Motorsports are complicated, but basically, if you can take the right line and use all the available grip from the tires, you can go fast.
When you think about it, going fast is easy! Right? Easy-peasy!
All you have to do is use all the grip!
Around the time I finally started driving without getting all worked up, I ran into a wall: I felt like I was driving pretty well, but for some reason, I just couldn’t put down a good lap time.
I wasn’t leaving much grip unused, so I should have been setting some seriously good lap times…
Why couldn’t I put down a good time?!
Was it that corner? Or maybe this one?
I thought about all sorts of things, but I couldn’t figure it out.
I was pushing hard in every corner, so there was no way I was leaving any grip unused!
Why wasn’t I setting a good lap time when I was trying this hard???
Yep. I was simply carrying too much speed into the corners.
And at corners like Turn 1, where I had to resist the urge to get back on the throttle too early, I just couldn’t wait and got back on the gas too soon.
That made me feel like I was really pushing hard both on corner entry and on exit.
But that doesn’t mean I was actually using all the available grip throughout the entire corner—in other words, staying near the edge of the friction circle.
So even though I felt like I was pushing hard, I wasn’t actually going fast.
A classic trap.
I guess that’s what happens when you’re still a beginner but start getting a little too confident.
Oh, so that’s what it was. Idiot!
Lesson Learned
Feeling like you’re pushing hard is not the same as actually staying near the edge of the friction circle.