What does it take to perform at your best when the stakes are high, the pressure never stops, and one small mistake can end months or years of preparation?
In this episode, Sue Stockdale speaks with Le Mans winner David Brabham, whose career spans more than three decades at the highest levels of motorsport, including Formula One, Le Mans, and endurance racing. The youngest son of three-time Formula One World Champion Sir Jack Brabham, David’s path into racing was far from inevitable. In fact, he didn’t discover the sport until he was 17 years old.
Drawing on his experiences of competing at the sharpest edge of human and machine performance, David shares what racing has taught him about focus, resilience, teamwork, leadership, and making good decisions under pressure. From driving at more than 200 mph through the night at Le Mans to building high-performing teams in business, he reveals the mindset that helped him achieve one of motorsport’s greatest prizes.
The conversation explores the importance of preparation, managing energy, creating the right team culture, and understanding that success is rarely about individual talent alone. David also reflects on why winning the Le Mans 24 Hours ultimately taught him that the journey matters far more than the trophy itself.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- What it takes to stay focused during a 24-hour endurance race
- The mental techniques he used to maintain concentration under extreme pressure
- Why sleep, fitness, nutrition, and mindset all contribute to peak performance
- How creating the right team environment leads to better decisions and results
- The role of leadership, trust, and psychological safety in high-performing teams
- Why mistakes and setbacks often contain the greatest opportunities for growth
About David Brabham
David Brabham is a racing driver and one of the most successful and experienced specialists in sports car racing. He has won three international Sports Car series and is one of four Australians to have won the Le Mans 24 Hour sports car race, winning the event in 2009.
Key Quote
“It wasn’t about the trophy. It was about the journey. The people you met, the people you worked with, the people who inspired you. That’s what made standing on that podium meaningful.”
Find out more about David Brabham on his website or Instagram
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Episodes with other guests we recommend are:
01. Clive Steeper: Going fast in business and motorsport
86. Tyrone Mathurin : Driven to succeed
David Brabham Transcription
Welcome and Introduction
Sue: [00:00:00] Welcome to Access to Inspiration. My name is Sue Stockdale, and my guest today has spent more than three decades racing at the highest levels of motorsport from Formula One to Le Mans 24 hour race, which he won outright in 2009. He’s competed for some of the most iconic teams in motor sports, including Aston Martin, Peugeot and Bentley, and has built a reputation, not just for speed, but for the intelligence and racecraft that wins in endurance races. He’s also the youngest son of Sir Jack Braham three time formula one world Champion, which means he grew up with one of the greatest names in Motorsport, and yet he didn’t discover racing until he was 17. we’re going to explore together what it means to perform at the edge, what racing teaches you about pressure teams and the mental demands of sustaining high performance. to the podcast, David Braham.
David Brabham: Hi, Sue. Thank you for having me. Yeah, good. [00:01:00] Thank you.
Sue: It just, as I mentioned in that introduction, David, for somebody like yourself who reached the highest echelons of motor sport, how come you didn’t discover it until you were 17?
David Brabham: It’s a very good question, isn’t it? Obviously everybody would expect me to be thrown in a go-kart at a very early age from my father’s background. But it was quite the opposite actually. He wasn’t very keen on myself or my brother’s going racing. He never, never pushed any of us. It had to come from us to be fair.
And when I was a kid, my dad retired when I was five. I, I went to Sydney. My big passion was football. My dad was probably the most famous Australian at that time. It was very difficult for me, I guess, to understand why everybody kept looking at him and wanting pictures and autographs when, I was too young to really know why. And then, as, as I [00:02:00] got older, my family bought a, a big farm in the middle of New South Wales. So I was sent on to be a farmer really through an agricultural boarding school to learn about agriculture. And as I said, my passion as a kid was soccer, but they didn’t play soccer in the Outback. So that all wanted was to play for Manchester United, missed a great opportunity there. But that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to play football for Man United, but farming was my destiny. And it wasn’t till I left school and, and visited America where my older brother Jeff was racing. I really saw racing for the first time I saw a go-kart, which I didn’t even know people race go-karts. And that was the inspiration for me.
Farm Life to Go Karting
Sue: And once you then got into that go-kart, was it like a duck to water?
David Brabham: Yeah, it was because growing up on a farm where, you could just do anything you want and I was [00:03:00] always flat out and sideways taking massive risks all the time. How I survived, I really don’t know when I think about some of the things I did, but I always seemed to get away with whatever was presented in front of me as a dangerous situation. And, and that didn’t stop me from situation exploring the limits, exploring myself on the farm, not even thinking I was gonna put those skills into racing. But as soon as I did jump into a, into a go-kart as soon as I could because I’d had all that training prior to on the farm that changing the level of grip it came very naturally to me. So the speed was there virtually straight away.
Sue: I guess it was a opportune then that you saw those go-karts and decided to get in for yourself and start to, to drive and to race.
David Brabham: Yeah, I mean, life’s a incredible, when you think where that spark of inspiration might come from, that takes you on a slightly different [00:04:00] direction. And most people would assume that that spark of inspiration came through my father. But it didn’t, it actually came through my brother Jeff, when I was old enough to, to kind of understand a little bit more about what was going on what racing meant. And it, it triggered something inside me to go, actually I, I’d like to have a go at this because I loved driving. As I said on the farm, I was driving any vehicle or a motorbike or whatever, flat out and sideways. So the opportunity to jump in a sort of proper racing, go-kart and do the same but it within competition and it was something I wanted to do. And in fact, once I mentioned it and he picked himself off the floor because he couldn’t believe what came outta my mouth. I went over to my next door neighbour who I went to school with and I had said, Hey, let’s go and have a look at a go-kart race meeting. Went and did that and then we bought a secondhand go-kart together and we went racing. And that’s how it [00:05:00] started.
Motivation and Parental Support
Sue: I’m just thinking about any parent listening to the podcast today, who sometimes we see parents that, that sort of push their children into a sport. As you said, your father didn’t push you into racing. You were a able to try things and experience things for yourself and make your own choices. Do you think that was important
David Brabham: yes, I think for sure, but obviously I was at an age where I was, 17. I’d already, obviously, when I was on the farm, I was working, so I was being paid. And I had some money. I didn’t have all the money to buy a go-kart, and that’s why I went to my neighbour and convinced him that we should both chip in and buy a, go-kart and go racing. But obviously if, if, you know, my dad pushed me into a go-kart when I was seven and eight, I might’ve been doing that because, he wanted me to do it. And that, and that does, happen a lot within our industry do it where the parents are very forceful when it comes to wanting [00:06:00] their children to go racing because they wanna see their, their children go racing.So, I didn’t have that. I had the opposite, but once I showed commitment and I, I was serious about it, that’s when dad went, okay, now, now you’ve got my support. And that’s what happened.
Sue: Given that you have a lot of experience mentoring young drivers, do you think it makes a difference when the greater level of energy is coming from the parent, more so than the young driver, given what you said a moment ago about that kind of motivation.
David Brabham: Yes. We do see it a lot in, in the industry where you have to question who wants it more, the person behind the seat driving or it’s the parents. And you see a lot where the parents are more driven than the children. And, you know that they’ll only go so far [00:07:00] with that. To make it to the top. You have to own it. You have to have it deep within yourself and be the driving force behind it. That way you’re gonna learn more. You’re gonna be able to take control of your destiny a little bit more as well. So yeah, we see it a lot and I’m sure it’s not only motor sport, it’ll be other sports as, as well. And that’s always a difficult balance to get right between that sort of chemistry between the parents and, the child who wants to go racing.
What Le Mans Means
Sue: If we turn our attention then to one of the highlights of your career, David, in winning the Le Mans 24 hour race back in 2009, describe to the listener who may not be familiar with Motorsport. What the Le Mans 24 hour race what it means to a racing driver and as being part of a team to do that.
David Brabham: Yeah. [00:08:00] So in, in racing in general there there’s always been three key blue ribbon events that if you’ve won one of these, you’ve made it type of thing. Monaco, grand Prix being one of them something my father achieved back in 1959 Indianapolis, 500 and the Le Mans 24 hours. They asked, pretty much seen as the mecca of success. If you can win one of those Le Mans 24 hours, is that 24 hours of hard racing? The history of Le Mans goes back many years and it is a, an incredible place, an incredible race where. It’s hard to describe what the feeling is like. You just have to go there, but it’s just electric because it has so much history. You just have to look at some of the, the movies that have come out around the mon Ford verse Ferrari and so forth, and, back in the days of Steve McQueen it is a very [00:09:00] special place, but also an extremely difficult race to win as well.
There are so many good cars and drivers all competing, and it’s not a race where you think, oh, 24 hours. Let’s get into a nice rhythm and let’s see how we finish it is a race. The machines now compared to when, let’s say my, when my dad did it or just after that, they weren’t that reliable reliability. Now is so much better that the cars can be pushed much harder. So the driver’s job really is to push as hard as possible without making silly risks, but you can’t afford to lose time through traffic because we have different categories in the one race. So they’re all going at different speeds, And if you’re in a top prototype which is the fastest category, you are always trying to get past the slower cars as well as avoid being passed by your fellow competitors in your class. And then if you are in the slower cars, you’re trying to obviously have your [00:10:00] own race, but you’re always looking in the mirror for a fast prototype to come past.
And sometimes that can be dive bombing you at the wrong time. And, you’re having to scramble to survive around that corner because someone’s dived down the inside of you and you’ve had to try and avoid them. It is full on, there’s no doubt about it for that 24 hour race. So mentally you have to be very sharp, very on it. Even at 2:00 AM 5:00 AM in the morning, 7:00 AM after not sleeping very much. You have to be very alert and quickly get into a rhythm where your pace is fast and you make no mistakes.
Focus at 200 MPH
Sue: And part of that circuit, the part of the course is the infamous mills and strait where you’re driving at over 200 miles an hour. I understand. What does that feel like and what, what level of concentration we’re thinking if we’re reflecting on the edge of performance here, what does that feel to drive at that speed for a, a given amount of time? ’cause it’s more than a [00:11:00] minute, isn’t it, to drive down there.
David Brabham: Yeah at Le Mans you have pretty much four one mile straights, so there’s plenty of time. It feels like you are really doing 300 mile an hour. It feels super fast. After a few laps, things start to slow down. And then once you’ve got through practise qualifying and you’re in the race and you’re in the groove you tend to have a lot of time on the streets. And that’s where the danger comes in because your mind can wander. You may not have anyone around you that you are dicing with. You’ve gotta keep into a rhythm. You’ve gotta keep your mind focused. Sometimes that’s the danger period because your mind cannot be as sharp and you’ve gotta be able to keep your mind as sharp as possible by, and I used to do it by just making sure. ’cause on the dash that we have inside the car, we could see whether we’re plus or minus on our lap time which would be a delta time, which [00:12:00] would be a fast lap time baseline. And then we would be plus or minus going around each corner. And that was a way for me to focus on the job at hand if I didn’t have anyone to race around me. And it’s just fixating on something. And that was about not just fixating on something, but it was about a performance related item that you had to focus on to see whether or not if you changed a line, you changed the way you’re braking, the way the change you rolled in the corner. When you picked the throttle up, did you gain time or lose time in that corner? So each corner, each straight, you could evaluate your performance. And that helped keep you focused on something that relates to the race instead of your mind thinking of something else.
Stints Sleep and Preparation
Sue: It just seems like an extreme level of concentration that you’re saying keeping your mind focused are you driving for a certain amount of time, and then you actually get a short break and one of your team members takes over because [00:13:00] one can’t concentrate necessarily for hours consistently, nonstop for 24 hours.
David Brabham: Yeah, the old days they used to have two drivers. Now we have three drivers. And obviously , the length of stint depends a bit on the regulations at the time. There’s normally a period where you can’t drive more than and I think that’s probably around the four hour mark.
You couldn’t do more than four hours in a car. I think the longest I ever did was three and a half hours in, in a car. And a lot of that comes down to how long the tyres last, because obviously a pit stop takes time. And if you don’t have to change tyres and you just put fuel in, you save time.
We used to go very much in relation to, what the tyres would do. And obviously some of that, again is regarded regulatory as well in terms of how long you can really stay in the car. Still three and a half hours is a long time in a car and [00:14:00] a long time to focus, a long time to concentrate, where you just can’t afford to make mistakes.
And, if you look at the history of Lamont and the winners, you generally, they’ve spent the least amount of time in the pits fixing something. You’ve gotta be on track all the time. You’ve gotta avoid debris, you’ve gotta avoid your competitors diving down the inside, whether to turn in or whether to block them. You’re trying to get through traffic and generally the speeds are quite high in term of differential speed. The timing of all of that, you it is physical, but it’s mentally tiring at.Le Mans
Sue: So how do you prepare for that? As I’m just listening to you there, David, I’m thinking about today’s people in, whether it’s in motor sport or in business or in any walk of life, the ability to concentrate and focus and not make a mistake for that amount of time I think is be becoming much more difficult for people. So I’m wondering in your experience that when you won that race that year in 2009, how did you [00:15:00] mentally?
David Brabham: That’s a good question because obviously by the time I got to 2009, I think I, that was my 16th Le Mans probably my 20th, 24 hour race that I’ve done. So you know yourself by then. And I had to learn what was the best for me. So let’s talk about sleep. How much sleep do you should you have in a 24 hour race? And when I started, I used to try and get as much sleep as possible, but then when I woke up, I was quite tired. I was, my brain just wasn’t in gear at all. As I did more races, I realised that actually for me, 2020 minute, half an hour power naps in between let’s say when my two teammates do their run I’ve got time to rest, have a shower, get something to eat and have a little sleep. But I had any more than than an hour, I went into too bigger deep sleep. And that took too long for my brain to get re-engaged [00:16:00] again. I, that was what worked for me. And obviously preparation before a 24 hour race, like anything, the better you prepare, the better you perform. So the preparation we preparing for Le Mans we would do that year in 2009, between, beginning of February, I was announced as the driver, and we race in June. And between February and June, I did three 30 hour tests at a racetrack in preparation for Le Mans. So the car is being prepared, but the drivers are also being prepared and getting used to that environment, although not racing, you are there pretty much on the track by yourself, but in terms of keeping pace, keeping the rhythm, keeping your mind sharp that was very good practise. And preparation for the actual event. So we did plenty of that before the race.
Fitness Heat and Mindfulness
Sue: You [00:17:00] mentioned there about getting something to eat and taking a share in your breaks in between the stints. David, overall, in terms of performance, how important is general fitness and the nutrition that you’re eating, not only on rest day, but before then what, what do you think are some of those keys that really help people to perform at their best,
David Brabham: yeah, I think for sure. The fit you are, the better you perform. Your endurance is longer, your concentration is longer. It’s physical in the vehicles, if you’re thinking about hitting a brake pedal in a car you don’t have to hit the brake pedal very hard for the car to stop in a race car. You are sometimes anywhere between 80 and 120 bar of pressure every time you hit the brake. And you imagine doing that for three and a half hours, probably 10 times in a lap. Your leg gets pretty worn out [00:18:00] or your foot gets worn out. And these are the sort of things that people probably don’t realise that the forces and the pressures that the body is under and the heat too, we’re having to deal with quite hot cockpit temperatures. Once at Le Mans in 2005, I had 74 degrees Celsius inside the cockpit, and I’m in the car for two hours. And you just died, and you have to, for that sort of intense heat where your concentration levels get really tested, your fitness gets really tested. So you gonna potentially have those environments. So obviously, your prep in terms of Le Mans physically, but not physic, not just physically, mentally. One of the things I found very useful was, I guess the best way to say it was like mindfulness, just to practise, like meditation practise quietening the mind. Because you get in those environments, your mind can go all over the [00:19:00] place.
And if you don’t train your mind to be in a busy and stressful environment where you can still see things clearly, you don’t get so flustered because you’ve got control of your mind. I find, at the end of the day, it comes down to decisions. We as a driver have to make so many decisions on a lap in a stint in a triple stint. There are decisions all the time, and your clarity of mind needs to be very clear. Which means if you are tired, your mind’s gonna get affected. If you are too hot, you’re gonna get affected. All these things come into play. I always look at it from a, I guess a state of being. When I look at my state of being in that environment and at that moment, that will be a good indication of how well a decision I’m gonna make.
Team Culture and Leadership
Sue: So it’s really multidimensional what you’re describing, David. [00:20:00] And I know you’ve got a lot of experience in the world of business as well as the world of Motorsport. I’m wondering what your sense is as to why leaders in business don’t take on board some of the things that you’re describing here, if they want high performance from their business. What makes the difference the two worlds?
David Brabham: Oh, that’s a good question. I spent a long time being a, a racing driver more than let’s say being a businessman. And what I did, was, took the tools that I’d learned in racing and transferred them into business. And they’re more like human tools, aren’t they really? In a sense of, are you clear about the objective of where you’re going? How much do you believe in it? Have you got a team around you? How’s that team operating? And, teams of people can go off track if they’re not either led properly [00:21:00] or inspired to perform. And, as a driver, I know in that environment, if I got in the car and I gave absolutely everything, you lead by example, I gave absolutely everything. And people could see that and they were inspired by that, and they would go that extra mile. And I think that transfers into, to anything really. And how you treat your people too is extremely important. I, I remember an environment where in 2009 there were three EO cars. We were the third car, we were the older guys that in that team. And the others were competing, regularly in the world championship.
So they were a lot more focused in many ways. Where the third car, we were a backup. We were the backup car. But as soon as I walked into that environment, I could just sense the the energy in the, in that side of the camp was not for me, was not going to be very [00:22:00] productive in a way of getting a result. There was way too much pressure there was too much finger pointing. The drivers were under so much pressure to be really fast and all at time. Otherwise they were worried about their jobs. They were being compared all the time. And it created not a great environment where our car we decided that we would do our own race.
We would behave in a certain way where we supported each other. We had a clear leader in the team, which wasn’t me. Normally, I would’ve gone in and led the team, but I was walking into somebody else’s environment. And I realised that actually if I tried to be the kind of boss we would’ve clashed and it would’ve created a problem and given an advantage over to the other side.
So I said, okay, okay, gotta support this driver because he’s the main guy in the team. He’s been there the longest. And I changed my mindset in terms of either being a leader or being a supporting role and being a wingman and working as a team. And, as it [00:23:00] transpired the other side made loads of mistakes in the race. We didn’t and we ended up winning, and it was because we made better decisions and the better decisions came from the environment that we created as well. So I think I’ve seen many times in business where that environment, that vibe is not so great. And then so people are worried about the decisions they make and then people make the wrong decisions for what they’re trying to achieve.
Sue: Yeah. That, that sense of fear that can be instilled for people in, in a particular environment can, as you say, it can drive the wrong decisions being making a mistake.
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Resetting After Setbacks
Sue: Now, what one might describe what we’ve talked about so far, David and you’ve illustrated to us is the mental pressure the drive to perform at your best. And despite all of those things, sometimes things go wrong. A mechanical issue, a co-driver mistake, whatever it might be, you lose the lead. How do you manage your mind in those moments? How do you reset when things aren’t going according to plan? ’cause often that’s when fear can get into the mind as well.
David Brabham: Yeah, it does, I think as I got older I started to think any situation that looks bad and is, at the time, a disappointment or whatever, there is a silver [00:25:00] lining there somewhere. And it’s about growing and you can’t grow when everything’s perfect, that’s for sure. So I learned to embrace it much more and look at it as a, let’s say how have we as a group of people learn from this situation that’s gonna help us grow?
And I, always said there was, there’s a silver lining in any bad situation, you just gotta acknowledge that there is one focus on it. Learn from where you were what could you have improved on, and then you move forward without sort of blame game, , that creates a different atmosphere as well. And certainly from my point of view, looking at successful race teams who are under massive pressure to perform and a lot of people I don’t think realise how much that pressure is because, a race team going to, to an event, the timelines don’t change. Practice [00:26:00] starts at nine o’clock, qualifying starts at one o’clock, the race starts at 11 o’clock or whatever, and if you are not ready as a team, tough, they’re not gonna move the timelines for you because you are not ready.
So everything is super condensed, super efficient in the Motorsport space. When you’re at an event and you see the best of people, you see the worst in people and pockets of excellence and pockets of improvement very quickly. And you’ve gotta, you’ve gotta move on those to progress.
Sue: Throughout our conversation so far, David what I’m really getting a sense of from you is that you’re really well connected to your senses,
David Brabham: Yeah.
Sue: All of your senses and that’s an important part of being a successful racing driver. I’m wondering whether you would agree with that.
David Brabham: Yeah, I think for me as a person, as a personality I’m sensitive to some of that stuff. I’m aware of it. And I use that sensitivity, to find ways [00:27:00] of, having an advantage in the space that I was in. When you are younger, it’s all about me. And then as I got older, I realised that actually it’s more about us, the team of people around you and how important it’s for the team to be operating at a certain level. So their thoughts, feelings, emotions, what are they saying, how are they saying it, and what are they doing and how are they doing it?
And, you can pick up on that energy. I became quite sensitive to the energy in the room. And if that energy in the room wasn’t right, things needed to be adjusted because I knew that as a group, if that energy is a certain level, they’ll view life in a certain way. They’ll make decisions in a certain way. And like I said, if it’s a bad vibe, there’s generally bad decisions. So you’ve gotta raise the level of that frequency in your group. And I did more of that sort of the last half of my career, which probably was my [00:28:00] most successful in many ways because I focused a lot on lifting the group to make better decisions as we went along. And that could be from car setup or car strategy or other drivers around you, in your group. Everyone had to make good decisions. And it was creating the right vibe to make that happen.
Sue: It does sound like leading a team, being part of a team that is not just about driving a car fast. There’s so much more to it
David Brabham: absolutely. And the inspiration is, hopefully you’ve got a team that each individual feels inspired to go that next level. Not just one person. It’s gotta be the whole team. The whole team’s gotta raise its own level, its own confidence, its own belief about what they’re trying to achieve and everyone in sync. And then, you’re gonna have the best result you can possibly have. You may not have the fastest car but you’ll do the best job possible with the [00:29:00]situation.
Mentoring and Feedback
Sue: And within what you’re describing David, we need to be able to hear or get sight of our blind spots. We need to get difficult feedback. In order to then really take leaps forward and address the things that need to be addressed. How do you that when you’re working with a young driver who believes that they are capable of amazing things and they’ve got some blind spots?
David Brabham: Yeah, look, we currently work with young drivers at the moment, and, each one’s a bit different. , Each person needs slightly something different to get the best out of them. Sometimes it may be a reality check that you’re not going as good as you think you are.
You don’t wanna, let’s say, destroy their confidence because confidence is a massive thing in getting behind a wheel and driving fast. But there’s also that realistic approach to go look it’s not quite as you see it, the [00:30:00] great thing about racing is your stopwatch. If your stopwatch says you’re not fast enough, you’re not fast enough, it’s about, highlighting the areas that need to be improved, It’s saying in a way that highlights a situation, but inspire them to change, inspire them to think about it in a different way and go through it in a different approach.
I see this quite often in our industry where you do see people quite negative about what a driver’s doing. They say it in a way where, if the driver’s lacking a bit of confidence or whatever, they’re just, they’re confidence is gonna be even less. So they’re not going to perform.
Having been through all that myself, I can generally see it very quickly when I’m working with a young driver and there’ll be many things I go, oh yeah, this could be improved. That can be improved. That can be improved. But I might just pick one. ’cause I know if that’s improved the most, the others will probably improve as well. But I just need to focus on the one thing.
Sue: Yeah, that’s [00:31:00] such an important thing, not overwhelm anybody with giving them too many things at any one time.
Le Mans Journey Lesson
Sue: If you reflect back on your entire career to date, David what’s been most satisfying for you and you think that’s been most enjoyable, that’s been the greatest achievement I’ve had some sense of those high points that you reflect upon, that you a sense of personal satisfaction.
David Brabham: Yeah, it’s a good question. I’ll tell you a story really about lamont in 2009. Now, in 2007 and 2008, I won Le Mans in the GT one category. And as I explained earlier, there are different categories within the race and some operate at different speeds. And this would be the middle one. We had slower cars to get past, but we also had the faster guys we had to deal with that were passing us.
And in the GT one category with Aston Martin and we won two in a row. And I remember going up on the [00:32:00]podium and it’s the most amazing experience being on the podium at Le Mans, you have got thousands of people that have come out onto the track and down the pit lane waving flags and it is quite remarkable.
And I remember coming off twice, 2007, 2008 and coming off as GT one winners, and then the overall winners go up and collect their bigger trophies. And I remember thinking at the time, man, it feels amazing to be up there. ’cause you’ve spent pretty much a year preparing with the team members, your family, the commitments, the sacrifices you’ve had to make. It’s a massive team effort. And as one you share with the team. And then I’d see the, the, the guys going up onto the podium who won. Overall, I’d think, my god, what does that feel like? 2009 rolls in, so 2007, eight, now nine. And I’m up there holding the trophy of [00:33:00] the overall winner. And the achievement, the picking up the trophy, having that in my hands it was the same experience as what I had had with the other category. So that didn’t change at all. No, no different. But I did sit there and I go, it’s actually not about the trophy. It was about the journey.
Took me 16 years of, and not always had a car that could win the on, but it took 16 years on that journey to pick up that trophy. And all of a sudden it hit me. It’s about the journey. It’s about the life experiences, it’s about the people you met, the people you worked with, the people that inspired you.
It’s, it was a bit of a life changing moment for me where it wasn’t just one or two highlights. It was the whole thing about life being a human being, having a family, [00:34:00] sharing the, sharing it with your family, your friends the, the people you worked with, not just in the team there, but all the other teams you worked with and all the other drivers you worked with. And each of them helped ma make you the person that you are. Like I was standing up there on that podium and I have much more of appreciation I think, of all of that than I did previously. So that to me was probably one of my highlights.
Sue: I think what you’ve just shared with us there, David really encapsulates many of the messages that you have communicated within the conversation today. I think you’ve talked about experience and experience can only come through trying things and learning also through time and sometimes today we, people want instant results.
What I’m hearing from you is there’s something about giving things time to get a result, get a, get an impact. You’ve also talked about the whole package, the, the mindset, the nutrition, the [00:35:00] fitness, sleep, the team vibe, the energy. There’s so much more goes into standing there on the podium than just one aspect.
David Brabham: Yeah, massively.
Sue: I think that’s the sense I get from you today.
Final Advice and Wrap Up
Sue: And maybe for our listener thinking they want to explore the edge and explore performance, I’m wondering if there’s a message overall that you’d want to leave with them. If they are ambitious in whatever they’re doing and want to test their own levels of performance,
David Brabham: We certainly get a lot of, let’s say, a lot of conversations with people who look at, certainly in motor sport. And think it’s a little bit beyond them, so they don’t even try. And I think the important thing is to have a go. ’cause you, you never know where the journey really takes you, but as long as you’ve got a target of where you want to get to tho those roads may go left, right up, down, maybe backwards a couple of times and then forwards.
But [00:36:00] it’s locking into that goal and not giving up. There’s many races I’ve won in the past where it would been so easy to just give up, but I didn’t give up. And circumstances within the race all of a sudden got us back into the lead and we won the race, but and I think they’re good. They’re good life lessons too.
Sue: It’s been lovely to speak to you today, David, There’s lots that I can take away and I’m sure our listeners as well in terms of how to enjoy the journey and not just focus on the end goal. And one thing I get a sense of that we all need to have with us is a stopwatch.
David Brabham Yeah. Exactly. Thank you for having me on the show, Sue. Appreciate it.
Sue: And I wish you all the best in whatever the next project is that you’re working on.
David Brabham: Thank you and you too.
Well, one idea from this conversation with David that has stayed with me is he spent 16 years chasing an outright victory at limo, and when he finally stood on the podium [00:37:00] holding the winner’s trophy, he realised that the trophy wasn’t the most important part. It was everything that had shaped him along the way.
I think that’s a reminder for all of us. Whatever challenge we are pursuing, it’s easy to become fixated on the finish line. But lasting success comes from preparing well, learning from mistakes, and creating an environment where everyone around us can help us perform at our best.
If you enjoy this episode, I’d love you to follow access to inspiration, leave a review, and share it with someone who would enjoy David’s insights. Next time, we’ll continue Series 21 with another inspiring conversation, exploring what it means to be on the edge. Until then, thank you for listening. I’m Sue Stockdale, and this is Access to Inspiration.