Scouting is very important. What you described, a few good eyes watching and then talking to the driver, actually is scouting; no one said it actually has to be on paper. What our team does, among many, many other things, is the team members scout, then the scouting group and the scouting coordinator write up a strategy. Our scouting appears to be quality, as various other teams come to us and ask to use our information. (ask
Bjenks548, he will tell you). In fact, last year (Lunacy) there were two separate matches in which we beat a highly qualified team (you should be able to guess), and our drivers attributed it entirely to scouting.