Many people think if your a racing or a rally driver you will be a great driver on the road. Is this true? Or do you think such a driver would be over confident and even arrogant?
If we look at the well know statement – Â road driving is 90% concentration and 10% ability then a racers skill would translate to little more than nothing on the road – in the REAL world.
Whats a Component of What?
However, I tend to disagree. The thing is, surely concentration is component of ability, and likewise ability is part of concentration. You need to have the ability to concentrate, and you also need to have the ability to know what to concentrate on and when.
Having worked with and personally know a few racing and rally drivers, I know from what they say that the different between failure and success is often down to concentration. Racers have a great ability to concentrate and make split second judgements based on what they are concentrating on.
Are They Any Good?
Removing egos and the like, if I was to take a punt I would say racing and rally drivers have the basics (if thats the right word?) to be fabulous road drivers – as long as they don’t practise their trade on the highway! I still feel the 90/10 rule stands, but it is far too black and white and to be totally honest I find it misleading, as I am sure others do too.
Stop the Sweeping Statements!
The basis for this post was really to outline how sweeping statements in the driver training world can confuse. Using the question point of a racing driver was really just to challenge if “ability” is actually such a small part of driving. Clearly it is not.