At this point, you already know that motorsports is pretty complicated. We're doing a lot of stuff at the same time, and sometimes we're adjusting one thing and it affects the rest. And sometimes we can talk about one thing in many different ways until you finally understand it. This lesson is a short explanation about a natural way to view the driving the line versus driving the car approach.

Understanding Corner Speed Development

Let's say we have a corner here and we don't really know what is the ideal speed that we're carrying for that corner. Now we are learning the track. We're a little bit under the limit. We're doing that under stress exercise. So getting back on power early and feeling okay, we're already at the workable speed range and we start carrying a little bit more speed, breaking a little bit deeper and then getting back on power later and later and finding more and more speed in until we get very close to the limit.

Now at a subtle level, there are two ways to find the perfect speed and you can kind of alternate between them to fine tune your driving.

Two Approaches to Finding the Limit

Speed to Rotation Approach

The first way we're going to call the speed to rotation approach. You adjust the speed first, so you carry more speed into the corner. Last lap, you are not on the limit. This lap, you're going to carry more speed. In this approach, if you carry too much speed, then you will have to deal with the rotation.

So if the car is too fast right here, then you have to somehow stay on track. So adjusting your speed first, bringing this up will mean that you have to deal with this after. And this can be dangerous if you're in real life or if the speed was too much. And you have to deal with that rotation on the fly because you're already fast into the corner.

Rotation to Speed Approach

Now, there's a second way. Let's say, again, last lap, you're under the limit, but now we're going to do a different approach. We're going to call it rotation to speed approach. What is this? We are not going to carry more speed on that corner. What we're going to do is try to rotate the car more.

So in this situation, if you are under the limit, what's going to happen? You're going to churn more than necessary. You're going to feel that. You're going to be like, oh, wow, the car can really point. I'm going to unwind the steering. I'm going to bounce off the apex. I'm going to get back on power. And now I'm going to leave this corner with the information that this speed that I brought in was too low. And then I can increase the speed on the next lap.

This is safer because now you have the room. You have extra room to test the car. So you see driving the car right here, definitely not driving the line because we're testing. We know that the car is a little bit under, but now we can know more or less by how much the car is under the limit. That's the rotation to speed approach.

Comparing the Two Approaches

To recap:

• Speed to rotation: You increase the speed first and then try to deal with it. It can be quite dangerous.

• Rotation to speed: You try to get more rotation. You try to point more, like feel what is the lateral load that the car is capable of offering. And then you get that information and you add more speed.

Recommended Practice Method

According to how easy it was to bring the car to the inside, I recommend that you try this one. I recommend that you test the grip of the car, drive the car, feel how much it can turn. Then if you get stuck inside, it was too easy. At least now you know in a safer way that you can increase your speed by a little bit.

Until you get to the point where the speed is too high and then you're like, "R rrr!" On the limit. Now you know that you were on the limit all the way from entry to mid corner. Might have missed the apex a little bit. Remember, if you're doing this approach, this is actually super fast. You're missing the apex by a little bit, but you're still on the limit from entry to mid corner.

Integrating Both Approaches

So focus on always, always testing the grip of the car, drive the car, and then drive the line. Of course, like in a way, you're going to kind of alternate, right? So you drive the line a bit, and you drive the car, and you drive the line, and you drive the car. And then you match them together.