LeGeNd-1
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- GTP_LeGeNd-1
When we all started sim racing, we were taught about racing lines. The age old out-in-out to maximise mid corner speed and reduce steering angle as much as possible. The easiest way to imagine is tracing a geometric line around the corner where the apex is exactly at the midpoint. If you can do this for every turn, you're at a pretty good level.
Then from there you graduate to a more advanced level. This is where late apex comes in. Sacrifice a bit on entry, rotate the car and you get a much straighter exit and get a speed advantage all the way down the next straight. Proportionally, you gain more time on the straight than in the braking/entry phase of the corner (because the straight is almost always longer than a short 150-200m braking distance). In compound corners such as chicanes, you sacrifice the first part and prioritise exit from the second part. Slow in, fast out.
That's pretty much the adage for a long time now. I've heard people saying "fast in, fast out" in the past but if you're already braking as late as possible to take the late apex, how much faster can you go? "Fast in, fast out" is just "slow in, fast out" optimised.
But recently I've come across these video analyses of Verstappen's driving style by Peter Windsor. He's a senior journalist, has been watching F1 trackside since the late 70s and knows drivers' driving styles inside out. The kind of insight that armchair experts at home and sim racing coaches will never get just by studying onboards and telemetry traces. What he noticed is Max has an early apex driving style. It makes the whole corner shorter, saves distance, and he's still able to rotate the car early enough to get a good exit and get the advantage all the way down the next straight. The magical "fast in, fast out" technique.
Recently I watched GT Sophy's old videos again to compare. Especially the ones where they pit the ghost against top GT drivers on 3 different car/track combos.
You can see Sophy tends to turn in earlier and take an earlier apex than the human drivers, and still able to rotate the car and get back on the power earlier as well. Dragon Trail's first chicane, Maggiore's T3/4 complex and La Sarthe's many chicanes. All 3 drivers make a mention of this stark difference in driving styles. Slow corners are where you gain the most laptime, and this driving style is ever so slightly faster than the "slow in, fast out" technique. Over a whole lap, those milliseconds add up. Of course, Sophy has advantages of having much higher reaction times than humans and not fallible to mistakes. But I think it's fascinating how Max and Sophy both arrive at the same conclusion and use this early apex racing line to their advantage, when most other top drivers stick by the old late apex style.
Ultimately I think there is a limit to how "early" we humans can apex, because we don't have Sophy's reaction times and god-like precise inputs. Late apexing corners will still get you very high up the leaderboards, and it's just much easier for the human brain to process and execute. We can "plan" the trajectory of the car over a longer time period because the critical rotation point is later in the corner. Also if you're setting up an overtake for example, having a high exit speed is more beneficial than just being fast in the corner itself. But for those of us running out of ways to improve, it might be worth exploring the early apex technique.
Driving fast is complex. Every driver, every car and every corner is different and require different styles. If you're used to one particular technique copying another might not work. I've been playing racing games my whole life since the original GT1, trying every technique in the book to get faster. I thought I've seen them all. But thanks to Max, Sophy and GT, I've just discovered a whole new idea waiting to be explored and polished. Maybe it will make me faster, maybe it won't, but I sure as hell will have fun learning and applying it
If you're a DR B driver and you've learnt something from this loooong post, I'm grateful. If you're an alien who thinks this is all rubbish and you're learnt all this as a baby, do tell me in the comments as well. Anyway, thank you for reading if you made it this far and I'm looking forward to the discussion below
👍
Then from there you graduate to a more advanced level. This is where late apex comes in. Sacrifice a bit on entry, rotate the car and you get a much straighter exit and get a speed advantage all the way down the next straight. Proportionally, you gain more time on the straight than in the braking/entry phase of the corner (because the straight is almost always longer than a short 150-200m braking distance). In compound corners such as chicanes, you sacrifice the first part and prioritise exit from the second part. Slow in, fast out.
That's pretty much the adage for a long time now. I've heard people saying "fast in, fast out" in the past but if you're already braking as late as possible to take the late apex, how much faster can you go? "Fast in, fast out" is just "slow in, fast out" optimised.
But recently I've come across these video analyses of Verstappen's driving style by Peter Windsor. He's a senior journalist, has been watching F1 trackside since the late 70s and knows drivers' driving styles inside out. The kind of insight that armchair experts at home and sim racing coaches will never get just by studying onboards and telemetry traces. What he noticed is Max has an early apex driving style. It makes the whole corner shorter, saves distance, and he's still able to rotate the car early enough to get a good exit and get the advantage all the way down the next straight. The magical "fast in, fast out" technique.
Recently I watched GT Sophy's old videos again to compare. Especially the ones where they pit the ghost against top GT drivers on 3 different car/track combos.
You can see Sophy tends to turn in earlier and take an earlier apex than the human drivers, and still able to rotate the car and get back on the power earlier as well. Dragon Trail's first chicane, Maggiore's T3/4 complex and La Sarthe's many chicanes. All 3 drivers make a mention of this stark difference in driving styles. Slow corners are where you gain the most laptime, and this driving style is ever so slightly faster than the "slow in, fast out" technique. Over a whole lap, those milliseconds add up. Of course, Sophy has advantages of having much higher reaction times than humans and not fallible to mistakes. But I think it's fascinating how Max and Sophy both arrive at the same conclusion and use this early apex racing line to their advantage, when most other top drivers stick by the old late apex style.
Ultimately I think there is a limit to how "early" we humans can apex, because we don't have Sophy's reaction times and god-like precise inputs. Late apexing corners will still get you very high up the leaderboards, and it's just much easier for the human brain to process and execute. We can "plan" the trajectory of the car over a longer time period because the critical rotation point is later in the corner. Also if you're setting up an overtake for example, having a high exit speed is more beneficial than just being fast in the corner itself. But for those of us running out of ways to improve, it might be worth exploring the early apex technique.
Driving fast is complex. Every driver, every car and every corner is different and require different styles. If you're used to one particular technique copying another might not work. I've been playing racing games my whole life since the original GT1, trying every technique in the book to get faster. I thought I've seen them all. But thanks to Max, Sophy and GT, I've just discovered a whole new idea waiting to be explored and polished. Maybe it will make me faster, maybe it won't, but I sure as hell will have fun learning and applying it
If you're a DR B driver and you've learnt something from this loooong post, I'm grateful. If you're an alien who thinks this is all rubbish and you're learnt all this as a baby, do tell me in the comments as well. Anyway, thank you for reading if you made it this far and I'm looking forward to the discussion below
👍
