There are drivers who have a natural talent to go really fast with surprisingly short adaptation and learning periods. Obviously only a few are the privileged ones and most of us will have to make do with what we have.
Luckily, not everything is based on talent and there is no doubt that with a small dose of effort and dedication you can perform very high, be really competitive and, above all, maintain a palpable evolution and learning, which will help us to maintain an illusion and a bombproof motivation.
How do I start?
It is clear that there are a multitude of ways to follow: it depends on the time and dedication that each one wants to invest.
Commonly we dedicate all the time and energy available to run and train alone, having only the “delta time” and the observation of the drivers that precede us, which may be the slowest way to follow.
Another very valid method is to get down to work.
The most basic and most important: training.
Train no more and no less than necessary; train enough to allow us to ride comfortably and at a speed appropriate to our level. We should not train too much so as not to lose that point of freshness and not fall into frustration.
Train enough so that this car/circuit combination provides us with knowledge or experience for our continuous evolution.
To train in an intelligent way with a rhythm from less to more and with the greatest possible variety of conditions: temperature, qualifying setup, race setup.
Acquire a good theoretical basis of vehicle dynamics, reading the already abundant existing documentation.
The more knowledge we have about vehicle dynamics the better. If we understand what happens in our car when braking, cornering and accelerating, it will have a positive impact on our driving.
Analyze replays or “hotlaps” of faster drivers.
Analyzing the replay of a top driver will allow us, through our intuition and observation, to see what details make the difference in time.
We should look at the way he brakes, intensity, linearity, where he brakes and where he stops braking, how he uses the accelerator, where he starts to put the car into the corner, how he lines up in each corner and the gear he uses in each of these. The great advantage of iRacing “replays” is the variety of cameras, playback speeds and being able to visualize the position of the brake, throttle and clutch. The disadvantage is that the time to invest is greater.
Another good option is to view “hotlaps” on Youtube: surely we can miss many details but in return we will have the advantage of memorization by repetition of visualizations. Of course, the time to invest is much less.
Analyze our “replays” in order to detect and mitigate our driving errors.
This method is almost essential to detect driving errors but we must take into account that this step is closely linked to the previous one as it will allow us to know the references of braking, acceleration and optimal lines. With the aforementioned iRacing replays we will be able to see if we jump too early or too late in a curve, if we brake later or sooner than necessary.
Use specific software such as Ispeed, Motec or VRS.
The analysis of our laps can be very productive but it can also take up a large part of our available time. It depends on the experience we have analyzing our laps and especially if we have telemetry from faster drivers than us. If so, then it is really productive and compensates much more the time invested.
The option offered by Virtual Racing School, either in free or paid version, is to be taken into account. Undoubtedly it is very complete, intuitive and the layout of tools and the possibility of comparing our laps with those of its drivers is really very useful. Comparing it with other more powerful telemetry softwares it can be somewhat simplistic but the time to invest can be much less, without forgetting that it is hardly necessary a previous learning of the tool itself.
Joining a team.
Of course, being part of a team or racing team nowadays is almost mandatory if we decide to take it a little seriously as it can guarantee us to speed up our evolution as pilots and satisfy the need to share knowledge.
Without forgetting the satisfaction of sharing our favorite hobby, feeling supported by a group of friends and competing for oneself and for them is priceless.
Many times being part of a team gives meaning to “just racing”.
To make or have access to a “setup” suitable for our level and driving style.
The availability of setups for most iRacing cars today is very wide: you just have to search, try and decide which one you want.
The more knowledge we have about setups, the more it will help us to create the best possible setup, suitable both to ourselves and to the circuit where we race.
You can go as deep as you want and the limit is the one you want to set for yourself.
To participate in courses or coaching classes
Undoubtedly one of the most effective methods and with greater results without forgetting and underestimating those already mentioned is to resort to coaching.
Fortunately the offer and accessibility of courses or personalized classes is growing day by day. In these courses we will be able to acquire an excellent base, eliminate our piloting mistakes and improve our technique in a practical and enjoyable way.
It should be clarified that these methods are different and compatible with each other but they are not the only ones and do not have to be part of a single correct direction to follow.
The Setup
Something really important would be to clarify the relative importance of setup. Relative because in most circumstances it is not a decisive aspect nor is it something on which we should spend a lot of time and energy. Our goal should be to improve driving in all aspects and details of this, detect and try to correct errors and vices that prevent us from going fast and constant as well as maintain the temperature of the tires at its optimum point. A good setup with a magnificent cornering is useless if we brake too late and we enter the corner strained or too stopped, ruining the ideal line, the cornering and the exit of the corner.
Of course it is not the same to compete in a World Cup race where the level is very high, every thousandth counts and where you can find twenty or more riders riding in the same second. Also a setup does not have the same importance if it is for a Mazda MX5 or for the Dallara of the Indy in an oval where a bad aerodynamic configuration can prevent you from achieving a decent time.
As a general rule, in most of the series and levels, if we have a setup that allows us to be comfortable to drive in the best possible way, to drive in a constant way and with the exact dose of aggressiveness to go fast enough, we will have the necessary material to achieve very good results.
You can check the hardware that use F1 Drivers here:
- Lando Norris
- Charles Leclerc
- George Rusell
- Carlos Sainz
- Checo Pérez
- Fernando Alonso
- Antonio Giovinazzi
- Romain Grosjean
And now how do I expand on this information?
In the next articles, we will talk about the most important cornering phases:
- Braking
- Acceleration
- Driving
In them we will talk about driving technique, the most common mistakes, the most common methods to identify our mistakes, mitigate them and try to improve our driving.
With the help of Top drivers, we will unravel the best kept secrets to go faster: from our beloved Mazda MX5 to the most popular single-seaters and touring cars in iRacing.
Here we leave you with some tips to improve our technique:
Aday Coba (@AdayCoba)
“In my experience the most important thing to improve has been to visualize laps of top people, or people who go faster than you. For example I improved a lot watching onboards of Mr. Julian Rodriguez, that made me improve a lot, I saw where to brake better, the intensity with which to do it, where to take advantage of the inertia of the car, etc ….
Personally I think the most important thing is braking, a good corner exit, accelerating early we already know that it is crucial, but a good braking (with any car) is twice as transcendental, braking just enough and necessary, controlling inertia. Normally we are used to brake late and hard, but sometimes a longer braking and with less intensity could make you improve your time.
Regarding my mistakes, the most frequent was the lack of concentration, when you go alone, when you go in a group or in full battle is much easier to be focused, but when you go alone you start to turn your head and it is easy to lose concentration, the consequences are clear: accidents, spins, you get caught behind and a long etc … This problem that has been the most common in me, can be eradicated with the passage of time, with practice and consistency.
The line is also something fundamental and I go beyond opening before a curve, take the tangent and open again. You have to learn to make a good line and always keeping in mind that making as few meters as possible will also save time. An example where making fewer meters is key is with slow cars like the Skip Barber, Mazda MX5 Cup or Spec Racer Ford.”
Jesús Sicilia (@Sici15)
“From my experience, I have seen that with all cars the most important factor is always the same, the brake. Many hours of training and knowledge of the car in question are necessary to improve driving skills. And I have been able to see how the use of the brake is the fundamental part when it comes to optimizing our times. Not only braking earlier to prioritize the corner exit, but also understanding the exact point of grip that each car allows us.
If we brake too sharply from the beginning, the wheels will tend to lock, not only in cars without ABS, where this locking is much more evident, but also in cars with ABS in which it is very widespread the thought of “The more you step on the brakes, the more it will brake” and often, without realizing it, you are limiting the turning ability of the car in question. It is very important to be smooth when lifting the brake and to notice how the front wheels progressively allow us to enter the apex, the well-known “regressive braking”.
Of course a good line will be the one that allows us to perform these crucial braking and accelerate in a more direct way, but at the point where we know the ideal line of each circuit, braking is the key.”
Julián Rodríguez (@avisponen)
“When cornering it is important to understand that the space where you gain time by braking later and entering at higher speed is reduced compared to the space where you gain time during the corner and the straight after it if you exit faster. Taking this into account and speaking in general, it is important to face the braking prioritizing the passage through the curve and the exit of it, helping us with the tail braking to get the car into the curve and decreasing or eliminating the dead zones from the moment we stop braking and start accelerating.
In my experience two of the most common mistakes when the times do not come out are braking too late and starting the turn into the curve before time, being in this first phase of corner entry the most important to dominate to get the times.”
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