Melons Guide to Better Driving 4 - #MGtBD 4 - The Actual Racing Line

Hey guys!

Today, I want to talk about the simple racing line, but in the most depth I have ever found in any article, ever.

I will draw from real life experiences and examples. I will draw from racing simulator videos, too, because there are examples of things to be studied from even tracks which don’t actually exist in real life, but which can be used as better-than-real-tracks for the examples of things I want to teach.

For every corner’s racing line, I will give an in-depth example in a video, as well. Wherever possible, these videos will be as informational as possible.

Let’s start with the basics. In my pace notes, these corners are called “Square” corners. These are just your average 90 degree right angle corners, which we call “square” to avoid confusion between the direction (turn right!) and the angle (90 degree right angle corners can be left corners, but “left right” doesn’t sound right.)

For these types of corners, it’s very simple to find a nice example within racing.

Have a look at the fourth corner of the Singapore Grand Prix circuit:

This corner (the fourth one) comes at 0:20 in that video. Vettel uses the full track, with the simple “out-in-out” racing line which is ideal for right angle corners which are not followed by nor preceded by other corners. This is the fundamental theory, which is the easiest to follow.

Simply brake in a straight line, on the far edge of the track, aiming so that the car is at the outer reach of the pavement. Ease off of the brakes as you turn in. Turn in early enough that the inside wheels will be on the inside limit of the pavement at the center of the corner. Apply throttle to pull away from the corner, but allow the car to glide outwards towards the outer limits of pavement again. That’s the fastest way to tackle that corner. Everyone can do that with equivalent success, given that they have the same slip angle, braking points, and throttle-on points. There’s not much skill required in corners like these - there is no element of sacrifice, which is coming later on in the article.

This same principle can be applied to any hairpin corner, although with hairpin corners, it is usually preferred to take a late apex approach. The late apex normally works for hairpins and overtaking slower drivers/cars. You can build much higher corner-exit speed by accelerating very early, having finished with most of the braking and turning earlier in the corner.

See how the turn-in point is much tighter than the line through the corner at the apex and after it? If you want to accelerate before the car in front of you, in order to make a pass seem simple, try a late apex. Carrying all of that speed out of the corner is normally enough to make a pass in a straight line; people will genuinely believe that your car had more engine power, but the talented drivers will know that you have more skill, finesse and class.

But, what happens when you want to overtake in a braking zone? How do you brake later than the car you’re passing?

Thing is, contrary to what the label in the above image says, the early apex is also useful in some circumstances. If you can get the car rotated later in the corner, by having the track position early in the corner and staying on the brakes past the apex, and being very late on the throttle, you might be able to make the pass work. But, this is certainly the area where an experienced driver will show his value over an inexperienced driver. I have made early apex passes work. The key is to keep slowing down past the apex, rotate the car, slow up the driver you just passed, and then get the throttle down ASAP to minimize the damage to your corner exit speed. Doing this is very wrong for your lap times, but it is a good way of securing that position that you began to take on the straightaway.

In that video, the initial overtake is a wonderful example of a very early apex corner done right. But, Jamie Whincup, the guy who came from behind to overtake two drivers, was wise to wait and watch, and then try to overtake Winterbottom where he did. Winterbottom should have left more room for Whincup, and when Whincup was beginning to run out of room, Whincup shoved Winterbottom into the wall. How Winterbottom handled that first corner with the early apex was brilliant, but he forgot about the low corner exit speed that results. From there, it was all downhill for Winterbottom. I would have done the same as Whincup, just to avoid damage to my own car from Winterbottom attempting to spin Whincup. It seems certain that Winterbottom suffered steering damage from the impact with Whincup (just more reason to give more room on track!)

But, Winterbottom deserves credit for making that first pass. The first pass is a brilliant overtake. When he fought with Whincup, yeah, things went badly. But, that initial pass against Davison was brilliant.

But, by now, you should be wondering, how does this come into effect if there are two or more consecutive corners, in a row?

Well, the simple answer is that there is no simple answer. The term we use, however, is sacrifice corners. You have to determine which corner costs the most time within a section of track with multiple corners. Usually, the slowest corner in a section is the highest priority, in order to keep momentum up by not slowing down. Or, if they’re exact duplicates, try to figure out which corner has more priority; a corner which is preceded by a long straightaway will take priority over a corner which leads into another corner. If you continually are slowing down in a section of track, where each corner of the track gradually gets tighter and tighter, usually the first corner is the highest priority, and each subsequent corner is less priority until the final corner of the section. Exit speed is most important onto long straightaways, whereas entry speed into the corners is most important at the end of long straightaways. The below double hairpin example, is an example of how to get high entry speed in, and high exit speed out, focusing mostly on corner exit speed.

Hypothetically, this is the fastest way to deal with a double apex hairpin, where you are coming from a high-speed straightaway, so you want to brake late and early apex, followed by a high-speed straightaway again, where you will want a good exit speed, with a late apex. This is undoubtedly a talented driver who created this image. I tip my hat to you, good sir of the internet.

The same idea applies to many different sections of corner, where the one above is a section of track which appears similar to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, except that Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course would have a tighter corner in 1 & 2. Anyways, the idea of this is that the left image is faster than the right image, because it enables the driver to have a more arcing corner through Turn 3, which is arguably wrong if Turn 1 comes after a very long straightaway, and T2 can be treated as a little bit more of a sacrifice corner, because it comes between Turn 1 and Turn 3. Experimentation is your friend. Lap times don’t lie. Whichever line runs the best lap time is best, except for passing, where you may want to spice it up!

See how racing gets more and more convoluted, the more you start to think about it? To be a truly fast, truly talented racing driver, you have to really know how to experiment with new things and try new things in order to see what is fast. Racing drivers aren’t just drivers. They’re scientists with experiments, athletes with muscle memory and duration, and physicists with a profound understanding of grip, weight transfer and awesome other techniques that I won’t discuss yet. You’re not ready, yet. We haven’t discussed enough about how to drive fast, yet!

Stay tuned for more #MGtBD.