Ageing effect

It is well known that Sportscar drivers can race longer through their careers, which commonly is put down to a lower level of downforce, and therefore less requirement for physical strength. However, there is more to the phenomenon than that.

While endurance racing has been trying for years to move away from the idea that it’s an old drivers’ home, and looks instead to build a younger driver roster, the ability to continue long into a driver’s 40s at the top level can’t be denied. Medically speaking, an older driver might rely more on cognitive skills to keep them quick, rather than physical strength, and there are plenty around with the skills needed.

‘Let’s say there’s an infinite number of grey matter neural connections you can have,’ says Ferguson.

‘If you start to have fewer than that, you have to rely more on your fitness to prevent fatigue. If you are less fit [or older], you probably have more neural connections and cognitive capacity than the other drivers out there.’

Clearly, cognitive function can be improved with training, and drivers are often subjected to exercises similar to those used to treat dementia, or Alzheimers.

‘In terms of racing, what we have seen is that as drivers age, they tend to drift towards cars that have a lesser g loading on them than maybe they did earlier in their career,’ notes Ferguson. ‘This comes back to brain blood flow. As you age, everything declines so, if g forces reduce brain blood flow, it makes it harder for you to make decisions and make them quickly.

You might just drift towards cars that don’t elicit the g forces, or maybe the cars are slower than what you are used to. That’s what we think is going on, but it’s really hard to quantifiably test that.’