Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: You're listening to the Motorsport Prospects podcast.
Hey, it's Mark from Motorsport Prospects and welcome to the Motorsport Prospects podcast. This is where we talk to motorsport professionals and we get the benefit of their wisdom. And it's kind of like you sitting down with these professionals and having a chat.
And one of the things that all my guests embody is that of trust. It's what race drivers are looking for in the motorsport professionals that they choose to work with. And it is a critical attribute that you must convey. Convey if you want to be successful in the sport. If you're looking for a way to demonstrate that you are a trusted motorsport professional, download my free white paper, the three Essentials for Motorsport Business Owners.
And in it you'll learn how to strengthen trust, attract high value clients and drive lasting growth for your motorsport company. You can download that from the show Notes in this podcast or directly@motorsport prospects.com now let's get started.
My guest today is human performance consultant Simon Hayes from Performance Physics.
Simon has been training and conditioning professional race drivers for over the past 30 years, including many in Formula One, IndyCar, professional sports car racing, NASCAR and motorcycle racing. He provides human performance services for a wide range of international professional motorsports athletes and up and coming racing drivers.
Welcome to the Motorsport Prospects podcast. Simon, thanks so much for taking the time out to speak to me.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: No worries, Mark, always. It's always a pleasure to talk to you and your viewers.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Thanks so much. Now, in this podcast I have one question and it's, it's pretty simple, but it's actually, it's actually pretty complicated when you think about it.
Based on your experience and expertise as a motorsport professional, what would be the one most important piece of advice you could offer a current or aspiring race driver?
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Oh wow, that's an interesting question. First of all.
Yeah, I mean I spent quite a few years thinking about this, of what I, what I actually would say and breaking it down, what I do say into sort of like one term of phrase or one question if you, if you will.
But I, I think it's something that comes from what we use in conditioning, which is periodization, which is long term planning.
So I would say to a driver how you need to have, you need to think about your long term goal, what you want to achieve, be it over five or however many years and look at how you're going to develop that goal through short term increments.
So it could be the series that you're looking to compete in to, to train you both, you know, various different ways and especially the on track stuff related to your long term goals. So for example, if you want to be a pro sports car racer, your development series should be geared towards that overall goal.
If your aim is to become a Formula One or IndyCar driver, subsequently, your development goals should follow that path to achieve to or to have a chance of the potential to achieve that goal. And I think that that's what, what I would essentially break that question down to.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Okay.
Now there's a lot of situations where we're seeing people that, whose long term goals might have been single seater racing and then they get to a certain point in their careers and they for whatever reason decide to pivot and go to sports car racing, whether that be as a result of budget, whether that be as a result of opportunity, whatever that might be. So in that case would you have to essentially pivot also your, your conditioning program and goals to, to take into that account that you're, you've changed, you basically change the type of racing you'll be doing?
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Oh absolutely, 100%.
It's quite often the case. Now I don't have to tell you this, but it's quite often the case with drivers that they're having to review and I would say do a review at the end with your, with your team, whoever you've got behind you at the end of each year and look at whether your long term goal is still the one that you want to focus on or at that specific point that you've maybe like changed your, changed your focus.
Even if that is like you say for, from a budget standpoint. And then once you've made that change you can, you can get all of your training and your driver coaching and the things that you do on the simulator for example, around that new long term goal. So you just, you're just reinventing, not reinventing the wheel, but you're re focused on your efforts towards what, what you can do to be a, to, to remain and, and follow through as a, as a long term professional racing driver and make a living out of it. Which is what you know, when I asked drivers what what your initially what their answer is, I want to be a Formula one driver, I want to be an Indy car driver. But then when you dig deeper and you ask them more more searching questions that is this about you getting into Formula one or Indy car or sports car racing, Lamar, whatever the case may be, or is it about, is this about you making a living out of becoming a professional racing driver? And sust.
Because I actually think now from having been in it all these years, that those are two very different questions and answers.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Absolutely. I asked the same question and I'm always curious, especially with younger drivers, and you'll get that answer. I want to race F1, which I never discourage, but at the same time, I think I'm usually more encouraged when somebody says, I just want to be a professional driver. Whether that's sports cars, whether that's single seaters, it doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter where I'm doing it. I want to be a professional, which means I want to be paid to race. And I find then you have. So it's either, it's, it's easier to mold that driver's future career than if they're, you know, hell bent on, you know, it's F1 or nothing.
And again, it's, it's never a bad thing to aspire to, to F1 or IndyCar. But at the same time, it gets very difficult when opportunities come up that might not be directly related to F1. And I always say, you know, when an opportunity comes up, you have to grab it. You know, sometimes they're hesitant because, you know, it's not really what I initially wanted to do.
And sometimes there's a little bit of education you have to give them to, to explain, well, you know, you want to be a pro driver or, or do you not? So, yeah, that's, that's actually a great question.
One of the things that you mentioned that I wanted to touch on was you mentioned team going back to your team. Now motorsport prospects is all about connecting drivers with motorsport professionals like yourself when it comes to, I mean, obviously a driver coach is an important part of a team, but for the conditioning side of things, and I know you're involved in physical conditioning and there's the mental conditioning aspect of it.
What do you see as a, as, as a typical team for a driver that, that, that is kind of on their way up.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: So we, as soon as I started performance physics, my, from my armed forces background in, in the UK and folding into my mo. Initial motorsport experience with British Touring cars and then Formula one, what I saw is, what was missing initially that I saw was that you get, and no disrespect to all these trainers from the, from the past, you get all of these trainers, they're all doing everything for this one, for this one driver, it might be two drivers.
So they're doing the training, the nutrition or all the rest of it. And I go back to, you can't be a, you can't, you can't be a jack of all trades. You've got to be a. And a master of none. You've got to be a master of one thing. I mean, obviously through my, through my training I've covered nutrition, mental coaching. But what we try to do is we put together a group of highly trained professionals that focus on one aspect of the human performance model. So where I focused on my primary time on developing programs and the, the physical training I got, I brought somebody in initially, Dr. Phil Goglia, who's one of the, the most foremost experts in nutrition. We do use other nutritionists that are of like the same level now after all these years. But Dr. Phil to work with people like Patrick Dempsey. He's worked with a lot of the Hollywood elite as well. He actually raced Daytona himself to actually feel what it was like from a performance aspection aspect, which was kind of interesting to find out. And then we've got two mental coaches that approach the mental picture from very different perspectives. I, I work a lot with Grant Hayes that.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: That has developed the SOMA Technologies app and, and does a lot of that with research with the universities and also with professional racing drivers himself. So I bring him in. And also Sabine Tarvan and who's from Austria that has a very specific program with, she worked with McLaren and worked with the, the Formula Woman racing series.
So yes, it just, we, we just try, we get people that are going to have a single singular focus and bring that to effectively make the team stronger.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Okay, now where, so where will people go if they want to find out more about performance physics and what you offer?
[00:11:10] Speaker A: So if they go to my. I have Instagram, but if they go to my website, which is performancephysics.com There's a contact page. So if you fill out the contact page which is, which goes from infoerformancephysics.com which is the email address, they'll initially be able to email me their questions and I will either be able to answer that or if it's for a specific. So for example, if it's just about mental coaching, I can put them in touch with the specific professional within our team and our group that deals with that specific aspect of the, of the performance program.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: Okay, perfect. So just to let everybody know, I will put links in the show notes to performance physics as well as that email so that you'll have that information there.
Really appreciate this, Simon, for your excellent insight. I always end the show with a final question, a fun question, I think, and that is simply what is your favorite racetrack? It could be A current racetrack. It could be a historical. But what is by far your favorite racetrack?
[00:12:27] Speaker A: I've, I've always loved the 24 hour races and I love the Le Mans 24 hours just because there's so. It's more of like a. It's more of a team ethos in terms of the drivers that are competing within a. Within a team rather than as an individual driver. And then I think as a conditioning person, you get much more out of the success of working with drivers in that race. I, I mean, I'm, I'm really proud of the fact that when we initially got hold of Patrick Dempsey, we were able to in 09 take him to his first Lamar and provide everything. And he, he drove double stints and did. Obviously it's well known that he did a fantastic job and, and became essentially a professional driver himself and team owner.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: So, yeah, he is probably one of the best examples. You know, sometimes you see, you know, Hollywood celebrities or whatever that get involved in racing and people wonder, you know, really, are these people actually, you know, are they actually real race drivers? Patrick Dempsey is a race driver through and through. There is no doubt about that. So that must have been really interesting working with him.
So any final words, Any final words on. On what you might.
How people want to get a hold of you and what it is that you would recommend that they do if they're looking for a, a conditioning coach?
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I'd be happy to hear from.
From anybody. We're actually, we're actually more so the last few years, three, five years, we've been working with a lot of the up and coming young drivers. In actual fact, interesting for you. I've got.
Just developing a program with.
With two young Canadian drivers, Mayor D and D and Aren and Declan Dear Dina Reen doing very, very well in there as they, as they come up the ladder. Mayer did very, very well in GB. The GB4 races that he did this year, we've got quite a few female drivers that are doing fabulous and fantastic work.
So it's, I'm getting really a big kick out of helping the sort of the younger people aspire and achieve their, their dreams. Especially, you know, since I'm, I'm not. I'm not super old, but I'm kind of like getting up there now, so can't get any.
Yeah, so it's, it's that. And we're develop. We're.
We're in the midst of developing some programs with developmental schools that hopefully are going to come off. So that will. That will be a resource for younger, younger drivers that are up and coming and getting on the first rung of the ladder for whether it be open wheel or closed wheel racing.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Well then that I think is a perfect way to end this and also a way to invite you in the future to come back on and fill us in on. On what?
On these programs that you're working on.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Yeah, sounds good. Always, always perfect.
I love being part of your, your organization and you put so much trouble, you put so much time and effort into getting everything right and yeah, it's one of the best ones out there in my view.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Oh, thanks so much, Simon.
Well, that's it for this week.
I'd like to thank Simon from Performance Physics for being here on the podcast. And this is Mark from Motorsport Prospects reminding you to stay fast, stay focused and keep CH chasing that checkered flag.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the Motorsport Prospects podcast. For insights, advice and the latest news racers can use, visit motorsportprospects.com.
