No dumb questions with Jeff Braun: Episode 23

Welcome back to another episode of No Dumb Questions! Jeff Braun and I sit down to answer your questions, and we promise - there are no dumb questions, maybe just some dumb answers.
On this episode, Jeff and I discuss whether we’d prefer to deal with a driver that is also engineering minded or one that can't speak engineering and therefore wouldn't second guess or poke holes in the car setup? This question leads into our second question: if you're a one man show, both the driver and the engineer, how would you recommend changing hats and not letting one job creep into the other?
Jeff is one of the very best race car engineers in the world. He’s engineered cars at every level, and every type: NASCAR, karts, club racing cars, Indy, GT and Prototypes, and even Top Fuel dragsters. But what sets Jeff apart from many engineers is how he can explain what he’s doing, what a car is doing, and even how the best think.

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This is very interesting to me as a track driver who doubles as my own 'engineer'. I happen to be a mechanical engineer so it's great to learn about suspension geometry, tyre grip curves etc as I concurrently learn about turn-in, mid-corner balance etc from the driver's perspective. It's a heck of a process to understand and adjust a setup while also trying to adapt to the constantly changing vehicle dynamics, not to mention changing conditions and 'driver operating parameters' (which is still the biggest issue!!)