Matt Bell Reveals How to Drive to a British Kart Championship- In Detail!

The whole attitude to every s1 weekend from my point of view was to finish every race as highly placed as I could. After all, points mean prizes. The aspect of my driving that I feel helped me throughout the championship has to be my overtaking. Being able to overtake a kart whenever you want is a serious advantage and gets you to the front a lot quicker. However with 3 wins and 3 thirds in the 6 rounds (something that no driver has done in the last 2 years) matched with my true pace made me come out on top.

You say it is important to be able to overtake when you want, how do you go about practicing and improving this skill?

Overtaking is all about confidence in yourself and the kart. To overtake quickly so you don’t get held up, your timing has to be perfect. This means knowing exactly where you’re going to overtake someone before you get there. When I go round a track I see the person in front and I am thinking ‘when I reach him where I am going to make the move’. When I get within four kart lengths, I would have decided where I’m going to overtake him a couple of corners before. This means I’m going to be 100% committed, if not the move will fail. What you have to understand is a late braking point in a race is not the latest braking point possible to overtake, it’s just the latest braking point possible to be fast!! To improve, you must practice. The main point is to think about what you’re going to do before you get there. If you do this, you’ll find yourself getting through traffic a lot faster and that’s what separates the good from the greats!

You competed in the Super Libre (Formula A) Winter Series and finished 7th out of 40 of the UK best drivers, and you were also extremely quick at the Champion of Champions event. Can you describe your experience of driving a Formula A kart for the first time, and describe how it compares to the TKM power and grip wise?

Oohhh, the Super Libre was awesome! in testing, it was the acceleration that you had to get used to. Its incredible in comparison to the TKM and obviously the grip levels meant my driving style had to change quite dramatically. You couldn’t just ‘chuck’ the kart into the corner. Everything had to be much more controlled. However, these were just basic difference's that, as a driver, you should expect. The shock to me was in racing conditions. Due to the vast increase in speed, everything appeared a lot quicker and you felt like you had only milliseconds to figure out if your going to make a move. But as time in the seat progressed everything settled down and I felt at home again, but physically you had to be fitter and mentally you had to think more, due to things happening around you faster.

You have raced both Rotax, and TKM. What skills and techniques have you learned from either of these two classes that you feel have helped you drive a Super Libre competitively?

I’ve learnt more in TKM driving wise than I think I would’ve in any other kart class. For this basic reason - if you cant drive a TKM you won’t be quick in any kart. I know this goes for every class but the lack of grip in TKM hones your driving skills unbelievably and punishes you severely for small mistakes. In a class such as Super Libre, little mistakes can cost you valuable time and when you're racing against some of the best drivers in the country it’s hard to regain that time. Not only this, I have always regarded myself as the last of the late brakers in TKM, and when you go into a class that has more grip like Super Libre it makes braking so simple its beyond belief.

When driving a kart fast, describe what driving techniques you feel are essential to have perfected, and how do you go about perfecting them?

When driving a kart fast you have to balance smoothness and aggression. I feel smoothness into, through, and on the exit of the corner is essential (however this does depend on the kart class), but going into the corner you have to stamp on the brakes as hard as you can. To perfect smoothness it’s easier to get someone to video you so you can physically see your hand movement when analyzing the video. It’s very difficult to watch your hand movement when your driving round a track, so video is the best solution, for me anyway!

However braking for me is trial and improvement, I analise my surroundings and pick a point on the side of the track to brake. I then continuously brake later and later until I will eventually run off track or run wide, this is ok with me as it’s called finding the limit. If you don’t make mistakes your not pushing hard enough!

And finally the mind! This involves analysing the tracks technicalities, like kerbs. Getting on the right lines is essential, and if you can find 10 kerbs that give you half a tenth each, you’ll have found half a second immediately. It’s all about trial and improvement and then analyzing your performance every time you go out. But on most occasions SMOOTHNESS is a must. After all you don’t see F1 drivers chucking it into corners, but man do they stamp on the brakes!

You have also tested T-Cars and Formula Renault. Can you describe how these cars drive compared to driving a Formula A kart?

There completely different. I felt like a beginner again first time out. A kart is a kart, no suspension and no gears (apart from ICC). When driving a car, every little movement has a dramatic affect on the cars balance due to the suspension. In karts this is not very apparent in fact, even unnoticeable. The suspension affects the balance of the car so much that if you have not got the weight ratio near as 50/50 going into every corner you can lose seconds easily, whereas in karts the kart is almost always balanced due to no suspension. Not only do you have the balance of the car into the corner to contend with, you have to brake as late as possible and change gear (NOT EASY)! But like everything with practice I improved, and in my second test I got within 2 tenths of the lap record around Croir in France on old rubber! The only similarity between the two is they’re both very very fast and you have to be part of the car to be fast, just like a kart. The T car however was easier to drive but the gears were so close it was easy to miss a gear completely. What karting does, and in particular Formula A is improve control over a vehicle. The more control you have the faster you go!

What driving techniques do you think you can take from karting that could help in racing cars, and what techniques do you think should stay in karting that couldn’t be transferred.

The main driving technique that can be transferred from karting to cars is under braking. In both, you need to stamp on the brakes as hard as possible. Also, in karting you have to be very smooth, especially in Formula A. This needs to be progressed onto cars. You never see an F1 driver throw the car around simply because its slow. Other techniques such as slip streaming are also effective. Even more so in cars due to the down force, and the pocket made in the air due to this.

Techniques that cannot be transferred from Karting to cars are things like braking way off line in the wet, although very effective in a kart it tends not to be so effective in a car!

Competing in Super Libre you’re automatically competing against the best kart drivers in the world in the shape of Mark Litchfield etc… How did you find the level of competition compared to what you were used to in Formula TKM? Did you find yourself having to approach your kart races with a different attitude, and mental state?

The level of competition in Super Libre was amazing. Each class, even TKM, has a high level of competition, but Super Libre brought it to another level due to the fact that the standard of driving skill was very high and mistakes very rarely occurred. This made it difficult to catch and overtake people, which is why the first lap is so critical. The only approach that was different was the goal at the end of each race. In TKM, every aim was to win, although that was my aim in Super Libre, the approach was to get within a tenth of Mark Litchfield, which believe me was a task.

You are at a stage of your karting career when you will be thinking about moving on to different classes. Sponsorship will be a key part of your future success. What advice would you give a young driver looking for sponsorship? What are the key factors do you think a kart driver must consider when approaching businesses for money?

Advice for a young driver? Well for starters don't refer to them as you sponsors but more so as you partners. They’re your partners from the aspect of that you work together and are a team. You have to make yourself stand out among everyone else, that means good presentational skills and your appearance has to be first class. It’s not what the partner can offer to you, but what you can offer to the partner. That’s the hardest thing to convey into words.

You will be competing in the Formula TKM British Championship, British ICA O' Plate, European ICA Qualifiers, and the Super Libre TV Kartmasters in 2006. The competition is World Class. How are you preparing yourself for the challenging karting year ahead regarding fitness levels, and mental attitude?

My fitness levels generally are very high due to the fact I am very active everywhere. I will when my GCSE's are finished however, attend the gym at least 2 times a week in preparation for the European qualifier. Mentally I just have to make sure I get enough sleep and drink enough fluids in order to maintain concentration. Unfortunately I can’t predict the future so I’ll take it how it comes and hopefully come out on top in each competition, most of all in European championships!

What is your future career plan? Is the plan to move onto cars? If so, which root do you plan to take?

I do plan to move onto cars. What root however depends on the budget I have. At the end of this year I will be trying to get my Formula BMW license, which will then enable me to compete for the scholarship. That is one option for next year, another would be Formula Renault UK. This however requires an even bigger budget, which is hard to obtain. If all goes right it will be single seaters for sure.

Just like any brilliant karter, Matt Bell knows exactly how to drive a kart quickly, and how to describe it in candid detail, which is great news for us mere mortals as we can try to copy it!

Alan Dove - 06/03/06

All Super Libre Pictures by Tom Dymond