I finally got around to watching Ford vs. Ferrari, which prompted this post, but I have thought about this for awhile.
Besides having courage, because it’s dangerous, and a rich sponsor for a car, what exactly is stopping a normal person from learning to drive a stick well and being able to do this?
Thanks in advance.
In: Engineering
Nothing is stopping you per se. With enough experience anyone can become a race car driver. But cars today are so _demanding_ that there is the concept of “getting behind the car”. Same thing with fighter pilots. You have to be able to think ahead of the car/plane because it responds so quick you don’t have the luxury of thinking “ok, I turned, now what do I do next?” because the car will already be at the NEXT turn and you have to be ready.
The perfect video to demonstrate this is Richard Hammond (of Top Gear fame) learning to drive an F1 car. Now here is someone who drives exotic sports cars _for a living_ and even [HE can barely keep up with the F3000 car (the “trainer car”), let alone the F1 car.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGUZJVY-sHo)
But having said that, if you had access to a car like that, with enough practise you could get competant enough to drive it properly. But there’s still a certain intangible quality that differentiates between a competant/good driver and a _great_ driver like Lewis Hamilton or Schumacher.
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