braking technique

[Deleted member 1417362]

Hi All

I tried the setup posted in setups last night for the McLaren 720 at the nurburgring.

I wasn't really making any progress and was no quicker until i hit the fast-ish left\right before the back straight and at which point by trail braking in too hard i felt the back turning, not spinning, but could control the rotation of the back of the car.

I hope all this makes sense . . . . . . . . . .

So my question is - is this what i should be doing, for all cars, ?

 

[JohnyUtah]

Not an expert but in my experience when a car is setup just right you can control the rotation through turns with micro brake or accelerator inputs and though the car will be on edge you never really fill like you lose control..Hope this helps.

 

[BrightCandle]

It really depends. In some corners what you want is more rotation at that moment so getting the back sliding controllable and having as much grip on the front is the fastest way to get the car repointed to exit the corner and maintaining that slide to the apex through how you trail the brakes (the amount and how quickly you come off the brakes) gets you that.

But in some corners, high speed ones typically, you want the maximum grip all 4 wheels can give you sliding evenly because you aren't rotation limited nor do you want the back to slide out but rather to get the most grip from the car possible and that is when the aero and car is balanced. Tires loose a lot of grip once they start to slide so its suboptimal for that tire at least if its sliding too much, so you have lost grip if the tire is sliding. But sliding tires also allow the rear to come around and the car is now pointing faster into the right direction.

The main thing is being able to determine for Entry, mid and exit of every corner whether the car is understeering or oversteering and to what extent (say 1-5). If you are rear limited going into a corner it might be worth trying less brake to move a bit of grip, knowing what is limiting you from going faster is critical to those last 1.5-2 seconds of speed and you have to assess what end of the car and change your inputs to generate more grip. There definitely isn't one way around every corner and there certainly isn't one way for every corner that you are always aiming for as close to balanced is not always the fastest way as that in tight corners is clearly swinging the rear loose but the longer and wider a corner gets the more balance seems to matter.