I used a quote from one of my favourite films to title this article (Scarface, 1983, for those uneducated about it) because, apart from being an iconic line, it sums up a crucial part of driving quickly - Vision.
At first glance (vision pun), it might seem fairly simple - look ahead and you'll be fine. But it's more complicated than that, as there are aspects to your vision when racing you may not have considered.
"Look where you want to go"
This is a term used to describe vision when driving quite a lot, in both real life and on the sim. It's true, but it's rarely elaborated on enough to allow you to utilise it in your driving.
It seems fairly straightforward to look where you want to go, but there are aspects to successfully doing this, which I will elaborate on:
- Look as far ahead as possible
- Know where you need to be looking in different scenarios.
- You need to manage different aspects of your vision - you aren't always looking at the track surface
Okay, so let's start with looking as far ahead as possible. If you drive looking just in front of you, without considering what is next, or further up the track, everything becomes frantic - you will always be reacting, rather than anticipating. Rather obviously, this puts you on edge, at which point you are not driving the car or track, you are reacting to it. This is not fast.
The further you look ahead, the more prepared you are for what is coming. This gives you the chance to be more relaxed and not on edge. It will also allow you to drive the car, rather than react to it. This could also give you the benefit of giving you a chance to understand the feel of the car, and make setup changes if you wish. If you have the time to understand what's going to happen, and prepare for it, this can drastically improve your driving.
You will also be able to notice any incidents that may have occurred ahead, and again prepare for them. So overall, looking in the right places increases your situational awareness immensely.
It has the effect of slowing down your perception of the driving experience, giving you more time to prepare for what's next and giving you the mental capacity to focus on other things, such as trying to understand car feel, focus on dashboard warnings, etc.
It's worth explaining another factor of vision that will become immensely useful when practicing good vision - peripheral vision.
Peripheral vision is your vision outside the point of your main focus or fixation. So, if you are looking straight ahead, anything outside your fixation on what is straight ahead is your peripheral vision. Peripheral vision is useful for when side by side, following another car closely, or noticing things on your dash whilst driving.
Practical exercise: look straight ahead of you, at whatever object is in front of you. Try to notice your entire field of vision. You will realise that you can see, to a certain extent, what is either side of you - this is your peripheral vision.
Alright, now you know why you need to look ahead, you need to know how to do it correctly. Just aimlessly staring into the future isn't going to help much, if at all.
Corner by corner, your process will change, but I find this a good baseline:
1. On the straight before the corner, well in advance of it, look at your braking point and turn in point (you will use your peripheral vision to know when you are at these points)
2. As you approach the braking zone, you should be looking towards the apex of the corner - this is made more difficult on corners with a blind apex, such as corners over a crest. In this case, you want to aim to be looking to where the apex will be over that crest.
3. As you approach the apex, you want to shift your vision to the exit of the corner, whether that be the exit kerb, the white line marking the edge of the circuit, etc. Your vision should always be moving forwards at this point, so in theory, you should be looking towards the beginning of the exit kerb initially, progressing along it as you move closer. Your peripheral vision will help you still reach the apex.
4. As you reach that kerb, you should already be looking down the next straight or at the entry to the next corner.
How to practice this: Go into a time trial session with a car and track combination of your choice, and try to do this process at every corner. Use the longer straights to your advantage, as a time to practice a glance in the mirror or a proper look at the dash. Don't worry if you suddenly find yourself falling into old habits - just resume the new process at the next corner. It will take a long time to become second nature. But don't give up. If you are slower at first or make mistakes, again, don't worry. Keep trying and eventually it will come. The car has an uncanny tendency to end up where you are looking.
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Peripheral vision
Now I want to focus more on using your peripheral vision for a moment. As I've already explained, you will use it upon reaching braking and turn-in points, as well as for watching opponent cars and then for checking your dash for warnings or information.
Your peripheral vision is your biggest tool when it comes to fighting against opponents. It allows your main fixation to remain on the driving aspect, whilst allowing you to be aware of where your rivals are.
It is also crucial when it comes to spotting things such as flags,or an indication to take a certain action.
Noticing what is in your peripheral vision is critical to good racecraft. Practice is a good way to improve your awareness of your peripheral vision.
Fact: Only about 1 percent of our visual field, the Fovea (the central point of our visual field), is in high resolution. To test this, hold your thumb up at arm's length and focus on the thumbnail. At arms length, it is about the size of the Fovea. Notice how everything around your thumb is out of focus? That is your peripheral vision.
Practical exercise: Either when on the sim, or whilst doing a task in your everyday life, try to notice objects outside your direct line of site - write these down if it helps. Do this regularly, and try to notice more objects each time.
Peripheral vision does not include directly focusing on the object in question.
Focus flexibility
Focus flexibility is where you quickly switch your point of focus, for example if you look down at your dashboard or steering wheel to make a change, or to look quickly in the mirrors to see and opponent. It is important that the time it takes for your eyes to focus is minimal so you spend as little time as possible with your main focus away from the track.
I recommend a practical exercise to improve this:
1. Hold your pointer finger a few inches from your eye and focus on it
2. Slowly move your finger away from your face, holding your focus on it
3. Look away for a moment, into the distance
4. Look back towards your outstretched finger and focus on it, keeping focus as you slowly bring it back to your eye
5. Look away and focus on something in the distance
6. Repeat 3 times
Depth perception
Good depth perception is crucial for identifying how far another car or object is away and the size of said object, as well as estimating it's speed. In motorsport, this will be useful when identifying how far another car is, to guage whether they are able to attack you. Most people's depth perception is passable, but there are many conditions that can effect depth perception. If you have any issues, it's best to go to an optician or eye doctor.
This is often less crucial on a sim, as the objects are not in the same definition as reality, but there is a simple exercise you can do if you want to improve your depth perception:
Roll your eyes around your line of sight, keeping your head stationary and rolling your eyes intentionally. Whilst doing this, focus on items within your vision.
This exercise can make a difference over time to improve your depth perception.
Hand-eye coordination
Your improvement in vision will help you recognise potential dangers and take action sooner. But to take action, you need to be able to accurately put your hands where they need to be, to do something like turning the wheel or pressing a button on the dash.
You can do several things to improve your hand-eye coordination, such as:
- Bounce a tennis ball off a wall, practicing catching it with one hand one throw, and your other hand the next. This is a simple way to improve. A fast-paced game of catch with a partner is effective too. If you want more of a challenge you could try learning to juggle.
- The practical exercise that you also used to increase your focus flexibility. The ability to switch your focus quickly goes hand in hand with good hand-eye coordination.
Dynamic visual acuity
Dynamic visual acuity (known as DVA), involves the ability to see, interpret and then quickly react to rapidly moving objects, whilst you are in motion.
This is crucial when driving to respond to cars ahead, especially at a race start, when things are happening quickly whilst you yourself are too, in the car.
A good way to train this is on the sim is by trying to read the letters written on signs at the side of the circuit as you drive by. Or if you are passenger in a car, or on a train or bus, in your everyday life, try to read the letters on road signs and telephone poles as the car is moving. This is easy to do and fantastic for training your horizontal DVA. Vertical DVA is less useful in motorsport, unless cars are falling out of the sky.
Following another car
When following another car, your overall distance of vision is reduced. At this point, your peripheral vision becomes even more crucial. You do NOT want to focus completely and get tunnel vision on the back of the car ahead. You need to be using your vision to spot your markers.
You cannot brake at the same point as you would normally following a car. They will likely want to brake at that point, and the concertina effect means if you do this, you will end up in the back of them...which is bad, as you should already know. And you will be going quicker than normal, because of the draft.
So find another marker before your "usual" braking zone and lift off the throttle, if you are not in a position to attempt a pass. Not only will this put a safer gap between you and the car ahead so you won't "rear end them", but it also has the advantage of freeing up your vision slightly, so can have a better view of the apex, where you want to be looking. Use your entire field of vision to spot markers and opportunities.
Pull to the inside a little (not completely) to get a view past your opponent - it can help you spot an apex and any potential opportunities to overtake. You might want to go slightly wider into the corner for a better exit - if you pull a little inside before the corner, you might be able to spot any potential obstructions on the line you want. This also has the pleasant benefit of making you appear in the opponents mirrors, which could distract them a little.
It could be a good idea in practice to pick out markers that may help for when you are following a car in a race scenario.
Remember that 99 percent of your vision is your peripheral vision. Use it.
Use straights as an opportunity to glance at your dashboard, or in your mirror, and read things that might only be blurry in your peripheral vision. Do not do this during corners or when in close proximity of a corner.
All of these things put together can heavily improve your driving, but they can take time to show results. As with everything, practice makes perfect. Over time, you will be faster and have much more situational awareness and mental capacity when driving.
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