Client of the Month – Sharbel Dias

Sharbel Dias is a 22 year old driver aspiring to make it into Formula 1 racing one day. He has no formula racing experience before in the past so he approached Global Racing Schools for help on how to develop himself as a driver so that he can turn professional one day. He wanted to be able to learn how to drive a formula car in the shortest amount of time with a limited budget.

So shortly after working with Sharbel, we developed a training program to suit his needs in order to start his racing career as well as to take part in a crash course to develop his skills further. After much discussions, we developed a 5 day Formula Racing Program for him in New Jersey, USA.

Day 1

The day began with a classroom session on the circuit and also the F2000 Cars. There were about 15 other drivers in the classroom with him as our instructors went through the basics of cornering, circuit diagrams and also the formula car’s characteristics. After a short briefing, the official training start. It started off with a Track drive in a  Chevrolet Malibu to get the students to know specific parts of the track and after that they will put into special side cars. After that, it was back to more classroom learning and a review of the track and cars.

Day 2

After a short continuation of the program in the Side cars, it was time to be fitted into the F2000 Race cars for a test to see the racing lines of the students. Sharbel had to produce laps and racing lines to be recorded by the instructor so that the briefing will be more precisely geared towards learning on the mistakes. In order to further the driving development, the drivers were paired up with a partner with equal driving skills so that they will be able to work as a team to improve and push each other.
Day 3

The day directly into the race cars again. This time Sharbel was allowed to pass on only the stretch and on certain corners. This is to teach the students specific cornering and passing techniques in a controlled environment of racing. However as a beginner, Sharbel did spin out of the track a number of times as he misjudged the corners and entered it at too high a speed. But he managed to catch up and ended up as the lead car before the day’s session was over. By this time, the results on the timing sheets has dropped dramatically and the training was started to push more intensively and aggressively towards a more race competition focused point of coaching.

Day 4

The remaining 2 days of the program included the expertise of a professional driver and he was specially assigned to be paired up with Sharbel in order to advance his learning and driving skills. He was tagged with the driver to watch his racing lines and braking lines which added to more analysis for Sharbel to learn and by the end of the session, Sharbel cut more time from his laps and was almost beating his professional driver team mate in some of the corners. There was intensive analysis done on each lap and the timing based on every corner. After the  day’s session, the students were prepared for an official race situation that was going to take place the following day. This was something Sharbel was thrilled to take part in.

Day 5

The day consisted of 2 qualifying rounds and 2 races to achieve the best overall result. So the night before, Sharbel had been given materials to look through and also to study the strategy for this day.  The day started with 10 minutes of practice session where all the students were pushing the limits of their cars to get the best time. On the practice session, Sharbel was able to catch up to the tail of a more experienced mexican driver and he was getting blocked on every corner of the race. But finally an opportunity came and on turn 9 of the circuit, where sharbel had mastered the cornering technique and line, he passed the driver which added much boost to his confidence for the qualifying session that was to come.

Qualifying came and Sharbel knew he had to stay on the tail of the professional driver as he was the best among the pack. Squeezing out every piece of the track to run on and braking as late as possible, Sharbel managed to qualify in a decent position for the 2 races.

The first Race began and Sharbel managed to be on the lead all the way even beating out the professional driver in the opening laps of the race.  The pro driver was trying to pass him at every corner and pushing his limit at the corners. But the frustration was too much for the professional driver to take and Sharbel managed to keep him at bay for most of time.  Finally at lap 5, he was pushed out of track by an inexperienced driver that was a back marker that wasn’t looking at her mirrors. So in order to avoid a collision, he swirled off track and losing the lead in the process. That was too late for a come back and Sharbel managed a respectable 5th place for the 2nd race.
As the second race began, Sharbel noticed the mexican kid sticking onto the tail of his car right when they started and when the Mexican driver was too close, the driver loss control of his car. After which, Sharbel passed another 4 other drivers to get up to 2nd spot. Looking forward at number 1 spot, he pushed the limits all the way and on the final lap, the gap was not close enough to take over.

As they got into the Pit lanes the pro driver came up and congratulated Sharbel saying he didn’t know he could do what he did. That concluded the 5 day training and he learned so many fundamental techniques such as  learning how to think, how to pass safely and quickly, how to perfect corners, how to learn tracks by oneself and so much more. Many of the instructors were very surprised at the speed and maturity of driving that Sharbel displayed in his maiden race and training session.

Currently Sharbel is getting ready for his 2010 race season with the guidance of Global Racing Schools and we all know this is a young driver to watch for the future and we are giving him our 100% support for it.