Driver styles/preferences

[Adrian Newby]

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[raymondu999]

IMO if you were to trail brake up to the apex, and "trail power" from the apex - the time gained by later braking and earlier acceleration would outweigh your slight additional apex speed instead.

As JT once said on the subject of trail braking,

It's popular in sim and real racing because it's the quickest way around the track.

You get to carry the same amount of mid corner speed, same exit speed, and you get to brake later. Can't beat it.

[Adrian Newby]

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[raymondu999]

It's not that straightforward. If you had Car A and Car B - and Car B straight out had better lateral grip, you'd probably just take the exact same line as Car A, but carry more apex speed. It doesn't mean you should sacrifice your entry (by not doing trail braking) or exit (by not doing "trail powering") to maximise your car's out and out cornering performance.

Watch F1 onboards - when do you really see anyone holding a constant radius and constant speed? Constant radius sometimes yes, but they're always either flat out or braking, generally - and the speed always is changing (ie they're never in a position of "holding" the car at peak lateral G)

[Adrian Newby]

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[raymondu999]

Yeah - and everyone generally takes a V-shape in slow corners. Basically the drivers all wind on steering lock until the apex, and wind out from apex to exit.

Example:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrcwII_uBCA[/youtube]

[Adrian Newby]

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[raymondu999]

Yes, but even with the slowest corners onto the longest straights - they still do that. See Monza:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKPa9je94gQ[/youtube]

Drivers seem to want to minimise the time they are on constant radius. I'm not saying that, from a vehicle dynamics perspective this is the "correct" line - but these are supposedly the world's fastest drivers. Surely they're doing something right...

[raymondu999]

AN - if you're more into the physics and vehicle dynamics of the situations, I'd recommend these two:
http://soliton.ae.gatech.edu/people/dcs ... sie05a.pdf
http://phors.locost7.info/contents.htm

Good reads based on just theoretical physics calculations, if that's what you're looking for.

[Adrian Newby]

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[Adrian Newby]

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[Adrian Newby]

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[Jersey Tom]

I agree with trail-braking. I think "trail-powering" is counter-productive.

Trail-powering being what exactly?

The thing no one really gets about "apex speed", and imo one of the reasons Adrian Newey's cars are so efficient (at the expense of straight line speed), is that the faster you can corner, the less you have to brake and accelerate to make up the difference. Add that up corner after corner, lap after lap.

I think most people do "get that."

[Adrian Newby]

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[Nando]

I agree with trail-braking. I think "trail-powering" is counter-productive.

Trail-powering being what exactly?

The thing no one really gets about "apex speed", and imo one of the reasons Adrian Newey's cars are so efficient (at the expense of straight line speed), is that the faster you can corner, the less you have to brake and accelerate to make up the difference. Add that up corner after corner, lap after lap.

I think most people do "get that."

=D>