There are few shames deep enough to compete with that of showing up at a track day and proving yourself to be woefully, incompetently unprepared. While we all have to learn somehow, it’s still possible to identify all those silly mistakes and figure out how to prevent them before you look like a fool out there.

Today’s lesson comes from Scott Mansell, founder of and driver coach for enough folks for fifteen years to realize that there are some pretty common trends out there when it comes to making mistakes. You can check ‘em out below:

We’ll quickly summarize his points for you, but if you want to know more about the whys of screwing up and the hows of fixing your errors, you’ll have to check out what Mansell has to say:

Drivers don’t feel in control of their car

Drivers aren’t even near the limitDrivers aren’t pushing through cornersDrivers lose tens of seconds of lap time making silly mistakesDrivers aren’t setting up their car to optimize performanceDrivers aren’t utilizing track time to their advantageDrivers are making lackluster overtaking attempts

Those seem like some pretty tough mistakes to overcome, but there’s still hope. With practice comes perfection (or, at the very least, improvement), and you can get that through plenty of places nowadays. Racing sims like iRacing are great for learning the basics of car handling and track day etiquette, giving you at least some practice before you get behind the wheel.

But nothing compares to practice in your own car. Your car is like your partner in crime—you have to know everything about it in order to function like one entity. At some point, you’re just going to have to get over your fears and just drive.