Romain Grosjean has revealed an unusual technique he employs to help him and his IndyCar team analyse his performances and ease the burden on his 'small brain'.
The Swiss-born driver, it turns out, presses a button on his steering wheel which theoretically dispenses a drink, having realised that each press of the button is tracked.
He then uses that data point to help him remember certain things he wants to bring up post-session – a technique he began to use with a different button back in his Formula 1 days.
The F1 veteran, now driving the #77 Chevrolet for Juncos Hollinger Racing, had a reasonably indifferent start to 2024 – but has picked up his form in recent races, recording four top-10 finishes in his last six starts.
Speaking to motorsport.com, he said: “The drink button, when there’s no drink, it’s a mark on the data, so it’s easy for the engineer to find out because you know when do the debrief and you do runs – you’re like, ‘Maybe it was Turn 3 on lap 4 or...’ and instead of trying to remember which number or which corner it was, let’s press the green button.
“Then you have a mark on the data, and then when you just open up the group data and you see where the mark is on, I know what happened and then you can talk about it instead of trying to remember where it was and which it was on whatsoever and just press the button, it’s there.
“I have a small brain, I guess, so this could make it easy!”
He added: I’ve been doing this for 20-plus years and, of course, you learn every year. That’s the beauty of sport, is you can be old without being old. I don’t think you lose your capacity but you gain more and more experience.”