A: That depends on how you define the “limit.” Strictly from a maximum braking perspective, yes, if you’re braking lighter, then you’re not at the very limit of what your car and tires can do. And if the goal was to be the fastest from the BoB (Begin-of-Braking) to the corner entry or EoB (End-of-Braking), then you would be slower if you braked lighter.
But the goal is to be fastest through the entire section from the BoB for a corner to the beginning of the next section and ultimately, the complete lap. And sometimes, braking lighter makes you faster in the long run. Why?
Never forget that a car that is better balanced – meaning there is the least amount of load transfer, and the chassis is as flat as possible – has more traction than one that is standing up on its nose from very heavy braking. So, when you brake hard, your car has less overall traction than if you braked lighter (because you won’t have caused as much load transfer. For a simple explanation of this, watch the Why Smooth is Fast video on my YouTube channel).
This is why sometimes – and I mean sometimes, and not always – by braking a little bit lighter, you can turn a faster lap time. And keep in mind that when I say lighter, I don’t mean very light. It’s relative. If maximum threshold braking is a “10 out of “10,” then lighter might be a “9” or “8” pedal.
Typically – again, not always – lighter braking works when approaching fast corners, and harder braking works in slower corners where the highest priority is getting the car slowed, turned, and rotated to accelerate hard out of the corner. In fast corners, often the priority is maintaining speed as opposed to re-accelerating after slowing down a lot. So, maximizing grip is what you’re after, which means keeping the car well-balanced.
Hey, if you braked with the same pressure – maximum pressure – and released the brakes in the same way for every corner, driving would be boring!
So true! I’ve been watching Trams AMS under braking and noticed they are so flat. I finally got there with shocks and spring changes and what a difference. Notice the change by marking my rims-tires and now front and rears slip the same and many inches each race!
Also… “Late & Hard” is often done by “Stabbing the Brakes” which causes weight transfer to be “SUDDEN… and that can SHOCK the contact patch to the point of breaking loose. “Squeezing” the brakes in a smooth pedal compression can make the transfer less sudden.
That does NOT mean dragging the brakes during the approach…but simply ‘mashing’ the pedal rather than stomping it to the floor.
The same is true for releasing the brakes… smoothly lift, letting the tires have enough traction to begin the turn-in, and let some of the weight of the vehicle start to settle to the rear tires… then as you approach the apex, or acceleration point toward exit, you gradually roll in the throttle, and the rear tires have enough weight transfer to get full traction as you accelerate thru the exit… Of course, this is all happening in milli-seconds… but those transitions, rather than ‘instant’ changes of stress on the tires… will maintain maximum Traction… as well as “save’ your tires for those critical last laps…
What do I do to learn how to drive on the edge with an ABS system, coming from a car without abs?
With some high-end ABS, you can just stand on the pedal and let it do all the work for you. But if you don’t have a new Porsche, BMW or something with “motorsport” ABS, you have to learn to do what I call “tickle” the ABS – keep it just on the verge of getting fully into the ABS. It takes practice, so find a place and time where you can just stand on the pedal and see what it does; then brake just hard enough to keep it on the verge of going fully into the ABS – it’s like threshold braking without ABS.