Now that we have a better speed control, we can more easily decide exactly the entry speed of a corner. This is a necessary step because the entry speed determines absolutely everything else that happens during the cornering phase. Entry is caused, exit is consequence. If you have an imperfect entry, it's impossible to have a perfect exit.

The Importance of Consistent Entry Speed

The speed on turn end is one of the most important factors for consistency and predictability in race. Carrying different speeds into the corner is one of the biggest sources of inconsistency and the biggest enemy of your confidence. If you don't carry exactly the same speed into a corner, the car will behave differently each lap, making you scared of driving on the limit and making it more difficult to know exactly what adjustments you should do, whether if it's on the line or with the car handling.

So here are some tools that will help you be more aware and have more control and consistency over your entry speeds. So you can always put the car in that lovely window that we call the workable speed range. The first tool is great for beginners, and the second one is more advanced, but essential to know if you want to get more and more consistent.

Tool #1: Gear Choices (Beginner Level)

This is the most simple way to determine more or less how much speed you're going to carry in your corner. When you're learning a track, you can just say, "Okay, that corner is third gear." So you downshift to third gear, you slow down to more or less of a third gear, and then that already gives you a better idea of how much speed you're going to carry in that corner.

If you just memorize the gears for each corner, that's already going to make you more consistent. It sounds stupid, it sounds silly, but I've been working with so many beginner students and they didn't know what gears they were using, and as soon as they memorized, just that, nothing else, just memorized the gear for each track, they got much more consistent.

With that extra consistency, they were able to explore more because they were much closer to that workable speed range, and they were able to explore a lot more the limit of the car and make better adjustments on the lines just because they were closer to what would be the ideal speed. So don't ignore this if you're a beginner and you want to get that first step up in consistency, just memorize the gears.

Of course, it's not only that, you can not downshift at all and do the corner on fifth gear even though you're on the speed of the first. So of course, I'm talking about having a decent RPM for each gear, so you're always in that correct window of RPMs for that gear.

Tool #2: Listening to Engine RPM (Advanced Level)

The second tool is more advanced, but it's super useful, especially if you're getting from that intermediate to more advanced level. Just figuring out gears is already super useful to greatly decrease the variance in speed for each point. But listen to the engine to figure out how high the RPM is, you can use the sound of the engine to know exactly how much speed you're carrying and become more precise.

I use this tool both in the simulator and in real life to have a better idea of how much speed I'm carrying through the corners, both entry and mid corner. Remember that these things will affect the engine braking, but you can still carry the same speed in two different gears.

Managing Rotation Through Gear Selection

For example, second gear, high RPM versus third gear, low RPM. The first one, second gear on high RPM makes the car rotate a lot more if it's a rearward driven car, so the engine brake in the rear tires makes the car turn more. And the third gear on super low RPM makes the car rotate a little bit less because there's less engine braking. So if you're that advanced, you can choose to carry exactly the same speed, but in different gears for the sake of managing your rotation.

Using Downshift Timing as a Reference Point

But I have found myself many times figuring out that as soon as I downshifted to second gear, that would be my turning end point because I was downshifting as quickly as possible. And the high RPM was actually making the car point a little bit more, so that was kind of my cue to turn in, but at the same time, not necessarily turning in with the steering, just like turning in a tiny bit, not a lot, just to make the car point.

And the timing of downshifts was giving me a precise idea of how much speed I was carrying, and I was on the same hundred lap after lap on that combo where I figured that out when I was practicing for a high level competition. And since then, I never forgot about that.

Quick Recap

• If you're a beginner, choose what gear you're going to use for each corner.

• If you're more advanced, what gear, and at what RPM are you going to be entering the corner?

On the next lessons, we will discuss not only the entry speeds, but the entry lines.