Formula One teams should learn from other sports’ use of coaches to help drivers make the most of their skills, triple world champion Jackie Stewart said.
“One of the weaknesses that we’ve got in our sport, in my opinion, is the lack of training…this is the only sport that I can think of that doesn’t have coaching,” the Briton said. “For sure it makes a difference…you have coaches in football, rugby, cricket, golf. Tiger Woods wouldn’t walk 10 metres without his coach,” he said.
“Yet racing drivers don’t need any help at all.
“And when you suggest that they might benefit from it, there is a resistance. I don’t understand that,” added the Scot.
Last year’s world title runner-up suffered a 10-place grid penalty for the French GP when driving into the back of Kimi Raikkonen in the pit lane in Canada, resulting in Hamilton drawing a blank in successive races.
“One of the biggest and most important elements is communication, and there is not enough of that going on,” said Stewart, in his role as global ambassador for RBS at the Royal Automobile Club in London.
“Look at the accident in Montreal where there was so much publicity about Lewis, and with Nico (Rosberg), but not so much.
“How did that happen? Simply because there was so much distraction, so much interference going on in their young heads that they didn’t hear the message ‘the pit lane is closed, the red light is on’.
Also referring to Hamilton’s mistake during an overtaking move at Magny-Cours last time out, Stewart explained: “Drivers shouldn’t go over the top, and I think that has probably taken the world championship lead away from Lewis.”
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