Motorsport's last low-hanging fruit

By:

Matt Kew

Mar 28, 2019, 12:50 PM

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It's the golden rule of endurance racing: spend as little time in the pits as possible. A driver can pound around chasing tenths of a second to set a perfect lap, but if they get it wrong and damage the car, sitting stationary in the garage undoes any potential gains.

It seems odd, then, that within motorsport driver conditioning is arguably the most neglected area of research. Manufacturers painstakingly develop their cars, but that is to embark on a path of diminishing returns if the driver climbs aboard for their third stint and is too tired to perform at their best.

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Matt Kew

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Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.