{"id":41274,"date":"2022-07-12T19:46:17","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T02:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/?p=41274"},"modified":"2024-03-23T08:07:27","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T15:07:27","slug":"q-should-i-always-brake-as-late-and-hard-as-i-can-for-every-corner-is-there-ever-a-reason-for-braking-lighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/q-should-i-always-brake-as-late-and-hard-as-i-can-for-every-corner-is-there-ever-a-reason-for-braking-lighter\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: Should I always brake as late and hard as I can for every corner? Is there ever a reason for braking lighter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: That depends on how you define the \u201climit.\u201d Strictly from a maximum braking perspective, yes, if you\u2019re braking lighter, then you\u2019re not at the very limit of what your car and tires can do. And if the goal was to be the fastest from the BoB (Begin-of-Braking) to the corner entry or EoB (End-of-Braking), then you would be slower if you braked lighter.<\/p>\n

But the goal is to be fastest through the entire section from the BoB for a corner to the beginning of the next section and ultimately, the complete lap. And sometimes, braking lighter makes you faster in the long run. Why?<\/p>\n

Never forget that a car that is better balanced \u2013 meaning there is the least amount of load transfer, and the chassis is as flat as possible \u2013 has more traction than one that is standing up on its nose from very heavy braking. So, when you brake hard, your car has less overall traction than if you braked lighter (because you won\u2019t have caused as much load transfer. For a simple explanation of this, watch the Why Smooth is Fast video<\/a> on my YouTube channel).<\/p>\n

This is why sometimes \u2013 and I mean sometimes, and not always \u2013 by braking a little bit lighter, you can turn a faster lap time. And keep in mind that when I say lighter, I don\u2019t mean very light. It\u2019s relative. If maximum threshold braking is a \u201c10 out of \u201c10,\u201d then lighter might be a \u201c9\u201d or \u201c8\u201d pedal.<\/p>\n

Typically \u2013 again, not always \u2013 lighter braking works when approaching fast corners, and harder braking works in slower corners where the highest priority is getting the car slowed, turned, and rotated to accelerate hard out of the corner. In fast corners, often the priority is maintaining speed as opposed to re-accelerating after slowing down a lot. So, maximizing grip is what you\u2019re after, which means keeping the car well-balanced.<\/p>\n

Hey, if you braked with the same pressure \u2013 maximum pressure – and released the brakes in the same way for every corner, driving would be boring!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: \u201cIf you started braking lighter at the same place entering a corner, wouldn’t that suggest that you’re not quite at the limit under braking? And wouldn’t that make you slower because you don’t have the car at the limit?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41278,"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-41274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ask-ross"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41274","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=41274"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41277,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41274\/revisions\/41277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}