What’s the best way to practice to become faster?

[ZeroSV]

I’ve been simracing about 5 months now and I was wondering what’s the best way to get faster overall? I ask because I want to go from being 2-3 seconds off the best times to making that gap smaller and smaller. I’ve seen some aliens say they weren’t good from the start but they spent the time to practice everyday and got faster by doing that. What I wanna know is what exactly is it that I’m supposed to do as practice because I feel that it’s a bit different than other things you’d practice for which is why I’m confused and feel like I may not be practicing right. What are the procedures/things that I should be doing everyday to improve on becoming an overall faster driver. I’m willing to put the time and effort but just don’t know how to practice. Thanks

(Just to clarify, I’m talking specifically about getting faster and not getting more consistent as that’s not a problem for me.)

 

[Pawel Ziolkowski]

Reminds me of my line around the last corner at Mugello. I take a late-apex-line while drivers faster than me actually take a tighter line, which is faster.
Out of 30 laps I could only nail the tighter line 1-2x while I could nail the late-apex line lap after lap.
Resulted in 28 laps losing 0.2s from back straight to start/finish line and 2 laps gaining 0.1s.

Like you said it depends also on the skill. For me it was better to stick to the slower, yet consistent line but it was not the absolute fastest!

Yeah exactly.

I think late apex is something that will occur naturally as a driver that does not have enough consistency tries to keep the car on the limit through whole corner.
Now this would be ok if he practiced to get the car closer and closer to the inside earlier, but focusing too much on exit speed will tend to make late apex feel correct. Leading to more practice perfecting it, and then we are stuck with a choice of doing great late apex, or just "ok" correct spiral entry barely gaining any advantage.

Setup plays into it too. Safe (understeery) setup really likes to take set into this wide, late apex lines,
while keeping it close to inside often requires the car to be pretty loose.
A correct entry and exit spiral usually requires pretty slow inputs, so loose setup is not even hard if used correctly. But coming from hamfisted inputs of late apexes it's gets tricky trying to switch to it.

If i could time travel 5 years back and tell myself that, i'd probably shave many hundreds of hours of practice time haha.

 

[RasmusP]

Yeah exactly.

I think late apex is something that will occur naturally as a driver that does not have enough consistency tries to keep the car on the limit through whole corner.
Now this would be ok if he practiced to get the car closer and closer to the inside earlier, but focusing too much on exit speed will tend to make late apex feel correct. Leading to more practice perfecting it, and then we are stuck with a choice of doing great late apex, or just "ok" correct spiral entry barely gaining any advantage.

Setup plays into it too. Safe (understeery) setup really likes to take set into this wide, late apex lines,
while keeping it close to inside often requires the car to be pretty loose.
A correct entry and exit spiral usually requires pretty slow inputs, so loose setup is not even hard if used correctly. But coming from hamfisted inputs of late apexes it's gets tricky trying to switch to it.

If i could time travel 5 years back and tell myself that, i'd probably shave many hundreds of hours of practice time haha.

Very very true!
I have to say when I practiced for the club race on here, it was the BMW 235i racing which is really sensitive to weight shifting! Not smooth enough or a wrong input and it goes into full understeer mode, scrubbing the fronts or starts to slide and oversteer.
That's why the late apex approach was a lot easier as you said: brake in a pretty straight line until you turn in a lot and go back on the throttle.

After the race I went back to Mugello but this time with the Tatuus F4 and it was a lot easier to do the correct line as the car is on rails in comparison!

 

[Ghoults]

Reminds me of my line around the last corner at Mugello. I take a late-apex-line while drivers faster than me actually take a tighter line, which is faster.
Out of 30 laps I could only nail the tighter line 1-2x while I could nail the late-apex line lap after lap.
Resulted in 28 laps losing 0.2s from back straight to start/finish line and 2 laps gaining 0.1s.

Like you said it depends also on the skill. For me it was better to stick to the slower, yet consistent line but it was not the absolute fastest!

On the other hand you had practiced that late apex line a lot more and knew how to execute it well because of lot of repetition. The other driving line was faster but not necessarily more difficult in direct comparison. But more difficult because you had not practiced it. I do remember somewhat similar story from a long time ago in the skippy in the short jefferson layout. The first corner was a corner where you could brake very late and brake deep into the corner and still get good rotation and exit out of it. At first I just could not get it done. Locking brakes, under steering wide or getting loose. It was not just because my entry speed varied a bit because the last corner in jefferson is not the easiest one but because I was comparing the new line directly with my previous turn 1 line which I had already practiced some 50 times and knew how to do. The delta showed red a long time before I got it to work. But the new tighter line was not really anymore difficult to pull off. I just had to practice it to learn it. And maybe also unlearn something as well.

 

[Kek700]

Actually i'd disagree somewhat with the speed part.
I was for the longest time focusing on exit speed, and was stuck not being able to improve because of that.

This of course will depend on given driver skill level, but exit speed is only an indicator of how well we can do the exit part - from apex to exit kerbs, nothing more. As soon as we are good at exits, optimizing for exit speed will worsen our entry lines. The worst is, that this won't bite us until we get "ok" at entry, at which point we have formed a suboptimal mindset that guides our lines, and will need to be unlearned to improve.

So my advice would be to just look at the delta at the end of following straight. And if we really don't want to use telemetry, look at both minimum and exit speed. Summing them up should be close enough. (Best done while watching replays, which is another good way to spend practice time.)

i completely agree with that.

Well i had to really ,you helped teach me quite a bit of what i know already.

 

[Andy-R]

After a few laps I was trying to turn in a touch later than I had been initially with this combo as the GTR seems to struggle with understeer on power (at least with mostly default setup.) Particularly in the higher speed corners I was concerned about running wide on exits.

 

[Kek700]

After spending all of my time with the GTR and just recently started driving the McLaren 650.
I would not call the GTR pointy, the McLaren really want to turn in, the GTR needs to be coaxed in all situations.
I usually put the front rebound quite high to try and stop the front lifting mid corner when I apply throttle.
Does it work? I seem to have fooled myself into thinking so.

 

[Kek700]

I'm sure no one will read this, but I will mention it anyway.
The Nissan pushes the wheels to toe-out in compression, I think from memory it is something like -0.25
per 30mm of suspension travel.
This is both front and rear suspension.
because I have a pea size brain, I usually forget this during setup, but always remember it after the race.

 

[ZeroSV]

So just to ask and recall correctly, to make sure i am actually doing what i need to do in order to improve,
-I need to make sure that i am looking for where to gain time and make sure that i copy the exact lines,braking points, and everything else that someone with a really fast lap is doing, basically trying to replicate the lap 100%?
- If "getting faster" something that can't happen overnight and is why I won't get as fast of a lap-time even though I feel as if i'm doing the exact same thing as them? but as I practice more i'll get closer to that lap-time? or is it because i'm actually not doing the exact same thing? (tbh this one i want to make sure i understand the most because I've asked 2 sim racer's who race irl and they both said it comes down to playtime to improve and it doesn't happen overnight)
- To practice consistency, run 200 laps everyday? can it help with improving overall speed?
- helpful to sometimes go back and review the basic's (Driver61, Ross Bentley's books)
- Helpful to practice improving hand/feet coordination, reaction time, concentration and etc

(I might've left some stuff out as i just skimmed through what everyone said so if you think i left something out that's important please do say)
(Also the wheel finally came ffs)

 

[Andy-R]

Practice, experiment, analyze rinse and repeat

 

[RasmusP]

Yes that's a good summary.
200 laps a day is too much. In my opinion the most efficient way to practice is to reach about 80% of your capacity to process per day or week.
If you can't take on anything after 30 laps of concentrated practice it will be more efficient to stop practicing and letting it sink in.

However if you want to extend this capacity it's good to do 200 laps and over exhauste yourself. But you won't become faster due to it, only extend your capacity for the future.

To the replicating faster drivers:
Well, if you seemingly replicate them, you'll be seemingly as quick as them
If you think you replicate them but are slower, then you need to practice your skills or analysing.
Learning to replicate them however takes time like you stated. It can be hours, days, weeks or months. Depending on whether you just need to change things within your skill level or actually need to become better in general to be able to replicate them at all.

And yes, increasing your general skills, body and mind, will help with everything. Like practicing hand/feet coordination.

In the end the most efficient way is to actually make a plan for your practice. Lots of reflecting your self etc.
You need to find out where the limit or concentration lies and then work with that.
Did 30 laps and can't improve anymore? Stop driving.
Analysed your inputs for an hour and can't find anything anymore? Go on track.
Can't do both anymore? Do some coordination exercises.
Can't improve at all? Ask here in the forum

It's all about spotting the things you need to work on and then work on them efficiently!
It's not fun to do this as you don't get any results or real "activity" while creating the plan.
And it also doesn't help if you plan all day and then don't actually have time to practice.

You see where this is heading to. The most efficient practice will never be achieved but depending on your skills or people that help you, it can accelerate things massively

 

[RobertR1]

Don't just drive but think of what you're doing and what you're feeling and why you reacted in a certain way. I don't have enough experience in simracing but in real life there's people who've been tracking for years at the same pace because they're just repeating their actions and not thinking when driving.

Things to always have running in your mind.

- Could you have braked later into that corner?
- Did you over brake?
- How is the the car at entry/mid/exit? stable/understeer/oversteer
- Are you running wide or pinching your exits?
- Where did you pick up the throttle last lap? should you do it earlier or later this lap?
- How are the tires feeling?
- If I was sideway int he last turn, my tires are likely a little hot so I should ease up a little here etc

The best drivers I know are letting the driving be a subconscious act while they're consciously analyzing and planning.

You need to know *why* you're going fast or slow. The faster you can analyze and drive at the same time, the faster you can improve.

 

[Pawel Ziolkowski]

- If "getting faster" something that can't happen overnight and is why I won't get as fast of a lap-time even though I feel as if i'm doing the exact same thing as them? but as I practice more i'll get closer to that lap-time? or is it because i'm actually not doing the exact same thing?

The latter.
I'd say, always look at other drivers lines in three dimensions, X, Y, V - that is position on the track and speed. Usually what ends up happening when you are trying to copy somebody is correct position at the wrong speed.
Now of course you will need well developed car control skills to keep the car both in line and at high speed, thou i'd say rigorous practice in the same car isn't the only way to gain it. Personally i mostly drove public cruise servers and drifted a lot for the last year, and yet i've improved my racing speed by quite a lot over that period. So i think it's a matter of constantly challenging yourself on car control while having fun. If you don't have fun practicing you won't improve fast as you won't see where you are stagnating. (Thou having an active mentor changes that.)

Then, when you feel like you are satisfied with your car control, explore the theory behind racing lines again and you will see new details that require even better control, and cycle repeats itself.

And yes it won't happen overnight. Don't try to be as fast as the fastest people in short period of time, that won't work. Your practice will stagnate in places where skill jump is too high and you will burn yourself out. Instead focus on constantly challenging yourself on things that you can achieve in short time.
IMHO efficient practice is about finding the stairs that goes around the cliff of skill.

 

[ZeroSV]

Thanks for being helpful guys, that pretty much cleared up stuff that i was still confused about.

 

[Kyuubeey]

Yeah, Senna was much faster than anyone else in the rain because he worked harder than others, it had nothing to do with talent, you're right.

Senna was known to take a roadcar and go out to drive on the track after everyone else was done. Fairly sure he'd do it in the rain too.

Sure, he was very talented, a very exceptional case indeed, but he'd not have gotten anywhere with his talent if he'd not have nurtured it with hard practice. All those kids who are super good and talented at 10 years old or whatever, 98% of them don't become anything because they get complacent. In everything, sports, art, whatever.