Also don’t forget that many people are so obsessed with “
braking late” that they forget that you can
lose much more time on corner exit then corner enter. In other words, it is preferable to brake early, carry a good speed around the corner and not miss the apex than brake too late and miss the apex “
by a mile” losing in the process too much corner exit speed…
Keeping it on the topic of “
braking”, brake setups are much a question of personal taste and feeling, but there are a few things one must keep in mind…
From the laws of the physics, as more the brakes are set to the front, more theoretical braking power you have (the weight transfer to the front), but if you exaggerate, you than lock them too easily.
Some people like the brakes set to rear, so that you brake slide into the corner (a common setup in rally driving when on dirty surface), although this can be fun, one must not forget, that when you are moving sideways, you aren’t going fully forward (the same could be said about a power slide when exiting the corner) and that you are also wearing off your tires more (and yes, brakes to the rear theoretically brake less then front as implied in the above paragraphed as the car weight is taken from the rear).
Having in mind default settings for the in game controllers, the 58% to the front setup posted above is a reasonable one, and most racing cars (tarmac racing) have their brakes setup about 60% to 55% the front margin.
To finalize, when a brakes lock does happen, you must release the brake pressure at least a bit,
there is no point in keeping the lock (and the car out of control). When in a lock, the old trick (before ABS) of letting the brakes go completely, and then apply them again (this time) without the lock might do wonders.
Even if you thinkyou are entering the corner with too much speed and you won’t be able to do the corner (specially in a FWD car), it is better to apply the old biker saying: “when you don’t believe you can do a corner, instead of braking (locking) and killing yourself going straight, just lean the bike even more (into a point you don’t believe/feel it will keep the rubber on tarmac contact), most likely, you will do the corner”.
Perhaps in a better and clear way of typing it, If you are in too fast (or you think you are) into a corner, maybe even with brakes locked (panic braking), reduce the pressure on the brakes to a minimum and try to do the corner all the same. Even if the things don’t go well (aka “how did I do that?”), you most likely will end up exiting the track already on the corner exit, wish normally is much better than a straight forward middle of the corner one.