Slow corners and Hairpins

This is an extract from a chapter in Racelogic’s ebook discussing Advanced Circuit Driving Techniques with professional racing drivers and instructors. To download the ebook (and receive further chapters in the future) scroll to the bottom of this page and fill in your email address.

Where can I gain the most lap time?

With tightened budgets, restricted testing and stiffer competition, driver training has enjoyed a surge in popularity. In the second of a chapter of our ebook, we will be discussing technique with various professional driver coaches to try to help you extract every last ounce of performance from yourself as well as your car.

Nigel Greensall - ‘You spend more time in slow corners than in fast corners, so you can often gain most lap-time by concentrating in these areas. Exit speed is important, but equally as important is minimising the time spent in the corner. You often see drivers taking a big wide entry into hairpins to gain a fast exit speed, but due to the slow speeds involved, this sacrifices large amounts of lap-time, in order to gain a few tenths down the straight.’

‘The hairpin at Rockingham is a great example to examine in more detail. Take these two lines taken in the same car at the same race meeting.

"The blue line was taken by my team-mate taking a wide entry, and the red line is my preferred approach, which is braking at a diagonal towards the first apex. The red line is 14m shorter than the blue line, meaning I spend 0.45s less time in the corner. The blue line does gain 2mph down the straight, but this is only worth 0.15s, so the net gain from the shorter line is 0.3s."

"Using the screenshots from the in-car video, you can see my tighter entry into the corner, necessitating a slower speed, but I am already gaining time by travelling less distance."

We now zip 2700 miles across to the Dubai Autodrome for an example of how to tackle hairpins at the end of a long straight. Here's a video taster to show the corner we'll be looking at, showing Nigel and his team mate...

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