{"id":33667,"date":"2020-12-14T03:00:59","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/?p=33667"},"modified":"2020-12-12T16:00:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T00:00:53","slug":"q-should-i-expect-to-see-the-same-level-of-g-loads-in-slow-and-fast-corners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/q-should-i-expect-to-see-the-same-level-of-g-loads-in-slow-and-fast-corners\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: Should I expect to see the same level of g-loads in slow and fast corners?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q<\/strong>: \u201c<\/em>This question is a variation on one that you already answered on your website.\u00a0That question\u00a0asked if the driver could expect the same g-force limit during braking vs. cornering. Looking at my data, I see that the faster the corner, the lower the g-force I’m achieving.\u00a0I’m not surprised, since I’ve never been comfortable with fast corners.\u00a0Assuming the track conditions and track camber are the same, should I be able to pull the same g-force in a fast corner as in a slow corner?\u00a0That would be a guide to how much faster I can do the fast corners.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: Great question. And yes, if all else is equal (track conditions), you should be able to generate the same g-loads. And, if your car has some aerodynamic downforce, you should be able to see higher g-loads in the faster corners. For example, a prototype car (i.e., LMP2) might generate 1.5g\u2019s in a slow corner, but more than 2.5 in a fast corner. In a production car, it should be close to equal since most don\u2019t have a lot of aero downforce.<\/p>\n

Looking at the lateral g-loads is a good way to start getting more comfortable with fast corners. If you\u2019re seeing 1.0g in slow corners, but only 0.8 in fast corners, then you should feel comfortable carrying more speed. Of course, how you go about carrying more speed is important. If you come into a fast corner and brake super late in the effort to go faster, you may be upsetting the balance of the car, and it will therefore have less grip – and it may not be able to generate the same level of g-loads. When you and I said that the track conditions needed to be the same, the car\u2019s balance needs to be similar, too. If you\u2019re generating 1.0g in the slower corners with the car well balanced, but you unbalance the car in the fast corners, then you won\u2019t be able to generate the same g-loads.<\/p>\n

As you approach fast corners, I recommend that you get any speed adjustment (braking or just lifting of the throttle) done early, so you can be adding some amount of throttle as you\u2019re driving through it so the car will be well balanced.<\/p>\n

Something else\u2026 often, drivers don\u2019t look far enough ahead through fast corners. In slow corners, because they\u2019re typically tighter and shorter, you can get away with not looking as far ahead. But in fast corners – because they\u2019re usually longer – you need to look even further ahead. And because they\u2019re faster, we tend to drop our vision. It\u2019s a bit of a fear response for most people. We also often hold our breath, and when we do that we tense up; when we tense up, we get less feeling back from the car, so we don\u2019t sense the car\u2019s limit as well.<\/p>\n

So, I recommend you take time at home and mentally practice driving the fast corners on the track(s) you go to. Close your eyes, relax, breathe, and then imagine driving the track; see, feel, and hear yourself approaching the fastest corner on the track; as you approach it, do your speed adjustment early as you exhale in a long relaxed breath, and look all the way through the corner. Visualize yourself doing this over and over again with an emphasis on the early speed adjustment, breathing, and looking way ahead. With each lap through this corner (you can just do this one corner over and over, as you don\u2019t need to drive the whole track for this mental imagery session if you don\u2019t want to), imagine carrying another 1-2 MPH. Imagine the g-loads – feel them in your imagination – noticing them increasing. Do this over and over again. After you\u2019ve done this for at least twenty minutes, imagine coming back into the paddock, downloading and looking at your data, and seeing that your g-loads in the fast corners are just as high as in the slow corners. Imagine how that would make you feel. Imagine a friend coming up to you and saying, \u201cWow, you were flying out there!\u201d Now, just relax for another thirty seconds, paying attention to your breath and how you\u2019re feeling, and then slowly open your eyes.<\/p>\n

How do you feel after doing this mental imagery session? It\u2019s pretty cool to know that you have a strategy for improving your fast corner speed, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s much better having a strategy – one based on knowledge – than just \u201cgetting braver,\u201d right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: \u201cThis question is a variation on one that you already answered on your website. That question asked if the driver could expect the same g-force limit during braking vs. cornering. Looking at my data, I see that the faster the corner, the lower the g-force I’m achieving. I’m not surprised, since I’ve never been comfortable with fast corners. Assuming the track conditions and track camber are the same, should I be able to pull the same g-force in a fast corner as in a slow corner? That would be a guide to how much faster I can do the fast corners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-ross"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33668,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33667\/revisions\/33668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}