Many tiny gains lead to a big gain.
What do you need to do to gain just one-tenth of a second in one corner? Not much, right.
If you were to enter the corner with half-a-MPH more speed, you would gain a tenth of a second.
If you used an additional few inches of track at the turn-in, apex, and exit of the corner, you’d gain a tenth of a second.
If you were to get to full throttle a car’s length earlier exiting a corner, you’d gain a tenth of a second.
If you compressed your brake zone approaching a corner by a couple of car’s lengths, you’d gain a tenth of a second.
If you began releasing the brakes a car’s length earlier (but not necessarily finished braking and taking your foot completely off the pedal any earlier – in fact, maybe you’d even keep a little bit of pressure on the brakes longer), you would carry a little more speed into the corner and still be able to get the car to turn in and follow the line you want – and you’d gain a tenth of a second.
Let’s look at this the other way around.
If you turn in to a corner from a foot away from the edge of the track, barely get to the apex, and are not right at the edge exiting the corner, you will lose a tenth of a second.
If you release the brakes too quickly at the end of the brake zone and cause the car to become less balanced, you will lose a tenth of a second.
If you hang on the brake pressure too long – trail brake too long – you will drag off too much speed, and you will lose a tenth of a second.
If you begin applying the throttle too soon, resulting in having to ease back up off of it before going to full throttle, you will lose a tenth of a second.
If you don’t unwind the steering enough exiting the corner – “pinching the exit” by holding the car in the corner too long – you will lose a tenth of a second.
If you “crab” in from the edge of the track at the entry to a corner, you will lose a tenth of a second.
If you jerk the steering into the corner too abruptly, you will lose a tenth of a second.
If you ease up on the throttle in that fast corner when you could take it at full throttle, you will lose a tenth of a second.
Now, imagine you’re driving a track with ten corners, and you gain a tenth of a second in each corner. Just a tenth of a second! You’ve now improved your lap time by a second. What would you give to gain a full second in lap time?!
Many drivers, when looking to improve their lap times, go looking for too much. They believe they’re a full second off of what the car is capable of, so they try to find that entire second in one place. Inexperienced drivers may be able to find a second in one or two places, but as you know, that low hanging fruit gets picked fairly soon. And then it’s a matter of finding little gains in time.
As you improve your driving, the gains become harder and harder to find, and they also become smaller and smaller.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite a time. Driving is no different. Approach improvement one bite of the elephant at a time, looking for a tenth of a second here and there.
