Jan
23
James Peace Blog – My Day with Mark Webber
One of the many benefits of being selected to join the Motor Sports Association’s elite MSA Academy Squad is that we get to spend a training day with Red Bull Racing Formula One star Mark Webber.
So here we are: the day I’ve been looking forward to for so long is finally here. It’s a quick 40 minute drive from my house to the Porsche Human Performance Centre and wow, what a sight! The building is a state of the art facility towering high above numerous good looking Porsches such as the 911, the turbo and some Carrera GT’s. Inside it’s an amazing open space where I practiced Yoga for 45 minutes with their breathing specialist – it’s much harder than it looks!
After lunch, we listened to an insightful interview between Mark and Andy Blow, a sports scientist who has trained top drivers including Mark, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button amongst others. More recently he has co-authored the book ‘The Motorsport Fitness Manual’ with Dr. Raj Jutley. As an athlete, Andy represented the Great Britain elite team in triathlon and duathlon at World Championship level and recorded several top 10 international Ironman finishes. What a guy!
Then the floor was opened up for a few minutes for us to ask our questions. So what was it like to spend some time with Mark Webber? Anyone who’s watched his interviews will know that he’s well known and admired for his “Aussie Grit” – his Twitter name – and his honest, say-like-it-is approach, and that’s just how he was. He talked about a whole range of things to help us, such as advising us to always strive to be better in every aspect. Mark gave us an example that he was always the first to the door of his local gym, beating even the owner! His favourite saying, from a fellow Aussie racer, is: “Mate, it’s a long way back home with your tail between your legs!” He told us to maximise everything we’ve got and never give up.
I only had one question slot, so despite having many questions I asked Mark how he prepared mentally and physically for a qualifying session to extract the best out of himself and the car when the pressure is at its highest. Mark answered my question with 100% honesty and the words of advice he told me will stay with me throughout my racing career. But I’m not going to share that with you!
I shook Mark’s hand whilst he quizzed me on my racing career and future plans, I told him I plan to dominate InterSteps Championship this year and then see you next year in GP3! (Mark owns a team in the series with Red Bull boss Christian Horner, MW Arden).
We were then ferried off to the iZone Driver Performance Centre. For many of my colleagues this was a daunting first time, but for me I was returning to the place I do most of my training. Faced with the option of driving the simulator of either karting KF3 or the Carrera GT, I opted for the karting simulator. Seeing the leader board for the day, many established drivers had set quick times already. So, armed with the advice from Mark, I set about putting those words into practice and was immediately quick, eventually getting down to setting the fastest time that nobody got within 0.2 of. This earned me a prize, a signed hat from Webber himself and it’s safe to say I was chuffed to bits! All racing drivers want to win at everything.
After this was a quick session in iZone’s new ‘Grid Fit’ challenges and learned probably the most important lesson of the day regarding fitness: how to train the neck muscles under the guidance of Gareth Evans, an expert in strength conditioning. Neck muscles are of course a vital group to a racing driver, and he gave me loads of tips and techniques to train my neck, so it is great that I have left the day with that knowledge.
Other vital areas of the day were the ‘Importance of Nutrition’ seminar with Andy Blow, which taught me new key aspects of nutrition and hydration. The whole day was very educational and has given me a look at how importance all aspects of fitness really are and has given me a more serious outlook on it. Thanks to Mark, Porsche and all the team at iZone for a great day! See you all soon.
James