Fernando Alonso has responded to a survey conducted by the portal ‘SafeisFast.com’ dedicated to the management of drivers of competition in their inception. The champion Spanish, in a video recorded during the 24 hours of Daytona, shares what, in her opinion, should make the young people that start in motorsport and want to get to the top, as it has already succeeded him.
1. Have fun
“The advice I always give to young drivers and karting is that you have to have fun. I see many pilots go karting is fun, but it is more the emotion of the parents, and how much pressure they have, how much like the father of the race and the pressure that puts on the guy. At the end of the day, you start to not see what’s fun, because your father is not happy, that you question things that you didn’t do in this race… That is the worst thing that can happen. First of all, this is a sport and you have to have fun. If the results have to come, come because they have the talent and it is his time, not because you put 100% pressure on the child. It is just to have fun. The first rule: to have fun”.
2nd. First step: karting
“karting is the best school for all categories. Are races pure when you are competing in karts, especially when wheels with little grip or in the wet. There, your skills will develop much faster. Run as glued to each other are then of importance when then run in single-seaters, because normally, in karting you have a lot of contact, many overtaking and that kind of strategies, defensive moves and things like that then have been very important in single-seaters and in my whole career.”
3rd. Eye by step by fast corners
“The high-speed corners are pure adrenaline for a pilot. The curves at low speed it is not that we like them, but they are the easiest thing: try to stop as late as possible, tours, and floor it as soon as possible. The high-speed corners you and ask you for certain skills. You need confidence in the car, on your machine, commit with the curve, you don’t have to be afraid… I sometimes even close my one eye and floor the throttle. Ground ride with a visor, dark because the less you see, the faster you go”.
4th. Overtaking
“Depends on what pilot you go to overtake and his lines in the curve. It is a good strategy is always to wait for two or three laps and study their drawn,and then be clear what are yours. You can go on the outside because you have more space to brake later, more space on the track… But you also have to be clear of the grip there is, which do not have chips and other things that may interfere with the maneuvers. Sometimes you try to confuse the pilot that you carry in front, and going toward the inside or the outside, and after you change your path and you’re going to death by that line. Sometimes you need luck, because if the other that you carry in front you do not understand that manoeuvre, perhaps you play and is the final race for both of you.”
5th. Calm in the outputs
“The outputs require calm, even though it may seem otherwise, but you have to be very quiet. The torn require movements very precise with the throttle, the position of the change, the temperature of the tires with which you have standing in the starting grid… In those moments you have to have it all at your point in the key movements. If you do not have everything on your site, you’re boosted, or have a lot of pressure in that race, or external factors make you not be 100% concentrated, typically the output will be worse. If I have been good at the outlets during my career is because I tried to stay calm in those moments.”
6th. Use simulators
“we Use simulators to train and develop the car with engineers, but from the point of view of the pilots, the practice of the outputs, save the automation that you must use in the car, it is part of our training. The more you get used to it, the better you get”.
7th. Work with engineers
“we Live in an era of the engineering. Everything is dictated by the simulation, for the computers… It’s good, it helps to maximize on these machines, but at the end of the day you must rely on the human part behind the steering wheel. I remember a couple of years ago in a Formula 1 race , the engineer was telling me that it was not raining and that it should continue in track for five laps more, and I was screaming on the radio that it was raining, that we should not keep the car on track because it was raining. And he told me not to, that the computer was telling them it was going to rain in 7 minutes. And I told him to take his hand out of the wall and see that it is raining, and that I should stop at that time. Definitely, the technology helps but there is always a driver behind the wheel and is the most important part”.
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