Brake to throttle transition

[G-Slev]

Virtually everything I read online suggests that I should always be on the throttle or braking when going round a corner.

I try to trail brake as much as I can (I don't find it easy with my clubsport v3s to do so for some reason - probably because I like them set up with a rock hard brake). However, I do find my laptimes are quicker when I coast a bit and wait to get on the throttle in a corner. I'm not sure if I am just crap and giving away so much time that I actually make a bit up, but it's leaving me very confused.

Does anyone else ever coast very briefly between the brake and throttle transition in a corner?

 

[Neilski]

I'm no alien, but yes, definitely, a coast can be totally right in my view.
It should be combined in most cases with a tightening of the turn radius as the car slows down, in order to keep on maximising the use of all available grip.

 

[Deleted member 379375]

Yeah this is a really good question. I've suspected for some time that I am losing time in the transition too.
I naturally coast too but am working on better trail braking and getting on the throttle earlier. That's a good point about coasting and tightening the line simultaneously. I'll have to factor that in to my thinking. I do find I improve lap-time when I get it right .

 

[Jack Stand]

Check out YT for instructional vids by Driver61. Among other topics , he has a vid dealing with your questions. In that vid he talks you thru the transition sequence from full braking to full throttle. Helping to understand exactly what occurs with the car during this transition. Then you can apply your own driving style to what is learned.
Sorry, I don't recall the title of the vid.

 

[blekenbleu]

Bottom line: only so much total grip is available.
If it is all going into cornering, then none is left for braking or accelerating.
Fernando appears to be nearly coasting, briefly, in a couple of corners:

 

[stigs2cousin]

In the beginning i had exactly the same problem because i was influenced ( too much!!) by a book by Wolfgang Weber.
Racing drivers who coast are called into the team chiefs office

But there ar a lot of corners where too much trailbraking just over slows the car.
( Look up "Ross Bentley, Change of Speed")

So the better/ faster way is to trailbrake just as much as to get it to turn in, than coast at the bleeding edge of grip until you can begin opening the steering angle and simultainiously roll into the throttle.

The harder part is to do that 25 times with changing grip and other guys sniffing at your gearbox

MFG Carsten

 

[wolftree]

In general, you want your line to be such that you can transition from trail braking directly into gradual acceleration.

But this is not always possible. Sometimes the corner has a double apex where you do all your braking before you hit the first apex, but it's too early to get on the throttle before you reach the second (tighter) apex. Sometimes you have a corner complex where you need to change directions while slowing down, but braking would unbalance the car too much, so you coast instead - take the Triple Curve at Oschersleben for example.

There are even circuits with corner complexes where you mostly coast with an occasional application of brake or throttle, such as on top of Mount Panorama: