The importance of being well rested and focused

I wonder if anyone have noticed increased importance of being in fresh, rested and focused state in order to perform well as a driver ? Or being tired and distracted doesn't do big impact for you ?

Personally, comparing to AC, I feel like being in good state means quite a bit more in being able to drive well, as well as enjoying the activity. I think that is due to more subtle and deeper car handling and force feedback. Also liking the activity and being good at it is very important too, because it increases concentration. So the idea is that if you are too tired, or not enjoying what you do (and if you are too tired you probably will be less enthusiastic), or both, then you can not be very good, I think they also discussed that in Top Gear once

So how do you prepare yourself for really fast and intense performance with modern racing cars in simulators ? Do you do any preparation at all, or maybe you can do intense brainwork till your head is almost exploding, and then immediately sit into a sim and keep the pace ?

 

Drink two or four beer and try hotstint.
Then you know why real racers dont drive drunk

 

Being rested/fresh of course helps the ability of being focused over a period of time.

If I assume by "drive well" you aim at performing at your very best (A-game) then I can't follow the reasoning why it should be more important for ACC than for other tasks/activicties. Since you can't be focused above your maximum ability of being able to focus, for any task or activity at which you want to perform at your A-game you ideally want to be focused for the whole time of being engaged in the activity.

 

Im old (46) and i bodybuild , still pretty heavy (i did a 240kg decline bench press a week or two ago ) and i can honestly say im at least 1 sec slower when i have trained and feel battered . I definetly drive worse when im angry too , when im chilled calm and happy i do best .

 

Strangely some of my best hotlaps time in simracing are when I drive when I have headache, those performance improvement are not simracing only!

 

when i start driving and hotlaping i do couple of good laps and after few more laps can get close to those good ones..than i get mad and confused because i am doing everything the same most of the time(unless i do some small mistakes that i know off)
and than just bad laps.. but this is definitely true i had a bad day few days back. and i was like i will play ACC i was nowhere near my pace i usually have. And i realised it left the game.

 

I have my gf sit next to me and...
We put those high beams and blue cockpit lights on to simulate getting pulled over by the polis.

...i better stop before the banhammer comes out.

 

My current hotlap PB was after a bottle of wine.

 

preach it brother.

I've did some good laps on voddie, but eventually i just succumb.
Not before the near inevitable, big off though.

 

We have some interesting things here. So muscles after have stresses aren't as responsive, anger and bad mood may have negative impact on focus. As LRM stated having a headache not necessarily can be resulting in worse performance (I'd like to add that some of my best performances (not only simracing) were when I was hungry, or lacked a little bit of sleep).

@baboon I think ACC has slightly more punishing "over the edge" physics and features. Naturally driving is more demanding. I don't think it is very much harder, but enough to notice.

@D.Jankovic Some of my best sessions were when I didn't even try at first, some really slow laps at beginning and then gradually faster laps, I think rushing in is definitely in high risk just to get frustrated. Also to start with slower laps is more immersive than going out flatout immediately, mostly because mistakes themselves are immersion breakers. I remember when Fat_Alfie released Thomson Road and we were racing online Lotus 25 (it was great). Most were doing usual hot out laps, and crashing and crashing.... I started slow to build up knowledge about track and car combo and avoid crashes, I was very immersed and happy about the evening, while others were a bit frustrated about unusual amount of crashes.

p.s. those who drink, it must be allowing you to take higher risks There is a saying "who doesn't risk, does not drink champagne", maybe we should say "who doesn't drink champagne, doesn't risk"

 

Sunday I spent until 1 am improving my best time in hotlap mode.
Monday I tried again but simply couldn't improve because I was too tired. Best I could do was 0.1 - 0.2 s slower than my best time the day prior.
I went to bed earlier that night and Tuesday I improved my best time by 0.2 s again.

To me it seems to matter how many hours I slept.
I need at least 8-9 hours to be well rested. 7 hours simply isn't enough.

 

Hamilton sleeps 6-5 hours ! Also, afaik he has some kind of sleep program, and people who helps him to adjust it, there are some video about it in youtube including interviews with him. He and other F1 pilots encounters big jet lag problems.

Of course only people with superb health will sleep so little, I need ~8as well, when I am doing at least a little bit of physical activity,eat well, and don't go to bed too late, then can do seven. I have a few friends who says to be sleeping 6-5, they are very energetic. If I sometimes go Kafka "Metamorphosis" and sleep 9 or even 10 hours, then it seems like whole day was meant to sleep, and it is all really messed up then.

 

I have 2 kids, don't sleep and I still win 1/3 of my races, 2/3 in top3.
While the above is true, yes I perform the best when I've had a powernap and I'm in better shape than no shape (running a few times a week).
I wonder what potential I could've had if I lived a normal life with sleep or started karting as a kid like real racers do.

 

The worst thing about being well rested and focused when you sit down to drive a sim...
Is Saturday morning up early, decide to do a few lap before you start the day, your sharp hitting all the marks
next thing you know the wife is calling you because supper is ready,
WTF the whole days is gone.

 

My performance is also fluctuating. Some days, rested or not, I'm simply off the pace, and then on other days,...I'm much slower
I wonder what potential I could've had if I only had a little bit of potential...

 

Man, life in luxary.
I have to wait till the whole family is asleep before even thinking about simracing.

 

It more depends on the mood rather than physical condition. Playing with plastic wheel sitting in a chair isn't that demanding, you don't need to workout for it (unless you have trendy 9000nm wheels that crunch your workspace into singularity) but if you don't have appropriate frame of mind for it on a given occassion, you'll be worse for sure

 

Hats off to those guys who are very busy with their duties, and they still finds time to participate in simracing. It definitely takes a lot. This also means that most likely there is no such luxury, every day, perhaps sometimes not even every week, this makes me think of other thing - keeping shape. To keep at the very edge with those modern sharp cars really requires good shape, I think more than old classic cars, or street cars, which are not as much concentrated on such a sharp optimum performance peak.

@demonized No doubt about that, attitude, mood, determination.. everything important. I don't think you really need to work out for simracing, wheel is not that heavy really, no G-forces, your weight is not doing any impact... though being in good shape must help a lot anyway, even for better mood and so on...

Speaking of very busy, I often feel like I can not perform well if I have unfinished tasks in my day, that's why I do best in the evening. Most of us are driving in the evening, online servers such as Aloog or Streetfight used to fill up at specific hours in the evening. Time zones is an issue for us...

 

Witch also brings us to the point.. that is why we are not Aliens in this games hehe. While they get up and get behind the wheel and practice we have other sh*t to do before we get couple of hours behind the wheel.

But if we are to practice enough we can also be aliens and find sponsors and practice whole day

 

Aliens must also have their personal sleep coaches, nutrition coaches and so on

I remember baronesbc would come to race at Aloog sometimes, not too often, and then just destroy everyone There were some more aliens, but most of them seems to be simracing less as they get very good.