How to improve your consistency in Sim Racing
Being fast on the race track is important, but being consistent is one of the key factors to win races. So, How to improve consistency in Sim Racing?
The proper combination of braking, turning, accelerating, and a good racing line, is what consistency is made of. Pretty simple right? Yes and no, doing all those things at the right place and time is what will give you consistent lap times.
Braking points
In order to take a corner on the limit, it is important to brake at the right place and time. There are multiple ways to know when to brake, but the most common is to find a braking point before you reach your turning point (more about that later).
First, we need to identify the braking zone. In this example, we are looking at Turn 1 – Laguna Seca.
After identifying the braking zone, we need to find out our own braking point, some cars/drivers can brake at the line in the middle of the braking zone above.
Your braking point will be determined by your reaction time, setup, brake bias, brake temperature, tire temperature, etc. but we are not going to get too technical for now. The goal is to find the right time and place to brake and use the same braking point lap after lap.
It is very recommended to find multiple braking indicators around your braking point, for example, when you are about to overtake another car, you can identify those extra braking indicators around your braking point and don’t brake too late.
Lifting Zones
A lifting zone is used when the corner or set of corners do not require to use the brakes, just a short lift off the throttle to transfer the weight of the car to the front and get the rear of the car lighter to induce some oversteer. Sometimes we can use a quick tap on the brakes to induce more oversteer.
Turning points
The concept is the same as braking points, but now, we need to identify when to turn the wheel to hit the apex of a corner. First, we need to identify the turning zone, your turning point will be determined by your setup, car with, tire compound, and driving style. The goal is to turn at the same point every lap. Below, we can see the turning zone/point for Bathurst – Mount Panorama.
Throttle Zone
A throttle zone or throttle point is where we are going to start accelerating out of a corner. It doesn’t mean that we are going full throttle right away, it means we will start accelerating according to the available grip.
Going on the throttle too early on one corner can destroy your lap time and consistency. Going too wide on corner exit is usually the result of going too early on the throttle.
Following these consistency suggestions can help you improve your lap times and your sim racing experience overall.
