This Simple Driving Trick Took Me to 2k iRating in One Week

I've been racing on iRacing for nearly 2 years now, primarily racing in the GT3's and other sports car series. For 90% of my time on iRacing, I've been hovering around the 1.5k iRating mark, although, scarily, I dropped down to 0.9k at one point.

However, recently I made one change to my driving that skyrocketed my performance and took me from 1.6k to over 2k for the first time, in just one week. Now, I'm using it to continue my upwards trajectory hoping to reach 3k. If you're in the early stages of your iRacing journey, you'll want to know this too.

The Problem

The main thing that separates the good drivers from the great drivers is braking. Everybody knows this. The best drivers not only get on the brakes later, but they can do it with more feel, more precision, and use the brakes to rotate the car perfectly through each corner in order to get the best exit.

Knowing this, I have been trying to work on my own braking performance within iRacing for a long time. I've got the brake trace up (via RaceLab overlays), I've tried countless configurations of brake pedal springs and elastomers, and I've watched hours of YouTube tutorials to help with my practice on the sim. My goal has been to achieve the perfect brake shape for each corner and then be able to replicate that consistency through each type of corner and on every lap. Although I do feel my brake shapes have improved slightly, it's also come at the price of my driving consistency.

Throughout my lap, so much of my focus would be drawn to the brake trace to ensure I was slowing through each corner correctly that I wouldn't be feeling what the car was actually doing. That caused a multitude of spins because, although it's beneficial to have perfect inputs, cars are not raced by statistics and numbers. They're driven by driver feel and precision. If you're concentrating on hitting certain numbers or inputs, you're not feeling what is happening beneath your feet and in your hands, so you won't be able to accurately replicate it or understand why it's different in various circumstances.

The Trick

Formula 1 fans amongst you will remember that Lando Norris recently revealed he turned off his delta time in qualifying because he believed he was focusing on it too much, which was hampering his performance.

I believe that I have found something similar, which is working for me. I have stopped looking at my brake trace.

I haven't switched it off completely, as I stream and it is a useful overlay for viewers to see, but I have completely stopped looking at it and it has revolutionised my driving. By not focusing on my brake trace and instead focusing on what I can feel in the car through the pedals and the steering wheel, I have become much more consistent and have suffered a lot fewer spins because of this. Interestingly, my brake traces are still good. I still know what I am aiming for, but I'm now feeling it instead of visualising it, so the traces still look good if I review telemetry after the race.

How Can You Apply This to Your Driving?

If your problem is not in your braking technique, don't worry. There's still plenty you can learn from my mistakes.

Let's say you are struggling with getting on the power too early and spinning the car on exit. It's important to understand why you are doing this (and there could be a number of other reasons, so make sure to do more analysis), but one reason could be that you're watching your delta and focused on getting on power hard as early as possible. Why not try turning your delta off and focusing on feeling the car's grip through the throttle pedal? It could be the key to you gaining that extra consistency you need to get your first win or hit an iRating goal.