Let's talk about how to learn a new track in a more advanced way. First thing we do exactly what I taught you on the first level. We are going to find our grip on the minimum speed by looking for another team. We are going to add a little bit of brakes. That already gives me an idea of how much level grip the car has.

Initial Testing and Brake Assessment

Now, testing the brakes. Let's see how much I can stop. From there, we are going to start building our reference points. A little bit of trail braking in there, almost went off, had to lift. Starting to feel the grip. Still cool tires, but again. Lots of engine braking there. See? This car is very sensitive if you don't shift a lot so you don't be careful with that.

A tiny bit of trail braking in light hands and then kind of forcing the car. I want to minimize the understeer. The understeer is so that you can get a feeling for it. As you get more advanced, you're going to be able to already test some rotational corner there. As soon as you get back in power, the car doesn't really like to turn there, so it almost went off.

Building Reference Points Without Abusing Entry

Again, just testing, testing, testing without abusing the entrance. Again, if I just tried to brake as late as possible right away, I see what happens. Not ideal. Nothing to benefit from that. Braking late is still going to be the last thing we are going to do.

Now I just made the track super great. I'm going to have a little bit less. A little bit of trail braking. Power. Feel the car. A little bit of testing there. Light hands. Power. See? Getting it to focus to your own early exit. Addressing throttle. Just to feel how the car behaves with that. Because if I go too slow on power like this, see that it's kind of a little bit lazy there. I don't like it.

So this car might be a little bit of trail braking, then aggressive throttle. A little bit too early there, so had to lift. Now I'm going to start braking a little bit later, but still not too late. Maximizing rotation at the end. I was right before the four. Still a little bit early there.

Developing Brake Shape

Not a lot of engine braking. A little bit later here at the two. See that? Now that I'm braking a little bit later, you can see how my brake shape is starting to form. Starting to move a little bit bigger initially, and then less, less and less in the corner. Getting the steering and looking for the new push to it. The objective here is to always minimize the steer and get as low as possible to oversteer as you turn in.

A little bit more aggressive there. I'm going to brake at the two here. Two works as a little bit too hard braking, because I still felt understeer, and that's how I'm going to build up the braking. All of this here may be a little bit before the three there. Super light hands. See, that was quite close to the limit there. Car started to oversteer as I downshifted to second. The engine braking the car is pretty aggressive.

Understanding Compression and Grip

Lots of grip under compression here and here. You can be very aggressive there with the compression. Braking a short line or less intense. Very easy to oversteer downshift. So now, okay, maybe we have to go to second gear, not to get that much torque, because after the correction of the oversteer, I always have understeer and have issues there.

Let's brake at the four here. At the four, a little bit too late. At least I'm still in track. Let's see if you got a good exit. That's a two-lighter braking, and now mid-corner forcing better exit, delta is going. Not forcing all the entry. I'm just maximizing mid-corner and exit. Now you can see the delta going. I need to climb lap times. That's the braking reference here.

Maximizing Mid-Corner and Exit

Braking at the three. Releasing, force the car, rotation. Got a little bit of understeer, so I can probably take a little bit more. Braking at the two, but less inside. A little bit too late or too short braking or too low pressure. But smaller mistakes. Second gear. Really throwing the car, catching the direction on some time. Minimizing understeer here. A little bit of brakes, a little bit of steering. Kind of aggressive power there.

I don't want to get too much understeer at this point anymore. See that throttle application is quite sharp. Slightly better exit there on the last corner. Minimizing the understeer, but very active. We need to correct a lot. This car has a lot of oversteer. Again, some of the low gears. Again, trail braking. And then a little bit of a controlled oversteer there.

Testing the Limits Safely

Braking at the two, soft. Nice rotation at the end. Excellent. Going to use the entry. Use the exit. A little bit too early, a little bit too early. But it's a good test. See, it was safe to try and abuse the exit. What about here? A little bit of ABS. Close to the apex, but I'm getting to the limit. I'm getting to the limit of the car. I'm not at the optimal line, but getting to the limit of the car.

A little bit of understeer there on turn in. On 4th gear, so maybe I want to downshift to 3rd. I'm thinking about all those things. How can I get neutral steer from turn in? What is it for each corner that's going to minimize my understeer? Is it going to be the engine braking? Is it going to be the trail braking? Is it going to be the line?

Analyzing Each Corner

A little bit too early there. I had understeer because I had to go on throttle. Second gear here. See, it gets a little odd. Mid-range and braking. Again, too much correction. I have to actually let the car oversteer. I'm relaxing my hands too much this time. I'm going to exit there because it snaps a little bit quicker.

Braking a little bit harder at the four. Relaxed hands. Kind of worked. But then I released too much. I released my brakes too much like this car had downforce. We need to do that and that's not slowing down. At the two. I sense it. At the two. Too early. Probably trail braking a little bit too much.

Gear Selection and Rotation

Second right-hander here in the sector is faster than the first right-hander. What about this one? Third gear. Nice rotation there on third gear. Also, we'll need to downshift to third gear. I learned it from the last lap. Third gear. Very good rotation. Way better. There you go. Full-tenth on that corner.

Light hands. Light hands. Brake harder. Downshift. Throw the car into the corner. Can I trail brake even less? Yeah, trail brake even less and the car likes it. You even got understeer a little bit. Third gear. Yeah. Because the second gear was getting too much rotation. You want just enough rotation, right?

Finding the Right Balance

Let's try in second here. Kind of works, but I still need to get that torque right. 40% throttle right there. It was too much understeer. 70% made me nervous too. You have to find the right spot, maybe 60%. Let's brake a little bit less here. Starting to look a little bit better. Gained some time. Why? Maybe even tighter. You're going to talk about that more in level four.

If you brake too hard, then you get into ABS. To avoid getting into ABS, you might have more fun in your mid-corner. Because you might just lock the fronts and take off the tires. So you have to decide, is this car good with hard brakes and then turn? Or is this car better if I brake a little bit less? See, in the graph there, it's all yellow on the brake pressure telemetry. That's pretty much in ABS. ABS in many cars just overheats the surface. And you end up having less grip by the time you turn into the corner.

Learning to Force the Car in Safe Spots

Let's try it here. Throw the car in. Dove into that dirt. And then ended up almost spinning. So now you know, you can't really use that dirt that much. Still on third here. Still missing some apexes. But now I'm going to feel how I can stay on neutral steer in this car. Let's be a little bit more aggressive on power here. A little bit better. Still got to snap. But at least I'm getting it. I'm getting it. And that's how you feel it.

You're almost forcing the car on the safe spot. Never forcing the car on an entry yet. Entry oversteer there with the engine brake. Lots of lap time that I won. Let's try a second gear here. Oh, the car rotates. Then third gear. Lots of engine brake. Here, let's try just lifting. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. Just lifting doesn't work. This car doesn't like it. Then, third here. A little bit early on turn in. I expected the car to take a little bit more of the curve. And then we keep trying. Keep trying. A little better there. Getting more consistent at the left-hander.

Blipping and Downshifts

I'm blipping the downshifts. It feels like this car helps you like when you blip the throttle on downshifts. You can either have the auto blip turned on or you can do the blips yourself. It's to prevent the car from kicking. Now, can I try a little bit more trail braking mid-corner here? Because I've been understeering a lot. I don't know if I can just turn like this. See, it kind of helps. It kind of helps a little bit. The trail brake is a little bit more like 20% there. I got into a little bit of front ABS, but the car still turned a lot. So now I know trail braking wise mid-corner I can go further with the car.

Dancing with the Car

See, lots of rotation there. I'm really starting to dance with the car now. Second gear here helped a lot. See, lots of rotation. Now, can't lift. Here's the trail brake. Look at the difference. So much more rotation. So much more rotation. Still missing the apex there. Expecting the engine braking to give me that but it's not giving me on that specific car to adjust that. Probably because of the compression. There is a compression and maybe that compression is causing a difference from car to car. That's still, we are going to have a compression lesson on level 3.

The Learning Process

And this is how we learn it. You see, not abusing the entries. How many times did I go off here? I only went off that one time because I actually wanted to show you what happens if you just guess the brake. I didn't guess any braking zone here. I just brake early. I maximize rotation in the corner and then I started minimizing the entry understeer. By braking later and later to a point where you're braking so late that your brake release still has weight on the front tires rotating for you. That's the magic.

What NOT to Do

You're never going to reapply brake mid-corner. Never do that. You're not going to brake hard and then release and then use the brakes to turn. Don't do that. You want to release, actually, try to do the wrong thing and I couldn't. Let me try. So people do this. They brake on a straight line and then they turn and then they add more brakes and then they accelerate. Do not do that. Do not do that. You want to do one big release. You're converting. You're transferring the grip usage from braking to turning.

I'm going to try again. Brake very hard. Turn into the corner. Use the brakes again to turn. Never works. Never works. The one to do is only one release as a transition.

Maintaining Rotation Throughout the Corner

In the end, you're going to have the car hanging on neutral steer from initial turn in until the exit. You don't want to lose that rotation in the corner either. You don't have it rotating here. Throw it and then kind of aggressive power. Obviously, not like that. I just wanted to show you that I'm transitioning here to kind of an aggressive power like this. See, that was a little bit too early there, so I actually thought it was oversteer. But I don't want to do this. You accelerate a little bit. You completely lose the rotation. The yaw rate goes down.

You want to minimize and see. You already felt the understeer. The seal was apart for you as a beginner to get to know the car and to be able to feel the grip. Like this. So you got an idea, right? Again, beginner style. So you got a feel and the advanced style is you're carrying a little bit more brakes deep into the corner and then smashing on the power to exit and carry more rotation. You got a feeling and then start adjusting your lines and getting a little bit close up to the apex.

Missing Apexes While Learning

See? Remember, I do miss a lot of the apexes when I'm learning the track and a lot of people ask me like, "How are you doing such fast lap times while you're missing the apexes?" It's because I'm trying that stuff. It's because I'm trying to get into it. And I'm kind of in a controlled way. I'm abusing the tire and I'm abusing the car to feel how much force I can get with neutral steering by doing this exercise.

Chasing the oversteer. They're nearly a bit heavier. I can spin the car if I want. I want to spin. I can easily just do this. And then I combine the engine braking with the trail braking and I had firm hands and I turned a little bit quickly on the initial turn in. So that I did everything wrong there on purpose to spin the car if I want to.

Learning to Control the Car On Purpose

And I want you to be able to spin the car on purpose like that as well. I want you to be able to spin on purpose, to understeer on purpose, and then the middle point is what you're going to try and carry throughout the whole lap.

Practice Challenge

Now if you want to try this combo to learn the track and to get a little bit more use with how aggressive this car is on power and on downshifts, try a lap. Try getting a little bit used to forcing this car specifically. Make sure you don't force the entries. Force mid corner first, then a little bit of exits and then you start braking a little bit later and blending that brakes into turning with the downshifts. I challenge you to do a lap time under 127.

The Polishing Process

This is a reference lap. A little bit of over driving here and there. Just so you understand how I get to find the limit. After this with more and more laps I would start polishing and polishing so the lap would look a lot more tidy. But this is the process.