THE FORMULA ONE MIND: THE MIND OF A GRAND PRIX DRIVER (F1)

'Driven: Grand Prix Racing on the Edge...Driving at the Limit

Racing ‘ in the zone’: A look inside the head, the mind of a Grand Prix champion'

This new manuscript is simply my two earlier books INSIDE THE MIND OF A GRAND PRIX CHAMPION (my collection of articles) and 'DRIVEN: GRAND PRIX RACING ON THE EDGE: DRIVING AT THE LIMIT combined into one book, with a new cover picture of Senna and Prost (which I like very much). Hope you enjoy

I’ll keep updating this “true labour of love”, as I research and study the workings of the human mind*, the ‘last unexplored frontier’…and my “life’s work”

* + peak performance


"Racing is life - anything that happens before is just waiting."

- Steve McQueen (from the film Le Mans 1971)


“Grand Prix racing is primarily a mental contest… it’s a battle of strength
of wills by the combatants and a magnificent contest, the arena to display
and share unique gifts and talents. Perhaps in this 'theatre of speed' F1 is a metaphor for life itself”
- craig

"I did almost 200 races in Formula 1 and maybe only four or five times in my career did I really feel this magic experience that the car and you are as one. It s very difficult to explain and when you ‘re very demanding of yourself, you don't have this kind of experience very often. But at Monaco in 1986 I remember the whole weekend was like this, including the race. I was really flying and I could not see the speed. The speed meant nothing: to me it felt like I was driving at 50kmh.

I wouldn’ t describe it as a trance, because that implies that you're not in control of everything. In a way it was almost the opposite. Your mind is still focused; but it's really happiness. And you are fast. You know that both you and the car are really under control. Yet you are quick. Even if you decide to go a little bit slower, it doesn't make a big difference, because it is so easy. “

- Alain Prost (four-time World Champion driver)

Many sportsmen experience the Zone once or twice a year. But somebody really good can create that on a regular basis and not have to wait for that day."

- Jackie Stewart (Scottish three-time World Champion)

from http://www.overdrivef1.com/

"You're at one with the car. In this sport is a form of art.
All the world will be happier and better, when the men and women have the souls of artists,, like that of an Ayrton Senna."
- craig

*
PROLOGUE

It was one day in the year 1961, whilst driving home after the South African Grand Prix in East London, that the young boy told his father that Jim Clark would one day be the champion driver of the world. The young boy was in a bad mood, because the young Clark had beaten his hero, Stirling Moss. And for the next few years the young South African boy followed the rising Scot star ’s ascending career with great interest and pride. So that the new “shooting star” eventually usurped the place of the now retired old hero, Moss after his near fatal accident at Goodwood, UK…until it too was tragically extinguished in a minor race at Hockenheim, Germany in 1968. And that night the young boy lay on his bed and read the race program over again and again… then he fell asleep and dreamt in peace. One day…

“It is a celebration of a man’s unique vision – a vision that reaches out and shines, touching with magic the drama of life across all its limitless horizons.”

“Our talents are our gifts from God… but what we do with our talents are our gifts TO God.”

“Only when you’ve been in the deepest valley can a person know what it’s like to stand on the highest peak.”

- powerful and inspiring words from Richard Nixon, former United States President

“Hold fast to your dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”

– Langston Hughes

PPS:

To dearest dad, see the dream never died… it’s just taken another course!

"Aim at heaven and you'll have earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you'll hit neither."
- CS Lew