After years of coaching, there's finally a clear way to describe what happens when drivers miss apexes yet still achieve faster lap times than competitors who hit them perfectly. The explanation lies in understanding two distinct driving styles: driving the line versus driving the car.

Driving the Line vs. Driving the Car

When you drive the line, you're simply following instructions—using all the track on the inside and outside, opening the radii as much as possible, and creating the biggest circle that fits the track. This approach is fundamental, but it has a critical limitation: you can execute the perfect line at one kilometer per hour, two, three, four, five. The question becomes: how do you know if you're on the limit just by doing the right line?

The answer is that you can't. You only know you're on the limit when the car shows it—when the car demonstrates that it's about to break grip, that it's about to refuse what you're asking of it.

The Plateau Problem

Consider this common scenario: you're driving the line, trying to carry as much speed as possible. You're getting used to it, carrying more and more speed, and then you realize you go over a tiny bit wide. The car is starting to lose it, and you really want to get that apex. What do most drivers do? They still try too hard to get the car to the apex, but the car at this point is moving a little bit faster. The result? You end up spinning.

Here's the critical insight: as soon as you go a little bit wide, you are not driving the line anymore—you are driving the car. When you reach the limit of all four tires, the car will show its true personality. The car will show exactly what it wants, and that's your opportunity to understand what the car wants and what it can do at that speed with those inputs. This is driving the car.

Breaking Through the Plateau

The big danger occurs when you're always driving the line, staying under the limit, comfortably hitting the marks. Then you go a little bit over, force the car to get the apex, and lose control. What happens automatically? You assume this was too fast and back off, returning to being under the limit. This is the reason everyone hits a plateau—as soon as you reach the limit and assume that it's wrong or that you're going too fast, you stop learning.

What you want instead is to go faster but then respect what the car wants. Don't hyper-fixate on the apex. Focus on what the car can do at that speed. This is your best opportunity to feel what the car is capable of doing without actually trying to get the apex. You're too fast right now to hit the apex, so instead, try to reach neutral steer.

Understanding Neutral Steer and Micro Corrections

When you reach that moment where the car is about to break the grip of the rears and you're starting to do micro corrections—that is the gem of motorsport. In this spot, the car is going to go where it can go. You can then decelerate a little bit more and feel the car gaining a little bit of rotation. Yes, you're missing the apex, but now you're analyzing what the car can do.

The beauty of this moment when you miss the apex but you're still on the limit of grip is that you're learning how you can, in the future, achieve this while hitting the apex. The objective in the end is to drive the car and drive the line at the same time.

Blending the Two Styles

When you blend these together—when you're actually hitting the apex while being on that limit where you're almost breaking grip, always on the neutral steer—the car isn't going in a perfectly straight trajectory through the corner. The car is sliding slightly, just a little bit, throughout the entire corner. That's when you match driving the car with driving the line.

How the Car Shows Its True Personality

When you're under the limit, only driving the line but not feeling the limit of the car, you can shape many different lines. However, when the car hits the limit, it shows its true personality, and you're going to have a lot fewer options of lines. Now you know the car is on the limit—it's not going to just turn more than you want. It's going to reach its rotation limit, and you're going to have to understand that.

Your mission is to match what the car is capable of doing with the ideal line. Consider these factors:

• How elliptical the ideal line is

• How much downforce the car has

• Does this car prefer a more V-shaped line or a more U-shaped line?

The car is going to start showing what it wants when you get on the limit. Then your mission is to match the optimal line of the car and fit it in the best way possible on that corner. This is when you realize you're driving more of the car than the line itself, staying on the limit of the car on that corner.

The Car Is Blind

Remember one crucial thing: the car does not know what the racetrack is. The car does not know what the corner is. The car only knows what is right under the contact patch. If you ask for too much rotation and it's not able to deliver it, it's going to slide around. The car is blind.

The Learning Progression

In the end, we always start by driving the line. We learn by driving the line—that's the safest way to ensure you're not abusing the tires or doing crazy lines. We all learn like that. But at some point, you will want to drive the car 80% and drive the line 20%, because the line eventually will be a consequence.

At some point, when you carry a lot of speed, there is just that one line you can do. You cannot do any tighter than that—the car is too fast, inertia will not allow you to get more rotation. You have reached your rotation limit. If you have the right entry, the right speed, and the right braking, then naturally you're going to find yourself on the limit and on the perfect line.

Practice Exercise

The exercise for this lesson is very simple:

• Miss the apex a little bit

• Carry more speed to be over the limit

• Don't hyper-fixate on the apex and spin

• Try to lose the car a little bit

• Force rotation on the initial entry so you can feel that limit

• Feel a little bit of micro oversteer and try to maintain it

• The longer you can maintain micro oversteer—even getting more and more rotation and turning more as you do the brake release—the more you will be driving the car and the less you will be driving only the line

This way, you're going to know and feel how much speed you should carry to each corner when you master this technique.