What are the characteristic of an F1 driver?

Question

Beside lightning reaction, talent, concentration and endurance..... what else?

Answer 1

If you asked guys like Kimi and JPM what kind of driver you should be, they'll probably say something like "Move aside when you see the blue flag and get the hell out of my way"



Self-centredness (not neccessarily a good thing, but many F1 drivers tend to adopt this approach).



Single mindedness (as above).



Pathological desire to win and beat the crap out of opposition (just ask Michael).



Technical knowledge and ability to communicate with engineers and give good feedback.



Good anticipation.



Experience.



Luck.

Answer 2

Other than the typical athlete things you mentioned like talent and practice, I'd say F1 drivers need pure fearlessness.

I'm not talking about just driving at a ridiculous speed, but also challenging one of the most high-tech vehicles in the world to perform at the absolute limits. You'd have to be a different breed to ignore the fact that the smallest error could cause you to crash fatally. If you don't have this characteristic, I don't think you could ever really succeed in auto racing.

Answer 3

Petulance (Fernando Alonso exhibited that during the season), the ability to manufacture excuses, a propensity for blaming other drivers for your mistakes, a lascivious nature (James Hunt was good at this) and a fondness for becoming inebriated and thrown out of night clubs (Kimi Matias Räikkönen has been known to do this).

All characteristics also associated with people I've known over the years.

Answer 4

The perfect F1 driver, besides that, is photogenical, open, easy to work with, communicative, and a pleasant person to be around.

Something that Raikkonen never is and never will be. I seem to think you're supporting him: no offence, but he is the iciest character in recent F1.

Answer 5

I don't know why, but they do have much shorter racing careers than NASCAR drivers, that's for sure...

Answer 6

It helps if you're short.