Ultimate Speed Secrets

by Ross Bentley

  Your read on the situation at this point is that you are driving at, or maybe even slightly beyond, the limit. You are only at somewhere between 78 and 80 miles per hour, which is not as fast as you could be. You think you are at the limit, and you are right to some extent. But you have created this artificially low limit.

  You see, it is the change of speed, from 78 to 80 miles per hour that caused the tires to barely exceed the traction limit and create an artificially low limit. If you had entered the corner at 80 miles per hour, your traction sensing would have told you that you are at the limit. You would have squeezed on the throttle appropriately, enabling you to accelerate out of the corner on the limit.

  A greater than ideal change in speed also causes excessive weight transfer. It unbalances the car more than necessary. When your traction sensing signals there is more speed required to get the tires to their limit, you tromp on the throttle, and weight is transferred to the rear. Yes, this may be a good thing to help give the rear tires more grip to handle the increased demand for acceleration traction, but it may also cause excessive understeer. The ultimate result is the same: Your traction sensing then feels that the front tires are beyond the limit, and you don’t go any faster (maybe even slow down).

  This is why your corner-entry speed is so critical. If you enter a corner too slowly (below the limit), and then try to make up for it by accelerating, you may create a limit that is not as high as if you entered the corner at the ideal speed. And your corner-entry speed is one of the reasons your speed-sensing skills are so important. Without them, you will not be able to accurately and consistently gauge, and therefore drive, the correct speed when entering the turns.

  Truly great race car drivers have the ability to adjust their entry speeds to within one-half a mile per hour, consistently, of the ideal corner-entry speed for every corner and every lap. Lesser drivers’ corner-entry speed may vary from lap to lap anywhere from 1 to 5 or more miles per hour. Until your speed-sensing abilities are finely tuned and consistent, you will never know for sure what technique (or car setup) worked and what didn’t work. This is why the speed sensing exercises I suggest are so critical.

  SPEED SECRET

  The less change in speed through a corner, the faster you will be.

  MOMENTUM

  A common problem that many drivers have is over-slowing the car entering corners, especially fast ones. The question is, why? There are at least three reasons for this:

  • It could be that you have the “in slow, out fast” habit or program too well ingrained. This is one of the first things a race driver is told. It’s better to go into a corner slow and come out fast, rather than vice versa. It’s great advice for a beginner, who typically does get this wrong. But the problem is that you might never move beyond this advice. You have this technique so ingrained into your mind that you cannot move onto the approach the real fast drivers use: in fast, out faster.

  • It could be that you are too focused on the begin-of-braking point, rather than the end-of-braking point. If you are totally focused on where you begin braking, when you get there you’re likely to jump on the brakes (especially if you’re trying to move the brake point in a little deeper). And if you jump on the brakes, you’re likely to over-brake and over-slow the car. If, instead, you focus your eyes into the turn and onto the point where you’re planning to release the brakes—the end-of-braking point—it’s likely you will not over-slow the car. You will set the ideal corner-entry speed because you’re focused on doing just that.

  • It could be that you’re not looking into the turn far enough. If you do not look far enough down the track and through the turns, you’ll drive as if you’re connecting dots. You’ll drive from one point to the next, using these reference points to find your way around the track, but not planning out where you need to be and how fast you should be going when you get there. Everything is a reaction. There is no planning ahead. In fact, it’s impossible to plan ahead if you’re not looking far enough ahead.

  No matter which one of these reasons is the cause of over-slowing (and it could be a combination of two or even all three), your mental programming is not right. You do not have a mental model of how to set the right speed for corner entry. And the only way you’re going to improve it is to change your programming. Typically what happens is you’ll make a physical change and then back that up with mental programming (more about this later in the book) to set it in stone. That’s natural. Someone helps you learn that you must carry more entry speed to be fast, to focus on the end-of-braking point, or to look farther through the turn. You’ll physically practice this enough times that you get it and then begin to form the mental model of that higher entry speed. For some drivers this occurs relatively quickly; for others, it’s painfully slow.

  Certainly, the technique of setting one’s corner-entry speed is universal. Over-slow any car entering a corner and you’re going to be in trouble. Too little entry speed is going to lead to too little exit speed. Sure, if you overdo it on the entry and carry too much speed into a corner, you’ll be slow exiting it. That’s where the “in slow, out fast” advice came from. It’s a shame that it’s been overemphasized because it is basically good advice, in the right dose.

  If you over-slow a car entering a corner, here’s what happens. First, you’ve lost momentum. Slowing a car is a terrible thing to do to it. Every time you slow it down, it’s got to work hard to regain that speed, so the less you slow the car, the easier it is to get back up to speed.

  Second, over-slowing the car leads to the change of speed problem we’ve looked at already. If you over-slow a car entering a corner, even by 1 or 2 miles per hour, your natural instinct is going to be that the car has some available traction. Your instinct, then, is going to be to use it. You’ll step harder on the throttle, and when you step harder on the throttle, you’re going to cause one of two things to happen: understeer or oversteer. The understeer is caused by too much weight transfer to the rear; the oversteer is caused by asking the rear tires (in a rear-wheel-drive car) to do too much, causing power oversteer. So, if you had not slowed the car so much, your instincts would not have encouraged you to step so hard on the throttle, and the change in speed from the minimum to your exit speed will have been less. It’s the difference in speed from minimum to exit speed that causes the problem. The less the difference, the better.

  As I mentioned earlier, the midcorner phase is what separates the champions from the truly great drivers. During Michael Schumacher’s championship years, the speed he carried through the middle of every turn, without it negatively affecting his corner entry and exit speed, was a major factor in his outright speed advantage. In fact, Schumacher’s style, technique, and ability in the midcorner phase may even help the other corner phases.

  So what exactly did Schumacher do that enabled him to carry anywhere from 1/2 to 2 miles per hour more through the middle of each corner? Well, I would love to be able to say I know exactly what his “secret” was, but I can’t. What I do know is that it has more to do with the way he balanced the car than anything else.

  ILLUSTRATION 15-1 Small things can make big improvements. For example, compare these throttle graph traces. Between these two turns, Driver A uses less than half throttle, while Driver B gives a short stab at full throttle. Driver B is “hustling” the car. In these esses, that little burst of throttle could result in being up to three-tenths of a second quicker in this section alone.

  Although the line he chose has a little to do with it, that is something that practically every other driver in F1 had figured out, as we have already discussed.

  If you ever had the opportunity to really watch Schumacher, you may have noticed what I’m talking about. If you could stand near the edge of the track, as I was fortunate enough to do, you could see that the attitude of his car (the pitch and roll) did not change as much as others. His car stayed better balanced.

  So, again, how did he do it? Without being able to get into the cockpit with
him, I can only imagine that his footwork was close to perfect. The way he squeezed on the brakes with his left foot, and then eased off of it while beginning to squeeze the throttle with his right foot was seamless, perfectly smooth. My guess is that he had the slightest of overlap between the two, meaning that he had not fully come off the brake before he began to squeeze the throttle. There certainly did not appear to be even a nanosecond of time where he was not either braking or accelerating. I’m sure there was not too much overlap either, otherwise he would be known for being hard on the brakes, which he was not. Having observed closely from the side of the track and seen the bits of data acquisition traces that were shown in magazines of his driving style, that is a well-educated hypotheses. The only way of knowing for sure would to have been in the car with him at the time.

  Schumacher’s midcorner ability also had something to do with what made him quick everywhere else on the track: his steering technique. He had such light hands on the wheel. It was as if he was hardly gripping it. From the in-car camera, there are times where it looked as though only his fingers were touching the wheel. His palms did not seem to be in contact with the wheel. Of course, to control an F1 car with only the fingers holding the wheel, with the amount of grip and feedback through the steering it had, would require great physical strength. Schumacher had a well-known reputation for being perhaps the fittest driver in the world, maybe even in the history of the sport.

  This light, sensitive touch that Schumacher had on the wheel provided him with more feedback from the steering wheel. Any time you grip the steering wheel tightly, tensing the muscles in your arms, the information (vibrations, sense of forces feeding back through the wheel, and so on) from the wheel to your brain will be restricted.

  The feedback from the steering wheel provides you with much of your traction sensing. If that is restricted to any degree, you will be less sensitive to how much grip the tires have, and therefore whether you are at the limit or not.

  Michael Schumacher’s physical strength may just have been one of the keys to his abilities. Due to his strength, his arms and hands may have been more relaxed while controlling the steering wheel. Any time you can relax your muscles, the more feedback will reach your brain. The more feedback your brain has, the better your skills will be. And that leads to the second thing that results from the light touch on the steering wheel: smooth, precise, progressive steering inputs.

  SPEED SECRET

  Fast midcorner speed comes from great entry speed, car balance, and early exit speed.

  BALANCING THE CAR

  A car is balanced when there is no weight being transferred forward, as would be the case when you are braking; when there is no weight being transferred to the rear, as is the case when you are accelerating; and when there is no lateral weight transfer, as when you are cornering. This is the car’s mechanical balance.

  Why is a balanced car so important? Because a balanced car has more traction than an unbalanced car, and the more traction the car has, the faster you can drive.

  Aerodynamic balance must also be considered. With some cars the aerodynamic downforce is affected when the car is unbalanced, when the car has a nose-dive, rear squat, or roll attitude. In these cars, when the rake of the underside of the chassis changes in relation to the track, the distribution of front to rear downforce can change dramatically. It can also reduce overall downforce. Once again, the better the car’s balance, the more traction it has, and the faster you can drive.

  So how do you balance the car better than your competitors? Well, that has to do with using the controls smoothly, not doing anything too abruptly to upset the balance, and then having a great sense of personal balance to become aware of the car’s balance. Your footwork, for example, is critical. Without smooth, quick, and seamless transitions from throttle to brake and brake to throttle, the car’s balance will suffer.

  A great personal sense of balance may be the final reason Schumacher had the ability to carry so much speed through the midcorner phase. He had an amazing sense of balance, not just his own personal balance but the car’s balance.

  Balancing the car in a way that allows maximum midcorner speed also has much to do with the braking technique used when approaching and entering the turns. Why? If you brake hard, standing the car on its nose during the entry to a corner, the car’s balance will not be ideal for the rest of the corner. If you can brake hard on the approach, while being able to rebalance the car as you ease off the brakes during the entry phase, your midcorner speed will be good, without having to be too slow on the approach.

  ILLUSTRATION 15-2 Driving at the limit requires keeping the car as balanced as possible, as if it were balancing on top of a single point.

  Before you begin to think I consider Michael Schumacher to be some kind of superhero, understand that there are other drivers who are very good at this as well. Alex Zanardi, for example, was extremely good at this when racing Champ and Indy Cars, although he had a difficult time with it in F1. Motorsport journalist Jonathan Ingram made the perfect observation and wrote about this in his “Inside Line” column published in On Track (February 17, 2000):

  It seems the transition from Champ Cars to both grooved tires and carbon brakes must have been a major problem. Zanardi’s speed in CART came from not just braking late with cast iron equipment, but braking more lightly entering the corners [bold added]. That’s why his moves seemed so unusual to fans, stewards, and fellow drivers—he often carried unexpected speed in the middle of the corners. With less tire on the road and carbon brakes that needed to be leaned on heavily to bring them up to operating temperature, Zanardi’s American success could not be translated.

  By the way, I don’t believe his struggles in F1 had anything to do with him losing his skills or technique. It was that he could not access them as well. Why? I believe it had more to do with his comfort level within the team and his lack of ability to adapt his behavioral traits (more about this in Chapter 27) to suit the environment within that team. Had he been comfortable in his surroundings, he would have carried the same type of speed in the Williams F1 car that he did in Champ cars.

  TRANSITION

  If you cannot make the transition from brake to throttle in the corner seamlessly, you will never carry good midcorner speed. This is another area where left-foot braking has an advantage, as it is much easier to make a seamless transition. In fact, when using your left foot on the brake and right on the throttle, there is usually a little bit of overlap, making it much smoother.

  A seamless transition from the brakes to the throttle results in a balanced car and fast midcorner speed.

  Practice your throttle-brake-throttle transition until you can do it in such a way that if someone were to ride with you blindfolded, they would not be able to tell the exact point where the braking ended and where the acceleration began. That is what I mean by a seamless transition. If you are right-foot braking, the movement of your foot off the brake pedal and onto the throttle should be practiced on the street until it is perfectly smooth.

  At least 90 percent of your responses and actions in a race car are a result of the feedback you receive from your eyes and what they report to your brain. Although it’s your hands, arms, legs, and feet that you use to control the car, it’s what your eyes tell your brain that enables them to do that. Therefore, good vision techniques are critical to driving a race car.

  Now, there is a difference between good vision and good eyesight. Eyesight can be measured and corrected with glasses if necessary. Vision is the act of sensing with the eyes. Good vision is something that can be practiced.

  This may sound obvious, but look where you want to go, not where you don’t want to go. Why? Because your car will go wherever you look, wherever you focus your eyes.

  SPEED SECRET

  Focus your eyes where you want to go, not where you don’t want to go or where you are.

  Focus on and visualize the line you wish the car to follow through a corner, constantly trying to
see through the turn to the exit. Many drivers spend far too much time (which is any amount of time, even a fraction of a second) focusing on where they don’t want to go, such as the curbs, walls, and other things off the edge of the track. And that’s where they usually end up.

  In fact, this is the key to driving the ideal line. If you want the car to follow a particular line through a corner, then that’s where your eyes should be focused. If you don’t want the car to go somewhere, like toward a cement wall on the outside of the track, then don’t focus there.

  Just because the car is pointing in a certain direction does not mean that’s where you want to go. For example, when approaching a corner the car is pointing straight ahead. But where you want to go is into the corner, not straight ahead. So look through the corner, then look for the apex and beyond. That probably means consciously turning your head in that direction. The car will follow.

  ILLUSTRATION 16-1 As you enter a corner, before you even get to the turn-in point, you should be looking at and through the apex. You have to know where you’re going before you can know how much to turn the steering wheel at the turn-in point. Look as far through the corner as possible.

  Looking where you want to go is only part of it. I learned this while teaching a student. I told him to look where he wanted to go. He got to the turn-in point and abruptly turned the steering wheel toward the inside of the corner, where he was looking. What I failed to tell him, and what I teach now, is to look where you want to go but have a mental “vision” of the path or line to get there. That’s what makes for a smooth arc through a turn.