Where Am I Losing Time? My Self-Review Routine After Every Session

Unless you're driving three, four tenths faster than everybody else, you'll always be looking for lap time. I mean, let's talk about it. We are always looking for lap time as racing drivers. Every time, even if you're on pole position, you're always looking for lap time, and you're always looking for the next session, because you know the track is going to change and you know you have to kind of get ready for that. But I mean, that's a talk for another day.

The real goal is that you need to find lap time. You want to find lap time, especially when you're two, three, four tenths off the pace, or even more. Imagine if you're one second off the pace, okay, that's like for a racing driver, that's almost the worst feeling on earth, right? You, you can't really think about the other problems in the world, like global warming, there are people that are starving to death in Africa, for example. I mean, like, when you are five tenths off as a karting driver, you're like, that is just my biggest problem and I want to fix it now. I mean, it's like, that's the only problem in that moment and you don't care about anything else. And as you are like me, you're probably going to get very moody and you just, like, get very upset. Of course, that shows that you're very passionate and that you're very competitive as a person and you want to win. That's always really good to see that in drivers, when I see it in drivers.

Data plus video, every session

But then once you realize you're off the pace, and you have to find lap time, and you want to find lap time, time, it's time to find lap time, and how do you go about doing that? Are you just looking at the results sheet from whatever event organizer you are taking part on, whether it's WSK, CIK, or any other event like SKUSA? Or are you, for instance, looking at your onboard video? I mean, during the races you can't really do that in Europe. I know that you can do that in the US, that's really cool, I wish that it was possible here in Europe, but we can't. So the only thing you can do is to look at your telemetry data from your data logger, whether it's your MyChron, Alfano, Unipro, whatever. But during free practice, the best thing would be to match your data analysis with your video onboard analysis.

That's pretty much my common operating procedure, from running my team at Babyrace as well as when I go driving myself. The first thing I do is download my telemetry data, and then I download my onboard video if it's me driving, and I just try to look at both. Obviously it depends how much time I've got between sessions. If I'm driving on a random day where there's, like, an open pit, and I only have, like, 20-30 minutes to drive from session to session, then I have, like, I may only have time to do just data, or I may only have time to do just video. But most of the times I would just go on and do both, and I would start probably by looking at the video.

What video shows you, and what data proves

So first I want to see if I'm taking the right lines. I mean, in my case, due to my experience and, you know, my racing knowledge, I tend to take the best lines most of the times, but I may always have to fix a few things here and, and I just have to go and identify that in the video onboard. But also I will match it with telemetry, because I can see on the data: okay, my line was a bit tighter in this lap than the other lap. And you can see on the data very small differences, for example, like 30, 40, 50 centimeters in the, in the line, compared to the video, which you can't really see that much of a difference. I mean, unless it's an obvious line mistake, you will rarely see a major line mistake on the video, whereas you can see that more on the data, and the data you can tell exactly how many meters more you made in a specific corner if you miss the apex. Instead, on video you can just have an assumption of how much more distance you made. So, obviously, the data gives the real number, whereas the video gives you more of, like, a perception. But you will never be able to back it up, up perfectly, as you can do that on the data.

So if my lines are right, then I look at my hands, steering technique. I would try to see if I'm pushing nicely with my outside hand, or if I'm pulling with my inside hand, and so, of course, I try to fix that too. And then, through the video, I always pay attention to the moment I hit the throttle, whether it's before the apex, at the apex, or after the apex. I always try to have a sort of idea, which, obviously, I can double check, and it gives me a real value then on the data. But on the video, it gives me an idea. And then, obviously, I already talked about this in the lines, but I really want to see how much I'm using the track in terms of lines, specifically on the entries. I really want to see how, how close I am into the limit to the entry. And on top of that, I really want to see also the kart's behavior, because I can quite easily tell the kart's behavior based on the video. So I can, can see if, you know, I'm using too much steering input and I have understeer, or the opposite, you know, if I have massive snap oversteer as soon as I turn in, or if I'm not able to stop the kart efficiently. So again, that's quite good to have it on the video.

Whereas on the data, you can see way more pragmatically where you're losing time, in a more scientific and proven way. I mean, there's no excuses on data. I mean, you can try to fake it, you can try to find excuses, but once you get to the data, the numbers don't lie. Remember, it's just the same thing I say to my drivers: remember, mate, data doesn't lie.

And they realize that. They may say, oh, you know, I, I have no top speed, but then they actually come to see the data of their teammates, and their teammates maybe have even less top speed. So on the data, you really are able to unveil the areas where you're losing lap time, or where you're finding lap time on the others, just as if you were Sherlock Holmes, you know, just as if you were a detective that was able to identify hidden places where you were losing time, you know, and that's really the coolest thing about telemetry analysis, because, because at the end of that, especially if you have the benchmark of a reference driver, as it could be your teammate, especially if it's a quick teammate, more experienced than you, well, then it would be awesome to have an idea where he's gaining or losing from you. And that's the thing I'm talking about.

The rotten mentality of the fastest driver

You know, once we get to have data and your laptop is open, or you have your iPhone or your tablet open on PURPL, and you're able to see, you, okay, let's have a look where I'm losing time. Because the whole point of opening up data is to really understand where you're losing time. I mean, there's not going to be any other reason to look at data.

I mean, most of the drivers that are fastest, they're not looking at data. Why? Because they're not interested in finding time. But that's wrong. I'm just saying what it is. They're just, once they are P1 and they're purple, why looking at data? That's unfortunately the rotten mentality that many drivers that have. Even if they're quickest in that specific session you should always look at data, because you can always go quicker, you can always find lap time in some corners. So the reason why the fastest drivers in a specific session, they don't look for data, is again mistakenly so, because they think they are fast enough and they don't need to change the driving, they don't need to find any more lap time. Whereas the other ones were lagging behind and they are two or three tenths off the pace, they are kind of forced to find lap time, and they're going to be just spending their time analyzing their data. Thankfully, AI, PURPL can do it for them, and they can then, okay, I'm losing here, I'm losing there. Awesome. Let's fix it on the track, because, obviously, the goal is to first acknowledge and understand where you're losing the lap time, especially the corners where you're losing the most, because that's the whole point we're going to talk about now.

Data is backward-looking

And once you realize, okay, I'm losing here, I'm losing there, I'm losing here, because of X reason, whatever, then, okay, you're gonna go out on the track, you're gonna try to memorize everything, you're gonna implement those things, perfect, and you're gonna find lap time. But again, I always say that data is really useful, but it's always backward looking. It's looking into the past, it's not looking in the future. If the track changes next session, it gets more slippery, you may have to drive differently. So if you follow the insights from the previous session where you were losing time, that may have worked really well if the track stay the same, but if the track changes, you may have to adapt, and you may lose again time, unless you're changing and adapting yourself. So data is extremely useful, it allows you to unveil the areas you're losing lap time, which is extremely valuable. I mean, they have live telemetry in F1, where they can coach the drivers what to do based on the track conditions and the weather conditions, let's say the wind, the track temperature, tire temperatures, etc, for example. And in karting too, it's really, really valuable. So, yeah, as I said, but it's not going to be the thing that's going to make you win the race, because you always have to adapt to the conditions. So the data, as I said, is really, really useful for when the next session is going to be exactly the same as that previous session that you've just analyzed the data. But if the track gets faster, you may have to brake even later, carry even more speed, get on a total evil area, you know, you have to trust the grip and use more grip. So, you know, your braking point from the session before, that was half a second slower, will not be the same as the next session where it's going to be half a second faster, the track. So you really want to pay attention to that. The track is going to change a lot during the day, and as I always say, you need to develop the feeling of the limits, of sensing the grip and adapting from session to session to the track conditions. If there's more grip, okay, carry more speed and drive in a certain way. If there's less grip, you have to carry a bit less speed and drive in a different way. And the data that you obviously analyze the session before will be useful, but, but it won't allow you to perfectly drive the next session, because, again, it's going to change slightly, the track. It's never going to be the same. Maybe the next day at the same time of that previous session, it's going to be exactly the same. So there's always value in analyzing data. But again, you always need to consider that, again, data is backward looking into the past. It's not going to be looking into the future. But again, it serves you very well to give you an idea, because what you did in the past, for example, if you break 10 meters early, then you probably are going to repeat in the future unless you change your approach, but that's why my standard operating procedure is to have a look at the three biggest areas of time loss across the lap.

The three biggest areas of time loss

And I always start from the area where the driver is losing the most, then I go to the area where the driver is losing the second most, and the third most. I don't really start from the first corner specifically or the second corner. You know, I don't really go that in order as other coaches do. I just feel like, to me, it's working well to do it like that. I mean, I used to do that in the past, going from turn one to turn two, et cetera. But I now kind of feel like, if I need to do it in a hurry and there's not so much time, then it's better to just go straight to the point.

And I feel like it's not even good sometimes to just have information overload when there's too much information, focus on too many corners, it ends to happen actually that the driver can't focus on any corner at all, because when he has too many things to focus on, he's sometimes going to be ending up in information overload, and, yeah, won't really be able to fix the ones that really need to. So if there's a few corners where the driver is just a hundredth off, two hundredths off, three hundredths off, I mean, I wouldn't really pay too much attention right away, unless the driver, obviously, is really experienced and it's just, like, one tenth off the pace. But if the driver is, like, six tenths off the pace, I would focus more, obviously, on the corners where the driver is two tenths off or three tenths off, versus the corners where it's just two, three hundredths off. It makes sense. It's common sense, and it's the way it should be doing, so focus first on the corners that you lose the most.

PURPL allows you to do that easily through the app. You can easily see the areas in the sections where you're losing the most, and once you're able to detect the areas you lose the most, it's easy, because then you can just implement the fixes. Of course, knowing where you lose is not the same as actually going out there and doing it. It takes time, it takes kart control, it takes, obviously, a lot of skills. You know, if the driver is going flat out through a corner where you feel like it's impossible to do that, but it's still doing it. And, you know, knowing that you have to go flat out is one thing, actually going and doing that is another thing. So I just generally think that you, you need to know first where you're looking at, where you have to improve, where you have to find the time. But also, you can't give for granted that you will, and you need to push yourself, because it's not going to happen automatically.

But again, going in the track in the next session, when you put your helmet on, and having the focus on the three areas you, you were losing the most before, is going to definitely help you out massively, increasing your chances of finding the lap time and closing the gap, instead of not having an idea of which corners to focus on, or even focusing on too many corners, because that's again trying to create some information overload. So I wouldn't recommend that, especially for the younger drivers. It's better to focus on three, three corners at the time. I mean, if you focus on three corners, the three most valuable corners at the time, I mean, by the end of the day or by the end of the weekend, you will definitely be up to pace. I mean, of course, if you were able to follow the advices that you were told by looking at the data, of course, you're definitely going to get there. I mean, only if you're going to apply those changes to your driving, okay? If you find all the three major areas and you kind of fix them, even though there's not such a thing as fixing them, because the track always changes, sessions, conditions always change. But anyways, if you fix the three major corners every session, that you're going to get by the end of the week, unless there's 70 corners per track like the Nordschleife and Nürburgring, but that's not the case for you racing drivers and karting. But again, yeah, you're going to be fixing those, and I'm pretty sure.

Or just focus on the three major corners, you can find them on the data easily on PURPL App. So go ahead and do it.