What am I doing wrong?

Hi,

What am I doing wrong? How can I improve to get better time? I know that I turned in too early at the Vale corner.

 

Your braking could be smoother, while use of downshift like that cause enginebraking and possible lookups.
For example T1, stay in 6th, just brake to shift weight up front, coast for a second and back on throttle. That enginebrake down to 5th is bad.
In general, stay a gear higher instead of shifting down 1 gear too low. Your problem is likely too much speed into corners, while slow exits.

As I always recommend: use the delta app!!!

 

Don't increase steering angle if your car understeer. You are to fast, next lap try to brake a little bit more/earlier and then do it like Tberg wrote

 

Also, don't go to the throttle too soon. That makes the understeer caused by too high entry speed to get even worse. Don't go to the throttle before you are sure you don't need to get off it again, said someone once. Partial throttle can be a two-edged sword. Also apex later, almost every turn.

And yeah, the Z4 doesn't like going much above 8100, but it has a great midrange. Use it wisely.

 

I believe that was Jackie Stewart on Top Gear when he tried to teach race driving to Captain Slow.

 

I've found I need to be cautious at the higher rev range coming out of corners. We're sort of conditioned to think a high revving engine is a good thing but it's not alway good. Coming out of a corner I think it's no good being at the upper end of the revs when your at the apex of a corner, you've nothing left in the gear when it comes to powering out of the corner. Modern cars have so much torque these days that being at half revs at the apex of a corner isn't going to hurt you at all and is going to give you a nice drive out of the corner.

 

You are downshifting to soon, and in some corners probably could do the corner on a higher gear.

On T1 you may prepare better the car for the corner. Lower the speed before entering the turn and increase acceleration at full before hitting the apex so you carry better top speed through the exit.

 

Plenty of good advice have already been said. Often the car reacts better if you turn in slowly and progressively instead of going front straight steering to 90° quickly, especially fast corners like Abbey or Copse. At Luffield you can go longer on the throttle and brake until mid corner since that's a long corner. When you reach your lowest speed too early into that corner you have to baby it all the way true losing several tenths. Like others already said, overall you should brake harder and a bit longer so your entry speed isn't too high and shift down slower in the braking fase. Focus on getting an earlier corner exit on the throttle. Setup wise it looks like your suspension is a bit too soft and unresponsive.

 

It is true that the car looks like resisting to turn in with lots of tire squealing, but it is not necessarily related to soft suspension. I'd rather fiddle first with coasting to get a more gentle turn in and gradually improve on keeping higher speed in corners.

 

Everybody has already been helpful and said all the things I would have said and more, so I'll just play my joke then...


What are you doing wrong?
You're driving a BMW.

 

Absolutely the downshifting thing! I did this for a long time, as well because it gives the car rotation due to the rears being on the edge of traction loss. But it will mess with your lines. You can clearly see how your car often wiggles and then settles as you power out of the turn.
So as others say: use the higher gear, keep the whole car stable and make it turn with brake, accellerator and wheel instead of high-rev-locking of the rears.

 

To much steering lock (looks way to sensitive), basically rubbing your front tires into the ground losing speed, need to be smoother. Slow in fast out. I suggest 900 degrees, looks like you have 450?

 

You're basically overdriving.
Keeping higher gears whenever possible and being more gentle on brakes / steering wheel will help.

 

delete this post

 

Overdriving is the first thing that came to mind after watching this clip.. Indeed !

 

Compare your lap to these. In your video you appear to driving the car very hard. Whats your track temperature ? Tyre wear and damage disabled ?

 

I think I've said this before? My fastest times seem to happen when I'm lot pushing it for all I've got. One word comes to mind when watching these videos, 'smooth'.

 

Sometimes when it feels like you are going slower - you are actually going faster (Jackie Stewart again lol). Earlier braking (dont always need slamming but also smoother earlier braking can make you faster), go for the apex and while doing so feed the throttle lightly/slowly until you feel you have grip enough to go full again. This instead of: slam brakes, coast through apex and then go bananas with throttle. But you have to learn the car and the track which can take a whole bunch of laps. A whole bunch of laps of driving in the new style. To find the angles, the brake points and the grip. Sometimes i find a new angle after many laps and see my delta fly. Getting into a groove that is there but can be hard to find. Especially if changing combos constantly.

There is so much detail in AC that it takes practice to learn the cars and the tracks. And it can take a while, but its a fun journey.

Morning blabber, but hopefully some useful tip (that wasnt already mentioned).

 

* T1 - take more inside curb
* T3 - take a later turn in
* Entry to maggots/beckets combo - take more curb on right on entry
* You really screwed the pooch into Vale - turn in much later and stick to the left then cut across the curb on the right allowing you to get on the power much sooner - you'll loose time on entry but gain much more in the middle and exit of this corner combo.

I didn't think there was too much wrong with your driving style, everyone is an individual and different things work for different people. You probably could do with some setup changes as well - try making the rear of the car a bit stiffer.

 

Monza - medium tires - 1:52:855