Unlike other sports, the motorsport Preseason Testing events are used to prepare for the upcoming season; capturing performance data, configuring car setups, and developing running strategies teams later deploy in competition rounds. The major challenge facing teams and drivers, however, is that they have a just 6 days with the vehicles to develop a car and race philosophy for the start of the season – just 6 days! Let that sink in…
From a physical perspective, we have an ~8wk window (Jan–Feb) to work on a range of competition elements, to get ‘race ready’. This includes maximum strength, VO2max, biomechanics, body composition, and vestibular and cognitive capacities, and more. With the scarcity of time in the car, placing a strong emphasis on driving and competition-related capabilities is not only smart, but essential for the motorsport skill-based athlete.
Having worked with numerous drivers over the past 4 years, I’ve learned that time in the car developing technical and cerebral qualities and race craft is a big contributor to competition success. Beyond that, drivers need to be aerobically fit, possess good global strength (especially neck strength), have good body comp. and be on their way to developing the mental abilities to thrive under high-pressure racing conditions.