Q: “Your recent Driving Directions articles has made me think about this young driver I have been working with. He has been karting since he could walk, and has mastered driving cars on a very nice sim. When I put him in my Cayman R he blew me away with his speed and times! Now to my point: I could use and appreciate your insight about how to work/instruct someone who has more time on a sim than the track. I’m guessing that I am not the only instructor to work with someone who has more time on a sim than actually on a track!”

A: The single biggest difference between many (but not all) sim and real-world racers is how they sense the limits of the car — sim racers tend to sense it through the steering wheel, whereas most who have come from karting or directly from cars tend to sense it through the rear tires. I wrote about this here: https://rossbentley.substack.com/p/speed-secrets-how-do-you-sense-the

One is not any better than the other, but I’ve noticed that many who have come from sim racing release the brakes earlier and don’t like to rotate the car as much because they want to feel a touch of understeer. They sometimes also turn the steering wheel a bit quicker, again to induce a touch of understeer. So, as an instructor, you might not like that approach (or maybe you do, because you may do the same?), and want to change it.

In some ways, sensing the limit with a touch of understeer might be safer, rather than having a driver want to rotate the car with oversteer entering the corner. Again, not always, but sometimes. And one way is not any better than the other; it’s just different.

Sim racers are typically very good at using all the track because they’ve learnt that to be fast in a sim you need to cut the corners and use curbs a lot. Sometimes the curbs in sim racing are more forgiving, and sometimes they’re not, so that’s something to watch for.

Sim racers are usually good at getting up to speed quickly, and that’s a good thing.

The key is letting the sim racers continue to do what they do best, and not try to change them immediately to the way you drive just because it feels different (unless it’s dangerous). And just because they catch on quickly, don’t assume they know everything — don’t be afraid to talk about the basics. They may need to know them, because many sim racers learned just by doing thousands of laps without any real knowledge or understanding.

Enjoy working with someone who catches on quickly, because not all drivers are like this!