Stewart urges F1 to embrace driver coaches

That is the view of former world champion Jackie Stewart, who thinks both teams and drivers are wrong to believe they cannot gain from the kind of use of coaches so typical in other sports.

"One of the weaknesses we have in F1 is the lack of training we have," said Stewart, during a breakfast briefing for Williams sponsor RBS at the RAC Club in London's Pall Mall.

"This is the only sport that I can think of that doesn't have coaching - at Wimbledon just now, coaches are coming out of their ears. And for sure it makes a difference. You have football coaches, you have rugby coaches, you have cricket coaches, and you have golf coaches.

"Tiger Woods wouldn't walk 10 metres without his coach, in terms of how that swing has to be repeatedly put into his head - is it too fast, too slow, the wrong muscular movement? Yet racing drivers claim they don't need any help at all.

"And when you suggest that they might benefit from it, there is a resistance. I don't understand that. They seem to think once you get into that zone that they race above it and don't need it - and they also wonder how is it going to make a difference?"

Stewart's comments come a few days after Hamilton told The Daily Mail that he saw little reason to go to former drivers for advice.

"I'm in a unique position," said Hamilton. "Nobody has felt exactly the same things as I've felt. The only person I really take advice from is my Dad (Anthony). He's great. He says the right things. He's guided me the whole way through my career. So if I have any questions, I ask him.

"I don't doubt his motives. And I'm old enough to know whether to take his advice and also when to make my own decisions.

"Whenever I speak to Damon or Jackie I do take what they say on board, but I'm not going to go searching them out and ask how I can be world champion. I want to do it on my own. I got to where I am on my own, with my family."

Yet Stewart thinks that the events of Montreal this year, where both Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were involved in a pile-up in the pitlane when they failed to spot a red light, is a prime example of a situation where they and their teams would have been better off had they used a coach to help improve communication during a race.

"I think one of the biggest and most important elements is communication, and I don't think there is enough communication going on," he explained. "For example, the accident in Montreal - how did that happen? That happened because there was so much distraction going on, so much interference in the drivers' young heads, that they didn't hear the message: 'the pitlane is closed, the red light is on'.

"Here was Lewis, with nearly a nine-second advantage, and Nico with a very competitive car was up for a very good performance and possibly a podium, when the safety car comes out. It doesn't matter who you are, you are going to be upset and annoyed, and does it affect your head? Yes.

"They come in (to the pits), and they need to be talked down mentally. And that is almost a psychiatrist's job because that is where the coach could have come in, because the man who talks to him (the driver) should be the man who specializes in good, clear communication. He should know when to put the emphasis on a certain word - just like an air traffic controller.

"He will have had almost a lap to be talked down, to have his head clean, for when he comes in. There has to be the right choice of words, not unnecessary words spoken because that causes fog. So don't say anything you don't need to say.

"You have to bring the guys head down so when he accelerates out you say: "By the way the red light is on. The red light is on. Repeat. Do you understand?

"You say that while he is still in the pits. The blame that Lewis got and blame Nico got was all on their shoulders. That was wrong. Because the team should have actually ensured that they were clear, there was no big rush. The pitlane is closed, the cars are stopped. Each had the 'oh shit' factor. He looked up, and bang. They hadn't been properly prepared mentally to restart the race."

Stewart says he is not surprised that drivers are so reluctant to accept driver coaches - so thinks it is up to the teams to shift cultures in F1.

"I think it needs to come from the teams. At the end of the day they are the employer because they have so much more to lose than the drivers.

"Nowadays the safety factor is so big that there are not many penalties for drivers, but there are mammoth penalties for teams. If we in Williams do not finish races, the cost to Frank, the team and the sponsor not being as well pleased as they might be is very large. The leadership in this must come from the teams.

"I am a big supporter of Lewis although I have been quite critical. In 36 to 48 months is going to think back, why didn't I think about that? Why did I not do that? "

He added: "And that training is just as important for the Sam Michaels of this world, or the engineer or the man doing the communicating on the headset. Where was he trained?"

Stewart thinks that even greats like Ayrton Senna benefited from being around the right kind of person - because he reckons the Brazilian was helped a great deal in his development as a driver by racing alongside Alain Prost.

"Some racing drivers are very fast but don't consume a lot of information about how best to make a car work. Prost in my opinion was one of the greatest drivers of all time because he made a car work for him, and he made it work for Senna. I don't think Senna would have won as much if Prost had not been there.

"What he did with the development of the vehicle for McLaren helped Senna, who was a much more liberated driver - with absolute feel, balance and driving skill that was probably above Prost. But Prost made it happen. You just need to look at the onboard camera and watch the steering movements - the wheel hardly moved.

"Prost absolutely drove the car to mechanical perfection. Senna could take that mechanical perfection to a higher level but then it introduced over inducement, but he had the reactions and the dynamic feel to still control the semi wild bull that Prost very seldom visited.

"Prost was very seldom on the back of a wild bull - which is why he was so good and delivered such success. I didn't want to be on the back of a wild bull, it gave me no thrill at all. I needed to give it Valium to calm it down."

Stewart believes the most likely candidates for successful coaches are not former drivers but engineers who are well versed in vehicle dynamics and car feel - like former F1 technical director Gary Anderson.

"I could work with Gary if I was a driver," he said. "Or Richard Parry-Jones, who never went into motor racing. I would pick someone like him."