Where to Look When You Drive a Kart

By Alessio Lorandi, 2013 CIK-FIA World Champion, KF-Junior. What is in here comes from my own driving and from the onboard videos of my drivers, which I watch all the time.

Imagine we had an eye tracking device on you for one session. What would it show?

I can tell you what we would need to see from the results. That you are looking further ahead than the average driver does. And most of the times, we wouldn’t see that. So let’s talk about something that’s often underestimated: where you’re looking while you drive.

Where should you look when you drive a kart?

Further ahead than your front bumper. That’s the short answer.

Here’s how it goes when you’re doing everything right on track. You look at your braking point early. Then as you get close, you’re already looking at the apex. And once you’re at the apex, your eyes should already be focused on the exit.

Your eyes should flow from one to the next. No jerky, delayed movements.

By the way, I say braking point, but sometimes you don’t have one. There are corners where there’s no major reference to use and you are braking by feeling. Then your eyes go to the apex even sooner.

You’ve probably heard the saying, where your eyes go, your kart follows. It sounds simple. But most drivers get this wrong, especially the younger ones. If you’re staring just in front of the kart, you’re already behind.

Why does where you look matter so much?

Because in racing everything happens really fast. You’re making dozens of micro-decisions every single second, and nearly all of them are triggered by what you see.

So poor sight means poor decisions. And poor decisions mean poor results.

I like to say that your eyes are your data feed. A lot of drivers think they’re feeling everything through the steering wheel or the seat. But in truth they’re processing a lot of it with what they see. You might not feel the rear end stepping out so clearly, but you can see it stepping out. You can see the kart not rotating properly, or the front pushing wide.

Here’s another point. When you watch an onboard video, you can already sense what the driver is doing. You don’t have the G-forces. You don’t have the vibrations. Your eyes are enough to break down what’s going well and what isn’t. That alone shows you how much of the driving goes through your vision.

How far ahead should you look?

Further than you do now. I’m quite confident saying that, because most drivers are looking too much at what’s right in front of them. It’s almost like they’re looking at the ground right in front of the kart.

The reality is that you should lift up your eyes and your head. You should try to expand your vision and really have a look at what’s happening further up ahead.

And it’s not easy. To be honest, it’s something drivers do instinctually. It’s a negative habit that most drivers have at the beginning. That’s why I think the coach himself, and perhaps even the mechanic, should tell the driver to fix it. Because if you want to set faster laps and avoid crashes, you will have to look further up ahead anyways.

What should your eyes pick up during a lap?

A lot more than the apex. These are some of the things your sight tells you while you drive:

• Where the apex is, and your approaching speed towards it.
• Where your braking mark is, if you have one.
• Where the other drivers are around you, and whether a gap is opening or closing.
• Whether there’s some dirt on the track just before a corner. Grass, mud, stones or even water.
• How much track you still have on the left or on the right, so you can use all of it.
• The elevation. Whether the corner is flat, going up or going down, and whether it has positive or negative banking at the apex.
• How your kart is behaving mid-corner. Is it sliding with oversteer, or pushing with understeer?

Then there’s everything else. The entry kerb you’re going to use. The exit kerb. The marshal flags. The start finish time, to tell how many laps are left. Even a split-second glance at your mechanic’s hand signal can make a big difference, for example in qualifying, when he tells you to roll and take some gap to avoid traffic.

Let me give you one from my own driving. So many times it happened to me to spot some dirt on the track and brake 1 or 2 meters earlier. That made me keep the optimal line and gain positions on drivers who didn’t see it and ran wide. You can only do that if your eyes are already there before the kart is. More on finding the grip in racing drivers need to be grip hunters.

And your eyes also have to change focus very quickly. You look down at the steering wheel for the water temp, the exhaust temp, the lap time, the RPM. Then back up to the braking zone. Then to the apex, or to the driver in front. If your eyes can’t keep up, there’s a moment where things are blurry. And that’s all it takes to miss your marks.

Should you move your head or only your eyes?

Mostly your eyes. Some drivers, especially in Mini, drive like in MotoGP, tilting their head with the kart. Don’t do that. Keep your head still and move your eyes. Sure, you should still move your head a bit, but not as much as some drivers do.

I think it’s the number one mistake with body movement when drivers are starting out. They are looking at the apex so much that they lean towards it, almost in a MotoGP style as Valentino Rossi does.

I notice it a lot with the kids at our summer camps. Sometimes we do maybe 150 laps in a day. By the last session they are exhausted, and some of them start leaning in so much, and at the same time turning the head to look at the apex. It’s a very, very common mistake.

Why shouldn’t you stare at the apex?

Yes, the apex is important. But once you’re turning in, your focus should already be on the exit.

So how do you hit the apex if you’re not looking at it? With your peripheral vision. Get used to “seeing” stuff like the apex, the kerb or the white line out of the corner of your eye. You don’t always need to stare right at it.

It’s the same for track usage. How much more track do you have left on the left or on the right? You don’t turn your head to check. Your peripheral vision is key here.

How does looking ahead keep you out of crashes?

There are crashes you create, and crashes that have already happened in front of you. Like a massive pile up at lap one, turn one. The reason why many drivers get involved in those is that they are not looking as far up ahead as they should.

If there’s a massive crash and you’re not looking up ahead, you’re going to get into that crash. I’ve seen that happening so many times.

You can also spot a crash before it happens. Say the driver two places ahead of you is trying a move that you can tell is overly ambitious. There’s a high chance of him crashing. So you read that situation and you get ready to slow down. At a start in the middle of the field it’s the same. You need to really look forward and kind of anticipate.

Then there’s the distance. I really believe the number one reason people crash is that they are not judging the situation properly. How far the drivers around you are, and at what speed you’re going in relation to them. Drivers who can’t judge that distance well would frequently get nose cone penalties, or crash in the first lap. I’ve seen over the years quite a few drivers that would always be involved in a crash if there was one, and now I start to realize this could be a reason why.

And peripheral vision saves you here too. Say some crazy guy is dive bombing you from far when you’re already almost at the apex. If you see him from the side, you can avoid him and still be in the race. You lose a position. That’s better than not reacting and a DNF. I go through all of this in want to stop crashing in karting?

What happens to your focus when you look behind?

You fractionally move the focus from what’s ahead of you to what’s behind. And once you look back in the front, there’s a little bit of a time lag where you have to reset your focus.

That’s not good, because when you’re arriving to a corner you’ve got to have max focus. I’ve seen so many times kids looking in the back and then missing the next apex, or forgetting to use the track on the entry.

There are laps where you have to do it. I explain which ones in when you should and shouldn’t look in the back in a race.

How do you train your eyes for karting?

You don’t need to overthink it. But you do need to practice consciously if you haven’t yet acquired this skill.

Off the track, watch onboard videos or drive in a sim, and pay attention to where you’re looking, and not just to how you’re driving. For the sim I recommend a GT car or a formula car. That is good for reaction times, for training your eyes and for your focus. I suggest to stay away from karting simulators.

For peripheral vision there are some exercises you can do, like juggling. Sports like tennis help too. Many pro drivers do drills with reaction lights and tennis balls, or play padel or ping pong, to sharpen the hand-eye coordination.

But let me be honest about the limits. Peripheral vision you can train a bit. Judging your speed against the others, there’s not much you can do. You just have to let your experience do the work.

If you want to go deeper on the two things that sit next to this one, I have a guide on how to develop quick reaction times and one on how racing drivers train focus and concentration.

Do screens make your eyes slower on track?

This is something I didn’t know before researching for my book. The speed at which your eyes change focus from near to far tends to decline with screen overuse and eye fatigue. And we spend hours a day glued to phones, tablets and laptops. I too am guilty of this.

I’m not here to say never play Xbox. That would be unrealistic, and a bit hypocritical, because I’ve done those things too. I’ll just tell you what I do. When I’m behind my laptop for many hours, I try to take some breaks walking outside. I bought two pairs of blue light glasses and I use them mostly in the evening. And I keep my screens in night mode.

How do you know if you are looking far enough ahead?

From inside the kart it’s hard to tell. That’s why I use the onboard.

I like to put the camera on the helmet, so from that camera I can spot very well whether a driver is looking nicely further up or he’s looking too far down. I can tell from the way the camera gets tilted. And when I spot that a driver is not looking further up ahead as he should, I immediately tell him.

So next time you’re on track, ask yourself two things. Am I looking far enough ahead? Am I already planning my next move?

Keep it natural, don’t overcomplicate it. It should happen on its own after a while. Just build a bit more awareness around the fact that you should be looking further ahead than your front bumper.

Frequently asked questions

Where should I look when driving a go kart?

Always one step ahead of where the kart is. Look at your braking point early. As you get close to it, you’re already looking at the apex. Once you’re at the apex, your eyes should already be on the exit.

How far ahead should I look in karting?

Further than your front bumper. Most drivers look at what’s right in front of them, almost at the ground. Lift up your eyes and your head and look at what’s happening further up ahead.

Should I turn my head towards the apex?

Not much. Keep your head quite still and move your eyes. You still move your head a bit, but tilting it with the kart like in MotoGP is a very common beginner mistake.

Can I train my peripheral vision for racing?

A bit, yes. Juggling and sports like tennis help. On track, get used to seeing the apex, the kerb or the white line out of the corner of your eye without staring at it.

Does looking ahead help avoid crashes in karting?

Yes. If there’s a crash in front and you are not looking up ahead, you’re going to get into it. Looking further up also lets you spot an overly ambitious move two karts ahead and get ready to slow down.