How to survive Monza (ACC)

You join a public server or even a league race, Monza is the track you will be racing on, you qualified in a decent position and the race is about to start, your brain enters in full awareness mode, lights go green, and your reaction time is perfect, as soon as you get near turn 1, you brake too late and hit the car in front of you, or the car behind you does the same and hits you.

The race is now ruined, and you will start screaming at your screen. 

That sounds like almost every race at Monza, doesn’t it?

Well, the problem is, we usually know the braking points for every corner, but not for a race start.

Turn 1 at Monza is one of the most chaotic corners in ACC or any other sim. It is very narrow, it is a chicane and a slow-speed section.

Let’s take a look at the top speed before turn 1 at race pace and at the start of the race.

As you can see, the speed difference is about 26 Km/h or 16 mp/h, so the braking zone is almost the same, the big difference is, your brakes will be most likely colder than race pace, same with the tires, and that will change your braking distance. Also, keep in mind that at the start of the race, the car will be heavier because of the amount of fuel onboard.

How to survive turn 1 at Monza

• Pre-heat your brakes on the formation lap.
• Move your brake bias towards the rear 2 clicks.
• Brake at or before the 150 board on the left.
• Keep your line.

Why?

Pre-heating your brakes will reduce the braking distance at T1. Just be careful not to overheat the brakes, when pre-heating the brakes, make sure to keep the brake temp indicator “light green” if the indicator turns yellow, your brakes are overheated and the car will most likely take longer to slow down, if the indicator is blue, that means the brakes are cold and the stopping efficiency will be terrible.

Moving your brake bias towards the rear will help to reduce the amount of braking force at the front tires, thus, the rear tires will help slow down the car more efficiently. Be careful with your brake bias setting, if it’s too far towards the back, the car will get very unstable under braking. It is recommended to bind the brake bias adjustment to your wheel or controller, that way you can adjust it to your liking.

Keep your line! If you wave at the braking zone, two things can happen. You will lose control of the car because of the weight transfer or the car behind you will do the same trying to avoid a collision with you and now it’s a domino effect and everyone crashes at the famous T1.

Going through the Chicane

As it was mentioned before, KEEP YOUR LINE! Of course, only if you are going two wide, otherwise, use the best possible racing line.

The same principle applies to all chicanes in general. KEEP YOUR LINE and don´t miss your braking point.

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