Recapping Bart Horsten's Coaching
Bart Horsten
We had the pleasure of having 2 guest speakers talk to our drivers at Stretton Circuit for our 4th round of the Summer Championship. One of which was British Formula 3 driver, 19 year old Australian Bart Horsten. Bart has always loved motorsport, when visiting Europe in 2010 he tried karting for the first time and his passion of racing grew from there. He joined a karting club back in Australia and rapidly worked his way up through different championships, including the Australian Formula Ford and British Formula 4. In a compressed 2020 season last year, Bart completed his rookie year in Formula 3 with 3 podiums and finishing tenth overall, an impressive achievement! His ultimate goal though, is to get into Formula 1.
At Stretton, he gave us some great insights about his experiences so far and his advice to the drivers who are interested in getting into motorsport:
“As a British Formula Three Driver (GB3 now) who started in club karting around Perth, Western Australia, I have a huge appreciation for what karting can do for your future and growth as a person. The ability to get out there and enjoy yourself in pursuit of victory is a fantastic experience but along with that inevitably comes mistakes, losses and failure in a very real and harsh environment. Quite often circumstances that feel largely out of your control such as crashes, mechanical failures and inferior equipment can ruin your chances of success, forcing you into tough situations at a young age. Karting is great for this as it helps kids mature faster to cope with a lot of what happens and creates the groundwork for the skills and resilience required later in life, in or out of motorsport.
Even if the dream of being a Formula One driver or paid professional doesn’t come to be, there’s still a huge number of opportunities available within the sport. In a large F1 team there’s only two drivers amongst hundreds of staff who work in a multitude of areas from sponsorship and PR to engineering and design, all contributing towards the goal of winning the championship. Even within the team I drive for at a junior level, there are plenty of different people playing their part towards my on-track performance. The importance of a strong team cannot be understated so, despite what it may seem, motorsport is 100% a team sport that you can be a part of if you are passionate about it and are willing to put the time in.”
Image by CSUK: Bart Horsten delivering group coaching during Total Karting Zero’s 2021 Summer Championship – Round 4 at Stretton Circuit.
Here are his top three tips for our young drivers:
“Giving drivers three specific tips is a difficult thing to do because it is a such a varied sport, and everyone requires different advice. However, there are three pieces of general advice that I feel cover the areas of Skilful, Physical and Mental performance.
- The first is to improve your skill at the track, try your best to focus on one or two improvements you’d like to make and specify what they are before the next session. For example, I want to turn in later at turn 3 and brake earlier at turn 6. The main point is to do this consistently so when you’re half a second off, you find a tenth or two at a time and keep working to improve rather than just trying to drive faster which can lead to mistakes and being slower.
- The second thing is a lot harder than it sounds and that is to rest. Simply getting plenty of rest will massively improve your physical performance in the kart and as long as you’re alert when you step in the seat, I’d recommend having time to nap or sit quietly between sessions. Just making sure you get to bed at a reasonable time is huge and getting at least 9-10 hours sleep when possible. I understand that this stuff can be hard when you’re young, but it’s been a big help for me.
- The last and most important piece of advice is just to have fun! The mental side to racing is hugely complicated and not worth getting too serious about at a young age but I can promise that all your positive thoughts and experiences of racing will revolve around whether you’re enjoying yourself when you’re driving. Then when you are enjoying yourself, you will perform better. It’s obvious but it’s so important. Find what you love about the sport and hang onto it because that’ll get you where you want to go.”
We really appreciated Bart taking some time out to come and talk to our drivers and hope that they, and you, found his tips helpful. We wish Bart all the best in the future and look forward to hopefully seeing him in Formula 1!
Bart Horsten is an Australian driver based in the United Kingdom. His goal is to race in F1. He is currently racing in his second season of BRDC British F3 and has previously competed in British F4 (2019) and BRDC British F3 (2020) after moving to the UK in early 2019.