How Parents Should Support A Young Driver

A young driver’s success in karting often depends as much on parent support as on raw talent. I’ve seen this over and over and over again.

That’s why parents have a massive role in the driver’s development and in their overall career. Why? Well, simply because we simply cannot expect kids of that age to look after themselves or to find their own teams or to find their own sponsors. I mean, that simply hasn’t happened yet that I know.

So the parents will need to provide the highest quality support to the kids in order to give them the highest shot at succeeding. So in this guide, I’ll provide all of the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to parent support in karting.

We simply cannot expect kids of that age to look after themselves or to find their own teams or to find their own sponsors.

What is the most important role parents play in a child’s racing journey?

The reality is that parents of racing drivers are going to wear many different hats along a driver’s journey. How well think about it, they will need to be their mentor, they’ll need to be their manager, they’ll need to be looking for their sponsors.

They’ll need to be, you know, dealing with teams and dealing with coaches. So there’s going to be many things involved between the parents of a racing driver, you just cannot expect the kid to deal with everything themselves.

I mean, my father had to look after my career all the way up until I got into formulas. And even there, you know, of course, they had to provide for the budget required to compete in all the seasons of Formula cars. So it was impossible to do anything without my parents, and that’s the same that’s going to happen with your kids.

You know, if you want to have a shot at getting your kid to succeed, then it’s vital that your guidance and your actions are on point and that you’re able to provide the optimal support that kid needs.

How can parents support without adding pressure?

That is a very important point. You know, most of the time parents are trying to support the kids and trying to be helpful. Generally, you know, they’re trying to really help him succeed.

But sometimes they do it in a obstructive way, which kind of affects negatively the driver’s performance, because it just feels under more pressure. And of course, what I’ve noticed over the years is that when parents are struggling to deal with all the financial commitments in racing, they are going to naturally put a lot more pressure on the kid, and the kid is going to naturally feel that pressure, and most of the time, the kids are going to crack under that pressure, and that’s just gonna just, yeah, make things worse.

So yeah, it’s very important that the parents realize and find a way to kind of be supportive, but taking a step back, letting the team do their job, letting the coach do their job, and letting the kids breathe and dealing with it himself.

What should parents say after a bad race?

The thing that I believe is that the parents should not directly interfere with the drivers, especially if they have zero prior karting or racing knowledge themselves. So I just feel that there should be a coaching feedback coming from a proper coach that has been there, done that, and just knows what to say to the driver.

And if the parent is going to interfere, is going to create some problems, because he’s not going to know exactly what to say. And if he doesn’t know what to say, most of the time, she’s going to say about bad thing, right? So that’s just really bad.

Of course, you don’t want to have a scenario like that where the kid is actually receiving bad coaching, because instead of improving, is actually going to go worse. So after a bad race, I just feel like the parent should stay away from it, just letting the kid, you know, talk with his coach and try to get to understand what went wrong and try to fix it for the next race.

And the parent just needs to, obviously let the coach do his job. Because if the parents tries to be the coach, then what’s what’s the coach there for?

If the parents tries to be the coach, then what’s the coach there for?

How can parents help kids stay motivated after mistakes?

Well, I think this is an important point. Yeah, parents can help as facilitators, as supporters, as fans, as motivators, basically. So I feel that coach should do His own work and his own job with a kid, but then the parent should kind of act as a facilitator, so as a as a motivator, I would say. But then again, it should be that role only you know, you should not interfere with the coach.

But I feel like internal motivation from the kids is way more powerful than external. Motivation from their parents. So I feel like what a coach should work on a kid is to get the kid to be motivated by himself and not to get motivated externally. You know, he needs to want it more than anybody else, and only then he will realize, okay, I need to do this in order to win.

What behaviors from parents help drivers improve the fastest

I feel that a totally relaxed behavior and fully supportive approach is going to help the drivers so much more than trying to put, you know, pressure and trying to, you know, set expectations on the kids.

You know, I feel that the kids need to know what to do to improve. They need to know that, of course, they are expected to at least put the effort. And of course, if they put a lot of effort, they are going to perform, but if they’re not putting in the effort, then I mean, they are not going to perform.

And of course, I think that’s one of the things that kids need to be aware of but the parents should be relaxed, chilled back and let the coach do his job. And of course, the kids then don’t have to take advantage of that and be like, Oh, my parents are relaxed. I can still, you know, underperform and I’ll be okay. I’m just here for fun.

No, I mean, of course, that should just be a way of taking the pressure of the kids, and the kids should be okay. You know, my parents are going to love me regardless whether I win or not, so they are going to have that in the back of their mind, and so they’re not going to have the fear of making mistakes.

And because I feel that the fear of making mistakes is just so happening often that parents are not aware of that, and they feel that putting the pressure on the kids is going to help, but actually it’s going to actually hurt the relationship between parents and kids, because the kids are going to drive with fear of making mistakes, and that’s just very bad, because when The kids drive with the fear of making mistakes, then what’s going to happen is that, yeah, I mean, just the driver is going to break early because it’s afraid of making mistakes and losing time.

The driver is not going to overtake to avoid making a mistake or crashing, so all these sort of things when drivers drive with fear, fear of, you know, not being approved by their parents, then that is going to be a massive hand break to their performance.

When drivers drive with fear of not being approved by their parents, that is going to be a massive handbrake to their performance.

What behaviors hurt a child’s development?

I just feel that setting expectations is just the worst thing that the parent can do. And really like realistically, you cannot set any expectations because there’s going to be so many factors related to that, and it’s just foolish to set expectations. You know, there’s so many variables.

The only thing that a parent would want is to see the kid putting the effort and just trying his best. And once that’s in place, then, of course, the parents should be happy about that. And you know, that’s just the only thing I think the parents should be happy about.

Another very bad thing for a parent to do is to try to coach the kids and try to teach the kid how to drive. If the parent has no racing experience or of his own, then even if he does have racing experience, sometimes it’s better to actually have someone in between to communicate to the kid so that the kid feels safe with, let’s say, the father and son relationship.

Whereas, if the you know, if the father is trying to teach the kid driving techniques, then you know, sometimes the kid might feel like, if he’s not going to listen, he may let down his father, well, his mother.

And well, I feel that that’s going to be something that he does not want to because, you know, every kid does not want to be not loved by his parents and yeah, so just, I guess, something that people need to remember the more.

How can parents work well with coaches and teams?

I feel that parents can work with coaches, for example, in understanding with areas of improvement of their son or daughter, and, you know, also give him, the the kid, the optimal track time and quality of track time as well, with their proper team, etc.

So understanding exactly, you know, the requirements that the kid needs, and you know, giving him all the tools to succeed, because sometimes we’re expecting the most from the kid, but if he doesn’t have the right situation, you know, if he’s in a wrong environment, he’s not going to be able to succeed. So we cannot expect anything from him that case.

But, yeah, the most important thing is, as I already mentioned, is to not set any. Expectations.

How involved should parents be in a race preparation?

I feel the parents should not be too involved in that is, the kids need to be involved in preparing for the race. The kids need to prepare their bags. The kids need to, you know, make sure everything is ready. Yes, the parents can sometimes double check, but it’s upon the driver’s responsibility.

I feel like, if you want the kid to mature and to become, you know, a man, he needs to take care of those things himself, and not just rely on his mother and father. You know, my mom, yes, would clean the stuff, but I would just take care of it, and I would make sure it was placed in the in the racing bag, and not just simply being given to me.

How do you balance encouragement with realistic expectations?

Yeah, I mean, that’s one of the points. You know, sometimes the kids get confused between genuine encouragement with actually pressure and, you know, increasing the expectations.

Sometimes they’re like, trying to cheer you and trying to, you know, encourage you, and like, Oh, come on, try to go and win, you know, like, go for it, stuff like that. And sometimes you may kind of misunderstand that and feel like, Oh, that’s my father asking me to win. What if I don’t win? If I don’t win, is he not gonna love me? Is he not gonna want me anymore as a kid, like stuff like that.

So it’s like things going on in the kids brains, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s happened to me. I remember like, I didn’t want my dad to set expectation. I didn’t want anybody to expectation. I was just like, You know what? I’m just gonna go out and give my best. And whatever happens happens.

I didn’t want my dad to set expectation. I didn’t want anybody to expectation. I was just like, You know what? I’m just gonna go out and give my best. And whatever happens happens.

What mindset should parents adopt during races

I feel that parents should just be their kids fan. You know, they just want to be encouraging. They need to be loving parents.

And of course, they want to obviously make sure that the kid is not distracted and is putting in the maximum effort they need to, need to, need take care of that, but at the same time, the parent needs to step back and let the coach do its work, let the team do his job and and then, yeah, once that that’s in place, I’m sure the kid is going to get great results.