Cornering is where you really get to show off your driving skills, right?
Fast drivers look cool, and corners are where there’s usually the most time left to find!
As a beginner who was gradually getting more familiar with the track, I was obsessed with increasing my cornering speed.
I knew that carrying too much speed into a corner wouldn’t make me faster, and that raising my minimum speed was important.
After practicing over and over, I started having moments where I thought, “Oh, I was faster through that corner than usual!”
Yes! That’s the way to do it!
But then I started having laps where I felt like I’d cornered really fast, yet my lap time didn’t reflect it.
There I was, staring at the timing board in disbelief.
Wait, why?!
I definitely wasn’t carrying too much speed into the corner.
I was carefully judging my speed before the corner and entering at what I thought was the right speed.
And my cornering speed was high, too.
So I should have been setting a good lap time…
But that way of thinking was completely wrong.
As it turned out, I had become so focused on raising my minimum speed that I was starting to brake too early—and I was also starting to release the brakes too early.
I could have braked later and continued braking deeper into the corner, gradually easing off the brake pedal as I turned in.
Instead, I was entering the corner from too far back with a light, steady amount of brake pressure.
I thought I was being careful and precise when I told myself, “Let’s judge my speed carefully before the corner…”
But in reality, I was leaving grip on the table and losing time because of it.
This is the difference between simply carrying a little brake pressure into a corner and using the brakes properly to keep slowing the car as you turn.
By dragging a light, steady amount of brake into the corner, I was leaving grip unused.
Once I started braking later and kept easing off the brake as I turned in, aiming to have the brakes fully released right around the apex—and to carry as much speed as possible at that point—it all came together.
Oh, so that’s what it was. Idiot!
Lesson Learned
Keep slowing down as you turn.