Ultimate Speed Secrets

by Ross Bentley

  Of course, the main reason for this change in technique being used by today’s winning drivers has to do with their backgrounds. Most of the top drivers today have spent many years racing karts. And what do you do with your feet in a kart? It’s right foot on the gas, and left foot on the brake pedal. It’s the years and years of training the left foot to be sensitive that results in great left-foot braking in race cars later in the career.

  ILLUSTRATION 7-3 As you initiate your turn into the corner, slowly and gently ease, or trail, your foot off the brake pedal. This is the only way of ensuring you use up all 100 percent of the tires’ traction entering a corner.

  ILLUSTRATION 7-4 Left-foot-braking is one technique that you will need to develop if you want to make it in Formula One, Indy car, NASCAR, and maybe even sports cars.

  If a driver has not spent many years using the left foot for braking in a kart, the driver may never acquire the accuracy and sensitivity to left-foot brake at the level required. Practice may have to take place at an early age to become a well-programmed, subconscious technique. Why? In his book, Why Michael Couldn’t Hit, neurologist Dr. Harold L. Klawans sheds some light on why Michael Jordan could not hit a baseball well enough to make it in the major leagues during his hiatus from basketball. The bottom line, according to Klawans, is that if a physical technique has not had some programming by the early to midteen years, the brain and body will never be able to produce the psychomotor skill necessary to perform at the highest levels. In other words, Michael Jordan didn’t hit enough baseballs as a kid.

  The following article written by Matt Bishop in the June 8, 2000, issue of Autosport magazine puts the left-foot braking issue into a F1 perspective:

  If there is one hour in the whole F1 season that sorts the men from the boys, it’s qualifying at Monte Carlo. Last Saturday, the front-row stars of this white-knuckle hour were Michael Schumacher and Jarno Trulli. Michael, we know about. But what can we learn from Jarno’s dazzling performance? Good question. And we’ll come back to it.

  Three laps into last year’s race, Damon Hill exited the tunnel, braked for the chicane, got it wrong, and lightly punted his Jordan into the barrier. I was standing at the swimming pool complex at the time, and 10 minutes later a stern-faced Damon strode into view. He walked 20 yards past me, then stopped. There he stayed, silent, for 10 minutes more, watching the cars speed past.

  At the next race, I asked him what he had seen. “I stood at Tabac,” he told me, “but I couldn’t really tell anything because the barriers were too high. So I went to the entrance of the swimming pool, the fast left-right, and you could start to see something. Michael (Schumacher) and Mika (Hakkinen)—but particularly Michael—were going through way quicker.

  “When I walked on to the exit of the swimming pool, the right-left, I could really see Michael was doing something totally different with the car. Really, really, obviously different. But you know, I couldn’t really tell you what. I couldn’t tell you whether he was understeering or oversteering or how he was braking or what he was doing with the throttle. All I could tell you is that he was different and quicker.”

  A Ferrari insider later revealed to me that Michael was left-foot braking. But more than that. Because for him, brakes aren’t simply a mechanism that slows a car. No. “For Michael, brakes are but one element in an exquisite yet subconscious fusion of techno-dynamic ingredients,” said my source.

  So as the number 3 Ferrari tore past Damon’s baffled gaze that day, inside the cockpit Michael’s feet would have been a blur, dancing on the pedals with the agile sensitivity of a Bolivian pickpocket’s hands. To be seriously quick these days, my man implied, that’s what you’ve got to be able to do.

  Which brings us back to Trulli. A classic karter-turned-racer, Jarno has probably never in his life braked an Fl car with his right foot. Jarno can do the techno-dynamic-fusion bit too.

  Fair enough, you say, but most Fl drivers left-foot brake these days. Indeed they do, but for many it’s been a thing they’ve forced themselves to do. Some never really get the knack. In 1998, for example, Hill’s Jordan teammate was Ralf Schumacher—like Trulli, a man who began karting as a small child, a man for whom left-foot braking consequently comes as easy as walking. I asked Jordan’s then technical director Gary Anderson why Damon wasn’t left-foot-braking. “I think it’s a case of: ‘I know it’s quicker, but I’m 38 and I can’t quite get on with it,’” the Irishman replied.

  That remark sounds ominously like Rubens Barrichello this year. “Michael brakes with his left foot right into the apex of the corner,” Rubens admitted at Monaco, “‘while I have to take my right foot off the brakes earlier to get back on the power at the same spot as him. I brake with my right foot (for) feel. I’ve tried using my left foot and it just doesn’t feel right. You have to do what you’re most comfortable with.” Rubens’ best lap last Saturday trailed Michael’s by a full second, by the way.

  Perhaps it’s time Rubens put his best foot forward. His left foot. Just ask Damon.

  According to this theory, if you have not spent a fair amount of time driving a kart by the time you get your driver’s license, you will never be a world champion. While I believe there is a lot of truth in this statement, I certainly don’t think that if you haven’t grown up driving a kart you should stay away from race-car driving. With work, both physically and mentally, you can adequately train your left foot.

  ILLUSTRATION 7-5 The throttle-to-brake graph traces two drivers at the end of a long straightaway. Driver A is a right-foot braker, while Driver B uses his left foot to brake. As you can see, right-foot-braking wastes some time. The amount of time it takes to remove the right foot from the throttle and move it over and onto the brake pedal will cost you (from point “a” to “b” on the graph). With left-foot-braking, there is no lost time; the transition from throttle to braking is immediate.

  Of course, the time, focus, and energy spent doing this is time, focus, and energy spent away from working on other areas of your driving. It is still well worth it.

  With all this in mind, why exactly is left-foot braking superior to right-foot braking? First, left-foot braking allows you to alter the speed of the car, which is what you use the brakes for, without upsetting the balance as much. It is easier to drive smoothly. Anytime you can drive smoother, upsetting the car’s balance less, the higher its traction limits will be. And that means you can drive faster.

  Second, it saves time in the transition from throttle to braking to throttle. This is what Barrichello was talking about. With right-foot braking, your right foot must move from the throttle to the brake pedal and back. At the end of a straightaway, that will result in having to brake slightly earlier. In the transition from braking to acceleration, the fraction of a second it takes for your right foot to move from the brake pedal to the throttle is extremely valuable. When using your left foot for braking, that movement or transition doesn’t even exist.

  In fact, it is possible to actually overlap the end of braking with the beginning of acceleration (squeezing of the throttle), so that there is no time delay at all. If done correctly, the shift in weight balance will be seamless. That saves time and keeps the car better balanced.

  With left-foot braking it is also possible to keep your right foot flat to the floor on the throttle and just alter the speed or balance of the car slightly by braking with the left foot at the same time. This is something that I don’t recommend be done a lot, as the brakes will overheat eventually. However, if you need to just get the front of the car to “bite” a bit better at turn-in for a fast sweeping corner, sometimes a short, quick squeeze of the brake pedal with the left foot while keeping the throttle flat will do the trick. Or, if you need to take just a little bit of speed off, but don’t want to lose the engine’s momentum, the same left foot brake application may work.

  Can a driver be competitive using his right foot to brake? Certainly. Dario Franchitti, for example, uses his right foot for braking unless driving on an oval tra
ck. In the October/November 1999 issue of Race Tech magazine, he’s quoted as saying, “If the corner requires it, maybe an occasional dab with the left foot, but hardly ever. . . . I am left-foot braking here (the Chicago oval) so I don’t get that much pedal feel. I can feel when it is about to lock but my left foot certainly isn’t as sensitive as my right foot yet. I am more of a traditionalist.” Of course, one wonders what Franchitti could do if he had learned to left-foot brake years ago.

  Left foot braking is a technique required when racing on oval tracks. But many drivers never use it in road racing, although it may have some benefits in fast turns where you’re not required to downshift prior to the corner. It’s also useful when driving turbocharged cars, as it allows you to stay on the throttle with the right foot, keeping the turbo spinning and reducing the throttle lag. As you can imagine though, this is hard on the brakes, so be careful not to overwork them.

  With left-foot braking, particularly on oval tracks, some drivers make the common error of having the brakes on slightly while accelerating out of a corner.

  This dragging of the brakes wastes time, can overheat the brakes, and is definitely unwanted. Pay attention to this.

  BRAKING TECHNIQUE

  Okay, okay, you say, that’s all fine for drivers who have cars they can left-foot brake, but my car won’t allow it. Many cars, in fact, do not allow left-foot braking. Either it is physically impossible to get your left foot in position, or the gearbox does not allow clutchless shifts. If you are using your left foot for the clutch, you can’t use it for the brakes, at least not full time.

  You can still learn something from what was just said about the technique, though. The basic advantage of left-foot braking is what? It is the ability to make the transition from braking to acceleration as smooth and seamless as possible. Even if you have to use your right foot for braking, that is still your goal.

  The speed in which you ease off the brake pedal and the timing of when you come off the brakes as you enter the turns are perhaps the two most important factors in determining the speed you can carry into the corner.

  As you know, when you brake to slow the car when approaching a corner, the front of the car dives. Weight has transferred onto the front tires. This dive causes the front springs to compress. When you lift your foot off the brake pedal, the springs expand, popping the front of the car up. Weight is transferring away from the front toward the rear. If you lift your foot off the brake pedal too quickly or abruptly right at the point where you begin to turn the steering into the corner, the front will become unweighted, probably causing it to understeer.

  Easing off the brakes slowly (relatively speaking) and gently at just the right speed does three things:

  • It keeps the front of the car loaded (weight transferred onto the front tires), which helps the car turn in responsively.

  • It often helps you get back to throttle early and with commitment. As the front is loaded at turn-in, the car will rotate better, which means you will not have to wait or modulate the throttle much. Instead, as the car rotates toward the apex, you will be able to get back on the throttle and stay on it.

  • It does the obvious. As you ease off the brake pedal, you will carry more speed into the corner. And, due to the two points above, the car will be able to handle the extra speed. If you tried to carry that same speed into the corner by coming off the brakes quickly and immediately, the front would become unloaded and the car would most likely understeer—not rotate toward the apex—reducing the car’s speed and delaying the point where you could start to accelerate.

  Of course, you can ease off the brakes too slowly or gradually. If you ease off the brake pedal too slowly you will be turning into the corner with too much weight transferred onto the front tires. This may cause the car to oversteer as you turn in. Or it may cause it to understeer by overloading the front tires. You are asking for more than 100 percent from the front tires, so they give up and begin to slide.

  How you ease your foot off the brake pedal dictates the balance of the car, and therefore its handling characteristics. Many times a driver will complain that the car understeers too much just after turn-in, and that it results in the driver not being able to get back on the throttle early enough. Perhaps all the driver needs to do is ease the foot off the brake pedal a little more slowly.

  One’s natural conclusion regarding braking on the approach to a corner is to think that braking as late and hard as possible (at the tires’ limit) would be ideal. That it’s what you should do for each and every corner. But that’s not necessarily true. When you approach a corner with the car “standing on its nose” from braking so hard, how well do you think it will grip the track at corner turn-in?

  There are some cars and turns where you need to brake lighter. Ask less than 100 percent from the tires. There are corners that are best approached with the car not standing on its nose. This is something you will need to experiment with. If your car tends to understeer entering a corner, try trail braking more or less to see if either loading the front tires more or less helps. Also, some formula and prototype sports cars are pitch sensitive, meaning the aerodynamics are negatively affected when the car is too far from being level or balanced.

  The amount you trail brake also plays a role in the line you drive through a corner. The more you trail brake, the earlier you can turn into the corner. The less you trail brake, the later you have to turn in. The reason is that trail braking helps rotate the car for you, so you don’t end up running out of track at the exit of the corner. The advantage to turning slightly earlier is that you can carry more speed. The later you turn in, the sharper you have to turn, meaning you have to be traveling slightly slower. Obviously, these are general rules and not cast in stone, but they do work most of the time.

  A common error some drivers make is braking too early. That does something other than the obvious of slowing down too soon. If you brake early, you will arrive at the turn-in point feeling like you have slowed the car enough, which you have. The problem is that often this is prior to the turn-in point. So just before turning in, you come off the brakes, unloading the front of the car. As you turn in, the car will not respond the way you would like, either understeering or just feeling unresponsive. The message your brain receives is “we are at the limit.” That message, unless recognized, results in you taking the corner at this (slow) speed over and over again, programming it. A lot of drivers do this, particularly when learning a new track or car, and then it becomes a programmed mistake. And I’m not talking about braking way too early. Even 5 or 10 feet can cause a huge problem.

  It is important to be aware of when you are easing off the brakes. If you begin to release the brake pedal prior to initiating your turn-in, you probably began braking too early.

  BRAKING PRACTICE

  Practice braking when driving on the street. See if you can modulate the brakes so that you can’t feel the exact point where the car comes to a complete stop. Work on developing a real feel for the brakes; a sensitive touch is important, especially in poor traction conditions.

  Easing off the brakes when coming to a stop when driving your street car teaches your foot the sensitivity and control necessary to ease off the brakes accurately and effectively, with the ideal speed and finesse. If you use your left foot for braking on the racetrack, then you need to practice with it on the street. That’s easy if you drive an automatic transmission vehicle and not so easy if you don’t.

  But even if you drive a manual shift car on the street, you should still practice using your left foot for braking. Any time you approach a corner that does not require downshifting, brake with your left foot. And, although I don’t recommend this as a safe street-driving tactic, you may want to shift into neutral on the approach to a stop, and then again use your left foot for braking.

  Your main objective is to make your braking as smooth as possible. It doesn’t have to be hard braking to do that, either. You want to make squeezing on the brakes (very quickly) and
easing off them as natural as breathing.

  STEERING WITH YOUR FEET

  Most people think you drive a race car primarily with your hands and arms turning the steering. It’s the steering wheel that directs the car. Truly fast drivers know that they steer the car with their feet as much, and maybe more, than they do with the steering wheel.

  You want to develop the ability to “play” with a car’s balance to make it turn more or less, to use your feet to steer the car to rotate it more or less. In other words, use the brakes and throttle to alter the car’s balance at various points in a turn to make the car turn.

  Ironically, at the very limit, you steer the car more with your feet than you do your hands, and the steering wheel becomes a brake. (Every time you turn it, it scrubs off speed.)

  Of course, what you need to do if you want to be fast is control the amount of understeer and oversteer to your advantage, using it to make the car rotate more or less, depending on what you need. What do I mean by rotate? Think of looking directly down on your car from way above, then think of it rotating like the hand of a clock. Driving through a turn, there are times when having the car rotate more is a good thing, like when trying to negotiate a tight turn. There are times when your car can rotate too much, leading to it oversteering so much that you’re hanging on for dear life. Obviously, your car’s setup plays a role in how much and how quickly it rotates at any one place on the track, but so does how you manage its weight balance.

  When you manage the weight just right you can make your car rotate and point through the turn just the way you want—and this is the important part—with little movement of the steering wheel. The less you turn the steering wheel, the more the front tires are pointing straight ahead, and when that’s the case, they are scrubbing off less speed. The more you can keep the front wheels pointing straight ahead, and you manage the car’s trajectory through a turn with its weight transfer and balance, the faster you’ll be. Also, the straighter the steering wheel, the sooner you can commit to throttle, which will give you a higher straight-line speed.