Karting Coach Costs: What €500 a Day Actually Buys You

You keep seeing driver coaches on the track and you always wonder whether you should get one for yourself or not. And if so, should we get it for every race or just some race or just some practice days? Or should you get it for every single day of driving?

So, you know, these are questions that every driver asks himself. But also the bigger question is, is a coach even worth it? I mean, do I even need a coach? Can I just coach myself? Is it enough to just use my mechanic or my dad, dad, as a coach, even though he may not have any racing experience? You know, these are the questions that drivers and even parents of drivers ask themselves all the time.

Coaching barely existed 20 years ago

And it's also what I ask myself in formula cars, because to be honest, back in the days, 15, 20 years ago, there wasn't really any such thing as a coach, as a karting coach. I mean, unless you were talking about the two legendary Terry Fullerton and Mike Wilson, there weren't any other coaches on the track.

Whereas now it's very popular, there's many, many coaches, even coaches that are not very experienced. They may have done some karting races here and there, or may not have done any race at all, and they're just, uh, mechanicing, or they're just involved in the, in the, in the sector and motorsport for a while, and they are just coaching. So you can have a wide range of coaches. Of course, you know, the more experienced they are the better, they must be a racing drivers themselves. Otherwise, I mean, if you pick a coach that has never been driving, it's almost like trying to pick a personal trainer that he has never hit the gym once in his life. So it's almost like counterintuitive. So, you know, you wouldn't want to learn from somebody who has never been there and done that.

So that's my prerequisite, like if you want to go for a coach, you gotta make sure you go for a really good coach that has lots of experience and can really teach you the good stuff. Otherwise you'll probably end up learning from someone who doesn't even know what he's talking about. He's just there to earn some money, and it feels like that's a good way to make a living. But the reality is that, uh, I mean, you should have a background that justifies you becoming a coach. That's always what I think, but it's funny, it's like, I, I'm seeing many people turning up and becoming coaches, just like random mechanics becoming coaches out of nothing.

You know, of course, if you're in the environment for many years, maybe you're not a driver in yourself, but you may pick up some, you know, coaching tips here and there that may actually be useful. They probably are useful. But the reality is that you need to feel it, you need to drive it, you need to have experienced it, you know, the high pressure races, the feeling of driving on the limit, all those sorts of things, in order to teach someone. Because how can you really teach someone when you have never raced yourself, or where you have never, you know, just chased that perfect lap and drove at the limit of the grip?

Your kid only rises to the level of the coaching he gets

So, yeah, that's number one priority. I mean, if you want to hire a coach, you're gonna make sure you do background checks on him and make sure that he has the reputation and he is, uh, worthy of being hired, let's say. And your kid is definitely going to listen way more easily if the coach has got a reputation of being a great driver himself, with lots of successes in his background. Whereas if you're hiring a coach that is almost like never been driving, or if he did, it was just like a very amateurish level, never really, you know, claimed any title or something, of course it's, uh, it's hard for the kid to then listen to him, and it's hard to turn that kid into an outstanding world-class driver.

So I really feel that, uh, you only raise to the level of, uh, of the coaching you receive. So it's really hard to, to take a kid and make him become world-class, absolute killer, if the coach has never been driving himself and he's, uh, you know, below average, obviously, in terms of coaching.

So I really feel that, uh, kids are very malleable, and therefore, you know, they're going to listen to authority, which in this case would be a coach. But, you know, again, if they listen and apply the bad stuff, they're not going to become great racing drivers, and there's going to be tons of wasted potential and regrets down the line for having hired a not-so-professional and, you know, skilled coach. Because, I mean, at the end of the day, coaching is a skill of its own. You know, you may be a really fast driver, a really successful one, but you may not be a really good coach, because you may not know how to actually translate your thoughts into words, and those words become actions from the driver you're coaching.

So, you know, I consider myself maybe not so good at that in the beginning, when I transitioned from driving myself to running the team. And at the end of the day, when I'd run Babyrace, I'm mostly, you know, taking care of performance and coaching. So it's my, uh, my go-to approach, and that's what I really enjoy doing, because then it translates into performance, race wins, etcetera. So that's my favorite. So I wasn't that great, with full transparency, when I started out, but now I just feel like I'm so much better, and I can take on whatever, um, excuse a driver makes, or any sort of objection when told to try something.

So of course the experience helped me a ton, and I wouldn't be able to coach as I am now if I didn't have the background that thankfully I was able to receive, with all the races I did thanks to my dad, you know, investing in me and getting into this sport in the first place. So obviously I'm grateful for that. But at the same time, I realized that I worked really hard, and I developed my skills, and I, outside of the track, also kept pushing myself and becoming a better racing driver, whole round, which has eventually made me a really good coach. And, yeah, I'm not going to deny that, of course, talk about modesty, but yeah, honestly it takes tons of experience, tons of time, and also work, because I read a lot of books, not only in terms of how to be a fast racing driver, but also psychology, sports psychology, and how to really increase your performance as an athlete.

So I think that plays really well, it's, it's really important. It's not just about nailing that perfect lap, it's also about being a whole round athlete to become a successful racing driver. But let's go back to our coaching discussion.

What a karting coach actually costs

So a good coach in one day is going to roughly cost you between 250 and 350 euros, only for the coaching. But then you will have to include expenses, such as the hotel, if he's, you know, staying for a race, is going to be, be at least charging you 100 euros for expenses and hotel, as well as travel, plus I would say another 50 or 100 per day, as well as the dinner, breakfast, food, I mean, general. So you have to look at an average of 300, 350 a day, plus about 100, 150 a day for expenses. So you will be spending north of 500 euros per day on a coach, between its fees and his expenses.

So the normal question, obviously, is, is that even worth it? Because with that amount you could just maybe do the double of your track time during a month, for example. If you are quite tight on budget, of course, you will probably be better off avoiding using a coach, because at least you can get more track time. So, of course, if you get yourself a really experienced mechanic, or get yourself some sort of remote coaching and group coaching, as I provide it, Senndit, and I do it very, very enjoyably across the off days from the track, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, for example, then you can get yourself all the knowledge and education you need. And then, of course, when you go to the track, you need to try to apply those lessons.

That's pretty much what you should be doing if you're tight on budget. Of course, if you have unlimited budget, well, then you can just have the best coach you can. You can drive the most amount of days with the best equipment, etcetera.

The case for leaving the driver alone

But you know, the reality is that I feel that in some cases you need to also be inside your head and just fix the driving in any corners by yourself, without having someone tell you. So it's a bit of a counterintuitive thing, but I prefer to leave my drivers alone on the track, and I would like them to kind of self-assess, by being more self-aware of where they have to improve. So, self-assessing their mistakes and self-correcting by fixing them the next session.

So I really just believe this is a key skill a driver needs, and that's why I pushed them at Babyrace to work on themselves and to figure them out themselves, where they need to find the lap time. I give them access to my PC so they can find on the laptop the errors they need to improve, by looking at PURPL, by looking at Race Studio 3, or watching their own videos. They can figure them themselves. It's good, because once the kids learn, they can almost like apply it as a game, and it just feels like they are climbing from level to level in that game.

So, yeah, of course a coach is very useful. I suggested to work on a very good coach, maybe I would pick and choose just some days where you can do that and get as much value as possible, to kind of like detect the areas the driver is losing, and so that the coach can help him fix those areas. But obviously you can't expect to be having that coach everywhere you drive, because, first, really good coaches are, are hard to get. I mean, the world-class coaches are probably not living in your nearby city, or not even your country. Most of the best coaches are probably in Italy, UK, and I guess some in the US.

So if you're not living in these countries, for sure, you're still finding really good coaches. I mean, at the end of the day, I believe it's also quite subjective, that you may get along with one coach while other drivers may not get along with that coach. So I know it's quite subjective, but if you think objectively, the best coaches are concentrated in the areas where there's the most amount of action and races. So here at Lake Garda, around South Garda Karting, and then Franciacorta, in Cremona, here's where we have the most amount of races in Italy, and here's where there's the highest density of coaches. So I just generally feel that here's the place to get really good coaching and to get really good track time. So you should come here if you want to set up some testing days with some teams to get the best coaching. Obviously contact the coach first so you, you can arrange everything up.

The 80/20 way to afford a great coach

And, uh, but yeah, so I would just selectively look for days where you can get kind of like coaching upgrades in your driving. That would be a good way in order to kind of like make it affordable, and you can just like spend a couple of days a month maybe on that, on a really good coach on a really good track, and that would for sure help you a lot. You know, it's, uh, the Pareto principle, the 80-20, you know, like with 20% of the effort you can get 80% of the outcome. So I, I feel like if you have 10 days of driving during a month, let's say, you can do two days of really high coaching, and the rest of the eight days, you can just like drive by yourself and focus on the areas that your coach assigned you to work on. So it's a bit what I do at Babyrace.

And I really love the group coaching that I provide at Senndit, because I think this helps the drivers a lot while keeping it super affordable, at less than the cost of a set of new tires per month. So obviously it makes a difference, and it doesn't break the bank.

What a coach actually does with your day

So what are the actual tasks that a coach is going to be doing with you? Well, he's going to be watching all of your videos, of course, most of the times with you. He's going to watch data from your sessions recorded on your data logger. And, of course, make sure you have everything set up properly, everything's charged, everything's working, so we're not wasting time. He's most of the time going to come with his own cameras, but you will have to use your own data logger, whether it's your MyChron, Alfano or UniPro, so gotta make sure that's all set. And then he's obviously going to look at you, and sometimes giving you the signs, stopping in the middle of the sessions and telling you what to fix.

I see nowadays there's some coaches that are like trying to, you know, give you live coaching tips with a radio. And, you know, I think it's not too good, because the driver becomes a bit spoiled, and kind of like receives all this coaching live. And it may be kind of good right away when the kid is very young, but I think it's a kind of a short-term strategy, not, and not really good for long term, because a driver needs to stay by himself and be sort of in his head when he's driving. It's one of the few times in his life where he's able to, to be peaceful, and, and just be by himself, and just use his creative side to design the best racing lines and to carry the most amount of speed in the corners.

So I feel like, I mean, live coaching with radio frequency is not, not a good choice at all, even though it's growing rapidly, and I'm kind of worried about that. So I feel that it's just not going to, to be the, the right thing for kids right now. Maybe yes, when they're very young, it kind of helps them to have an idea, oh, I need to open up the track, oh, I need to use more brakes, oh, I need to get to the apex, yes. But, like, it's not too good. Like, I would prefer to stop the kid in the middle of the session, have, like, almost like an open pit day, where you can just stop the kid and go again, stop the kid and go again. So he has awareness, but then he goes out and does it himself, instead of being told every corner, every lap what to do. And I think that's not the right way. It's like trying to grow something with steroids, so it grows faster and bigger and larger, but it's not, for me, the right solution. It may look as a great solution in the short term, but in the long term, I think it's going to make some damages. As I said, a lack of awareness, a lack of adaptability, and kind of like a feeling of loneliness, and kind of lost, any time that he's in the race and he can't have the radio coaching support to help him and save him from slow lap times.

Bring your own camera, and pick the right one

So there's a bunch of things that a coach is going to help you with. Of course, as I said, remind yourself to get the best coach you can out there. Make sure you always have a camera with yourself, in case your coach has one, or maybe it's broken, but it's maybe out of battery, so that you can take the most out of your day. You should always have a camera by yourself anyways, to use it when you don't have a coach.

So I think you should, uh, you should get yourself, like, an Insta360 GO 3S, or simply a GoPro. But you need to be able to see the inside of the corners very well, and that's why a GoPro normally doesn't really help with that, because it's on the left-hand side, and mostly you can't see really, really well the apexes of the right-handers. Whereas with Insta360, that you clip on your visor, it works really well. So I want to make sure that your video quality is really good, so you can have an idea of what to improve.

So what's the return on investment?

And then, of course, the, the ROI, you know, the return on investment, is there, uh, gonna be a good return on investments on all the money you're gonna spend on a coach, or it's kind of like money thrown away? No, you know, it really depends on what coach you're working with. If the coach is outstanding and you're gonna receive world-class help, of course you're going to upgrade your driving, and whatever thousand of euros you're going to spend in a year, they're going to create a return on, on results. Because at the end of the day, if you can get a coach for two or three days and that coach upgrades your driving and you become a one-tenth per lap faster driver, of course, I mean, everyone would take that trade off every day, they would take that investment.

And it's sometimes hard to, to quantify and actually tangibly see the results. But, I mean, the real goal is that, yeah, when you get a coach you may not be, be able to win or get faster right away. And I mean, you shouldn't even be thinking that, because I mean, you always need to remember that at the end of the day, the coach is going to point out the things you have to work on, where you have to improve, but he's not going to be able to do the things himself.

So this is one important part. Many parents of drivers, they're like, oh, but I got that coach, but my kid hasn't won yet. He hasn't, you know, been the fastest. He hasn't set any pole position. But you know, you have to think that at the end of the day, the coach is going to help the kid, but it's not going to drive for the kid. So the kid still needs to go out there and find the lap time and push his limits himself. I mean, it's at the end of the day the driver's responsibility. But now he's going to have more awareness of what he has to work on. Before, he was probably guessing around, driving a bit more clueless, following the other drivers and getting a sort of idea of where he was losing time, so he would fix it by himself. But, uh, I mean, now he has more of a clear idea. But of course he still needs to do those things.

If, you know, he's braking five, five meters earlier than everybody, he needs to go and take that courage and brake five meters later, okay? If he needs to make that turn one flat, he needs to make that turn one flat, okay? It's not because, you know, he got the best coach on the paddock, he's going to automatically become the best driver. He needs to go out and push himself.

So that's one of the things I remind the parents all the time. And I also remind the drivers. At the end of the day, it's the driver who needs to push his limits, who needs to push beyond whatever mental limit he has, and just carry more speed, and just take more risks, because at the end of the day you have to be fearless, take risks in racing, otherwise you will just be mediocre. But, I mean, there's no space for mediocre drivers in Formula One.

Do you ever stop needing a coach?

So remember all of these things. Of course, if you become so good at some point, you probably won't need a coach as much as you may need at the beginning. And, uh, yeah, I mean, the coach can always help you, even though you become really good, because I believe that even, uh, you know, think about all the tennis players, they all have a coach, even though they might be at the highest level, number one in the world, all day having a coach, because it's always a great return investment.

He always has two eyes looking at you, can look at your posture, can look at your movements, he can look at your psychology and understand your mood. And from your body language he understands what you're thinking and feeling when you're driving. And he also has to help you with that, because it's not just about the technique. Most of the time it's mostly about the mindset and psychology. And that's why coaches are really useful. But make sure you select a really good one and a world-class one. Otherwise you'd be probably better off with no coach at all.

That's what I always say.

It's better to not learn anything new than to learn bad things from bad coaches.

So if you want to sign up for the group coaching at senndit.com, we have a six months training program where we meet once or twice per week on a group call, as well as we have multiple hundreds of lessons inside the library where you can access that all the time. But yeah, the cool parts are the group coaching that I held once or twice a week, and the drivers seem to enjoy it. So make sure to check Senndit, but also follow your AI karting coach, which is PURPL. Make sure you listen to all the feedback it gives you. And we're improving the app, and I'm putting myself into the position of improving the app every single day, every single week, so that you can have the best coaching, and yeah, performance experience.