After making mistake after mistake, I had finally reached the point where I could put in reasonably consistent lap times.
My lap times were usually within about ±0.2 seconds of what I expected.
But every now and then, I’d end up more than 0.5 seconds off my predicted time.
I’d think, “What? I didn’t even make any mistakes. So why?”
Something was wrong…!
But I had no idea what.
Usually, it happened when something major had changed, like going from wet to dry conditions, or making a significant change to the car’s ride-height balance.
But even then, I normally wouldn’t be more than 0.5 seconds off my predicted time.
Still, whenever I had a lap where I didn’t make any mistakes but somehow couldn’t put in the time I expected, it was usually because of something like that.
I kept wondering, “Why? Why?”
Then one day, I thought, “Wait a second…”
I reached into my brain, pulled out a switch, and flipped it.
Click!
And just like that, I put in the lap time I expected…
I had switched from relying on my “sense of speed” to relying on my “sense of grip.”
For example, when you’re driving in the wet, you naturally spend some time figuring out, “How much grip does the track have today?”
In those situations, your sense of speed isn’t all that useful. Instead, you focus on your sense of grip, thinking, “If I push this much, it’ll slide. If I stay around here, it’ll be fine.”
But once you get used to judging the grip, your brain starts memorizing those speeds.
Before you know it, you start thinking, “I’ll slide at this speed,” or “I’ll be fine at this speed.”
Your sense of speed comes from your vision, so you can use it before you even enter the corner. Your sense of grip, on the other hand, only becomes available once you’re actually in the corner.
So if you’re not paying attention, you naturally start taking the easy way out and relying only on your sense of speed.
The result?
The conditions had changed, and I was actually capable of cornering faster than before, but I kept cornering at the same old speed anyway…
Apparently, when I have too many random thoughts running through my head, I occasionally forget things like this and end up thinking, “Huh?”
I spend way too much time thinking about random nonsense while I’m driving.
I swear I’m not thinking about getting close to Jennifer Aniston or anything! Margot Robbie!
So whenever I notice, “Hey, I’m not using my sense of grip right now,” I give myself a little smack on the head and tell myself, “Come on!”
And that fixed it.
Oh, so that’s what it was. Idiot!
Lesson Learned
Don’t rely on your sense of speed alone.