What can a sports psychologist offer to motorsports?
A day at the Silverstone motor racing circuit, working with a driver and team, got me thinking about what role a Sports Psychologist can have in motorsport. With a driver, their engineer, other engineers within the team, team manager, tyre staff, trainer and more, is there room, or should there be room for a Sports Psychologist?
Maybe the answer is found in the following questions:
Could the driver manage the pressure, stress, frustrations, the highs and lows better?
Could the driver manage their attention and focus better? Thinking about the things that help performance.
Could the driver interact with their team (anyone in their team) better, so that their performance and/or that of their car improve?
Could the driver manage their off the track and downtime better, to be fresher and more ‘on it’, when it’s time to be ‘on it’?
Could the driver monitor, evaluate and learn more effectively from their good and not-so-good performances?
Could other people in the driver’s team and sphere manage themselves and their interactions with the driver better?
From my point of view, some (or is that most?) drivers could benefit significantly from the addition of some s
port psychology input – at the track or away from a track – to help their self-management and performance.