Should You Coast or Brake Into Corners?

I constantly get asked by parents of drivers, or drivers themselves, but mostly from parents of drivers, okay Alessio, but where should he hold the brakes? Until where? I mean, should he be already on the throttle here? Should he hold the brakes until the apex? Should he come off the brakes before the apex? And that's basically what I want to talk about today.

The thing is that, of course, the real answer is it depends, of course, from each corner. I mean, I'll be fooling you if I tell you, oh, you got to do this all the time. I mean, it's not the way racing works. You know, I believe racing is more an art than a science. So you always have to adapt your driving for each corner or even track conditions, you know, because it's never always the same.

Know the corner's DNA before you decide

You may have a corner that looks like a textbook, that just requires, you know, a textbook driving. So I think when I talk about textbook, I mean, it's like just applying the theory, you know, for example, like a 180-degree hairpin, you know, you may need to make the geometrical line, apex exactly at the mid-corner, you know, open up the entry, open up the exit. But you may notice that in that corner, there's a lot of banking, and the banking is actually on the inside of the corner. And so you may actually be better off by turning in a bit earlier than normal to catch the inside part of the corner where there's a lot of banking, and in that case everything is a little bit shifted from a normal geometrical line.

So you have to do the track walks. You need to have, uh, let's say, deep expertise and knowledge of the track. You need to know exactly the elevation changes, as well as obviously the banking, whether it's positive or negative. Most of the times it is positive, so it gives you more grip, let's say, but you need to know that, you need to know that from every track. So, again, going back to our initial question, should you coast or brake into corners? I mean, it's like, it's not going to be the same every single time. It's going to change, it's going to depend. And that's why you're going to make the track walks, you're going to make sure you know exactly, in every corner, literally the corner DNA. Not just the track DNA, but a corner DNA. And based on that, of course, you get an idea.

The default: brake late, and trail to the apex

Okay, you know, is it that heavy braking zone because you arrive at high speed? Yes, okay. So if, if it's a heavy braking zone, 90% of the times you have to brake really late and hold the brakes until the apex, pretty much. Depends a little bit from categories to categories, but you want to hold the brakes, that's called trail braking, not only on a straight line, but also when you start turning in.

So if you brake really late, you'll notice that the only way for you to stop by the apex is still holding the brakes, because that's the only way to stop, right? Because if you want to stop you have to hold the brakes, it's not enough to just turn the wheel and the kart is going to slow down. Yes, it does slow down a bit, but it doesn't slow down anywhere close to what you need.

The mistake almost everyone makes

So that's, by the way, the common mistake drivers do, is that they brake on a straight line, but then as soon as they turn, they come off the brakes. But it unloads the front, and it puts weight back onto the rear, and in vehicle dynamics that's basically going to create understeer. The front is not going to be having the weight anymore, and the rear is going to have too much, and so you won't get a rotation, and you're going to get push understeer.

But again, so the reason why you want to trail the brakes until the apex, pretty much, it's because you want to keep the front loaded. But also it's not really that, because of course you get more rotation, which is great. I mean, unless it's too much rotation. But I mean, in karting, you rarely have too much rotation, because the rear axle is fixed and you don't have a differential like racing cars, road cars, cars, especially if you're going slow to the corners. It's like, you know, the rear is going to push you, because, yeah, the rear is going to pick up a lot more grip in the front, and you're not going to have that much rotation. So having a bit more rotation, derived by a heavy and late braking trailed into the apex, it's going to be a good thing most of the times. So it's going to help your rotation. But again, it's not really the priority, because of course you can brake really late if you are going to hold the brakes until the apex. Think about it, like, if you are just coming off the brakes as soon as you start to turn in, you won't be able to brake as late as if you hold the brakes until the apex.

"Until the apex" is a rule of thumb, not a rule

Now, of course, when I'm saying until the apex, it's a rough estimate, because, you know, sometimes you will have to prioritize the exits, because there's a long straight afterwards. So you may have to go on the gas already at the apex, or at one meter, two meters max before the apex. So in that case you will have to already be off the brakes. So let's say you may have to hold the brakes until, like, what, two, three, four meters before the apex. So, you know, it's not a fixed rule that you have to follow, it's more like a rule of thumb. And, yeah, the goal is just that you should arrive until the apex holding the brakes, or, you know, roughly at the apex, because you are so late on the brakes. Then you gotta hold the brakes, because if you're coming off, or because, because I'm at the apex, I need to be off, well then you're probably not being late enough on the brake.

So, yeah, the whole thing is that, of course, by the apex we need to be ideally off the brakes, because that's when you should go on the throttle. Like, normally I should get on the throttle at the apex, or even one, two meters earlier than that. I mean, it's very rare that you'll be ending going on throttle after the apex. I can't really, uh, recall any corner where you're going on the throttle after the apex, unless you overshot the corner. But, yeah, I mean, if you have done the rotation properly on the entry, and by the mid-corner you have rotated the kart enough, well then you have the chance to go on the throttle. That's basically my rule of thumb, like:

The actual trigger: maximum rotation

When the kart has completed the rotation, and it's like giving me the chance to go on throttle, and I know I'm not going to get pushed out wide, well then I'm going to go on the gas. So it's like the maximum part of rotation. As soon as you reach that maximum part of rotation, which is in the mid-corner, and most of the times it should be before the apex, then you will go on the gas. Of course, I'm talking about a single corner, I'm not talking about like a double apex or a chicane, of course, that's different. But in a single corner, yeah, normally I want to go on the throttle just as I get the maximum peak point of rotation, or just a tiny bit later than that. As soon as you feel like the kart has rotated nicely, that's when you go on the gas.

Okay, if you get to the apex and for some reason you haven't rotated the kart yet, because maybe you turned in so early, whatever reason, like maybe you overtook somebody, or you had to stay tight, whatever, you won't be able to go on the gas before the apex, because then it's going to push you out even more, if you haven't had the rotation properly on the entry to mid-corner. So it's all relative to how much rotation you got. So that's pretty much, that's the right answer, I would say, you should have a look at how much rotation you got, how much you held the brakes.

And remember, that's why everything goes hand in hand, because if you get really late braking, and you trail the brakes all the way until the apex, you're gonna generate more load in the front, you're gonna generate more rotation, which automatically would allow you to get on the gas earlier, not only because you have stopped the kart more efficiently, and therefore you have lower speed, which requires you to arrive, you know, let's say, at the apex you should arrive at 60 kilometers an hour, in order, that's, let's say, the maximum speed that you can carry, the grip from your tires and from the track in that specific moment. Instead, if you try to carry, let's say, um, 61, 62, you're probably going to miss the apex or slide, because you can't carry too much. So in order to manage to get to that 60, you got to hold the brakes a little bit more. And once you get to that 60 kilometers an hour, let's say, you're going to be able to then pick up the gas, as soon as, obviously, you have maximum rotation completed.

That's when you can go on the gas. That's my rule of thumb, obviously. But, you know, everything happens quite rapidly and almost like in an instinctive way. So I don't really want to focus too much on giving you all the ins and outs, because, of course, it depends. That's the real answer. And I don't want the kids to become robots, with their coaches or mechanics or their dads telling them, oh, you gotta go on the gas as soon as you get the maximum rotation, which is about two meters before the apex, because Alessio said so. I mean, honestly, like, you need to let the driver feel that. Of course, the goal is to equip them with the technique knowledge that they need to know, that they need to trail the brakes until the apex. That's what I'm talking about, a slow speed corner where you arrive at a high speed, so, like, a hairpin where you have to use the brakes and you have to stop.

When you don't trail all the way

That may not be the way to drive, of course, in a medium speed corner, or in a slow corner where you have no prior straight. So you may have slow corners where you may not even need to use the brakes, because the approaching speed is very slow, because you have another slow corner right before. So in that case you may not have to trail the brakes until the apex, you may just have to tap them, or you may have to just make a lift, you know. So, again, that's why it really depends. But, ideally, you shouldn't want to coast into corners, in a way that you have to brake and then come off the brakes as soon as you turn in. That's not the way to drive.

You may need to do that very rarely, just in corners where there's like a lot of banking, or in double apex corners, where you kind of want to carry so much speed in between the two, so you don't want to, like, brake too much, but again, you should probably brake later, so that it allows you to brake a little bit more. But the thing is that, yeah, if there's a lot of banking, you want to release the brakes, for example, and catch that banking, and let the kart rotate on its own. Because, again, the kart is going to rotate thanks to the banking, and it's going to get the grip thanks to the banking. You won't have to kind of get a rotation from the brakes. So that's one of the things, like, also in cars.

I drove in Zandvoort a few times, F1 track, and I drove that in F3. And when you go through turn one, for example, there's so much banking that you're going to brake really hard, but then by the apex you can get off the brakes a couple of meters earlier than a normal geometric line corner that's flat with no banking, because the banking is going to give you some rotation, and it's going to support you in a way, without having to hold the brakes until the very end. You still need to obviously trail the brakes quite a lot, but you'll be able to actually rotate the car a bit more, just by the effect of the banking. So, I mean, that's really what I have experienced myself. So that's why I can't just give you a, you know, strict rule for every track. But, once again, I repeat, you don't want to brake, and as soon as you turn, you come off the brakes. That's not good.

Combine braking and turning, and measure it

You need to combine brake and turning, that's called trail braking combined, basically. And that's my way of seeing, okay, did I do a really good job or not. And I can see the more combined I do, the more speed, and the faster normally I am. So it's just really, like, the way I like to have a look at it. And, yeah, you should just brake really hard on a straight line, but also hold the brakes as you start to turn in. And that's going to create the flex on the kart, it's going to help you lift up the inside rear wheel, it's going to help you with all sorts of things. So you should chase that feeling, not go away from that. Again, it's a feeling that you need to get comfortable with, it's a skill you need to build that. But again, you need to really look for that, and you need to gain through exposure therapy, as I like to say. You need to push yourself, experience that, make mistakes. Eventually, when you'll try to hold the brakes, you'll maybe miss the corners, because maybe you're braking too late, maybe you're spinning, maybe you dip a wheel on the grass. Anything is going to happen. No worries. I mean, just keep pushing, you're going to build that feeling, and it's going to happen automatically. It's going to feel like a subconscious working for you, and you won't really need to think about it later on. But of course, at the beginning, as with any skill, you need to be conscious, you need to try hard.

And that's going to massively help. You can notice that trail braking inside the PURPL section, there's a specific trail braking section, you can see how much you have trailed the brakes. So you can see there should be like an overlapping of your brake and the lateral G. Okay, so if you can see that overlap, it means you have trailed the brakes nicely, it means you are braking, holding the brakes, and still turning. That's the way to go. If you don't have that, well then it's because you're probably not trailing the brakes enough, and it means you're not using the grip limit available. Remember, if you look at the friction circle, you know the tires are meant to trail brake, like, they want you to trail brake. You know, the friction circle just shows you that you need to try to brake, yes, on a straight line, but also hold the brakes when you're going into that lateral transition, into that lateral load. You don't just wanna brake hard. And from the friction circle, you can see lots of interesting things.

Why coasting is worse than it looks

So, yeah, go out there and experience that yourself. Have a look at the trail braking section, as well as the friction circle. Try to brake super late, and then you'll see that automatically, by braking super late, you will be forced into holding the brakes, and you'll do that sort of trail braking technique, and you'll get used to that, of course. So that's automatically going to kill that coasting mistake that unfortunately most beginner drivers have. I mean, most beginner drivers don't even have that braking technique at the beginning, and they're like not really using the brakes.

So you can see, like, when we get the kids that are very young, at four or five years old, at our summer camps, for example, they come, and I can literally see that they're not used to using brakes. They're just, uh, just lifting off, and letting the grip and the acceleration just from the engine brake slow them down for the corner. And so, by doing so, obviously they have to accelerate really early, because, of course, if you're not braking you have to accelerate very early. But again, that's not going to create the flex from the chassis, it's not going to even create the rotation from the chassis. So not only will you lose on the entry, but you will lose in the mid-corner, you will lose on the exit.

That's also not going to raise up the tire temperature, especially in the winter, that's really detrimental. If you're not raising up the tire temperature, you're not going to have grip. So in order to raise up the tire temperature, you need to really push your limits and stress the tires in a way so that, yeah, you just warm them up, because the only way to warm tires up is to push them at the edge of the friction circle. If you're not pushing them at the edge of the friction circle, they're not going to warm up, and you won't have any good grip until the last lap. But again, the last lap, it's too late, you want to get it a lot earlier than that. So, again, that's another reason why you want to be super late on the brakes, holding the brakes.

Because when you are coasting, you're not stressing the tires, you're like massaging the tires. But you don't want to massage your tires, you want to stress the tires. That is how you build temperature, that's how you build grip. And, yeah, it's going to turn you into a braking monster, and not into a coasting kitten. Remember, you can have a look at all these metrics in PURPL, so make sure you sign up, let me know how it goes, and remember to keep sending it. Ciao.