Understanding the Dive Bomb

The dive bomb is a surprise high-risk late-breaking move done from further back than a regular pass with the defending driver thinking that that overtake will not happen or that it's just not possible. The aggressiveness of a dive bomb depends on how far from defending car you are, your track position.

If you're pretty close to the driver head, like bumper to bumper, and you pull out to the inside right before breaking and break later to the inside, we will consider that a dive bomb already but a small one. But if you are two cars length behind someone and you simply absolutely send the car into the inside, that's an aggressive dive bomb.

Aggressiveness vs. Legality

What's very interesting about all this that we're going to discuss in this lesson is that the aggressiveness of the dive bomb does not necessarily determine the legality of it. What determines whether a dive bomb was legal or not is the outcome.

• If you punt the driver ahead because of your dive bomb, you might be at fault

• If you do a very aggressive dive bomb and you end up not causing any contact, not going off track and still making the pass stick, you will not be penalized

Ideally, you want to have a significant overlap by the turn end point. This is what will mostly be analyzed during incident reviews. If you manage to get a big overlap before turn end and the defending driver still turns in and hits you, you are not at fault in that incident. The rules lesson about overlapping a turn end will also apply to dive bombing. But of course, if you punt someone else and your dive bomb was from a mile away, then you're in big trouble.

The Spectrum of Dive Bomb Aggressiveness

There's a spectrum of dive bomb aggressiveness and it depends mostly on the initial track position at the moment you start breaking. The further back you are, the later you will have to break to make that work, which increases drastically the risk of you just taking out both you and the other driver.

Pros of Dive Bombing

Surprise Element

The key advantage is the element of surprise. A well executed dive bomb should catch the other driver off guard, not allowing them to defend their position. And the result is significant overlap before the turn end point of a corner, allowing you to hit the apex first and take control of the racing line.

Here's a tip: If you want to keep the surprise element of the dive bomb, just make sure you don't show up in the mirrors yet. Pretend you won't make any move, stay on the outside, move on the last second. This will increase the chances of a successful move.

Quick Completion

Another pro of dive bombing is that if you do it right, the overtake can be completed quickly with no prolonged battling that makes you lose even more time.

Cons of Dive Bombing

• Higher risk of contact, possibly damage and penalty

• Little margin of error, so you need to have a very good timing precision and good car handling skills to manage the balance of the car while over driving into the inside of the corner

• You can ruin your tires if you can't get the car stopped and lock up

• It's considered very aggressive and viewed negatively, so it can lead to aggressive reckless moves in retaliation

This is because there's a fine line between a good and a bad dive bomb. With the latter usually resulting in contact or forcing the defender to take a drastic avoiding action after they have already committed to the corner entry.

Good Dive Bomb vs. Bad Dive Bomb

Characteristics of a Good Dive Bomb

• No contact or does not force too much evading action from the defending driver

• You achieve significant overlap at the turning point

• You hit the apex

• Done when really needed, but the driver ahead is too slow or maybe you're on the last lap of the race or it is an important strategy move

If you have a very good reason to do it, it might be a good choice.

Characteristics of a Bad Dive Bomb

• Leads to contact or forces absurd evading action from the defender

• Diving from too far back and not having enough overlap before the turning point

• You don't hit the apex

• Done when unnecessary, where there's no need to take that risk in the context of that race

Driving Technique When Dive Bombing

Maximizing Braking Performance

One of the most important factors while dive bombing is whether you get the car to slow down or not on the braking. If you have my other online course about car handling, the more racing checklist, you know that in order to maximize braking on a straight line, you need to be perfectly balanced, literally 50/50. And to make this happen to the highest level, you need to relax your hands under braking to help the four seat back and the front tires reach that balance for you. That's exactly the same thing when you're dive bombing.

The Diagonal Braking Line

If you're doing a very aggressive dive bomb because you're braking so late, you cannot turn at all. You're going to be maximizing the braking. And in order to maximize the braking, still find yourself in a good spot for the dive bomb to work, which is right at the apex. You have to aim to the inside and brake on a diagonal line all the way to the inside.

If you do it too late, but you aim towards the middle of the track, that's when we end up naturally instinctively trying to turn into the corner. But we're too fast, we're offline for the dive bomb, and we lock up and we go straight and we hit the drive to the defending driver. So we want to keep the wheel as straight as possible. And to do that, aim for the apex.

GT Cars vs. Formula Cars

GT Cars with ABS

The MX-5, you can trail brake, there's ABS, and you can dance with the car while still having some decent braking. GT3 cars with ABS are easy cars to dive bomb.

Formula Cars without ABS

The thing with this car is that it does really not like trail braking. It locks the tire so fast so easily that if you want to brake in a straight line, it works. But as soon as you turn a tiny bit, then your move fails. So this car is the kind of car that requires you to dive bomb on a straight line.

As soon as you turn a tiny bit, you lock the fronts, you go straight, it's terrible. So the level of risk for dive bombs in a formula car, high-powered formula car where you can lock up the fronts, is much higher than trail braking in a GT3 car with ABS.