Jim is right. I was trying to brake late and power on early but slowly it became obvious that going side by side in to turn, if i brake first, i win (most of the time, ace drivers are different. case.). Tight squeeze on the brakes, partial release and roll to the corner instead of one tight short brake with full release.. The latter is faster (theoretically) but a lot harder to get faster lap times, with rolling to corners you get maximum apex speed, easier to hit perfect line and exits are spot on, every time. Only start to reduce brake distances when you get the same lap time (with in few tenths..) every lap. with maximum brakes/short distance, the apex speed is much harder and most often you brake too much.
You need short brakes when defending or attacking a player that is at/above your level, not much use anywhere else. One of the reasons why defending is a lot slower than driving on a empty road, you can't brake optimally because you need to defend the line, you get slower and wider where as fast is lean.
Brake fade makes you think you can't brake any lighter, you brake hard and at the end, where you are suppose to let go and increase throttle, the brakes are so hot that decelerating takes lot longer so you need to brake from 100km/h to 70km/h (apex speed target speed being +80km/h) just because you are running out of the road (or it feels like it."it doesn't brake!!!!"), ie the brakes are giving away.
Where as if you roll, you have less brake temperature, more consistent braking torque, no lock ups and more speed thru corners. That's one side of "slow in/fast out". The another side is actually heavy brakes in hairpins and other very slow corners but that's not the point here. Rolling is for fast/medium corners, hard short brake is for straight line ->hairpins where you go deeper and slower than usual in the entry to make the exit start earlier and get longer straightline acceleration. Once you learn to "roll with it",you'll drop tons in laptime. I'm still struggling with it, the short heavy brake was learnt first, it's harder to unlearn stuff..
EDIT: forgot to mention, the real upside of light brakes is that your car is never out of balance, you turn, it follows. Hard brakes is unbalancing act, you can't really do that in any where else but straightline. When you release your brakes, the car swings back, no load on front, you turn, it rolls on it's sidewheels, you lose front end by overloading simultaneously having no load on rear... all movements very aggressive, dramatic and the car spends less time in it's optimal stage (all four wheels connected to the ground..). With lighter brakes everything is smoother, car is relaxed and ready for fast turning action.
A good way to learn this is to take any FWD, go to Zandvoort (or any other medium speed track) and learn to drive the lap with 100% throttle, full lap. You need to apply brakes earlier but once you get the hang of it, you can post same laptimes with full throttle slowed with brakes than with normal style.. All because of better apex speed and perfect exits... Slow In, Fast Out..
