Q: “My question is about rotation technique for high-speed corners where the braking zone is quite short. I race quite often at a track that has two fast corners that pretty much determine how competitive you are. I feel the need for just a bit of rotation at corner entry to get the car pointed in more quickly and on the power earlier. Any tips on how to practice? Very difficult to get it just right and not over slow the car.”

A: Yes, rotating the car in fast corners with little to no braking is harder than in slow/tight corners, and especially to do that without over-slowing the car. Fortunately, it’s rare when you need to rotate the car as much in those fast corners. Here are a couple of thoughts:

1. Steering rate. How does your car respond to a very slightly later and crisper (quicker) turn of the steering wheel? Have you tried “playing” with the rate of steering input? Some drivers tend to turn the steering wheel at the same speed for all corners, but maybe a quicker turn would be helpful.
2. While the speed adjustment/braking may be very short, where you do that will make a big difference with how much the car rotates. If you do the speed adjustment too early, then you won’t be taking advantage of the weight shift. For many fast corners, I’m a fan of doing the speed adjustment early, and being on power as close to turn-in as possible. But if you need to help the car change direction/rotate more, then shift the brake zone — BoB (Begin of Braking) to EoB (End of Braking) — further into the corner. Taking that to an extreme (probably way beyond what you’d ever do, but to use as an example), imagine turning in just as you lift off the throttle and/or apply the brakes (even if it’s a very light brush of the brakes). That would quickly load the front, and help the car rotate more.
3. Car setup. Maybe this has more to do with your car’s setup than it does your driving? What can you do to make the car turn-in better? Usually, a little more front toe-out helps make a car turn in better, but in some cars you don’t want too much since it could cause straight-line scrub. However, it might be worth trying during a test session—just increase front toe-out to see if it helps with the rotation in the fast corners (then figure out how get the car to do that without the straight-line scrub).

Obviously, you can merge one or all of these, too. And then, practice them by focusing on just one of them at a time, giving yourself time to really get good at the technique/approach before deciding if it worked or not for you.