We have the same style, though I might be a little harder on initial braking but that’s corner dependent. At Brands I only use full brakes in turn 2, t1 I hit full pressure for a split second and trail a little to the apex. Otherwise the rest of the track I’m very light on the brakes as the corners are about momentum.
IMO our style is actually better for endurance racing
Yes but my typical race pace each lap is 1:23.7, sometimes lower, and that difference between us makes a big difference. Pre race I am running 1:23:0 almost all the time. So I guess the fuel difference etc adds for me 0.7 seconds.
I also brake very heavily at T2. However that is a very obvious thing to do - for one the car is straight, so its not outside of the way I or we drive.
Last night I experimented with full braking at T1 and then easing - the surprising thing was that the car was immediately placed perfectly for the power on around the T1 corner, with a gap to the curbing on the right that is better IMO than being on the curbing. It seemed to me somewhat artificial - like, as if, the game wanted me to brake that way and then placed the car perfectly to power on very quickly with a quite early gear change into 4th leading into T2.
But I am nervous doing that in the race because if its not spot on, then you go too deep and loose a heap of time. Plus I suspect that if one brakes very heavily, that needs to be accompanied with more violent wheel turning. Which is how people seem to be driving around me. Not all but by far the most of them. I did look at an Alien and he was silk smooth .... superb...
I know that if I brake later and harder into T5, I will be faster.
But T6 is my troubled corner ... I love it if I brake softly and swing the tail out backing off and then powering through, which a neutral feel wheel, its fabulous. BUT - I suspect it's faster to go deeper and hit the anchors hard and turn the wheel harder. That's ugly IMO but I think its what the game may be about.
Also the corner that leads onto the main straight - I have more time there. By very hard and late braking, I reckon there's 0.2 or more for me there. But ... if one is closest to the left, the ground there in my Audi seems slippery. And secondly, hitting them hard the weight goes right forward on the car, which likely is a good thing, but the car feels very unsettled. And I don't want to qualify with a technique that I cannot use in the race. So I have avoided that, and I do open up ground at the corner with my "soft" technique, but probably because I am good on the throttle exit and can balance the car better than point and shoot ragged sort of drivers.
It would be great if one could just practice one corner over and over you ... that would help explore my technique. A shame you have to do a lap to get to each tricky spot.
Thanks for your comments and also to Sven. This place is fantastic thanks to some of the help we assist each other with.
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