There seems to be a general feeling that lap times must keep getting faster.
When you stop making progress as a driver, you start looking to modify your car to gain more time.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I just think it’s one of many ways to enjoy motorsports.
At the same time, I would be sad if people started to feel that they couldn’t take driving seriously unless they had a high-performance car.
Even if the car’s performance — by which I mean its ability to set fast lap times — is relatively modest, there is still plenty of room for most drivers to improve.
I think it’s important for more people to realize, “Hey, this is fun too!”
But, well… I don’t know.
Cars aren’t perfect at everything. The more you pursue outright speed, the more compromises you tend to make in other areas.
If you want the latest and greatest, that’s perfectly fine.
But if people who don’t necessarily want that simply get swept along by the prevailing atmosphere, the way they see circuit driving may gradually change.
And fewer people may decide to try driving on a circuit in the first place.
It’s not really my place to worry about what other people do, but I do find it a little concerning.
Whether or not your lap times continue to improve, I think it’s important to keep improving as a driver.
The problem is that there is no objective measure of driving skill, so in most cases, we end up using lap times as a benchmark.
But lap times are inevitably affected significantly by things like temperature and tire condition.
People use data loggers and try all sorts of things to cancel out those effects, but I don’t think any of them are perfect.
It’s a difficult problem.
Let’s say there were something called a “driving skill tester.”
I install it in my Roadster and go drive at Takasu Circuit.
Then it displays:
“During your best lap, you were able to use 71% of this car’s maximum potential.”
And I think:
“Okay! Next time, I’m going to work on increasing that percentage!”
It would be wonderful if something like that existed, but when it comes to designing such a device, there’s no single answer as to which factors should be measured or how they should be evaluated.
So, realistically, I don’t think such a device could ever be made.
It’s not realistic, but… I think that’s exactly the point.
If there is something that makes it difficult for motorsports to become more widely accepted as a sport, perhaps this is part of it.
In reality, drivers have to find some way to evaluate their own progress, and much of that judgment is inevitably subjective.
Many sports have something beyond specific technical skills — something like a set of lessons about how to conduct yourself and grow as a person.
Winning isn’t the only thing that matters. I think many sports have cultures that place value on things like respect for your opponents, fair play, and being sincere about the sport itself.
In that sense, perhaps sports are meant to help people grow in ways that go beyond simply winning and losing.
But when it comes to motorsports, there is a tendency to place too much emphasis on results.
Of course, there are many people in motorsports with wonderful character. But in many cases, that seems to depend more on what those individuals already had within themselves. Motorsports doesn’t necessarily teach those things.
Perhaps, as a sport, motorsports is still developing.
Or perhaps there are many people who simply don’t want to see it treated like other sports.
I don’t know.
Driving skill doesn’t necessarily correlate with character. Someone with a wonderful character isn’t necessarily going to be a fast driver, and someone who is… well, not exactly a model of character isn’t necessarily going to be slow.
But I don’t think that’s what’s important.
Regardless of who is fast or slow, I feel that something is still missing if motorsports is to continue developing as a sport.
I’ve learned a lot of important things through driving on circuits, and I believe there are still many things I can learn.
That’s why I want to preserve that aspect of motorsports — the things that make it so wonderful as a sport.
That isn’t necessarily the same thing as the enjoyment of modifying a car.
But that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with improving a car’s ability to set faster lap times.
When you’re competing against someone, people often say that equal conditions are important.
If you can achieve that, I think it’s a wonderful thing. But in reality, it’s difficult.
Once winning becomes the only thing that matters, there will inevitably be people who are willing to break the rules as long as they don’t get caught.
I’m sure that happens in every sport.
But when it does, I want people to have something inside them that tells them it’s wrong.
If someone struggles with the temptation and ultimately fails to resist it, I won’t judge them for that.
But I want that sense of right and wrong to exist in the first place.
Especially among the younger generation who will shape the future.
The feeling that lap times must keep getting faster probably comes from the simple fact that it feels good when your lap time improves.
Once your driving skill reaches a certain level, the improvements you’re looking for may be measured in tenths of a second, or even less.
At that point, factors like temperature and tire condition can have a larger effect on your lap time than your driving skill does.
But if you’re looking only at your driving skill, that’s just the way it is.
As you increase a car’s ability to set faster lap times, there comes a point where the car becomes increasingly difficult to drive well.
That’s only natural, given the limits of human reaction time.
Once drivers reach a certain level of skill, they may feel that they need a car at that level, too, or there’s simply nothing left for them to do with a slower car — or perhaps it just doesn’t get them excited anymore.
But that’s a separate matter from believing that lap times must keep getting faster.
How each person chooses to deal with that feeling — the feeling that it’s nice when your lap time improves — is up to them.
Japanese racing driver Kuragon, who has competed at the Nürburgring, once wrote:
“The important thing is for users to accept that they won’t always be able to set fast lap times.”
I couldn’t agree more.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting higher performance. But at some point, I think it’s important to accept the performance you have.
That’s not necessarily something another person should decide for you by saying, “This is where you should stop.”
I think you should decide that for yourself.
But if you adopt that kind of value system, the result will naturally be different from a culture that says lap times must keep getting faster.
Let me say it again: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting higher performance, and I don’t think it means you’re a bad driver who has to rely on your car.
In general, it’s true that drivers who reach a certain level of skill tend to want higher levels of performance.
But that’s a separate matter.
When we look at circuit driving as a sport, I do worry that this growing tendency could become a negative thing for people who are thinking about getting into motorsports in the future.
You don’t necessarily have to make your car faster.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t.
I’m saying you don’t have to.
I think it’s important to accept that.
And I also think it’s important to show people that motorsports can still be incredibly fun even when you accept the performance you already have.
Whether motorsports grows or not doesn’t really benefit me in any way, so I suppose I don’t really care…
………
If I really don’t care, then why am I writing about it?!