If you want to get ahead on the Formula Onegrid it turns out you need to be a cognitive "super performer."
Making split decisions at high speed again and again, F1 drivers' brains are working overtime to deal with the extreme demands of one of the world's most pressurized sports, according to performance scientist James Hewitt, who works at Hintsa Performance -- a company working in the area of "human high-performance."
"I'm really interested in super performers, people who exhibit particularly high levels of cognitive capabilities, maybe an ability to sustain their attention to a much greater degree than you see in the average population," Hewitt, who is head of science and innovation at Hintsa, told CNN's The Circuit.
"It's the integration of these different cognitive capabilities -- many residing in the front of the brain in the frontal cortex -- that define what I would call super performers," added Hewitt. "We see many of these in Formula One."
For drivers like Romain Grosjean of the Haas F1 Team, it's not just the stress of 20 grands prix a season his brain has to contend with.
Add new comment