How to Overcome Fear and Hesitation

Understanding the Source of Fear

Where does fear come from in racing? Fear of failure and crashing are common concerns for drivers. According to a performance therapist who specializes in high performance athlete mindset, fear comes from two primary sources: lack of control and unpredictability.

The Vicious Cycle of Fear and Hesitation

Whenever you get surprised by the car's behavior at the limit, it can be a terrifying experience. This fear will probably lead to hesitation and even less confidence to push the car on the next time. Over time, this gets you in a cycle:

• You avoid the limit

• You experience unpredictability when you unintentionally get to the limit

• You become even more afraid of the lack of control

• You avoid the limit even more

Breaking this cycle is the first thing you need to do to improve your confidence and control as well as your learning speed, because fear prevents learning. Driving a race car at the limit is a difficult and precise task in itself, but it's possible that our own head gets in the way and makes learning even more torturing and frustrating.

A Real-World Example: Overcoming Fear of Rain

The Problem

During a first year racing radicals at a high level, the challenge of racing in the rain without prior experience created intense anxiety. The experience included waking up in the hotel with immediate anxious thoughts: "How's the weather? Is it going to rain? What if it rains? Am I going to crash? Am I going to be ridiculously slow?" This was a nightmare because the race weekend couldn't be enjoyed without having this consistent anxious thought haunting throughout the day.

The Solution from a Performance Therapist

The performance therapist provided a crucial insight: "Fear is directly related to unpredictability. When we think we can't control an outcome, we immediately get flooded with anxiety and fear. The antidote to that is control and predictability."

The key realization was this: No, you can't control the weather, but you can control your driving when a track is wet. And if you use the same processes you use to safely find the limit on the drive, you will adapt to the rain very quickly.

The Mental Shift Required

For this fear to wear off, you have to race in the rain. The solution is to actually wish that it rains so that you can learn as quickly as possible, realize that you do have control over your driving technique in any weather conditions and stop being haunted by these anxious thoughts.

It can be so good in the rain that you actually wanted to rain so that you can beat your competitors. What's stopping you from being better than them? Control, predictability, experience, interaction with these conditions so that you can fill in this gap in your driving experience and become a complete driver.

The Results

On the very next race weekend, it rained so much that you could barely see the track. By using the same tools for finding the limit that would be used in the dry, the race was won and the lead of the championship was gained, which led to becoming champion later. Since this race weekend, there has been no fear of rain anymore.

The Key Principle: Killing Fear Through Predictability

The shift in our mentality that completely kills the problem is: you kill the fear by killing unpredictability and refine predictability and racing by reaching the limit of the tires with the right steps.

The Step-by-Step Process for Building Predictability

The proper sequence for reaching the limit safely and predictably is:

• First we learn the deceleration performance and master speed control

• Then we master mid-corner understeer and lateral load

• Then we minimize understeer until we reach the grip of all four tires

This process will be repeated many times throughout the course, exploring each step in detail until you can do this with zero effort. By correctly dipping your toes in each step, we can communicate with the car more effectively and have several aha moments that will boost our confidence that we can reach the perfect limit.