Ford Discovers Races Are Won In The Mind

What Does It Take To Be An Elite Performer? Imagine driving on an open racetrack, hitting top speed in your car that your safely buckled into, and your helmet...

What Does It Take To Be An Elite Performer?

Imagine driving on an open racetrack, hitting top speed in your car that your safely buckled into, and your helmet is on tight. Any shift of focus, and small error could cause you to lose control or even lose the race. This is the kind of mental focus Ford decided to venture into…into the mind of a professional race car driver.

The study involved a control group of normal drivers, and of course the group of professional drivers. They were hooked to EEG machines to measure brain activity, and then asked to perform a driving simulation. Dr. Elias Mouchlianitis is a neuroscience researcher at King’s College London. He says the findings from the study were fascinating.

“There’s this ability of a race car driver to be always on. They’re switched in, they’re using the maximum of their capacity to the task at hand,” Dr. Mouchlianitis says.

While driving at high speeds with high focus, the professional drivers performed 40% better than you or I would. But, if these ‘normal’ persons in the control group did some sort of mental exercise before the driving simulation, they were also able to tap into and access this higher state of performance…up to 50% improvement!

Based on the research, Ford is create a helmet that will transmit brain waves to Ford’s team during a race. This will allow them to study and research the mind of driver, and perhaps what can be done with the mind to help a driver exceed limitations. Ford is just scratching the surface….these findings could be applied to many people in many walks of life.