“Because I drive a FWD/rear-engine Porsche/momentum/fill-in-the-blank car, I turn in later/earlier/smoother/fill-in-the-blank, and use a later/earlier/middle/fill-in-the-blank apex.”
“The line is the line and there is only one fast way to get through a corner and around a track fast.”
“There’s a fast line, and then there’s a racing line.”
“I have a special trick line for that corner.”
I’ve heard all of those justifications for the way drivers drive through a corner or series of corners, and I’ll add one more that is rarely ever mentioned, but is at the core of why a certain line is very often used: “It feels good, and I’ve made it a habit — it’s just the way I drive that corner.”
So, what is the ideal line? It’s the line that results in you and your car spending the least amount of time in that section of track, without hurting the section before or after too much, and leading to the fastest overall lap time, all while dealing with the specific, but changing conditions (track grip, ambient temperature, car and tire performance) at that particular moment in time.
What about the so-called “racing line”? Some think that the racing line is something used to block any car behind it, and used in practically every corner. If you watch the best drivers in the world, they use a “defensive” line infrequently. Why? Because they know the best way to stay ahead of another car is to drive the fastest line, and that’s the same “ideal” line that we’ve been talking about here.
I was thinking about all of this when a friend sent me a link to a comparison between Oscar Piastri’s pole lap in qualifying for the Chinese GP, and George Russell’s lap which was 0.082 seconds slower. Yes, eight-one-hundredths of a second.
Before moving on, take a moment and say to yourself “zero point zero eight two.” That probably took somewhere around two-and-a-half seconds to say, which is about 30 times longer than what 0.082 seconds actually is.
The Shanghai International Circuit is 5.451 kilometers, or 3.387 miles, and has 16 corners. Two drivers, two different cars… two different driving styles merged with the strengths and weaknesses of two different cars over about 90 seconds, and the difference between Piastri and Russell was 1/30th of what it took to read “0.082.”
Now, consider all of the different skills, techniques, decisions, thought-processes, and actions that Piastri and Russell used and made over the course of their fastest qualifying lap. And their lap times were separated by just 0.082 of a second.
How is that even possible?!
Of course… it depends!
One of the things it depends on is the line each of them choose to drive around the circuit. Were they identical? Were they dramatically different? Being less than a tenth of a second apart in lap times, it would be easy to think that the lines they drove would be that similar. But were they?
Fortunately, we can see how similar/different they were by clicking on this link and watching the video.
Notice the subtle, and perhaps not so subtle differences in the line between Piastri and Russell, and then ask yourself why. It’s one thing to be different, but to understand the reasoning behind the difference is critical.
Why?
Because that’s the line that the driver sensed would be fastest. Simple as that.
Of course, figuring out what made each driver sense that the line they drove would be the fastest is the real question.
“Drive the car, not the track.” I’ve said that many, many times over the years, especially when I hear drivers spend far too much time focused on the minute differences in the positioning of their car on a cornering line compared to another driver. Sometimes they think that changing and following what the other driver is doing is going to magically make them much faster; other times they swear up and down that their line is superior.
Why did Piastri and Russell drive the lines that they did in qualifying? Because their cars told them so. Rather than being overly-focused on driving some specific line that another driver told them to drive, they focused on sensing what their car wanted, where it wanted to be placed.
They drove their cars, not the track.
Am I saying that the line does not matter? Absolutely not! What I’m saying is that you should practice sensing where your car feels fastest.
Again, drive the car, not the track. Make the car tell you where it should be positioned. No one (other than their cars), told Piastri and Russell what line to drive.
For example:
None of these suggestions are dramatically different from what might be considered the “ideal,” or typical line. Notice how big the differences were between Piastri and Russell. They weren’t huge. In fact, if you watched them from the side of the track, unless they were close together, you might not have even noticed the difference.
Ask yourself, what is it that my car really wants?
P.S. — As often happens for me, as I prepare for an upcoming masterclass or event, ideas pop into my head, and the above article is a good example. In a couple of weeks, I’m putting on a masterclass that I call Corner Min, Mid & Max. It’s called that because I’m going to focus on helping drivers find the best minimum speed (the rate, the location in the corner, and the duration), on improving one’s mid-corner speed (because if you can begin accelerating from even one MPH more, that’ll improve the following straightaway speed), and maximizing the exit. If you’d like information about it, go to SpeedSecrets.com/Product/Corner-Min-Mid-Max.