RobertR1

The racing line is not a suggestion. It's a fundamental. All your inputs are built around maximizing your speed while being inch perfect on the racing line. Every comprise costs time and is a mistake. No matter where you are in your journey, worship the racing line.

winders

Until you are actually racing when there is no such thing as the racing line.

RobertR1

A big part of race craft is making the other guy compromise his so you can take advantage and make the pass.

roadie13

After basic safety instructions to the novice student my first steps typically involve unpacking the engrained road driving habits. That means use all the road on the track and notice that the track repeats itself over and over again , unlike a spirited canyon drive etc.

So, as the track repeats itself you should also repeat yourself and follow a line. Being able to "follow" a line is a fundamental first day skill; it doesn't have to be the optimal line in any shape or form, so late apex etc (plus another constraint is how much fear I can tolerate when dealing with an enthusiastic novice in his 550 hp car).

ProCoach

Agreed, adding the necessary caution in bold.

This is not a suggestion for anyone’s next DE, but people should listen to the Ross Bentley podcast with Colin Braun early on in the series.

We three agree, as do many other top professional drivers, that if the car is being driven to it’s limits, the driver does not have a lot of say in making changes to the line other than fine tuning.

The line is the path and a trajectory that the driver sets the car on, holding on after that. Not a choice, unless you’re going under the capabilities of the car.

JamesBruen

Thank you, yes, not saying the line is not important to being a good or great track driver, of which I am neither. I think what I am trying to say is, as a beginner, I only have a certain amount of bandwidth. If I become primarily focused on following the exact line and worried about finding the next reference point, I end up not connecting enough to the car, to feeling it's dynamics. If I make connecting to the car primary + add clear desire of where I want to go, the car responds, tells me where it wants to be on the track. I listen, adjust my desire, find the groove. As I become more advanced, finding the groove of the exact line seems more feasible, but initially focusing more on the groove, less on the exact line, seems to be enough to handle. I'm not pushing, myself or the car, to the limit. I'm not rushing the process. I'm becoming comfortable and attuned through being super basic. Feeling the car and the track. The instructors I've worked with have been ok with this surfing the track approach, I think because I'm not driving fast or out of control and I end up pretty close to the line anyways.
As I am going beginner speed, it does feel in the car that preset braking points end up being too early, reference points off.

Zhao

Ya I'd agree mental games and strategic lines are a big part of racing, especially with forcing or convincing the other guy to run crapier lines than yourself. I learned in amateur endurance racing if you drive like you're a suicidal out of control freight train for passing after about 15-20 minutes of that all the slower traffic you're lapping starts to jump out of the way and slows down on the straights so they never ever are next to you anywhere near a corner. Significantly reduces lap times not being held up by slower cars in corners. That would never work in sprint racing though.

I think a big part of racecraft is adapting and being able to keep using maximum grip for cornering/throttle/braking or as close to it as possible on crap lines. Anyone should be able to maximize grip utilization throughout a corner with enough practice but not everyone can do that on a line they never drove before until that second. Watching videos of fast pros they lose almost no ground running crap lines in corners while passing someone relative to an amatuer road racer.

nowayout

@ProCoach this was a great one, thank you for the recommendation

https://speedsecrets.com/007-colin-b...m-a-pro-racer/

ProCoach

Thanks.

Yes, this is big. It wasn’t until I started working with the highest level drivers (Daytona, Sebring, LeMans winners and a WDC) about fifteen years ago that I saw this as less something you learn, more something you aspire to driving in such a way that the car defines it.

ydd

This great @MaxLTV . It reminded me of several of the discussions I've had with coaches and drivers on the podcast. I had a go at summarising some of these common themes in my book and there is a whole chapter just on the best skill development approaches. Clearly it doesn't tell you about whether trail braking should be taught on day 1 (!) but I thought perhaps you'd be interested in what the guests - including one @ProCoach - had do say.

I've therefore pulled out the chapter and made it into this free article which also includes the audio of each guest speaking in their own words - my favourite medium for this stuff.

I actually just listened to it again and there are some real gems in their that I think you'll relate too. Also worth remembering that hardly any of the guests knew each other (Rob Wilson, Scott Mansell, Ross Bentley, Perry McCathy (the Stig), John Kirkpatrick etc) yet they are all saying similar things. Scott Gardner is an Olympic head coach and has some perhaps more advanced (?) perspectives about "coaching" and how to go about it. Hope you find this useful

https://www.yourdatadriven.com/learn...nt-approaches/

MaxLTV

This is a fundamentally true statement, so I am not arguing with it. But I've seen it misunderstood or misapplied more often than not, partially because "worshiping" the racing line leads to being too rigid and ignoring numerous caveats.

The most common misunderstanding is thinking that when you get off "the line" you should get back to it at all costs. For example, many (maybe even most) intermediate to advanced drivers when they get into the corner too hot or turn in too late would rush to get on the "right" line and force the car to the inside curb, which requires slowing the car way down. They would be better off driving the car rather than driving the line - maximizing the use of available grip to maintain momentum, even if it means missing the inside curb by a little.

Another misunderstanding is not realizing that the "optimal line" is 1) dynamic; 2) requires thinking beyond just one lap. For example, on my home track (Area 27) there are several combination corners where you have a choice of a)using full Gs the car is capable of and "shortcutting" the combination by pinching the exit of the first corner; b) doing the full S-curve, which uses the whole track but does not require 100% of grip. Basically, shorter path using full grip or longer path but with less scrub. The time difference is close to the measurement error or even less than that. So there are two legitimately equally fast lines (as shown by data from thousands of laps). But if you dig deeper, at each specific moment only one of them will be the right one because one puts more heat into the tires (via more G-load and scrub) and the other one puts less, so depending on whether you need more heat or less you pick one or the other (e.g., in the beginning of the race or in qualifying everyone does the tighter line but through most of the race full S is the best to reduce tire temps and driver fatigue). But people who believe that there is only one line through the track too literally have a lot of difficulties grasping this. Similarly, front vs. rear grip changes through the race as tires heat up and wear out, and optimal line changes too. Yes, only one line is optimal at each specific moment, but that optimal line is dynamic and not something you can just memorize once, even if no other cars are in the way.

Finally, there is also risk vs. speed factor. For example, A27 has one double-apex corner with a small dip between the apexes. The fastest way through is to go full throttle right after the first apex and use an oversteer condition created by a quick lift and steering input at exactly the moment when the front axle gets extra grip from the dip but the rear does not yet. The car rotates just the right amount until the rear then gets extra grip from the same dip shortly after, which together with progressive throttle stops the rotation and launches the car towards the second apex. When it works, it's nearly orgasmic and 0.2-0.3s faster than the alternative. The problem is that it requires superhuman precision of speed, car placement, steering input and lift timing and magnitude, and it works <50% of the time even for the best drivers I've seen there. When it does not work, you lose 0.5s+ on the following straight. So very good drivers do it during qualifying or when it's a do-or-die situation during a race, but otherwise, it's a suboptimal line because the % of attempts it doesn't work makes it slower on average. And there is no way to get away from rolling the dice by just being better at driving because the exact inputs required to make things happen change with tire temps, fuel load, track condition and even wind strength and direction - no one can precisely calculate it in their head on the fly with 100% certainty, so there is always some gamble no matter how good you are. The best drivers are just better at understanding their odds and deciding whether to roll the dice or take a slightly slower but 99%+ consistent approach.

So yes, there is only one optimal line in each specific moment, but it needs to be continuously recalculated based on a multitude of dynamic variables. After all, we are not driving spherical cars in a vacuum for only one lap .

winders

I don't "worship" the racing line because in races, if you are racing someone, the "racing line" does not exist. In practice sessions, I spend a decent amount of time driving in places that are not the "racing line" so I know how my car behaves where I may need to put my car while racing someone. I never see other people doing this....

Veloce Raptor

Very very few do this. Unfortunately

MaxLTV

Absolutely. I just wanted to point out that even without influence from other cars the line is not static anyway. With other cars in play, it's nonstop "recalculating" on the internal GPS . Also, 100% true on practicing driving off the optimal line. I spent several sessions this weekend practicing taking defensive and attacking inside lines through every corner and lines I would take if someone is squeezing out from the inside too.

ProCoach

Good comments and observations from Ross Bentley in this morning’s Speed Secrets Weekly…