Natural talent versus hard work

[sushifiesta]

This is a good point, one which I can answer. In the first year when I was in the 6th form (nobody drove a car at this point, or had racing experience) there was a massive spread of lap times and racecraft abilities. Myself and one of my mates were consistently 3 seconds a lap faster than even the quickest of the rest, even though we all had the same experience prior to it. When we got out of the car, the head marshal said to us "You boys have got raw talent, you should do this more often."
Talent is clearly important, but you can get there through lots of practice and dedication, even if `the gift` isn't there. Just takes a little longer. That's why I think Lewis Hamilton is clearly one of the gifted ones, as he made such an impact in his first year in F1

It is so tricky to rule out other factors though. As an F1 fan you will probably have a better idea about racing lines etc. and probably have taken more of an interest in cars in general than the others you went with. Also, perhaps you were more confident about driving a go-kart for the first time and so willing to push harder.

It's just so difficult to separate some sort of "racing gene" from life experiences, even if they aren't obviously applicable to driving.

 

[Slyboogy]

I think that's the point sushifiesta, not matter what situation there will always will be bit of a spread due to various factors.

 

[Jen]

Natural talent always outweighs hard work.

The 'ungifted' can work as hard as they like and they will still be mediocre; the gifted can sit on their laurels and might be champions (depending on the competition) - but the naturally talented who work hard will always excel.

It's the same in most 'professions'.

 

[sportsman]

Undoubtedly natural talent does exist.I can quote one real life example that happened here at our local track.
We had a lad turn up who nobody knew. He had never raced anything before and he arrived in a home tuned VW Golf with a roll cage made of welded scaffold tubes.I am on the committee there and we had a discussion as to whether or not we should let him do few practice laps.Eventually we agreed that he could and he within a couple of laps was within one second of the outright lap record.I stood there watching him in total amazement.He hit every braking point found the racing line and put in an incredible performance.A few of us old boys got together and found him a decent car (with a proper roll cage) and and helped him out with costs.
He lived at home way out in the sticks looked after his mother and old gran by himself and practised on a old old abandoned Soviet airfield.In his first full season, he came second in the club championship and eight in the Baltic National Championship.
He was naturally gifted, worked like trojan practising and had never watched a race on TV apart from a few clips in the news in his life.

 

[VanChallis]

It is so tricky to rule out other factors though. As an F1 fan you will probably have a better idea about racing lines etc. and probably have taken more of an interest in cars in general than the others you went with. Also, perhaps you were more confident about driving a go-kart for the first time and so willing to push harder.

It's just so difficult to separate some sort of "racing gene" from life experiences, even if they aren't obviously applicable to driving.

You're spot on. I'd always been fascinated by cars, how they move, etc. and I'd been playing racing games for years( I know it's not quite the same but still adds to a bank of knowledge on racing lines, finding grip, etc. so I suppose I was approaching it from a better place, and I just had to quickly learn how to apply what I knew in theory into actually doing it!

 

[sushifiesta]

Another hard work argument from me

I think if you look at the current generation of sportsmen and women it would suggest that hard work has a greater influence. You'll struggle to find an athlete near the top of their sport that hasn't started at a young age and trained hard for years and years. There needs to be some sort of spark to get things moving but after that hard work takes over in my opinion.

To name a few famous British examples - Lewis Hamilton, Andy Murray and David Beckham.

Lewis started karting at the age of six spurred on by his father. I remember a story (from his autobiography I think) about Anthony Hamilton placing a cone where Lewis had to brake for a corner and moving it closer and closer to it every lap. This is the origin of Lewis' 'super-late' braking that is still a feature of his driving in F1 today.

Andy Murray started playing Tennis at the age of 5 motivated by a sporting family and in particular being sick of losing to his older brother (Jamie). At the age of 15 he moved to Barcelona to play in a much more competitive environment - I'm not sure he would be where he is in the rankings now if he had been under the wing of the LTA in the UK...

I'm not sure when David Beckham started playing football exactly but again it was from a young age. One story that sticks in my mind is that he used to stay behind after training and hang tyres from goal posts to act as targets for him to hit. Now he is known as one of the best free-kick takers the game has ever seen.

There are some exceptions, Damon Hill being one I guess, but they are getting rarer and rarer as training techniques have become better.

 

[Slyboogy]

What about Vitaly Petrov? Racing Lada cars when he was 17-18 (I think that's the right age) and now he is in F1 an unusual way into F1 and he started off much later than any of these guys that are currently in F1.

To be honest...I don't know where I am going with this

 

[Galahad]

Lots and lots of kids the same age as Lewis started karting at six years old (or younger). Why did he make it to F1 and they didn't? Hard work has a lot to do with it, certainly. His father's sacrifices in terms of time and money were also advantageous. You can probably throw in a dash of good fortune too. But I still find myself feeling that natural aptitude still remains an important factor too.

It's fascinating because we'll never know the answer, I suppose.

 

[sportsman]

Difficult to find a definitive answer to this.Natural ability plays a part.A genuine love for the sport as most kids of 7/8/9 get bored with constant practising between actual racing.Family commitment plays a large part as well.
My own son who will be nine this year has never known a life away from racing.He used to come me to all the local meetings and I bought him his own kart.He did one season in karting, did quite well as it turns out but lost interest.
He had tried a quad bike a few times and this year he is racing quad bikes.He loves the easy camaderie of the other kids which he says is totally different to karts.
So its very unlikely that he will ever race in cars.

 

[VanChallis]

I think both have a massive part in it, to be honest. I think natural ability is needed, especially at the start of your career, in order to be noticed, but there are quite a lot of drivers with that natural ability. It has to be coupled with hard work to create an understanding of the talent they have, and to learn the consistency, decision making, and politics. (especially in F1) Ayrton Senna undoubtedly had the talent (one of the biggest natural talents ever in my opinion) but he also had an unbelievable work ethic, more so that most or even all of his fellow drivers at the time, and that's what allowed him to stand up above those other great drivers. He set the standard that most other drivers have followed, so now, more than ever, it's important to work really hard as well as have natural talent. This is just my opinion, not what I see as fact.
Another point I'd like to add. Personally I think it's important to have a passion and love for what you do. Someone forced into Karts by an over-enthusiastic dad, will probably not do as well than a young F1 nut who pestered his dad for years to get him a kart. I can't stand cooking, so I'm not going to be that good at it, I suppose!