What kind of driver are you?

I think the really good guys have the innate ability to rapidly figure out the secrets of corners. It comes to them naturally. Examples include Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and many others. I think it is an ability to figure out how much weight and grip they have on all four corners and work out what is left to exploit from a line and tire usage standpoint. Michael said once "In the dry, the tires are shouting to me (the level of grip) and in the wet they whisper to me."

Nuvolari said he knew the exact weight on each tire as he went through the corner and thus he could judge how much sliding the car could take in a corner.

Experience will help the less instinctive drivers - e.g. Damon Hill. They use laps to suss up the track, see their lap data and go faster based on this. An Incremental or evolutionary approach.

Even in sports cars its amazing to see guys like Jan Magnusson and Tom Kristensen seem to just jump in and drive fast from the get go

 

Well, I'm not really one of the fast guys.... but I'll throw in my 2 pennies...

My suggestion: take an Evolution Autocross school the next time one is in your area.
They will teach you to "look ahead".... to be looking through the next turn (or even two) while driving this turn.
You stop seeing the course as single turns made up of entry, apex, and exit... and start seeing how each element sets up the next element as one continuous flow.

Then its a matter of seat time... having seen lots of different sorts of elements linked together at different courses...
then driving a new track is not such a big deal... you've seen it all before.

As one fast guy told me one time... "seat time, seat time, seat time".

 

When I used to club race cars by my third lap that would be as fast as I could go. The first lap was really wasted leaving the pits and warming the tyres and car up, then the next lap was basically to see how I was and the track felt, etc. and then it's on.

I think though many guys I raced against were very inconsistent and used to pull qualifying/practice lap times out that were much faster than their race times ... thus I guess they really scared themselves in practice, or were not able to concentrate in the race or something?. Myself I was able to lap all day long within a second ... especially once I had a very good and balanced car that used it's consumables evenly. My earlier car used to "slow" during the race as it over heated the front tyres, etc.

I still to this day have not forgotten aspects of tracks that I used to race on 20 years ago, like where bumps were and bad track edges (heck probably fixed by now), but I have forgotten how to drive. I would need a couple of practice sessions to see if I can find that rhythm again ... when I very rarely play in/on gokarts I usually find within a few corners I'm doing most things right, but ofcourse gokarts are very, very forgiving.

Saying all that I am always very careful with a car that is new to me ... I need to learn how it talks to me before I can be fast.
Pete

 

Former motorcycle road racer here, use your brains first. Clear concise thinking. Testosterone helps, but a thinking rider /driver will get you speed. Get in shape, a race track is no place for a fat a$$. Everytime I see the Speed Report on tv and see how fat some of the drivers in most American series it still surpises me.

 

Exactly.

 

Practice, practice, practice. Nothing is more important than seat time.

My personal issue these days is trying to convince my brain, that an aero car can corner a lot faster than one without it. Trusting the underbody downforce takes some getting used to. I'm not there yet.

 

Seat time and practice are clearly key. But knowing the car makes a huge difference for pulling out fast laps consistently and with confidence. This is specially important for getting the most out of a set up or knowing what to test/change for improving lap times.

Having raced karts and F3 reynard, I was quick when I felt comfortable and knew what was going on with my car (engine/chasis/wings). On the other hand, in stock cars I never really felt in control or fully understood what was happening mechanically, thus I wasn't competitive compared to drivers whom I had beaten many times in open wheel racing.

Extremely gifted drivers will find the limits faster than others and can adjust to a changing environment, i.e. temperature, tire wear, engine power, etc. That is pure talent, but normal people can partially substitute this with practice and knowledge.

One key aspect of car control is that you feel the car with your butt. Never use a patchy seat at the bottom.

 

+1

-Peter
www.peterkrause.net

 

well, i'm not really one to s how off my penis too, but....

I placed in the top 40 at the 2004 Red Bull driver's search and i was a lot faster then half of the people there; Which isn't saying much, because well Americans suck at racing... TBH it would have been a lot higher if they hadn't but me in the back of the pack for my last race. 19th of 25 drivers, yeah im not effin' ayrton senna you wankers.

/Rant

 

I did pretty damn well in 1 liter sedans 35-40 years ago. Does that count?