How to take a corner
How To Take A Corner
Take a corner like a pro racing driver with these tips
If you’ve been booked in one of the popular driving experience days offered by tracks like Silverstone, you’re going to have plenty of fun. You’re also going to be occupied with the experience of controlling a powerful and totally unfamiliar speed machine, so it pays to learn at least some of the principles behind pro driving before you get to the driving day itself. Here’s what you need to know to take a corner like a pro…
The Traction Circle
This isn’t how much traction you retain while your car is spinning out of control. Rather, it’s controlling the forces acting on a car’s tyres to make sure you get the maximum grip for the longest time possible. The factors at your disposal when you’re sat in the cockpit are acceleration and braking; momentum from the centrifugal force and lateral movement caused by steering round the corner; oversteer and understeer.
Oversteer and understeer
Understeer occurs when front brakes release and grip takes the car wide on a turn, which is how most road cars are set up. Oversteer is more-or-less the opposite: where the backend slips and the backend tries to turn on its own. Oversteer for a racing car is preferable as the instability enables a driver to generate more speed by countersteering, and accelerating
at the right moment.
Braking point, turning point, apex
The optimum braking point when turning a corner is found by braking early to begin with, then later as you become more confident. Where you should turn depends on the corner’s geometry – have a look at the track set-up on your driving experience day before you’re actually driving as you may not be able to see it, or judge it, going into the corner for real. The apex of the corner is also called the clipping point, the part of the racing line during a cornering manoeuvre where your car is closest to the edge of the track.
Beginner cornering strategy
With all this in mind, the ideal cornering strategy for beginners is to first, get as much breaking out of the way as you can before the turn; then, with the car still under control, and oversteer or understeer kept to a minimum, to turn and aim for a slightly later apex than the corner’s natural (or geometric) apex – a skill which requires a good ‘feel’ for the car’s weight transference from back to front axle, and its overall grip and braking capabilities to accomplish; and to increase the throttle on the way out. It may be counter-intuitive – surely to corner faster, you need more acceleration to begin with – but this
strategy of ‘powering out’ of a corner will pay dividends.
If you’d like to try out these technique driving your own car – at speed – Silverstone offer track days where you can test your skills (and test the performance of your car) on their famous circuit.
Happy cornering!
