Keep vision wide

When driving a race car, one must keep their vision as wide as possible.

Typically, when stressed or excited, a person’s vision will narrow and they will hyper-focus on what is directly in front of them. Instead, one must relax and consciously practice widening their vision so as to see everything in their field of view, including their mirrors out to the side. One will of course swivel their head side to side as needed, such as when driving side-by-side with another vehicle, but even then, one must maintain a wide perception.

Focus far

Along with keeping one’s vision perception wide, one must also be always perceiving as far ahead and as far behind as possible.

One must not simply focus on the cars immediately ahead and behind; instead, one must maintain an awareness of the entire pack of vehicles at all times. Even when a vehicle is out of view, one must maintain a continued awareness of them by using one’s imagination and spacial awareness.

One must not let one’s focus lag behind what is visible. If it is physically in one’s line of sight, it should be within one’s ongoing awareness.

Do not get caught out by any shenanigans happening in front of you, or by drivers dive-bombing from behind.

Look through turns

Focus on each corner’s turn-in point when approaching. Before reaching turn-in, one’s eyes should move to the apex, and from there, to the exit, always keeping one’s vision as far ahead as possible, never lagging behind what can be perceived.

Don’t drive by connecting the dots, only looking one section of track ahead of your current position. Instead, think of looking ahead in terms of time, not distance. One should be looking farther ahead through quicker corners, but not as far ahead through slower ones.

Over/under rotation is felt by noticing the yaw angle of the car relative to the apex for the current part of the corner at any given moment. For this reason, focusing ahead is not just about path finding but also about feeling the car at the limit.

One should have mental projection of the shape of the turn before moving through it. This is especially important for blind corners where the exit is not visible at turn-in.