It sounds strange, but you can see a lot of a racetrack with your eyes shut. That’s a big part of how I prepare whenever I arrive at a circuit.
I always prefer to stay at the track if I can. Nothing beats being on site, getting a proper night’s sleep, and not having to rush in early. But more than that, it gives me time when the track is quiet. That’s when I walk it. Everyone does track walks differently. For me, it’s all about visualisation — getting as much understanding as I can before I ever get in the car.
At Brands Hatch Indy, I spent a good hour walking the track the night before. At Paddock Hill Bend, I stopped and really looked at everything. The inside and outside kerbs, the rubber on the surface, how the track falls away. Then I sat down on the apex and closed my eyes. I started driving the corner in my head.
You begin to build a picture. The reference points sit at eye level. You feel the breeze, the way it moves across the circuit. You start to sense how the car will move — not just where it goes, but how it behaves. I could see the cutback. The dive. The defensive line. With my eyes shut, I could picture the gravel, the marshal posts, the drop of the hill. The car going light as it falls away, then loading up again through the compression. Keep the wheel straight. Minimise the scrub. Carry the speed. That corner is all about commitment. And before you even drive it, you need to trust that there’s more grip there than you think.
I only sat there for a few minutes, but I ran that corner again and again. Then I moved on. At Druids, I did the same thing. Entry. Apex. Exit. Running through different scenarios. Brands Indy is a short track, but it’s technical. You need to get up to speed quickly, not just for yourself but so you can give the team something useful to work with on the car.
That night, back at the motorhome, I kept going. Lap after lap in my head. Every gear change. Every braking point. Every apex. Just repeating it until it felt natural.
The next day was my first proper running in the Reynard on a busy test day. I was straight on the pace. It’s not just the laps you drive in the car that count.
