Braking Technique Under Racing Conditions

The first aspect of technique that deteriorates during battles for position is braking technique. This includes the breaking point, breaking pressure, and the tendency to lock up the tires. Locking up is the last thing you want to do while fighting for position, as it destroys your race by sending you straight, potentially causing contact with other cars and ruining your race.

Lateral Balance and Braking Optimization

Even when driving alone during qualifying sessions, it's challenging to remember proper braking technique while trying to maximize performance. You must maximize the lateral balance, keeping the car 50/50 so that the braking is perfectly balanced. If you move the car even slightly while maintaining the same braking pressure, you will lock the unloaded tire. This principle is well-practiced during hot lapping, but it becomes easy to forget as soon as you start fighting for position.

The Light Hands Technique

There is one key concept to remember for lateral balance and brake optimization: light hands under braking. As soon as you start braking, relax your hands slightly. This technique can be applied very quickly during position battles. When changing direction while braking—such as when breaking right behind someone who brakes earlier than expected and you're about to hit them—you can quickly turn a little to the side and release the brakes proportionally.

The relationship is proportional: here's turning, here's braking, and you cannot do both at the same time. As soon as you start braking, you have to relax your hands. As soon as you start turning, you have to release your brakes. If you're changing direction while braking hard and adjusting your line during a fight, the sequence is: breaking hard with relaxed hands, then when you need to turn a little bit, you must make a fast adjustment to allow your car to turn without locking the tires.

The Worst Braking Mistake in Racecraft

The worst mistake in racecraft when it comes to braking is adding steering without changing the brakes. If you're braking at 80% and right on the limit to lock the tires, then you see something happening and decide to go more to the inside or the outside and just change the steering without removing or releasing the brakes, this is the worst mistake that can cause a big crash.

To prevent this mistake:

• Don't be afraid of trying to change your action aggressively in practice and pit parties

• Learn what you have to do with your steering and hands to not lock while satisfying that change of direction

• Practice situations where you don't plan on changing direction, such as trying to avoid a crash or something that shows up suddenly

• Stay on top of the proportion between braking and steering without going over the limit

Aggressive Transitions When Necessary

Changes in direction do not necessarily have to be smooth. You can quickly drop the brakes, turn a little bit, then back on the brakes, then turn a little bit, then back on the brakes. You don't have to be ultra slow—forget "smooth is fast" for now when you're changing direction because something urgent is happening and you need to avoid an incident or avoid hitting someone. The key is to remember not to turn and brake at the same time too much. You can make those transitions a little bit more aggressive to not go over the limit and allow the car to turn in these situations.

Visual References During Racing

When braking while on the inside line, far from what you're used to as a reference marker, it can be difficult to find the references you use during qualifying or practicing. You might be the car on the inside with another car blocking your view. However, this should not be a problem if you use your eyes correctly.

Using Peripheral Vision and Prediction

Use two techniques: peripheral vision and prediction of where the reference will be. You don't have to fixate your focused vision on a braking reference for long. You don't have to look at the 100-meter board as it's coming to you and remain completely obsessed with looking at it for the whole duration before the braking zone. Instead, you can check, look forward, check, look forward, check, look forward. With a few glances, you can already predict when you can start braking.

Even if your reference is blocked for the last half second before you start braking, you can give a fast glance to it and then look at the track. You can literally imagine an imaginary line going across the track and then you don't have to look at that marker anymore—you can just look at that area. If you know it's going to be blocked, you have to create a little area of reference based on that braking reference that you've taken a glance from earlier and then use that imaginary area to brake without panicking.

The problem is that if you don't see it and you don't try to see it, you won't see it because the car is blocking the view for you. Use quick glances, imagine an area, make your eyes very fast to absorb that information, and already have a little plan for more or less where you are going to brake into that corner, especially when you can't see the reference.

Accounting for Draft Before Hard Braking Zones

Before hard braking zones when racing, you are not going to brake exactly at the same place you practiced when qualifying. Your car is literally faster by a significant amount because of the slipstream, and you might be too fast if you use the same reference. You might overshoot the corner if you brake at the 100-meter board during qualifying and then brake at the 100 while being behind someone in the race.

To compensate for draft:

• Brake half a blink of an eye earlier and you will be fine

• Lift the throttle slightly right before you start braking for a fraction of a second to bring your speed down by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 kph

• Remember that after taking a long draft (for example, 2 kilometers before Monza), your car is way faster than you're used to, so your braking reference will have to be earlier

Adjusting Track Position Through Brake Pressure

There's a trick you can use to adjust your track position by adjusting your braking pressure on a hard, long braking zone. If you're braking a little bit too early and fighting hard for track position, you can release your brakes a little bit. Basically, you start braking and then realize the car is going a certain way. What you can do is release your brakes a tiny bit to regain the track position right before the corner.

However, if you're braking too late, there's nothing you can do. That's why while racing, it's important to give yourself a little room for not braking too late so you can have more possibilities.

Example: Using Brake Release to Avoid Being Punted

Consider a situation where the driver ahead does not realize he can use a brake release to save himself from being punted. If a driver starts braking a little bit earlier than everyone else, this is the moment to use the trick of releasing the brakes to gain track position. If a driver keeps braking hard without adjusting, and at this point should be able to see that the car behind is getting bigger in the mirrors, spatial awareness while braking is critical.

Just like in city driving, you cannot brake hard without looking at your mirrors. If a driver brakes as hard as possible knowing there's a race car behind them, but doesn't release anything and the car behind continues to close in, there will be problems. At a certain point, the guy behind cannot accelerate faster because he is already on his grip limit. If the driver ahead keeps braking and even turns a little more to the inside, this shows complete unawareness of the speed and direction of the car behind, resulting in big contact.

While most people would say the fault is 100% with the guy behind who braked too late, it's the kind of situation where the driver ahead had the opportunity to use reaction time and spatial awareness to release the brakes and gain track position to save themselves from being punted.

Example: Lock-Up Leading to Complex Multi-Car Incident

In another complicated situation, a driver might think they're on the inside and try their best to turn the car, but then forgets the lesson about braking and turning. The driver starts locking up because they're adding steering while maintaining the brakes too hard. Because of that, they overheat the front, lock up, go wide, and cannot accelerate while the drivers behind are accelerating.

The sequence of events becomes very unlucky when there is contact. What happens is that by going wide and locking up, the driver creates an invitation. The psychological effects of going wide trigger a reaction from another car behind. That car automatically goes to the inside because it predicts the first car will be wide after the apex. This car becomes obsessed with the positioning of the first car and forgets the existence of a third car, resulting in a complicated multi-car incident.

This is a combination of possible things. While it may not be the first driver's fault to be punted, and no one would likely receive a penalty in such a complicated situation involving three cars, the initial mistake is what triggers the whole sequence of events that end up causing the crash. None of this would have happened if the first driver had protected their own positioning and existence by not locking up, getting the car to point well, and accelerating at the same time as the others. The following car would not have tried the switchback, and the third car would not have had the space for their move.