Post 4 * Driving Skills

Most of your money in the early part of your driver's career will go here.  Training is the most important factor in your driver's ability to do anything. In this topic we will talk more in-depth about training your driver to be competitive.

Regular training is what you get to do once per day, at no cost.  Depending on the staff you have hired and what their ability to train drivers is, you may or may not get larger training bonuses.  You also have extra training.  These training items cost extra.  You will need to balance your weekly ledger and keep track of your accounts to figure out the biggest boosts you can do in extra training.

Driving Skills

Aptly named skills that directly relate to your drivers ability to drive the racecar.

Pace

Does your driver keep pace with the lead pack?  Can the driver decide a safe pace that can keep the car intact while finishing the race?  Does your driver understand the pace to set the car at for different parts of the event?  Pace is knowing when to pull away or hang back.  Pace management is also not getting pulled into a race that does not benefit your team.  Let the lead car get way out ahead in the early race.  Save your tires, a caution flag will be out and erase that huge lead to under 1/2 a second in a few laps anyhow.  Save the car for the end.

Racing Lane

Can your driver apex the corners?  Can your driver choose to go high on the corner or low if needed? Can your driver figure out when there is a middle lane or when to avoid getting sandwiched between two cars heading into a corner?  The lanes your driver chooses in a live race can cost many positions at a time in a packed and close race.

Overtaking 

Overtaking is a fancy word for passing.  Increasing this skill lets your driver determine safe ways to make a pass.  Can your driver setup a pass heading into a corner for an out-breaking maneuver?  Does your driver know when best to overtake another without doing damage to either car?

Blocking

This word and skill are pretty self explanatory.  Blocking is the ability for your driver to shut down someone trying to pass.  using the mirrors, voices and the radio, and more need a driver with skill to know how to safely shut down a pass.  In the final laps when another driver is less than a second behind you, you are going to want this skill.

Wet Weather

This skill will be needed.  It may be needed in less that 20% of your races, but there is no substitution for this skill when it is raining.  Can your driver handle changing track conditions when it rains?  As you advance in your career, you will notice some series can be won or lost with this skill.  Two drivers have been battling for the top spot in a series and getting on the podium for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd every week.  Then you notice on the wet tracks or rain those two events; one of them did not even get a top ten finish.  You can be pretty sure it came down to wet weather training.

Mental Skills

Is your driver's head in the game.  Even the best driving skills cannot overcome stage fright.  The butterflies in the stomach, the shacking hands, or a driver who about wets their race suite every time another car is less than an inch away at over 100 mph.  Your driver needs mental skills to accomplish tasks as well.

Bravery

It takes courage to do this.  Anyone in an open wheel car driving like a bat out of hell, needs to crazy or brave.  Teams prefer brave.  Crazy costs money as these cares are not cheap.  Passing skills don't matter if your driver is afraid to try it in a pack of 20 or more cars.

Concentration

Lapse in concentration leads to driver errors.  Does driver keep focus while many things are going on around the car? Pit-stops, restarts after a caution car, and longer races all test this skill some.

Composure

Your driver needs composure when things do not go your driver's way.  Going a lap down, getting nudged, seeing a wreck, having a crew member cost your driver a few spots after a bad spot; these are all things that can make a driver loose their cool.  A hot headed driver with low composure will wreck out.  In the final five laps in a lead pack a driver needs to forget all the bumps, all the slights, and be there mentally at the end for a clean fast finish on the podium.

Reactions

Things happen at a face pace out there.  When your driver dives into a corner and finds a mess on the track coming out of it when they normally throttle back up, what is your driver's reaction?  Reactions to situations are instinctual unless trained.  Not every instinct is good in a race car.  Your driver has to train and plan to react even against his or her own nature at times to stay competitive out there.

Patience

The most underrated and overlooked skill in any aspect of life.  Patience, the ability to let things come to you, to work for a longer term goal, and know when to let things go for now, as you will be there in the end.  Drivers who lack patience will wear there equipment down.  That obsessive need to be a front runner all day in a long race may not be possible.  The ability to hang in there, keep the car clean from damages, and have a good set of tires on for the last 20 laps, could be the difference in many positions or a podium.

Technical Skills

The ability to talk tech.  Does your driver know that loose means the car is fast but on the edge of swinging out from under him or her?  Does your driver understand why redlining the tack is not healthy for endurance races, but can be done for tactical advantage in a short sprint race? Tech skills are needed in any industry, especially this one.

Feedback

In practice sessions the driver will come back off the tack, and the crew will want feedback.  The Race Engineer will ask, how it went out there, how did the car feel and respond.  The driver better not shrug their shoulders and say, "meh, it was OK.  Can you make it faster?"  The Race Engineer needs details.  What is your driver feeling, is there a vibration at certain RPM levels, is the car tight or loose on turn three, can the driver hear the air coming off of the wings, or the rev of the engine?  Does it all sound and feel good or is something wrong?  If something is wrong can your driver communicate this in a meaningful way so they can fix it.

Technical

A technical understanding on how the car works makes the driver a bit more in tune with the car.  Understanding the technical aspects of any sport makes one a better technician in that sport.  Many veteran athletes lose physical abilities but make up fro it with technical know how in any sport.  Racing is no different.

Mechanic

It is a rare treat for a crew when they get a mechanical driver.  A driver who will work in the pits, in the shop, and learn about the inner workings of each part.  A driver that understands how the rubber on the tire wears, how the turbo forces air into the injection system, how points misfiring can lead to engine timing issues, and more.  A mechanical driver can ask for specific things that other drivers have no clue about, and crews love that.  Mechanics know how engines respond in different climates, track temperatures and more.  A driver who is aware of this can take advantage of that knowledge on the track as well.  He can smell and hear when a competitors engine is close to letting go.  He or she knows to avoid the mess as oil and debris are about to hit the track.

Personal Skills

As much as people hate to admit it, everyone's personal skills affects their job.  Some people have great personal skills and advance faster because people like them.  Sponsors want your drivers to have personal skills.  Want money to run a race team? Then you need a driver with personal skills.

Intelligence

I won't ever tell you what to train first or last.  I will drop a major hint here.  An intelligent person can learn all other skills faster.  The ability to use intellect is key to success in many aspects of life.  We have all seen a rock head athlete with all the physical skills in the world implode as they had no clue what to do and when to do it.  Do your driver and team a favor.  Make them intelligent sooner than latter.

Charisma

Want fans, sponsors, and endorsement deals to bring money to your cause?  You need a likable driver.  One who wins people over in interviews, knows how to smile and wave from the podium, and one that knows they are being watched on and off the track.  Charismatic drivers are liked by the press, the fans, and the sponsors.  Sponsors and fans bring money, and press gives you exposure to sponsors and fans.  Your driver needs to know how to win off the track too if you want money.

Man Management

The ability to manage others and work as a team.  How well does your driver work with other team members, coaches, engineers, mechanics and such.  The better the team chemistry, the happier everyone is.  If a team is going through a slump, it is always better if they can laugh and work their way through it.  How well your driver manage relationships on the team, can be the difference between a team that argues allot when things are rough, or how well the gel when crunch time is happening.

Physical Skills

A category all to itself.  Physical skills is basically, how often does your driver workout?  Is he or she in good physical shape?  This is huge for longer races.  Endurance races are not for the out of shape drivers.  They make more mistakes if they are wore out.  Early series are mostly sprint races, but if you join higher paying top ranked series, get ready for some long arduous races.

Special Skills

There are a couple of special skills.  They are for alternative style races, but may or may not come in handy for average series as well?

Balance

I think this is for the motorcycle drivers in the game.  Not sure it helps an open wheel or touring car driver much, but I doubt it hurts them as well.  I could see why balance would be huge for motorcycle drivers in the corners and the speeds they need to adjust to.

Drifting

I think again this is not a big skill for most series.  If you drift in an open wheel car or stock car, you are simply going to shred your tires and loose time on the track.  Another skill that won't harm you, but may be a skill that tips the hand of the Developer Team for maybe another event or series to come.

This one was a big read, so thanks if you hung in there for it all.

Until next time; Happy Racing!