How mental mastery can elevate F1 drivers to unlock a champion’s mindset

As Formula 1 drivers take a break from racing over the winter, the next few of months provide opportunities to refresh and rejig the mental aspects of being among the most focused and identified motorsport heroes in the world. Triple world champion Max Verstappen’s mindset has been in a remarkable zone for several years, backed up by technical excellence from Red Bull and the unique relationship he has with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

As Le Mans winner and former F1 driver David Brabham said to me recently: “Max has got a very strong and stable mental approach to the whole weekend; he doesn’t allow any sort of negativity to come through – if it does it doesn’t last long. He’s extremely driven by perfection; he matured very quickly from when he first came in. I’ve been super impressed by how quickly he became a race winner with the mindset to become a world champion.”

Son of three-time champion Sir Jack Brabham, David began his career in the late 1980s and delivered a superb victory in a support race at the Australian Grand Prix by getting himself into a mental state which took him to a whole new level. That understanding of the brain input became a key part of his success in sportscar racing as he worked closely with mind coach Don Macpherson.

“He would get me into a meditative state where I could visualise, where I could create the scenario, the result and how I wanted to be prior to an event,” remembers David. “So I was then able to go there and think, “OK, I know what’s going to happen,” so bang, off I go.”

In February last year, George Russell confirmed his appreciation of working with mental experts through an interview with Men’s Health. He feels that mental and physical health work together and talking to a professional has lifted him in a way that prepares him for taking on almost any challenge – while also helping him avoid some of the negatives.

Some years ago at McLaren, Russell’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton worked with Dr Kerry Spackman, a man who started his career combining electronic technology with cars before becoming involved with motorsport, developing a role working with drivers as a cognitive neuroscientist. His initial connection with F1 was through Sir Jackie Stewart, another three-time champion who had already developed a remarkable mental strength. Especially when you consider how he struggled at school with dyslexia, which at the time nobody recognised.

Photo by: Drew Gibson / Motorsport Images

Brabham won Le Mans for Peugeot in 2009 and applied mental mastery successfully throughout his career

In his biography Winning is Not Enough, Stewart talks about his dismal failure of reading out loud in front of his class and the way it tipped him down a route of mixing with troublesome kids. But the lift he gained through success in clay pigeon shooting and then motor racing transformed him.

He was never afraid to take big decisions, such as turning down a decent wage from new team boss Ken Tyrrell in favour of 50% of all prize money. It worked, as did his early close bond with Jim Clark, who was already a star but one prepared to offer good advice; in some ways Stewart’s relationships and ability to ask questions before making decisions gave him a way of communicating that was as healthy as working with a psychotherapist.

Stewart also had a strong connection with Sir John Whitmore, who was a champion in British and European saloon cars in the 1960s before stepping down from motorsport and combining a new love for sailing with exploration into the mental health world. He connected strongly with Tim Gallwey, the man who created the ‘inner game’ concept of coaching sportsmen.

"It’s good practice for engineers to learn from those coaches because ultimately they become the driver’s psychologist" David Brabham

Whitmore would go on to write The Winning Mind in 1987 about the mentality of competitive sailing, a book
I absorbed as a junior motorsport racer
myself and which I found incredibly useful. A couple of years later I was lucky enough to have John coaching me for a day at Silverstone, and simply through the techniques of focusing on tension in the hands rather than being wound up about lap times, improvements were rapid. My career as a racer fell away, yet I had learned how mental exercise from an experienced professional could lift a racer into a different zone.

Mental coaching has now become a key aspect from juniors to the very top of the pyramid. F1 teams employ experts not only for drivers but for staff members who go through intense seasons and need support. As Brabham confirmed: “There’s a lot more science and a lot more people into it now in F1. They should have someone there who’s a mental coach for everyone. It’s good practice for engineers to learn from those coaches because ultimately they become the driver’s psychologist.”

Whether that’s the case for Lambiase’s relationship with Verstappen, we may never know – yet this is a crucial time for all F1 personnel
to reset and aim for a bright new season.

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Lambiase and Verstappen have a tight-knit relationship that has survived verbal sparring matches on the radio