The sixth sense

Is it sensitivity? That must be it. The ability to hear what a car is telling you, filtering out the noise and listening only to the notes that matter in that moment.

Sensitivity is how road car development drivers are able to make infinitesimal changes to damper settings or steering calibration, drive beneath the barrier and onto the Nürburgring Nordschleife, flick left and right through the Hatzenbach at the very start of the lap and learn what they need to learn about those changes before Flugplatz. The remaining 11 miles can’t go by quickly enough.

Sensitivity is how they can determine if that oh-so slightly too thumpy way of dealing with a bump in the road is down to spring rate, damping or the tyre sidewall. It’s how they can be certain that when the data says one thing but through the seat of their pants they felt something else altogether, the fault lies with dodgy data. It isn’t ever down to them.