Cornering Part 1: Lines & Apexes

To start, we’ll cover the basics of corners. A common saying amongst racers is that races are won in the corners. This is especially true when you realize that anyone can drive a car fast down a straightaway. So once we know that, how can we get faster in the corners? 

The first place that every racer starts is by learning different lines through corners. Put simply, you can start on the inside, outside, or the middle of the straight that leads up to the corner.

Where you start on the corner entry then impacts how you can exit the corner. For example, if you start on the inside of the straight, then you will likely end up on the outside of the following straight after the corner, and vice versa. Below is a demonstration of what the ‘oops’ line would look like on a real track.

Obviously, that’s not how we want to drive. We want to set the fastest qualifying time possible. This means there is no interference from other drivers, and each racer is trying to set the optimal lap. The basic answer that most people think of when starting racing is to go through the corner at the highest speed possible. This would look like the Yellow Line above, and in practice, the driver would be partially on the throttle through the full corner. However, this is actually unoptimized for racing. For now, your goal through a corner should be twofold: one, slow down as little as possible during the corner, and two, get back up to top speed as quickly as possible. If we apply this framework to the Yellow Line , we see that they only prioritized the first goal. Yes, they have the least turn angle, so they can carry the highest minimum speed through this corner. However, their exit is slightly precarious. Because they carried so much speed into the corner, if they accelerate more, the rear of the car will go out during the exit. Here’s a video showing that.

So, in order for the racer to maintain this high speed through the corner, they aren’t able to get all the way back on the throttle as early as possible. This means that the Yellow A has a very slow time to get back to top speed. Instead, let’s take a look at a line that optimizes for exit speed and acceleration. Let’s take the Green Line from the photo below. 

This line is definitely faster through the corner, but let’s explain why. First, the line is much straighter after the racer makes his initial turn in. We call this being flatter through the corner. On track, when you have a flatter exit, you are able to be fully on the throttle earlier because the car isn’t turning as much. This means that the car is able to get back up to top speed very quickly. Secondly, the Green Line brakes much later and harder than the Yellow Line. This means that the Green Line is at a lower speed for a much shorter time than the Yellow Line. Below is a video demonstrating the Green Line.

In the bottom left of the video, there is a dash that shows telemetry from the lap, which is throttle, braking, and turn angle. If you examine the throttle usage through the corner, you can see that the racer in the Green Line is able to be fully on the throttle much earlier in the corner. 

To close, this post assumed that the corner had a straight before and after. So what are the takeaways that you can bring to learn other corners? Firstly, prioritize setting yourself up for the next section of the track. If you have a long straight after a corner, choose the line that gives you the best exit. If you have a series of turn, choose a line that allows you to carry speed through the sequence, even if it means compromising what would be the ideal exit some corners. 

That’s all for our first post! Next up, expect to learn more about throttle and braking technique through corners. We hope you enjoyed this first post, and we’ll see you on the sim!