Here's an interesting article which is an old email thread between Paul Haney, author of several racing books and sports car racer Guy Cosmo when he was racing in junior formula cars.

http://insideracingtechnology.com/disccosmo.htm

I thought it was pretty interesting and for me it brings up the question of, how much of the technical stuff does a driver need to understand to push a car to it's limit, develop/setup a car and effectively communicate with their engineer? I haven't really figured out the answer to that yet.

Also check out the rest of the site, it has some other interesting articles and photos too!