Crumbling under pressure

[nhider7]

Does anyone have any stories about how they lost a race purely due to pressure?

I've not had many wins on Sport mode, but the moment I'm in the lead I'm usually driving much more tentatively! I remember at the Lake Magiorre circuit being on track for 3rd or 4th (out of 20) and feeling good, a little low on fuel so I decided to back off and take the last two laps easy. Coming out of the hairpin I completely spun the car and watched everyone go past. That was really gutting!

I've noticed as soon as I pass another driver and have the entire track to run I feel I lose some speed and all of a sudden forget where to turn or what gear to be in. Once I get out in front for a bit I feel I get faster with time, it's just that quick transition from following to leading that throws me off.

 

[IAMDOODLEBUG]

Love - chasing down the guy in front, I get in the zone and become very consistent!

Don't mind - maintaining a gap in front

Hate - the guy behind reeling me in, I begin to overdrive and generally lose all coordination in my feet, usually resulting in a pathetic performance

 

[Love2Wheels]

I usually start crumbling under pressure as soon as I see ORMA_anyofthem in the same race as me. The I proceed to set a terrible qualifying time and and equally bad race performance

 

[inri]

its rare that my pulse rises, i basically race on autopilot. figuratively speaking ... i dont use the actual pause menu auto pilot since i can usually go a few tenths faster if i actually drive the car myself

 

[Silver_Wolf]

I am not good when it comes to pressure in races but so far I am better than I thought.

I don't do much online racing due to the various issues it presents and keep seeing my DR/SR ratings go down but I have had a
couple of good online races where I've held the pressure well.

The race in question was in Season 14 of the Test Online races at Brands Hatch.

I surprised myself by qualifying 2nd (I think - my memory forgets sometimes) and I managed to get up into 1st place after the
3rd corner, I then led for a few laps and a Ford Mustang managed to overtake me and I held his rear end until the pit stop, he
came out ahead (about 6 seconds) but I'm not sure if he had not taken tires because I overtook him easily and went back
into 1st.

Held it until the end when an Audi TT managed to slip through into 1st place.

Generally if I make a mistake though I let everyone coast through because I think it's easier to do that than worry about knocking
someone else off track which I've had quite a few instances of though not intentional.

 

[CliveH]

When I read David Coulthards autobiography I remember a chapter talking about him as a kid learning to race Karts. He said he saw loads of kids spinning off because they were too busy watching who was behind them. He learnt from this and just ignored who was behind him and concentrated on being as quick as possible. I've tried to learn from this and not spend too much time look at the gap to the driver etc.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

When I read David Coulthards autobiography I remember a chapter talking about him as a kid learning to race Karts. He said he saw loads of kids spinning off because they were too busy watching who was behind them. He learnt from this and just ignored who was behind him and concentrated on being as quick as possible. I've tried to learn from this and not spend too much time look at the gap to the driver etc.

Usually this holds true but sometimes people will use you as a relative brake indicator and will just try to brake late and inside with the dive bomb, using your car as a barrier to stay on the track. Until Poly figures out how to penalize this behavior you have to stay mindful of people positioning themselves in this way. Then you adjust by taking the defensive inside line... or the late apex turn to dodge their excessive exit from the turn.

If you can see someone racing reactively to your lead position then you can also exploit them and lead them into bad track placement as they enter a turn and make them screw up their line.