An investigation on mental stress-profiling of race car drivers during a race

Abstract

Car racing is an intense sport that requires high and constant mental engagement. As the average age of race car drivers increases, it becomes more apparent that the mental aspect of the sport is becoming more important. In this work, a Body Sensor Network system was developed consisting of a Heart Rate monitor, an external GPS sensor and two smartphones. Experiments were conducted during the last race of the VLN series at the Nürburgring in Germany. The Heart Rate of the driver was combined with the 3D accelerometer of the mobile phone using an existing algorithm that is calculating the stress level of the driver in real-time. The stress level, along with GPS information is subsequently transmitted via the mobile phone network and the crew is able to see the position and the stress level of the driver in real-time. Post analysis of the data indicates that there is a correlation between the stress level of the driver and specific events. Weak correlations exist (between 22% and 53%) between the stress level of the driver during an event and their performance. Finally, the difference of the stress profiles among the drivers is shown.