Braking

Braking is considered to be the most important technique to master if you want to improve your lap times.

Braking Technique varies by car

GT cars have a different braking technique compared to higher downforce cars like LMP cars during the very initial part of a braking zone when the speeds are high. High downforce cars like LMP allow you to use a higher brake pressure (even 100% brake pressure) in the initial braking zone without locking up the tires. In contrast a GT car will start to lock up tires if you go much beyond 85% brake pressure.

As you continue past the initial braking you will need to bleed off some pressure in the LMP whereas with the GT car you will tend to a constant pressure through the braking zone until you start the turn in. When you start the turn in you will need to decrease the braking in any car as you are now asking the tires to turn and brake, so the available grip for just braking will be reduced.

Use Trail Braking to Control Car Balance

Trail braking is when you are in the corner and have started your turn and continue to brake. This is one of the most important parts of braking because it greatly affects the balance of your car. Trail braking allows you to control the weight transfer and thus the balance of the car.

The more you brake (to a point) the more weight you will transfer to the front tires, which will give the front of the car more grip and the rear of the car less grip causing more oversteer. I say "to a point", because if you brake too much causing the front tires to lock or the front abs to engage then you will transfer less weight forward and also a locked tire will have less grip. Also, by locking the tires or engaging abs you are adding likely too much heat into the front tires further decrease front tires grip.

So, you will need to experiment with the amount of trail braking pressure you use to see how it affects the balance. It should be noted that your setup will impact how this works. A simple example of this is the brake bias you are using. If your bias is further forward then more brake pressure will cause understeer and if your brake bias is further rearward then more brake pressure will tend to cause oversteer. Again, assuming you are not locking the tires or into abs.

Key Takeaway

You need to experiment with increasing and decreasing brake pressure in the trail braking to see how that affects your car's balance, to find the optimal balance.

Once you find a trail braking pressure that seems optimized for your corner, then during the race you can vary your brake pressure to deal with how the car is handling later in the race.

• Trail braking with just a little less pressure (maybe 5%) can often produce more off power steering (rotation) on corner entry? This can be useful if your car has picked up a push through the race.

• Trail braking with just a little more pressure (maybe 5%) can often provide more stability into the corner. This can be useful if you have started to overuse the rear tires and need to calm down the oversteer into a corner.