I'm no alien, but I'll chuck in my experience here.
First up, I followed a very similar learning curve as described by Antonio. I have
never tried to match aliens by just trying to drive as fast as possible through corners, braking extremely late, or using setups provided by aliens. All that leads to (IMO) is heaps of mistakes, lots of crashes, and mega frustration.
My approach was, and still is, to learn the track and the car's behaviour, and to find the fastest
CONSISTENT lap time that
I can do without crashing or spinning. Eliminating mistakes has brought me more success than speed in RD events. However, as others have explained, there are no easy shortcuts to finding
your best / consistent lap times. It just takes lots of practice laps.
One personal point about the need to set up on-line training events where you follow someone else. Whilst this can be useful later, I don't think this is the best training initially. Practicing off-line is far more valuable to learning the car and track. You can try different things (driving lines, braking points, how hard to brake or apply power, even fiddle with setups ) much more effectively on your own without other distractions. After all, you are trying to find your own consistent and fastest pace. It also helps build confidence, rather than frustration at not being able to match another on-line driver. Once you have done the hard yards and learned the track very well, and have a good feel for how the car handles,
then the on-line training with others can be helpful to fine tune things.
When you get into the races, try to resist the temptation to drive beyond your own limits. I pass waaaay more cars due to their mistakes than I have ever passed through superior speed or later braking.
I actually started my own learning process by watching laps from the better drivers. My good friend Atti Domjan used to supply me with hotlaps he had done. I'd then study them for driving lines, gear selections, braking points, etc and try to copy them as best I could. Of course I could never match Atti's speed, but I learned heaps that way. I'm sure others here are happy to provide hotlaps for drivers to learn from, just ask.
A quick word about setups. Learn what each setup parameter does, and try to make your own setups to suit your driving style. Alternatively, find those from drivers who consistently make setups that suit you. What suits the alien most likely won't suit you. I personally try to make my setups for better stability, rather than a difficult but potentially faster setup. I also know whose setups suit me, and often use theirs as starting points for my own.
The final word on making setups, don't start changing things until you can drive multiple laps to within about 0.5 secs, otherwise you never know what is improving the lap time.
Rupe (and others) have emphasised smoothness. Never a truer word applies here. Rapid jerking of the wheel, or overly aggressive application of throttle and brake can be killers, especially with highly powered cars. Be prepared to brake a little earlier if it helps to setup a more stable entry to a turn. This then will allow you to get the best exit by applying power earlier. Faster / cleaner exits is far more important than later braking (for me anyway).
As far as learning to drive cleanly in traffic, it's a lot easier if you do the above first. Only when you are comfortable in the car, and know the track, can you then have a good chance of driving more closely with other cars around you.
Blimey, I wrote a bit of a book here, sorry. Hopefully someone read it all and found something useful.
