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"Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong." That's what I go by

This is true, but also this:

Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent, only perfect practice makes perfect.

I find myself in that trap all of the time - running countless practice laps and slowly building to a plateau, only to have someone point out "you're overdriving" or "you're not using enough track" or, most commonly, "slow down going in to turn X (and y and z)" only to instantly gain a half second I've been searching a week for the very first lap I try it.

Like Abdul - I use the TAB and run different lines each lap or for a set of laps, sometimes I'm quite surprised at what the fastest lines are.
 
The TAB function really helped me a lot in the beginning. I was also surprised by what I found, but what this has done is make me understand what I did wrong earlier. It does not surprise me anymore, because its the same on any track. Its the old classic: Going too fast into a turn, feeling super fast, but not realizing that an earlier braking point with an earlier point of throttle input is always faster (except in compromise corners) at the end of the following straight than the super late braking, higher entry speed solution.

By compromise corners I mean corners like T3 on Mid Ohio, where the following corner over the crest does not require a classical turn in, so going fast in T3 and out towards the grass on the left and then hugging the inside around T4 is faster than the conventional way of going right and then turning in.
 
Wonder if Kevin or anyone can give me some tips on where i'm going wrong here. Have an optimal of 41:2 as seen in the vid and am coming off the throttle now when shifting which seems to have improved my time.



Ok let´s do this. Remember this is just my opinion on how to take turns, someone else might come and say "no you should take this turn like that" which is good because that means both of us have learned something new about the track.

Turn 1: I think you are coming in to hot and to narrow. What i do when i approach that turn is i´m coming in abit wider meaning i do my braking a few meters to the left of yours and maybe 1 meter before you start to brake. That way after the braking and you have started turning with the car, after it settles which it should do pretty quickly, you can get on the gas way faster and take the corner much faster i think. Another thing to think about when you coming in wide is that before the little "bump" on the track just before the braking zone, always remember to steer the car just slightly towards the corner, not much but just so your alligned better with the corner.

Turn 2,3: This is a pretty hard corner for me and rarely get it right but i brake on the white line, then try to flick it right over the curb while maintaining full throttle. So just keep attacking it, maybe turn in slightly earlier so you don´t have to feather the throttle on the way out.

Esses: First part of esses looks good, nothing to complain about. Coming out of the esses however is a tricky one. Maybe brake one meter earlier and get on the gas right away but don´t go full power right away. It´s a tricky little corner but just work on you exit speed there. Use either Delta or check you mph at the next braking zone to get a feel on how fast your coming out of it.
It´s not a corner where you should attack the inside curb because it can scrub of some speed. So gently over that one and really use every single piece of road, curb whatever when your coming out of the turn.
Remember, gettin on the gas early is key to a great exit speed which is very important since the exit is a pretty big uphill.

Turn 6: Well it looked like you handled it pretty nice so i have nothing to add really apart from how i take it.
I brake between both white lines, maybe more to the last line, then i turn in, find the apex and full throttle. There is a chance you might visit the grass but if done correctly you will probably gain some time there.

Turn 7: Same thing here, it looks fast to me but i usually brake maybe one meter earlier, turn in a tad later but since i have a lower speed in, i can get on the gas pretty early out of the turn while riding the curb if possible.

Jackie Stewart said that you should only go full throttle if you know you can keep it there. So by feathering the throttle will lose you time. Better to not touch the gas, let the car settle and turn in just slightly more and then full throttle.

Turn 10a/Turn 10b: Well that was pretty interesting :D You brake later then me, able to keep it together, taking 10a very tight to set up the car for 10b which you did.

But, you feather the throttle coming out of 10a through 10b. I say, move the braking point to the white line. Maybe go even tighter into 10a so you have a better radius of 10b. If you do that i think you can get on full throttle just after 10a.


Don´t know how much of this was any help really since we drive different cars on this track but i think most of the things i said applies to both cars in general on this track.

Keep in mind that it was my first time on this track in this car yesterday but 0.2-0.3 of the fastest time should validate the things i´ve said i think :)
 
Was speaking with Joe last night while running some laps on Laguna about guys like this below. For me this is what wrecks iRacing, what makes it worse is they were not rookies. Blatent turning into me and even exiting the pits keeps hitting the brakes. In the chatbox they were laughing about it when i told him to sort it out. Thing is me and Joe ran lap after lap bumper to bumper without one touch.

Sorry about the music, forgot it records the windows sounds aswell. Looking back now, i should of just backed off and left him to it. Really wish the spotter was a must to be used with this sim, but i think this guy was just crazy. What the hell was he doing wiping that guy out exiting the pts.

Hampus - Thanks alot mate for that post, very imformative. Will take your points onboard and hopefully it will help

 
Maybe this will help out a bit. This is just a quick video that I threw together showing a 59 second lap. I have not been able to get into the 58's yet but it will at least show you the turn ins and speeds ect... I know I could have run a better lap, however this was just done really quick.

 
John, you should be able to stay into 4th gear with the cup in the first of LRP. 3rd in case of absolute necessity a for just a second if you really lack in torque coming out of the turn. And dont overdrive the first corner...
Get into 3rd if you really need it and just let go of the gas complty until you reach the apex. Then reaccelerate. Braking earlier will help you do that too.
Try taking the uphill corner a bit faster as you have lots of margin before hitting the wall on the side still.
Also, shift into 5th BEFORE the last corner, while going downhill... ;)
You should improve your laptimes just with that and reach 1.01/1.00 very fast just by doing that.

@ Joe:
Don't shift back into 3rd during the one before last corner. Always stay into 4th. A quick tap on the break is enough to get through the corner with no problem.
You should reach 59.5 just by doing that.
Also during the 2nd corner (the only left corner), don't overdrive it. Manage to exit as much on the inside as possible. Stay within the first 1/3 of the track. That way you will be able to enter the corner after it much faster and therefore gain time by exiting faster before the straight that goes toard the uphill corner. You will gain 0.2s just by doing that also.

I'll post a video of a 59.004 later on, maybe tonight.
 

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