Your Data Driven Podcast

Part 2 with Willem Toet, the former head of aerodynamics at the Benetton, Ferrari and Sauber Formula 1 teams. Aero is one of those subjects that gets a lot of air time on TV but its often hard to relate that back to what you can do yourself. Willem Toet has some great insights and very practical tips. Make sure to listen to part 1 first and be sure to check out the links in the show notes for some...

Willem Toet, the former head of aerodynamics at the Benetton, Ferrari and Sauber Formula 1 teams, joins me for a very special two part show. Aero is one of those subjects that gets a lot of air time on TV but its often hard to relate that back to what you can do yourself. Willem Toet has some great insights and very practical tips. This is honestly an amazing chat with one of the best in the busin...

Welcome to episode 49. Today I'm delighted to welcome ace engineer Gavin Binkerton Jones. As an F2 team owner, several F1, Indy and sports car aces have passed through his care. Having raced himself on a tiny budget in the 1980s, he shares several tips and practical suggestions that you can apply to your own motorsports. There's absolute gold dust in this one. So without further ado, sit b...

Join us for Episode 48 with our guest, Julian Edgar, an acclaimed automotive journalist from Australia. With an extensive repertoire of books on suspension and aerodynamics, Julian is renowned for his ability to simplify complex theories into practical, budget-friendly techniques that anyone can apply to their racecar. In this episode, we delve into the fascinating world of aerodynamics, exploring...

Julian Thomas joins Samir Abid in this intriguing podcast episode to explore the world of motorsport data and analytics. The founder of Race Logic and VBox, Julian Thomas shares his unique motorsports journey, the value of mastering the basics, and how you can practise these in your everyday driving. This episode is brimming with Julian's insightful lessons. So as ever. Grab a pen. Grab a coff...

Today we have a fantastic guests lined up for you - racing driver and coach Nick Padmore. From the high uptime world of racing to the intricacies of car dynamics, we're going to delve deep into a range of topics that will hopefully give you a range of new perspectives to apply to your motor sport. So much to take away from this conversation, not only about the racing, but also how to manage th...

Today I'm delighted to welcome John Shoffner to the show. Husband of a previous guest, the amazing Janine Shoffner, John is another incredible person. A successful GT racer and entrepreneur, John Shoffner is also a pilot .. oh ... and he's about to go to the International Space Station. Yes that's right, John is going to become a real life astronaut. This is a fascinating discussion, I apologises...

Today I'm delighted to welcome John Santiago to the show. Dr John has a long history in motorsports as a participant and instructor. John Santiago is also a philosopher and has managed to blend his passion for teaching and motorsports into an amazing project called the Community Garage.  We discuss how they are using motorsports to make learning more engaging and fun for young people. We also...

Janine Shoffner is quite an incredible lady. An ex-professional sports skydiver and free-fall photographer, Janine Shoffner now completes on the World Endurance GT stage, including doing completing a whole 4 hour race alone at the Nordscheife. We discuss how a chance track day outing lead to her being training by the late-great Sabine Schmitz and sparking a life long passion for racing. Janine Sho...

Andre Lafond is a future star Indycar driver currently racing Formula Ford here in the UK. In this show we discuss what it takes to make that decision to go all in on a career driving racing cars. We talk about the role of coaching and how to give the most useful driver feedback to your engineers and crew. Andre Lafond also gives us some surprising tips about how he uses mountain biking to help wi...

Today I'm joined by ex-F1 suspension guru Paul Fickers. Paul Fickers has worked has been developing suspension systems on road and racing cars for nearly 30 years. He has also developed a quite astounding suspension development tool within Excel. In his own words it got completely out of hand! We discuss all things suspension, how you can do the basics right and what the basics even are. We do get...

Today I'm joined by Elite cyclist Dan Bigham. Dan Bigham is not only a multiple track cycling champion and British record holder, but he is also a very talented engineer. Currently Dan Bigham works as a Performance Engineer under David Brailsford at the INEOS cycling team. In the past he has been an aerodynamics engineer for the Mercedes F1 team, plus he has even worked for me! In this episode we...

Welcome to part 2 of my talk with F1 vehicle dynamics engineer Richard Frith. In part 1 we discussed Richard's early career, how to go testing and using data to improve your driving. In part 2 you'll learn about how F1 teams developed great driver feedback, where that fits in their development priorities, how to use that to develop the best setup. We also discuss what to change on your setup for t...

Today I'm welcoming F1 suspension guru Richard Frith to the show. Despite originally looking at aerospace, Richard Frith was recruited to the Jordan Formula 1 team by Mike Gascoyne. He fell in love with motorsports and has never looked back.  This is part 1 of a two part show. In this show you'll learn about how Richard Frith got into F1, about getting the most from relatively under resourced...

Today I'm delighted to welcome Jim Kearney to the show. Jim is a US based driver coach who has had an inevitable amount of success helping drivers improve, and win, particularly at events such as the national SCCA runoffs in America. If you are not sure what a driver coach can offer you and want to learn Jim Kearney's top tips that any driver can use to improve, then this shows for you. As always,...

Today, all the way virtually from Australia, I'm delighted to welcome Dale Thompson to the show. Dale Thompson has long worked in motorsports and with historic cars in particular. Dale shares with us many interesting and pragmatic ways to better understand and setup your car - so that it is easier and faster to drive on track. It was great chatting Dale to get his insights. I'm sure that this show...

Today I'm delighted to welcome Ray Phillips to the show. A successful single seater driver and top line driver coach, Ray Phillips has a wealth of experience in motorsports. As a competitor and coach Ray was one of the early adopters with data. This has led to a lot of success for his drivers in series such as the Ferrari challenge. So committed is he to the role data plays, Ray has also recently...

I'm delighted to welcome Annie Vernon to the show. Annie is a 2x Olympian and multiple World champion rower. We discuss what you can learn from someone who as competed at the highest level. How to find a balance between competition and emulation of your peers. And one or two ways you can look to benefit from her experience back in your own motorsport. There are more parallels between rowing and ra...

Legendary motorsports engineer John Block joins Samir Abid on the Your Data Driven podcast. John has worked at the highest levels in North American racing, engineering pole winning cars at Indy 500 as well as in NASCAR. Through the story of John's background you will understand how his discovery and application of the scientific method can help your own driving and success on track. From an age be...

I'm delighted to welcome Paul Thompson MBE to the show. Paul is a veteran of 8 Olympic games as a senior rowing coach. Paul's crews have won medals in the last 7 games where he's represented Australia, Great Britain and China. There are a remarkable number of similarities between rowing and motorsports. Paul Thompson shares with you his perspectives on the role of coaching and what you should look...

For this show Samir Abid is delighted to welcome back Ross Bentley. One of my earliest guests from way back in episode 3, Ross is a former top level Indycar driver who now works as one of the worlds foremost driver coaches through his speed secrets brand. The topic for this show is about understanding and developing a performance state of mind for your track driving. As ever with Ross Bentley the...

Ex-F1 driver and @SkySportsF1 analysis guru Karun Chandhok (@karunchandhok) joins us on the show. Karun Chandhok has an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of motorsports! Karun is one of only 2 Indian drivers to ever race in F1 and has arguably gone on to make an even greater impact on our sport through his work in the media, with Williams F1's (@WilliamsRacing) heritage team, as a Director at Motorsp...

Tal Ziv, a performance psychologist who has worked with some of the best pro drivers and engineers in the business. Tal comes highly recommend to the show by previous guest Jorge Segers [Ep.26/27]. But what is really the contribution of psychology in racing? Where is the link to lap time on the track? The motorsports community has long survived without this kind of expertise so where is the gap no...

Simon Hayes a personal trainer who's worked at all levels of motorsports, starting out with Williams in F1 and now focused on Indycars, with drivers such as Ryan Hunter-Ray and Kathrine Legge. We discuss the impact of fitness on your driving. How to find time for exercise in your busy schedule. Nutrition and how to make sure you're getting what you need. Specific types of exercises you can try and...

Jorge Segers, pro race engineer and author, joins us to discuss how you can get more from your data. Famous within the industry for writing one of the seminal texts on race car data analysis, Jorge helps us understand how you should approach and apply data to improve your performance. A special 2 part show, this is part 2. 0:54 What Are Racing Drivers Looking For In Their Data? 6:49 How To Manage...