SITTING IN FRONT OF A MONITOR, ESTEBAN OCON STARES INTENTLY AHEAD. On screen is something video game-like, and Ocon is in the process of zapping enemy vessels while trying to protect his own starship in the middle of the screen. The catch is – he’s only using his eyes.
The monitor is tracking his pupils – and everything that catches his gaze explodes in an instant. And there’s a twist: while Ocon must destroy the white enemy objects, he mustn’t attack the red ones, since they’re ‘friendlies’ and he’ll incur a penalty if they don’t make it to the starship.
This isn’t a new shooter in the Star Wars gaming franchise, it’s a training aid developed by Xavier Feuillée, a performance coach the Frenchman has worked with since 2014, and it’s just one of tens of tools being used to hone Ocon’s reaction time and awareness.
“It helps you to detect things quicker,” Ocon tells GP Racing, getting out of the seat after coming close to setting his personal best score. “Like, if somebody spins in lap one, your reaction time is a lot quicker, and ultimately these moments can define your weekend. It’s all the little things that make a difference – and which you may not think about when you’re watching Formula 1 from the outside. But that’s the big hidden iceberg below.”
As we’re invited to swap in for Ocon as the starship’s ‘guardians’, he takes up the seat to the left – and, putting his arms on the table, it’s as if he falls asleep. But no, it’s just the next exercise – in which, with sensors gauging his heartbeat and other parameters, he needs to reach a maximum level
