'Should' is the Life and Death of the Racing Driver

How one driving bad habit can be used to defeat a disastrous mindset.

This is a funny tweet I put out ages ago:

Here’s some kart driver maths:

New tyres=1 sec
Race motor=0.5
Take that 2kg lead off= 0.1
Straighten chassis was 5mm out= 0.3
Put that special exhaust on=0.2


Add it all up... Should beat lap record by 8 tenths!

Reality - a tenth slower!!!

We all do this. We take our lap time and calculate how we SHOULD go faster next session.

But there’s a serious side to the tweet, which reveals a deadly trait that drivers have, and it kills them:

When drivers think like this it means they are refusing to maximise themselves every session. They are instead looking for externalities that should rescue them next time, so they can chill.

It means they discard current performance, and live on the hope of the next one magically being better.

Unfortunately, sometimes the next session is better, and it reinforces the habit!

This is what I call the ‘Should Trap’- where most drivers live.

When this is happening with a driver it means things are going badly. It plays out like this:

Coach: Right, there are a couple of places on the data where we can go quicker.

Driver: OK, but we are putting on the big motor for the next session anyway.

Coach: Cool, so if we get this right we can find even more time, you will be down the road.

Driver: (doesn’t care, just wants big motor on) Yeah, but that motor is always two tenths faster anyway, so you know, it will be fine.

Usually this becomes a situation where the driver goes through the motions of looking at the data, but doesn’t really care.

Drivers do this ‘should be faster’ thinking about the next session, about the next round, about the next season - when the big motor arrives, when we get the new update chassis, when the weather improves, when we get to the better circuits.

Therefore they are escaping facing what they can do now.

On the crappy kart you have now, on the crappy tyres you have now - there is two tenths staring you in the face. Are you going to get those two tenths?

If you are, then you are in seriously good shape, because you are benchmarking yourself constantly. If you are doing that, you are driving yourself forward irresistibly.

But if you recognise yourself in the example above, then you are in trouble.

How to Get Out of the ‘Should Trap’ with ‘Should Speed’