yes. Like first

of all you can watch your own videos by

with with your coach with your data guy

like with your mechanic but then I like

to watch it by myself or sometimes what

I do is quite funny like sometimes I

watch it by myself then I watch it with

somebody else being my mechanic and then

I watch it again by myself before the

session. So it’s it’s a bit like that

but I like to watch onboards and videos

sorry and data analysis. I just do my

own data on race studio. Obviously, I’ve

got so much experience by doing data uh

with all my drivers at Bay Race is that,

you know, I it’s just like second nature

for me. I just enjoy it and it’s just

like an obsession for me to to find lap

time every session. So, for me, it’s

just like but I I encourage you to try.

It’s not difficult. If you want, drop me

a comment. We can try to start a series

of videos where I can walk you step by

step how to analyze data. I think it

will be very cool. If you guys want

that, let me know. I will I will I will

get uh I will I will get into it. Please

also make me a favor if you got all the

way through this video, consider

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And since I have got a challenge with my

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yeah, consider subscribing. It will be

it will mean the world to me. Anyways,

consider watching on more videos right

before the session, 10 minutes before

the session, even though you may have

watched them before, because by doing

so, yeah, it’s gonna channel into what

you have to do basically before the

session. And again uh you can also watch

the bench like benchmark videos from

like some teammates or or somebody else

from other sessions from other days but

at least like watching videos from fast

drivers or from yourself or fast

sessions you know by yeah watching

whether your video or other drivers

videos but just watching something

before the session I think it’s forces

you to to focus you know all of these

activities are kind of forcing you to

focus except listening to music which is

more like a like a laid-back you know

chilled way to focus all the others are

requiring your active participation.

Number five, which is uh um one a bit

more let’s say complicated but again

it’s not that complicated. It’s going to

be just about uh you know a rhythm like

building a rhythm building a routine

around it and it basically is quite

close to visualization but it’s a little

bit different and then we are talking

about breathing exercises. Now breathing

exercises is basically um you know using

your breath work. All right. So it’s

like using your breathing

in a way that actually relaxes you and

focuses you. So

let me actually finish this off. I’m

having a hard time multitasking

[laughter] but um yeah. Well breathing

exercises I can’t just left I can’t just

leave breathing because otherwise it

looks quite uh yeah quite unprofessional

but yeah breathing exercises. So what I

mean by that there’s a bunch of

different breathing exercises. Um but

you know we are all the time breathing

subconsciously thankfully otherwise we

would probably be all dead in the night.

You know if we wouldn’t have a um you

know auton automatic system that made us

breathe we would all be dead. Thankfully

we have this autonomous system that

makes us breathe. But the problem is

that when we breathe by ourselves

basically autonomously when we let our

let’s say body decide how to breathe and

when to breathe we are most of the times

not breathing enough. we’re not

breathing properly and well that’s a

long story but anyways unless you’re

like running unless you’re like doing

cardio but anyways we are not uh you

know getting as much air and oxygen and

yes we are but we could get more and to

be honest if we breathe a lot and we

breathe also with your diaphragm now

it’s like breathing with your diaphragm

basically means like breathing with your

belly like you can see instead of like

expanding your lungs that’s basically

breathing normally what what what we are

doing like basically 24/7. But a

different type of breathing is breathing

with your diaphragm, which basically

means you’re trying to like expand your

belly instead of like expanding your

lungs. And by doing so, you actually

it’s it’s been scientifically proven

that you actually increase massively

your your

uh you know like feel good hormones and

like relaxation hormones and as well you

also increase some sort of levels on

melatonin and and that’s basically the

Yeah. uh basic that’s going to also help

you to sleep well better at night. So I

also encourage you to do this breathing

exercises if you’re having a hard time

to sleep. But again I’m not suggesting

you to do these breathing exercises

because you want to sleep before driving

the car. But obviously we want to be

alert but guys there’s one thing that is

very important and it’s the level of

arousal. Okay there is an inverted c

curve. Okay. So you have to think about

arousal is basically your level of a

awareness like of sorry of awakeness if

you are too low. So basically it’s like

that the level of this is the maximum

level of arousal and then if it’s like

this is the peak. So this is the peak

performance. Okay let’s say this is

performance and this is arousal. Okay

this is performance and this is arousal.

Okay. So if you have too much arousal,

so if you’re too active, too alert, it’s

going to be bad, equally bad as having

too little arousal. So if you’re like

sleepy and you’re like, you know, just

got out of bed and you’re like, oh, you

know, where am I? You know, stuff like

that. So the goal would be to be at the

peak level of arousal, which means

you’re like just like awake and alert

enough. This is like I I learned in

sport psychology books and you know it’s

performance books. This is great. Um, I

didn’t I didn’t Yeah, I kind I couldn’t

believe it the first way. Like, this is

true. I realized it because when you

drive, you want to when you’re about to

drive and you’re sitting in the preg

grid, you want to be activated mentally,

but not too active. Like, you you don’t

want to be hyperactive because if you

are hyperactive and you have lots of

coffee, you’re probably going to be

doing like over pushing mistake. You’re

going to be doing like uh like, you

know, creating like you’re being

probably too confident. you’re going to

maybe like do some crazy stuff and and

probably you’re going to be too scrappy

with your steering wheel, etc. Whereas,

if you are like too on the on the low

side, if you’re on too liter, if you’re

arousal is so low that you’re feeling

sleepy, you’re just basically going to

have the slow reaction times. You’re

just going to be like a turtle on

wheels, you know, just like very slow in

your reaction times, you will not take

risks, etc. But equally, as I said, you

don’t want to be on the high end of the

arousal. So, the goal is to be just at

the sweet spot. And I feel like as a

driver myself especially I was too much

on the you know on this high side let’s

say I was too much on this side let’s

say on on the high arousal side and so

one really good way for me to go on the

lower arousal side so to make me more

calm to make me more relaxed basically

to to pluck my enthusiasms basically h

one of the best and most effective ways

to get me from latic there to here which

was optimal it was by doing breathing

exercises Because that’s essentially it.

If you’re already feeling sleepy and

you’re like already like doing breathing

exercises is only going to make you

worse. So if you’re like here and you’re

like already in low arousal and you you

do these kind of breathing exercises,

you’re going to be even sleepier and

it’s not going to be good. But since

most drivers are like hyperactive,

it’s actually going to serve them well.

So if you are below like beyond the

arousal and you’re like like here or

here or here, it’s it’s just going to

serve you so well. And besides that,

besides just getting you into the

optimal arousal state, it’s just gonna

calm your brain. It’s gonna get you

really like uh yeah, it’s just going to

get you so focused and it’s going to

remove all distractions because again,

once you’re hyperactive, you’re going to

start to have so many thoughts in your

brain and it’s just like you’re going to

be, oh, what what is my mechanic going

to say? What is going my dad’s going to

say? What if they overtake me in the

back? What do I do? What if I, you know,

if my engine is not good? What if my sh

is not good? What if my tires blow up?

What if my engine blows up? You know,

when you’re hyperactive, you start and

have too much arousal. You start all

these crazy thoughts, but that’s not

good. Okay, it’s yeah, it’s okay to be a

little bit uh you know, of having a

little bit of paranoia and trying to

think about things that different

scenarios what could happen. Yes, makes

sense. I just told you before and it’s

the the point about visualization, but

the reality is that you don’t want to

overdo it. So if you put all these

things together guys including breathing

exercises you can search them on on

Google or on chat GBT or anywhere you

you’d like to get your information from

you can just ask to get some personal uh

breathing exercise before driving. I

like to do the so-called box breathing.

It’s the easiest one. And that basically

is like 5 seconds of breathing breathing

in 5 seconds of holding with full breath

and then 5 seconds breathing out and

then 5 seconds holding and repeat the

same process. So it’s like 20 seconds

per cycle. Five, five, five and five.

And basically you do three cycles per

minute. So you do like [sighs]

5 seconds,

then you hold for 5 seconds

breathe out for 5 seconds,

hold for 5 seconds, [sighs] and you

breathe in again for 5 seconds. Now I

didn’t count them properly. I’m just

giving an example. That is a great way

for me. And again, try to do that with

your belly. So it’s called diaphrag

breathing. And by doing so, you’re gonna

stimulate more relaxed

um yeah, hormones. And it’s just you’re

going to feel more relaxed and you’re

gonna reduce your arousal and you’re

just going to be ready to to to get in

the zone, get in the flow. Yeah. And we

all need this, guys. We all need this.

And and I like to do this with my eyes

closed. If you go and rewatch my past

races when I was on standing on the

grid, I would be like just the 3 minutes

before the session like when you are

supposed to get into the cart and they

show you the three grid three minute

sign on the final. I’m just sitting

there with my visor down and I’m just

like with my eyes closed

and I’m just breathing. I’m just

breathing and then like one minute

before I just feel super I just open up

my eyes again and I’m just super ready

to go. I feel like I’m I’m focused. I

have the optimal arousal state.

Obviously, if I I don’t feel like if I

don’t feel very active, I will not do as

much excess like breathing. But if I

feel for example too hyperactive, I will

do a little bit more. You know what I

mean? That you know, if you are into

meditation, those sort of things, you

can do also a bit of that before the

session. But again, I don’t think you

should think about too much about that.

Like doing a bit of breathing exercise

just right before the session is going

to get you into that zen mode, maximum

focus, peak performance state. And I’m

sure it’s going to help you so much. If

you have any questions or give me like

your opinion what you think of this. I

have you have you ever tried any of

these things? Would you like to try I

mean let me know once you try these

things. Uh how’s your feedback? I will

be very interested in hearing your

feedback and replying to your comments.

And if you think there’s something else

that I’ve missed from this list and you

find so much value and it’s going to

it’s helping you so much to get focused,

please add them in the comments. like I

cannot wait to hear them because yeah I

mean you can help other drivers in in

the community but also I would

personally be super interested and I

will thank you for for just sharing more

more of the tasks you know uh obviously

you don’t want to have too many

activities but it’s like you it’s like

you have a menu where you can pick and

choose and once you build your routine

it’s going to be great you know I had a

driver um two days ago in in in a race

at it’s at Lonati in the yummy series

where I was telling him the exact same

thing I like mate, you’re such a fast

driver, such a good driver, but you need

to try to get more focus before each

session because it’s a bit of a roller

coaster your performance. It’s not very

stable. Some some sessions you’re

amazing, some session you’re driving

quite poorly. So, you got to make sure

you are all the time at your peak

performance state because I think the

biggest crime in racing is not being

able to achieve your fullest

performance, fullest potential

basically. uh and and it’s a way it’s a

ch it’s a pity to to lose performance

because you’re getting distracted

because you’re not focused because

you’re doing other activities that are

not going to help you get closer to your

goal which is winning. So yeah, I hope

that you are going to yeah get some

value out of it and let me know how it

goes.