
Of course, it may be that McLaren have taken on-board the lessons expounded in Clyde Brolin's 2010 book Overdrive, and recognise the performance benefits to be had when a driver enters a trance-like rhythm called 'the zone'.
In the spirit of Overdrive then, here's a particularly vivid account of what it feels like for a racing driver to be in such a state. What's most interesting in this recollection is that, whilst the driver doesn't lose his sense of having a spatial location fixed behind the eyes, he does describe an apparent loss of spatial extension. In effect, the driver seems to be describing a partial decoupling of the conscious mind from the body; there is temporal structure but no spatial structure to the driver's point of perception.
Those who fancy a challenge might wish to identify the driver.
"When I'm in that groove, I can go on forever. I wish I knew how I got into that state. I don't. I simply find myself in it...
"Then I drive out of that window in my helmet. I look through that window and what I see out of it is the sole and only thing that exists in the whole wide world; everything is happening out there in front of me. My legs and arms and every other part of me are just parts of a whole and doing what they're supposed to be doing automatically, so that I don't have to think consciously about gearing or braking or accelerating; that's all going on without any orders from me. I concentrate, intensely, on everything that's in front of me: be it a car or a corner, there's an invisible line extending from that window in my head to whatever's next. My body is in unison. It doesn't really exist; it's compacted, the whole of me is bunched up tight inside that little area of plexiglass. I'm entirely in my helmet and I think of myself as being the helmet, looking out. Everything, body or car, obeys that module.
"The sensation is not physical...I'm seeing more than I ever have before. My vision is enlarged and the sensation is purely mental."
Sorry, no clues.
13 comments:
Is it The Stig?
No.
Stirling Moss
No.
Senna?
Ayrton Senna da Silva
Nope, not Senna!
Jackie Stewart ?
No, it's not Jackie.
Could it be Bez from the Happy Mondays?
Now you're just guessing.
Might I suggest Damon Hill? Not one that immediately jumps to mind, but he's the only driver I can remember having mused at length on this topic.
No, not Damon, although you're right, I can recall him just last year talking about being in the zone at Suzuka in '94.
Post a Comment