Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief | Human Performance not just Horsepower

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The Motorsport Brief | Human Performance not just Horsepower · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:05
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  Today, a focus on human performance where some of the biggest gains can be made.
• 0:14
  G'day everyone, Rusty here.
• 0:16
  Welcome to The Shortcast.
• 0:17
  In a sport that has traditionally been all about finding the mechanical, aerodynamic or strategic advantages, you invariably end up celebrating small improvements.
• 0:28
  But an edge is an edge, right?
• 0:29
  So imagine what can be done by getting the body preparation and recovery right, the mental focus laser sharp.
• 0:37
  And the big outfits realise the importance of this for the whole team, not just the driver.
• 0:43
  Well, it's a great thing.
• 0:44
  rules that limit the amount of actual driving you can do in order to keep the cost down, means that you've got to test and develop the body in other ways to handle the rigours of our sport now.
• 0:55
  My guest to discuss this today is Nicole Bryant from Highline Active, whose driver-athlete division has worked with the likes of Walkinshaw and Dreaddy United, Erebus and all sorts of categories, not just supercars.
• 1:10
  For this chat, we're at Queensland Raceway where Nicole is working with
• 1:14
  the current champions in GT World Challenge Australia, Arise Racing, who run those really cool Ferrari 296s.
• 1:22
  As you'll hear, Nicole has spent time overseas, understanding what some of the teams in the United States, for example, are doing, and is there crossover with other codes too and how they might apply to motorsport?
• 1:34
  Biomechanics, ergonomics...
• 1:36
  dealing with injury and pain, neurocognitive and reaction training, nutrition and hydration, of course, and the mental side.
• 1:45
  Beyond her own qualification, there is a wider scope.
• 1:48
  Nicole embraces the learnings in other areas of sports medicine too and how they...
• 1:54
  might work here this one isn't just for drivers team members might find it interesting along with aspiring races start early is one of the key takeaways and even if you're just a fan it is fascinating the lengths we go to that we have to go to if you want to succeed enjoy the conversation
• 2:18
  Nicole, welcome.
• 2:19
  This is kind of a little bit overdue and I'd love to sort of start the conversation if I can by just establishing a bit about your credentials, what you do.
• 2:28
  And I mean, you're here working in a motorsport capacity, but you bring lots of learnings from other sports to this too, don't you?
• 2:36
  Yeah, firstly, thanks for having me.
• 2:38
  We had lots of little chats on the side over the years, but yeah, nice to sit down.
• 2:43
  Yeah, I have.
• 2:43
  So, and I'm primarily a physiotherapist by trade.
• 2:46
  I'm also a strength and conditioning coach.
• 2:48
  And so that's sort of where the fitness side has come into it.
• 2:52
  And, yeah, I've had a background in working in a number of different sports.
• 2:55
  I worked in a little bit of AFL in the early days and then triathlon.
• 3:00
  I had a bit to do with tennis, Grand Slam tennis players, and now motorsport.
• 3:05
  So that's sort of been, yeah, evolving over the last 10 years, really, the motorsport side of it.
• 3:11
  Yeah.
• 3:12
  We often use the term fitness almost like a, it's not a throwaway line, but it's a standard expectation, let's say, right?
• 3:20
  But you talk more about human performance, really, and that sort of encompasses, I think, many things.
• 3:27
  How does it sort of fit into the world of motorsport?
• 3:30
  And importantly, how does it give teams, drivers and so on a competitive advantage?
• 3:36
  Yeah, for sure.
• 3:36
  So when we talk about human performance, it's probably a newer term in terms of the language.
• 3:41
  It encompasses anything to do with the human element.
• 3:44
  So the mental and physical inputs essentially.
• 3:47
  And then we break it down into the fitness or the strength and conditioning is the term we use.
• 3:53
  In motorsport, we talk about biomechanics.
• 3:55
  So ergonomics, biomechanics, things like mental fitness and nutrition and hydration, nutrition,
• 4:01
  So they're the different elements and components essentially.
• 4:05
  And then with sport, you basically talk about sports skill.
• 4:08
  So every sport has their technical elements as in the sports skill.
• 4:11
  With the driving, it's the driving skill.
• 4:14
  And that's where the driver coaches and the engineers coach the driver in that element.
• 4:19
  But then you've got the other human elements in terms of physical fitness, mental fitness playing into sports.
• 4:26
  those technical.
• 4:27
  So basically a good athlete in any sort of sport needs both.
• 4:31
  You need the sports skill element and you also need the human performance element.
• 4:35
  And one kind of compliments the other in many respects.
• 4:39
  So if you're fatigued and so on, that has a knock-on effect on competitive, let's call it competitive advantage or ability, doesn't it?
• 4:48
  Yeah.
• 4:48
  Yeah.
• 4:48
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:49
  So with a driver, we'd be noticing towards often, so let's say the latter stages of a race or of a session, the engineer might be noticing the driver's performance altering.
• 5:00
  So they might be suddenly noticing sloppy gear changes or they're missing braking markers or they're like offline.
• 5:07
  They might be getting a little bit irritable on the radio and they'll be noticing these markers of fatigue basically.
• 5:14
  And then, you know, you're needing to work with, say, me.
• 5:18
  The engineer will often say this is what's happening on the track in the session and then I'll say, okay, well, where are we at in terms of is the fatigue a fitness issue that then is not aerobic fitness or their, you know, strength and endurance isn't good enough or is it a fueling issue?
• 5:34
  So in terms of nutrition and hydration, are they under-fuelled and then that's affecting their focus and concentration or is there something else?
• 5:42
  Mentally going on, mental fatigue is a huge sort of evolving area that we're really considering more.
• 5:47
  Yeah.
• 5:48
  So, it's, you're really, you know, analysing what's going on on track and saying, okay, which of the performance elements are human here and how can I work with the driver off the track to improve those weaknesses?
• 6:00
  I love that, the engine, fueling the engine, but the human engine is what you're referring to in this case.
• 6:05
  From your social media and from discussions and so on that we've had, I know you've spent a bit of time overseas with IndyCar teams, NASCAR teams and so on.
• 6:14
  What things are we learning here from other international levels of motorsport and bringing that back down under?
• 6:20
  Yeah, I mean, they're definitely focusing a lot more on the human performance side than they ever have.
• 6:25
  And certainly even one of the discussions that I had with Trackhouse when I was over there was they said, you know, the drivers were saying the cars are all becoming more and more similar, the control...
• 6:36
  Parts of the sport components are making it much harder to pass on the track.
• 6:40
  And they, you know, where can these extra elements, you know, the edge be found basically.
• 6:45
  So they started investing in their people and in the human side.
• 6:48
  And they've really just continued to build on that.
• 6:51
  So...
• 6:52
  Certainly in the NASCAR space, Ford and Chevrolet have these human performance centers that their drivers attend.
• 6:58
  And they're sort of somewhat of a secret in a way.
• 7:02
  What goes on there is quite sort of secretive.
• 7:04
  And then the same, you know, in IndyCar, they've been, we work, there's, you know, a couple of big players over there who work in that fitness space.
• 7:13
  And they have been purely just working with drivers.
• 7:16
  So it's basically like what I see in other sports.
• 7:19
  Olympic sports, all the football codes.
• 7:21
  You know, they have a full team of sports medicine professionals that work, you know, work with the athletes.
• 7:26
  And we're still behind on that in motorsport in Australia.
• 7:29
  Yeah.
• 7:30
  So we're not the investment in that.
• 7:32
  Certainly the analysis and the training just isn't quite at the level of what we're seeing overseas and what we see in other sports in Australia.
• 7:40
  So, I mean, there's a huge scope really for athletes, you know, driver athletes here to really get ahead.
• 7:47
  I love the fact that whether it be drivers or even team personnel, that they've looked at...
• 7:53
  I mean, motor racing has so many levelers now in a technical sense.
• 7:57
  We're often talking about parity or things that keep the playing field level.
• 8:03
  So it's...
• 8:04
  not unreasonable to sit there and go, well, hang on a minute, what's something we can tune?
• 8:08
  What's something we can work with?
• 8:10
  And the human being is, I mean, if you can create scenarios where ergonomically you've found something that's quicker, better, if you can create something where –
• 8:21
  the endurance of the athlete is better.
• 8:24
  This is where you're going to find some of the gains in some respects, aren't you?
• 8:27
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 8:28
  And, you know, even a conversation I was having with a carding team manager, you know, recently who was, you know, the carters and, you know, the parents are often, you know, like I want to, you know, a better engine.
• 8:39
  I want to spend more money.
• 8:40
  I want, you know, want an extra 10th, you know, an extra 10th.
• 8:42
  And,
• 8:43
  And, you know, they're like, but there's all these human elements that we could gain, you know, 10 tets from, you know.
• 8:49
  So it's really looking at the overall picture and seeing where the biggest gains are to be made.
• 8:54
  And changing the conversation, which I think is important too because we're so, motor racing's a place where people are often tied with money and they want to spend it in those traditional places, as you say, buying components, buying better engines and so on.
• 9:05
  But if you stop and think about it, a young athlete coming through karting and if they're aspiring to be a...
• 9:12
  a Formula One driver, an IndyCar driver or so on, starting that stuff early and getting that ingrained in the thinking is so very important.
• 9:20
  You and I caught up recently at the Race of Champions in Sydney, right?
• 9:23
  So you worked with, as the name suggests, some absolute champions there, right?
• 9:27
  What do you see from...
• 9:29
  the caliber of those sorts of athletes that have gone on in their relevant spaces to achieve some incredible things.
• 9:36
  And, you know, is there kind of something different that I guess comes with their level of competitive maturity?
• 9:43
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:44
  It was really interesting.
• 9:46
  Like, certainly, I was really lucky because I looked after the 20 drivers and...
• 9:50
  There was plenty of time, certainly in the morning of the events, to really, they would be able to book in with me at the hotel before we went to the track and have a good, you know, an hour or two hours of assessment and treatment time.
• 10:01
  So it meant that we could actually really analyse a lot that was going on in their training or their driving and make plans to improve it, which was also a real privilege that they allowed me to have that access.
• 10:12
  Yeah, I think what really helped was, I think, well, Chaz...
• 10:16
  Chas, Brody, Brody particularly, but also Will, I think I've, you know, worked with a bit and they had really sort of, I guess, sold, you know, the benefits of what I had to offer, which was really great.
• 10:28
  But the difference with those athletes is that they're happy to be.
• 10:32
  brutally honest about where their weaknesses are, which requires a lot of bravery.
• 10:36
  And this is the thing I don't see at younger levels or with different athletes, you know.
• 10:40
  Being that frank.
• 10:41
  You've got to be, you know, mentally strong enough that you can open yourself wide and take the criticism and then decide to actually do something about it.
• 10:49
  And that takes a lot of courage.
• 10:51
  But also they, you know, they were curious to keep searching for every edge.
• 10:56
  And even towards later stages of their career, they weren't kind of resting on their laurels, essentially.
• 11:02
  They were still searching.
• 11:03
  So they were still interested to say, okay, this person's got a really interesting approach.
• 11:08
  How can I take what she's saying and get better?
• 11:11
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 11:12
  Which was really interesting to see.
• 11:14
  And I think that's what really sets it apart from, I guess, the athletes that don't also have long careers.
• 11:20
  I want to come to other sports here in a moment, but one thing this has sort of piqued my interest on is that, and probably sounds quite obvious what I'm saying here, every athlete is different.
• 11:29
  Every person is wired differently mentally.
• 11:32
  You're seeing them at different levels of physical preparation, development and so on.
• 11:38
  So there must be a thing initially where you kind of like to sit down and more or less map out who they are, where they're at, and then set things up from there, do you?
• 11:49
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 11:50
  That's basically step one.
• 11:51
  So I think what we do really well at Driver Athlete is that initial assessment process.
• 11:56
  So it doesn't matter what stage we get the driver in, whether they're karting and they're young or they're a bronze driver who's only been driving a few years or they're a seasoned, you know, racer champions athlete.
• 12:07
  We will sit down and discuss all the elements of their current driving career, what they're racing, where they want to head, so where we're heading in the next few years, which is...
• 12:17
  crucially important because it takes time to build certainly strength and conditioning and also talk to their driving coaches, engineers, team managers, and find out where they perceive their weaknesses to be as well.
• 12:28
  So then when we have them in the clinic, we will actually do the fitness testing.
• 12:32
  and do their biomechanical testing.
• 12:35
  And we've got all the metrics and data that relate to our other drivers at similar levels so that we can make a judgment call on what they need and what the priorities are at that stage.
• 12:46
  Yeah, exactly.
• 12:47
  You can look at all of the elements of human performance and say every driver, well, you need all of it, let's throw all of it.
• 12:52
  But no one can absorb that all at once or make that much change.
• 12:56
  So you need to decide what's the most important and then make a plan moving forward.
• 13:01
  I mean, we're going to come to a little bit later.
• 13:04
  Just tell people the facilities in Victoria, is it in Melbourne, basically?
• 13:08
  Yeah.
• 13:09
  So we've got basically a sports medicine clinic and high performance centre in Richmond, and it's called Highline Active.
• 13:14
  So it's really a gym and a clinic space that we consult to anyone in the community.
• 13:20
  We see a lot of
• 13:21
  Marathon runners, basically, we do a bit of work with Triathlon Australia, so triathletes.
• 13:26
  But anyone can come to the clinic for any musculoskeletal treatment.
• 13:29
  We have a sports psychologist on staff and a sports dietitian on staff.
• 13:32
  So they will consult as well.
• 13:34
  And then, of course, the drivers will come to that facility.
• 13:36
  Some of them will come and they'll train in groups together, which is really great because they can then practice that competitive training.
• 13:45
  challenge like and it's hard because drivers can't race all the time they don't have the opportunity to test all the time so we want to put them into competitive situations more more commonly basically so they used to be a bit of an old uh you know I still speak to some team managers who're like I don't want my drivers to be you know training together you know I don't we don't want them to be to be friends or to see what the competition's doing but really like you want you want them to compete and to to work
• 14:12
  and see where everyone's at and know that they need to get better.
• 14:15
  I'm a bit underdone relative to him.
• 14:17
  Maybe I need to up my game in this area.
• 14:18
  100%.
• 14:18
  Yeah, I like it.
• 14:20
  And it's really interesting to watch it.
• 14:22
  So it's really important.
• 14:24
  So we have the drivers there.
• 14:24
  We also have a remote program.
• 14:26
  So some of the drivers, you know, they might not come to the clinic that often, but they'll have remote access to our programs that way.
• 14:33
  A quick break on this edition of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
• 14:37
  More on the human performance side of motorsport with Nicole Bryant in just a few moments.
• 14:46
  You're listening to The Motorsport Brief.
• 14:47
  Today we're talking about the benefits of preparing the athlete.
• 14:51
  And you have to think of the driver, the co-driver and team members as athletes.
• 14:57
  If you want to make it to the highest levels, to stay at the highest levels, optimal human performance is so important.
• 15:05
  As the convo with Nicole Bryant continues, we look at parallels with other codes and changing a bit of the perception.
• 15:13
  It's not just the machine that gives you the edge.
• 15:17
  You've led there to other sports.
• 15:20
  You talked about it in the introduction and so on.
• 15:23
  Just give me, where you can, some parallels, if you like, with other elite sports, understanding the benefits of kind of, I guess you could say, superior human performance sports and some of the legends that people might automatically think of in other sports.
• 15:38
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 15:40
  I guess the big ones that come to mind are some of the American champions, people like LeBron James, Tom Brady, yeah.
• 15:47
  And they're guys who were obviously at the top of their game for many years, you know, into their 40s.
• 15:52
  And it was reported, you know, often in the media, whether it's, you know, true to what level, but, you know, these guys are spending a million dollars a year on their bodies and their human performance.
• 16:01
  And this is in addition to what the clubs are providing.
• 16:04
  That's wild, isn't it?
• 16:05
  A million bucks, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:06
  But it's that level of dedication and the consistency over many, many years to make sure that they're recovering well and that they're ironing out every weakness constantly, essentially.
• 16:17
  So that's always really interesting.
• 16:19
  And that just shows you that there's always more to do.
• 16:22
  And obviously, those guys get paid on a scale that's at a different level.
• 16:25
  But it sort of just shows you if there's a percentage of what investment should you really be reserving for human performance.
• 16:31
  It's arguably higher than often what's being considered at the moment.
• 16:36
  moment.
• 16:36
  But I do like the thinking though.
• 16:37
  I mean, that just shows you with a very successful human being, a successful athlete that they are thinking about that.
• 16:43
  They're thinking, right, what else can I do or should I be doing?
• 16:46
  And at my age, relative to when I was, I don't know, 18 or whatever it might be and how things might be different.
• 16:51
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 16:53
  It's interesting.
• 16:54
  Obviously, as athletes get older, the requirements do get more in terms of they usually require more treatment because the body's getting a bit stiffer, the recovery takes longer.
• 17:02
  They do need to work a bit harder.
• 17:03
  But also having said that, you know, there are athletes, you know, that I've worked with, Mark Linderbond was one of them where he talked about, he wished that he'd had more physio treatment early in his career.
• 17:13
  His career.
• 17:13
  So, karting, for example, you know, he was like, I think my back would be better if I was having regular treatment and doing all the recovery in those stages.
• 17:21
  Having said that, he, you know, was one of the fittest still is, you know, has had a long career as well.
• 17:27
  So, he's really taken that stuff very seriously.
• 17:29
  Seriously.
• 17:30
  Can I come to, I mean, we're a data-driven game.
• 17:32
  If you walked up or down anywhere, we're recording this at Queensland Raceway.
• 17:35
  There are, you know, very expensive GT cars just beyond the doors of the Arise racing truck that we're inside here.
• 17:42
  There's all sorts of data gathering points in that pit lane for all sorts of ways to try and improve the lap time, the race result, whatever it might be, the strategy decisions and so on.
• 17:53
  There's clearly data points for you on your side too, isn't there?
• 17:56
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 17:58
  So we'll have different
• 17:59
  fitness testing that we'll do that will be, you know, either aerobic or strength driven.
• 18:04
  So we'll be gathering data from that.
• 18:06
  Even biomechanics, even with the seat ergonomics, like I do a seating assessment with drivers.
• 18:11
  Do you?
• 18:12
  Yeah.
• 18:12
  So basically use a system that I've created from when I first started in supercars and I worked with Andre Heimgart and I was getting leg numbness.
• 18:20
  And I basically have done that many seat fits now that I know the exact window that the body joint system needs to be in to be comfortable in the car.
• 18:28
  And prevent that sort of stuff.
• 18:30
  But also operate optimally.
• 18:32
  So there's different ranges where you have the most power and the most control.
• 18:36
  So we want your body to be in that position.
• 18:39
  So it's interesting, even at the last GT round, I did a couple of seat fits with one drive in Sprint Challenge and another one in GT4.
• 18:47
  And they were amazed at how just these little tweaks to their position gave them more control and feel in the car, but also alleviated, say, any back discomfort they were having.
• 18:57
  So then they're going to be able to focus on driving and not worrying about the back pain, but they've also got more control over the car.
• 19:03
  Yeah.
• 19:04
  I mean, I feel like as a code, we almost need to stop and think a little bit differently about our competitors and perhaps start thinking of them properly as athletes as they do in other disciplines.
• 19:17
  And maybe a parallel you might like to talk to here was around, I think, sort of horse racing and even the way we perceived jockeys, per se, maybe not necessarily as very...
• 19:29
  really as athletes when they are.
• 19:31
  Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 19:33
  And this, you know, I've got friends who work in horse racing.
• 19:36
  I've got a friend who's a sports artician and physios.
• 19:38
  And horse racing, even I think less than 10 years ago, the jockeys saw the horse as the athlete.
• 19:45
  They weren't seeing themselves as the athlete.
• 19:46
  The jockey was, they were restricting their diet and they were sitting in saunas to lose weight and be as lean as possible.
• 19:52
  And then, you know, they started to have more education around how much a loss of this, you know, poor nutrition and hydration was affecting their performance in the race.
• 20:01
  And now they've really completely shifted that.
• 20:04
  And the training programs that jockey's doing now are really sophisticated and very specific to horse racing, which is very similar, I think, in motorsport where really, you know, the focus is on the car and how can we make the car go faster.
• 20:18
  And we go to onboard cameras and we see them sitting there and my game, which I love, does in some ways make it look a little easier than what that environment is.
• 20:30
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:31
  And I still, whenever I speak to people in the community, you know, they might come into the clinic and they're like, what do you mean you work in motor racing as a physio?
• 20:37
  Like, what do they need to do?
• 20:38
  Mm-hmm.
• 20:40
  It's not just the car.
• 20:41
  Of course.
• 20:42
  And I think that's partly because we've got a driver, you know, and all this fireproof suit, protective gear, helmet, you can't really see them.
• 20:48
  So it's not like, you know, with tennis players, you can see them sweating, you can see them working hard, you can see them, you know, dropping their head and mentally, you know, really starting to lose it.
• 20:58
  Whereas you don't see this as much with the drivers, but we know that...
• 21:02
  Physically, you know, their heart rates are 160 to 180 commonly throughout their session.
• 21:07
  And they come out of the car dripping with sweat.
• 21:10
  And it's really like there's an analogy.
• 21:12
  It's like driving a race car is like going to the gym in your ski gear.
• 21:16
  But the gym is also a sauna.
• 21:18
  And it really is that physically demanding.
• 21:21
  A little wonder that after things like a 12-hour, a Bathurst 1000 in Germany, they lose fluid and weight significantly, don't they?
• 21:29
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:30
  And it's really not uncommon for the drivers following those kinds of events to lose two to three kilos of body weight and that percentage of loss.
• 21:39
  So if we talk about...
• 21:40
  loss of focus and concentration starts to occur at 1%, 2% body weight.
• 21:45
  And so these have real consequences to athletes' performance that's not always considered.
• 21:51
  You touched or lent into it a little bit before just around age, right, and how age affects human performance, how you focus on that, and maybe even how you're drawing from other sports around what older athletes are doing in different codes and how that might help in motor racing and so on.
• 22:05
  Yeah, I think they're more specific in terms of like they'll plan out their week.
• 22:11
  more.
• 22:11
  I think we all probably start to notice as we get older, recovery from anything just takes a bit longer.
• 22:16
  You know, you just, you feel a bit stiffer in the morning.
• 22:19
  You might do a workout at the gym, maybe takes you two or three days to recover rather than, you know, one day.
• 22:23
  You start to feel like you get tired and you, you know, you might have just gone for a run every other day in your twenties, but then as you get older, you find that you need to now stretch before and after running or, you know, you, you, you, you,
• 22:35
  Certainly you have to be more careful with your diet because, you know, you can be more sensitive to foods or you put on weight more easily.
• 22:40
  You just have to be more, older athletes just have to work a bit harder.
• 22:44
  And planning.
• 22:45
  And planning.
• 22:45
  Planning around that stuff.
• 22:46
  Absolutely.
• 22:47
  You and I are sitting, I think I said before, in the Arise racing truck, ordinarily some beautiful Ferraris would be parked in here along with all the mechanical equipment that has been transferred obviously out into their pit garages.
• 22:58
  So you have this space, this driver athlete space, a pop-up clinic, if you will.
• 23:03
  Just tell us what you're doing here this weekend.
• 23:04
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:05
  So essentially you're running a pop-up performance clinic.
• 23:08
  So lucky the guys that Arise have been working with and they've given me this A-Trailer as exclusive use for clinics.
• 23:15
  We've got a nice private space for any of the drivers to come to from any of the other categories but also personnel.
• 23:21
  And primarily, I guess, physiotherapy clinics.
• 23:23
  So things like injury management, dealing with neck pain, back pain, sports massage.
• 23:28
  So pre or post session preparation or recovery, going and doing some seat fit analysis.
• 23:34
  And we can also do some warm ups, reaction practice.
• 23:37
  So it's really just like a performance clinic on the road.
• 23:40
  I guess it sort of came about because I've done a lot of work with teams and I've been contracted to teams exclusively, essentially.
• 23:47
  And then I've had, because I've worked in motorsport a long time, drivers will contact
• 23:51
  you know, I'm at the track too, my back's sore, or this has happened, can I help?
• 23:55
  And you sort of can't when you're already exclusively with one team.
• 23:58
  So this is now opening it up to really to everyone, to all of the drivers who want to access it.
• 24:05
  A couple of to finish here.
• 24:07
  clear is that sometimes you, I guess, end up dealing with things that need to be reactionary.
• 24:14
  But what's this conversation, like preparation is actually, you want to be ahead of that rather than reacting to it, don't you?
• 24:23
  Yeah, definitely.
• 24:24
  Like, I mean, the big thing is with younger drivers is specifically, when we sit down with the driver in the clinic, if you're in karting, you know, we'll have the discussion of where are we heading?
• 24:33
  Like, are we staying in karting?
• 24:34
  Are we, you know, we're going to Toyota 86 in a couple of years?
• 24:37
  Are we heading to Formula One?
• 24:39
  Are we heading to supercars?
• 24:40
  And the physical requirements and the preparation those drivers need are vastly different depending on where they want to head.
• 24:46
  So there is, yeah, thought and planning.
• 24:50
  I think that, you know, I've seen...
• 24:51
  I've seen numerous drivers entering often Super 2 and they'll come in, you know, a few months before the Super 2 season starts and they're like, all right, we want to get fit for Super 2.
• 25:01
  And that's, you know... That's a conversation.
• 25:05
  That's a conversation that would have been great about two, minimum two years prior.
• 25:09
  So I guess the biggest thing is I'd love to start seeing drivers earlier in their career so that when they get to those next levels, often it's costing a lot of money.
• 25:17
  Parents or sponsors are spending a lot of money,
• 25:21
  They're prepared for it.
• 25:23
  This is a game where it's an evolving game, a constantly changing game.
• 25:28
  If you don't change, you won't be in a winning position.
• 25:31
  And there are people that are deeply passionate, fascinated by what they do.
• 25:37
  Is it, and I sense it is, the same for you around colleagues that are in different areas of your industry and working in other sports and so on?
• 25:45
  And where can you...
• 25:47
  I feel like there is growth opportunity here.
• 25:50
  Isn't that right?
• 25:51
  Do you mean for like human performance in motorsport?
• 25:53
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 25:54
  Because it's just, it is underutilised.
• 25:57
  But having said that, in a way, there's very few experts who are really experienced in motorsport.
• 26:04
  And it's not really the same.
• 26:05
  People will say to me, you know, how did you get into motorsport and how do you, you know, and I said, well, it's very hard.
• 26:10
  If you grow up playing tennis and you become a physio, you have the basics of understanding tennis and you can treat a tennis player.
• 26:16
  But unless you really have been in a race car, you know the physical requirements inside and out, it's very hard too.
• 26:24
  And that's where I guess we've had years of developing these systems and processes now and the experts that work under our roof are all similar.
• 26:32
  And that's, you know, it's a nice place to be because we're all really passionate.
• 26:36
  You know, I love talking about human performance.
• 26:39
  So I think we can just continue to do, you know, deliver even better services.
• 26:46
  In that space.
• 26:46
  Yeah.
• 26:47
  It's been fascinating to talk to you about this.
• 26:48
  Thank you very much.
• 26:50
  I respect that drivers probably want to keep a lot of things private in this space and you have very professionally just sort of
• 26:59
  given us little takeaways with some of the drivers that you've worked with in this pit lane and the benefits that it can have.
• 27:06
  And it's nice, I think, to stop and shine a light on an area of the sport that probably doesn't get spoken about enough.
• 27:13
  And yet it is so critically important at the end of the day, isn't it?
• 27:16
  Yeah, thank you.
• 27:18
  And, yeah, it's interesting because any time I do speak to anyone in Pit Lane, you know, whether it's someone in the media or a sponsor, people are fascinated because it's not talked about so much.
• 27:26
  So it is interesting.
• 27:28
  But that's what's great about a sport.
• 27:29
  There's so many different interesting elements to discuss.
• 27:33
  Rip a chat.
• 27:34
  Have a terrific weekend.
• 27:35
  Great.
• 27:35
  And hopefully it's straightforward and seamless for you.
• 27:38
  Thank you.
• 27:39
  Thanks for having me.
• 27:43
  There is some fascinating stuff in that one.
• 27:45
  Just a reminder too, you can go to highlineactive.com.au.
• 27:51
  That's highlineactive, all one word, .com.au to find out more.
• 27:56
  Or go and say g'day to Nicole the next time you're at a major race meeting.
• 28:00
  You can also find Highline Active on Instagram and Facebook or go to at driverathlete on Instagram.
• 28:08
  That is it for today.
• 28:09
  Enjoy the supercars from Perth this weekend.
• 28:12
  Oscar Piastri leading teammate Lando Norris by 10 points now in the Formula One standings after a really strong performance in Spain.
• 28:20
  It's his fifth win of the season and he outqualified Norris again, this time by the biggest margin of the year so far.
• 28:28
  Next stop, Canada, June 13-15.
• 28:32
  We have a new feature ep out with Dean Herridge early next week too, from driving for the legendary Possum Bourne in the Australian Rally Championship to being one of the first on scene at Peter Brock's tragic crash.
• 28:45
  And how rallying in Asia saw Dino become something of an early adopter of hotel quarantine well before COVID.
• 28:54
  Keep an eye out for notifications on that one.
• 28:56
  Have a ripper weekend, everybody.
• 28:58
  Bye for now.