How Racing Drivers Train Focus and Concentration

Well, let’s be honest, there’s probably no other sport in the world where a lack of focus for just a fraction of a second can completely destroy your race. Think about, for example, F1 drivers driving around Monaco just the blink of an eye too late on brakes, and they’re in the wall, or even if they turn into early they’re going to be again in the wall.

So it’s a very, very cutthroat sport where focus is an unbelievable important factor. If you are losing focus multiple times during the race, you are not going to be able to have a perfect race. Even though I believe it’s there’s no such a thing as a perfect race, but I feel like you can get as close as possible to a perfect race.

And how do you do that? Well, by doing pretty much zero mistakes. And how do you not make any mistakes? Well, by simply having maximum focus and knowing exactly what to do. Of course, you need to have a lot of experience on the track, and overall, you need to know what you’re doing.

But knowing what you’re doing and having the experience is nothing if your focus level is very volatile, goes up and down, up and down. It’s easy, quote, unquote, to get a fast lap time once. But what’s difficult, and you’re probably aware of that, is being able to replicate that over and over and over again.

That’s really what sets apart the greats like Senna, Schumacher or Verstappen to other drivers — being able to set lap times at the absolute limit time and time again requires a superhuman level of focus.

The big question is always whether you are born with it or whether you develop it. You know, the nature versus nurture dilemma. But in this guide, you will hear about exactly what I think about it. I will answer to some of the most frequently asked questions about focus when it comes to racing. So let’s get into it. Shall we?

Why is focus so important in racing?

Well, think about it — because we are going at high speed, every fraction of a second matters. In fact, if you think about it, the average human blink of an eye is about 150 milliseconds. And in 150 milliseconds, you are going to travel a lot of distance on the track.

For example, if you’re going at 100km/h, you will actually travel 4.17 meters in just a blink of an eye. Well, that doesn’t seem a lot, but think about it: in four point 17 meters, you may have missed the apex, or you may have made the apex, but in the wrong place, or maybe you attempted an overtake, but you didn’t time it properly. And for just like a blink of an eye, you may have crashed into the driver in front.

So you can see that focus is the major part of this sport. If you are not able to maintain focus at the peak level for most of the race distance — which in Formula One is like one hour and 30 minutes, whereas in karting could be 10-15, maximum 20 minutes — you need to develop your focus endurance.

For example, I do juggling every day — four to five minutes a day — and also handball reaction exercises for about five minutes a day. I still read on a daily basis too. I sit myself on a chair and I literally read for about half an hour a day, and that helps me a lot to maintain higher levels of focus.

And I feel that it’s not only in my daily life — I feel like it helps a lot also with my driving.

How long exactly do drivers need to maintain concentration?

Well, it obviously depends on what races they are doing. If they are in Formula One, they would have to focus for between one and a half hours up to two hours. For example, races like in Singapore, where the races normally are very, very long — maybe in Monza it’s a bit less because you are traveling at faster speed, so maybe it’s one hour and 20 minutes. But still, it’s very, very much.

Having the ability to focus for that long at your maximum state — yes, well, you can argue that on the straight your mind is not going to be focused 100% like you are going to be focused in qualifying, in let’s say a fast corner in Spa or Francorchamps or Rouges. For sure, it’s not going to be like this in every single place on the track, in every single lap.

There’s going to be laps where you’re going to need to use more focus. For example, to make an undercut, or maybe you have to make an overtake, or maybe you have to defend position, or you’re going through the start. For sure, during the start, when there’s lights out and all the cars are around you, you need to have the maximum level of focus.

You will not have that same level, for example, halfway through the race when you may have like five seconds from the car in front and maybe like 10 seconds from the car behind. In that case, maybe the focus a bit less. But again, you do not want to relax in that moment, because if you do, then of course, you may start making mistakes.

In karting, it’s for sure quite a bit easier because the race distance is a lot shorter. For example:

• 60 mini races are just like 10 laps (about eight to nine minutes)
• Juniors are about 12-13 minutes
• Seniors are about 15 minutes
• Shifter is occasionally like 20 minutes for CIK FIA races

But normally it’s just not that long. Still, it’s very, very intense. Why? Because karting drivers are going through a lot of G forces. Yes, F1 drivers too, but you still consume a lot of mental energy, and you have not much time to rest during the straights like you do in an F1 car or any other car series like GTS Formula Two or Formula Three.

In karting, you don’t have those long distances. You have basically no breathing time from corner to corner. Especially in the twisty circuits, you’re going from corner to corner, so you just have to be completely immersed.

When you’re in the flow — the race is gonna go super fast if you’re leading, but if everybody’s closing up on you, those remaining laps are gonna feel like ages.

It’s very hard to tell exactly how long the driver needs to focus. But normally I feel that kids play a lot on the PlayStation, on their computers, playing Formula One, Minecraft, etc. The funny thing is that they can spend a lot of time focusing on their games, but then when they’re on the track, they almost feel like they are not going to be able to stay focused for even just like 10 minutes.

I think that being able to extend a driver’s focus threshold level — being able to increase the focus endurance — is going to be a massive, massive competitive advantage compared to other drivers. Some drivers can maybe get everything right for the qualifying lap, but then the difficult part is putting it all together for the race.

In a race, you basically need like 15 quality laps. That’s what I mean. But if you cannot do 15 quality laps, well, it’s something that you gotta fix.

What actually causes drivers to lose focus during race?

I don’t think that there’s many things that can actually make you lose focus while driving during a race. I think it’s more that when you come to make mistakes, your focus muscle — basically, look at it as a muscle — is not trained enough and you’re a bit too weak.

As soon as maybe you try to push a little bit too hard and are not fully focused, then you’re going to start making mistakes. Or simply, maybe you’re pushing the same but you’re trying to repeat and repeat the repeat. But in the repetition, if you’re not able to maintain the same level of focus, you’re going to start making mistakes.

But yeah, I have to say that one of the most iconic ways that drivers actually unconsciously destroy their focus is looking in the back. I am fighting this battle every day with my drivers at the baby race, and I feel like it’s just crazy to see. It’s hard for them to stay focused on the front and look only in the front.

It’s almost like so tempting to them to just keep an eye on who’s behind, check the gaps. But honestly, what the hell? Why do you need to do that? It makes no sense. Many times it’s just out of pure curiosity, pure boredom.

Another way, of course, is just thinking about the results. You know, just looking at the result and like, “Oh shit, I’m doing too bad. I’m like, what, maybe P15, and I want it to be P1.” That’s obviously one of those things that is going to disconnect you from the moment and actually makes you lose the focus.

Another thing that could be negatively affecting your focus while driving is thinking about the kart. You do not want to think too much about the car when you drive. You just want to drive whatever you have. And as soon as the session ends, you just need to report your feedback to the mechanic, to your team and just tell them whatever happened on the car.

But during the session, you just need to give your everything and don’t get distracted by the car, even if the car is not performing to the best — whether the chassis, whether the engine, the tires, or whatever. You do not want to get influenced by that. You don’t want to be distracted by that.

Just keep your focus. Do your best, and people will notice that. But you’re not doing it for people. You’re doing it for yourself.

Whatever happens, just look forward. Don’t look back. Don’t think about the kart. Don’t think about the result. Just put your head down and think about the next corner, the next corner, the next corner.

How can drivers train their focus outside the track

Well, I’m not gonna lie. I think there are so many ways driver can train their focus outside of the track. And by the way, they should be doing it outside of the track. I mean, they cannot expect to improve their focus on the track. Yes, the more driving you do, the more focus you build. But at the end of the day, where you really craft your focus is outside of the track.

Once you remove the screen time, once that time is being removed from all the social media and YouTube you may have been doing before — and the average driver has unfortunately a lot of that — here’s what I suggest you do:

1. Start doing sports
2. Start reading books
3. Do reaction time exercises such as juggling
4. Do the boxing reaction ball that you lace on your head

But again, if you do tennis, if you play ping pong, if you play padel — those kinds of sports are going to be great because they’re going to simulate your competition level, which is great. I mean, you need to have that if you want to be a competitive beast. But at the same time, they are going to stimulate your focus overall. They’re going to increase that muscle.

It’s not, of course, a muscle. I mean, let’s be honest. We can’t say focus is a muscle, but it kind of works like a muscle. It’s muscle memory at the end of the day, and being able to train your brain to stay at high peak performance for longer times means you’re gonna basically stretch your focus every time you do that.

If you’re playing padel, you’re not gonna play it for like five minutes. I hope you’re gonna play it for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 minutes and even more. And you’ll see that you’re gonna spend more and more time, and you’re gonna get better and better. You’re gonna make less and less mistakes.

With reading