Learning Circuits, Go Big Early

Interested to know what others think but (I think) I've found that learning long tracks like Trento and the Nords has helped me learn shorter tracks more quickly.

Both tracks took me a long time to learn where all the turns are and how to take them quickly, but since doing that I've found that learning a normal circuit like Spa has been much easier than it was when I first started. (Bit like running with heavy boots, then taking them off, though that's probably not recommended as an actual training technique).

I can learn a new, regular-length track and get a reasonable time in an hour or two now.

However, retaining that information in my memory requires some regular practise so I don't forget the track (easily learned, easily forgotten).

Interested to hear about other approaches to learning circuits, and I'm wondering how pro drivers do it, and if they can learn a new track faster than an amateur and remember it for longer (our brains change if we practise a skill enough, look up neuroplasticity and how it applies to musicians or London cabbies and 'the knowledge'.)

 

Of course; your brain learns by patterns. If you simplify the task after reapeated (demanding) practice, you'll find it easier to apply the pattern on less demanding tasks.
Works like muscle-memory in a way. That's the beauty of practice! Nice of you to share your experience! Happy drivin!

 

Try this tool :

patrick-brunner.net/codriver

 

It all comes down to practice, practice, practice really but this may be useful.

 

There are Drivers and then there are Racers. You meet one type most of the time, you meet the others less frequently. The difference is practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, and then some more practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. Good luck becoming a racer not a driver.

 

Just average driver myself, but in the years I found that the shortest way for me to learn a new track is starting very slow and careful, forcing myself to go slow when I would like to push. After 3 or 4 slow laps the track starts looking familiar.
The big plus in this technique is that you can find references in a shorter time and adjust them as your speed increases AND without mistakes you are way faster finding a correct uninterrupted flow and connecting all of the parts together.
The longest way I know is to push right after leaving the pits. It will lead me to make frequent mistakes which interrupt the lap, and this makes more difficult to find a good line.
As for Trento Bondone, I find it a very very difficult track and wouldn't suggest it to someone wanting to start learning new tracks, but for an already experienced driver I think it's a great learning tool (can be so frustrating! many turns seem all the same the first times, easy to loose awareness of where you are, etc). Nordschleife on the other hand seems more affordable for a beginner (taken with the due respect) and its beauty is rewarding since the very first moments. Not sure if learning long tracks helps me at learning shorter ones faster: I think my way of learning is by chunks (a series of 3-4 turns) and then connect them, so in the end I don't feel a big difference between shorter and longer tracks.

 

I just push from the get-go (in simracing, just balls out, in real life, keep a little buffer because wallet). Much faster than starting slow. Watching videos and what not beforehand until you can tell where the corners go and more or less their shape and lines in your head is very important as well.

For example, a 2:30 track in real life. It took me two laps to get about 2s off the day's PB, and less than 7 laps to get within 1s, and that's mostly due to having traffic on several laps (+/-1s to account for the track slowing down in PM due to heat, despite better driving).

Meanwhile, other guys who didn't do their homework saw 8s deltas between the start of the day and the end...

 

I think possibly longer tracks just taught you to be more efficient with your learning. My method is the same in sims as learning real tracks, start out at a comfortable pace and build speed. Every lap you do you learn something and crashing teaches very little unless your wanting to learn how best to crash. Any new car on a track you already know still takes a few laps to adjust reference points.

My early pace may just knock 2-4 seconds off the end pace in a 1-30 to 2 min lap so its not like I am cruising around just learning to get apexes and maximise exits, then once I am pretty much on with these will find where to push a bit harder. In sims there is always the tendency to push a bit more then you would in a real car as the reset button is cheap and painless. You can still overdrive and make adjustments so pushing a bit too hard doesnt mean your going to crash, if you are properly crashing regularly your doing something fairly wrong I think and mostly wasting your time.

 

I'm with William, I just go.
Going slow is wasting time to learn it going fast, but of cause you need to know your tools, whether you´re simracing or rl driving. That's behavior of the car, brakedistance etc.
Everytime I have a friend trying my rig, they fly off track because they think they have plenty of time to brake or don't know how hard they can brake. Though, it has become easier with VR because of the depth perception and size.

 

I understand that method but Im sure your still finding a few seconds from your initial laps to your faster pace, someone with a good understanding of feel and balance going slow is still fast for many others. Im not going around at safety car speeds just working my way up to the limits on entry. Exits no point not to go as hard as possible any lap but what I see often is people join a server go full throttle into t1 slam the brakes spin, escape to pits then repeat. They do this 3 or 4 times then complain about the server and leave without ever even getting around a lap.

I think that's completely wasting time, good drivers can go fairly hard but no point trying to push the absolute limits if you don't even know where the next corner goes. Those first laps will be a fair way off pace even if you try to go as fast as you can so going off track and escaping back to pits in the first few laps seems like a waste to me.

 

Always finding a 10th here and there, that's where the fun starts
I guess people are also different, in perception and technical level, so what works for some is absolutely horrible for others.

 

drive to what I can see > drive to what I know > drive

 

After probably 1000s of hotlaps I still know the first half of the Nordschleife much better than the second... wonder why that is

 

I can close my eyes, and visualise the Nordschleife Tourist track from start to finish.

 

It's proven, all those crashes affect memory

 

Same, I know I can improve some of the later corners. I tend to be more conservative with my driving as I don't want to waste the 5 minutes I spent driving to get there when hotlapping :-/

 

Yes, I tend to take it relatively easy at the Nordschleife Tourist track, particularly as I only use it to enjoy the handling of the various cars, rather than trying to post impressive hot lap times. I have no interest at all in the full Nordschleife track (either for racing or Sunday drives).

 

I don't think exceptionally long tracks are the best way to learn. I really appreciated the "challenges" in GT5 in which they split the track into four sections and then had time awards for each section. If you have to initiate your run from the start line it is inevitable that you will learn the start of the track better than the back of the trap because you won't always complete all your runs or as iannixenakis just said you drive more conservative towards the end of the lap. I wished AC allowed you to initiate a run later in a lap on the very long tracks.

 

I think after awhile of racing different tracks your brain will have developed methods of learning and understanding that speeds up the process a lot. I've found that everything is much easier for me now, I can learn the basic layout of a track in a handful of laps and be fairly fast within an hour. Sometimes I find that if I take a break from a track and come back to it I'm somehow faster. I think you need to give your brain time to process the information it's taken in so doing lap after lap isn't helping if your not giving your brain time to process all that information into something useful.

Long seasons (an hour or so) followed by a break I find is the best for me.

I think professionals have systems for breaking down tracks, they start with the longest straight and label the corner that leads onto it as the most important and work back from there. It's a scientific process where they combine driver experience with car data to extract the ultimate pace.

 

There's a saying, from Russia I think, that goes something like: In the summer we learn to skate, in the winter we learn to swim.