TC: How does the head of a racing driver work?

A driver’s results depend on a good team, sometimes on conditions external to them, but how does sports psychology work with a racing car driver?

Mental Health: It is the emotional, psychological and social well-being that allows us to face the challenges of our own lives and the community in which we live.

If there’s one topic that’s started to be talked about this year, it’s about mental health, in mid-April 2023 Hugo Mazzacane, ACTC presidentinitiated a program called ACTC + Healthand the main leader of this project was included Bárbara Cantón, sports psychologist present throughout the year at each racetrack visited by the category.

“Mental health is not a luxury, it’s a right.”

Motorsport is able to go through different emotions in every person, from anger and rage, joy, excitement, and even disappointment. On a race weekend the driver does not ‘sit down, drive and go home’. During a day of activity, the driver’s head is alert to everything that is happening around him, from the results, the performance of the car, the times of his opponents, even the weather.

Carburando spoke to Bárbara Cantón after his first year of seeing drivers up close in every race, from sports psychology. How does one experience a weekend with a professional driver? Are you more open to talking about mental health? How important is the thought of starting a weekend? These are some of the questions asked of Barbara.

“What catches my attention the most is the ability to concentrate that they have because I see them and many times they don’t do a mental warm-up at the level of concentration, Some do it in the previous lap but when they get into the car, or when they are on the grid in a final, they speak or give a note and you see them even more spread out, But when it comes time to get in the car they can immediately focus their attention on what’s important”Canton started the conversation.

What is a driver’s weekend?

The activity of the protagonists is concentrated in three days, but the work begins further back. Regarding this, the professional gave details about how different pilots go through this process: “The time between races is flying and This is where you need to take advantage of it more than thinking.. Because if we come from a bad experience in a previous career, We need to work well with expectations and not get hooked on what happened. If we come from good results, we also have to work on expectations so as not to rest or trust ourselves, even to correct things to improve.”

The job of a driver is not only to get to the car on Sunday and race, it is to constantly look for a budget, to make sure that everything will be fine from the workshop, including the physical work. “I think the preview is a very invisible work that is done and it’s what the average person doesn’t see, and it’s what often changes in a weekend”highlighted Barbara.

Cantón also pointed out that motorsport is a sport that produces a lot of adrenaline, but that “if you belong, you are involved and if you are with a professional driver from nearby, it indicates that “One must always be on the axis”. And in the same line, he added: “From sports psychology you have to be on the level to support the drivers because many times their emotions are more on the surface than others and it’s a roller coaster of emotions. beginning in the first training session until Sunday when they leave.”

Is there a mental health issue to talk about?

“He’s more open to talking about sports psychology and talking about mental health, In the case of the program proposed by the ACTC, conversations are given to naturalize this role, to talk about the fact that there is a psychologist for them and that they can trust someone,” commented Cantón in reference to this topic.

In addition, Bárbara announced that this year he worked with drivers from Turismo Carretera and TC Pista They already have a private psychologist or have been linked to one before, which reinforces the initiative that mental health is involved in motorsports.

“It was well discussed to naturalize that, just as there is physical training, there is also mental training. And it has nothing to do with weakness, rather it has to do with improving and enhancing performance, dealing with pressures and accepting that something will help them manage their emotions better,” he declared.

Concentration, the main aspect

Bárbara acknowledged that if there is something that is very internalized in motor sports, it is concentration, but she stressed that “In other sports they leave the locker room and don’t interact with the public or reporters, and here it’s the opposite, They are around everyone, that’s why I emphasize that they don’t do a mental warm-up or close their attention until they focus on something, but they are among the people, they give notes and suddenly they get in the car. ”

“Motor racing is a sport that requires a lot of concentration because a minimum dispersion makes you lose everything”he added.

A pilot’s worst enemy

Finally, one of the topics that Carburando does not let go of is disappointment, an aspect of what is common in sport and something that the main characters live by. “The result is a factor that pilots cannot control and many times the disappointment comes from setting too high an expectation. in wanting to control things that one certainly cannot do,” Cantón concluded.