It's fair to say that for those at the top of their game in sim racing leagues, or just racing 'open series', the vast majority of their time in the sim is spent practicing. In this case, more often than not, there is more time spent practicing than actually racing.
Even if you are just a 'casual' sim racer, you may still spend a lot of time sharpening your skills in a practice session.
But have you ever considered if you're making the most of your practice? Are you driving around aimlessly, hoping to get faster? And if you do get faster, do you take the time to understand why?
This article aims to help you make the most of your time practicing.
Goals
When you go into a practice session, you need to have a goal for yourself, something you want to achieve by the end of that session - this avoids aimless practice, from which you gain no knowledge.
Your goal should be in your mind during that session - don't forget it.
This goal you set could be many different things:
- Track acclimatisation for a new circuit (or refamiliarizing yourself with a circuit)
- Car acclimatision for a new car
- Trying a new setup
- Working to improve car setup
- Trying to improve your personal best time
- Trying a new driving technique
- Trying to improve at a particular circuit, or with a particular car, etc
- Trying to improve consistency over a stint
- Wet weather practice
These I would say are the most common goals you could have for a practice session.
PicturCredit: Dailysportscar.Com
Track acclimatision for a new circuit (or refamiliarizing yourself with an old one)
This is an extremely common scenario. You have an upcoming race, and you don't know the track or haven't driven it in ages.
During these types of sessions, you want to gain as much knowledge as possible about the track. You may want to set mini goals to allow you to reach your main goal.
Do not focus too much on laptimes in sessions like this. The time will come as you get more familiar with the track.
In this scenario, I would recommend your mini goals to be:
- Learning the basic layout of the circuit
- Learning the braking and turn-in points of the track
- Learning the smaller nuances of the circuit - Are there bumps that could throw you off line? Where? What kerbs can you use? What kerbs do you need to avoid?
- Learning other things you may be able to use as references - buildings or circuit "landmarks" that may mark a particular action
- The pit lane entry and exit - this is often forgotten. You can potentially gain seconds with knowledge of where the pit entry speed limit line is, or what to do on exit.
Obviously, these take time to complete. Depending on the time you have, you may need to prioritise these points to get the most important ones in. Your priorities should be learning the layout, and references for braking and turn-in. Then if you have time remaining, you can maybe focus on the other ones.
My recommended "layout" for a session like this would be:
1. Drive a few 3-5 laps of the place to get a basic feel for the layout, more if necessary. You don't even need to go full speed. By the end of these laps, you should know the direction the circuit follows. Look out for anything you think may be an issue - big kerbs, cambers, etc.
2. Do more laps, trying to find your braking and turn-in points. Start by braking relatively early, and then as you get more confident push the braking further and further until you brake too late and miss the apex. Make sure that you can comfortably brake at that point every lap. This usually takes 15-20 laps, but it could take less. Try to take note of your braking and turn-in points for each corner. During these laps, also test out different kerbs and lines to see which one is best, and most suitable. Take note of these too. Don't worry too much about laptime. This will come the more familiar you get with the circuit and your reference points for braking and turning.
3. At this point, you may wish to go for a good laptime, or to do a long stint, or even work on the car setup. Try to settle into your reference points...you will naturally become quicker and more consistent the more familiar you become with the circuit. Still, try to feel learn new each lap, whether it be a different line or something else.
4. Practice attacking pit entry and exit. If you know where the speed limit line is and can brake later than your opponent towards it, you can gain SECONDS on them.
5. If you have time, maybe write down or log what you've learned, so you can look back on it. (you can keep it in your head too, if you have a good memory).
That is how I would learn a completely new circuit. This works also for refamiliarizing yourself with a track. Just alter the number of laps needed to suit your needs and time.
Car acclimatisation for a new car (or refamiliarizing yourself with a car)
Acclimatising yourself with a new car is a crucial part to being fast in it. You need to have at least a basic understanding of what the car is going to do. You need to have knowledge of your car to drive it at it's limit.
The track you pick is quite important here. I would recommend you two choices:
- A track you are familiar with (so you can spend more time focusing on the car)
- Or a track with a mix of corners (low, medium and high speed), so you can understand it's driving dynamics better.
- If you can meet both of these criteria, even better (but don't worry if not, you can still practice effectively)
Author's note: My personal preference for a new car is Nurburgring GP. All corner types, different kerb and camber amounts, and overall a fun circuit in my opinion.
Now you've got the car and track, first off make sure you know the basics:
- What drivetrain is it? (FWD, RWD, AWD)
- How much power does it have?
- How much does it weigh?
- What type of tyres is it on? (Slicks, semi-slick, road tyres)
- How many gears does it have?
- Does it have ABS, TC or ESP? (Stability control)
- Weight distribution front to rear (X and Y)
- Where in the rev range does it produce peak torque (advanced - don't worry too much if you're a beginner)
Now into the process I would recommend to practice effectively:
1. Drive a few initial "familiarisation" laps, to get a feel for the car. Usually 3-5 laps, at a steady pace. Try to understand the basic tendencies of the car - Understeer, or oversteer, how sensitive is it to throttle application?, brake application, etc.
2. This is an expansion upon the first point. Do more laps, but now you have the basic understanding of the car, you can explore more in-depth it's driving dynamics, such as:
- How sensitive are the brakes to locking up?
- Is the car settled or thrown off by bumps and cambers?
- Can you attack the kerbs?
- How does the car rotate?
- How does the car rotate at different speeds?
- How does the car rotate at different points in the corner?
- How susceptible is the car to wheelspin/ throttle inputs?
- How sharp is the steering?
- Is the car stable throughout a corner?
It should be noted that some of these characteristics can/will be affected by car setup. There will be an article on car setup in the future.
This step can vary in length, depending on how much time you have and how many different things you wish to explore. As with track familiarisation, you make choose to make notes detailing different things, almost to build a car "profile". In low-on-time, priority situations focus on the basic dynamics of the car, such as it's oversteer/understeer tendencies, whether you can attack kerbs, it's braking tendencies, whether you can be aggressive with the throttle, and knowing what throws the car off.
3. This is where you may wish to expand on the second step with more understanding, you may try to improve laptimes or complete a full stint in the car, or you may work on your car setup. Still try to keep understanding the car and learning new things about it.
You may want to note different things about your car and it's behaviour throughout a test stint, so you can review and even compare it to other cars for suitability for an event.
Note things such as:
- Tyre degredation - How much are the tyres wearing, which ones more than others?
- Tyre temperature - How easy/difficult is it to maintain optimal tyre temperature? Are the tyres not able to remain in the window, do they overheat or are they too cold? Is this part of the setup or in your driving style or is it a car characteristic?
- Fuel use - (Especially important for endurance races) How much fuel is the car using? Is it easy to save fuel without losing too much time?
- How the car characteristics change with different tyre life status and fuel loads
- How easy the car is to drive over the stint - Especially for endurance races, you want a car that is able to drive consistently for a long period of time.
Working on setup
Working on car setup is a huge reason why we practice, to perfect the car balance. There are steps you can take to make this process easier.
Your track choice will usually be pre - determined, as you usually set a car up for a certain track anyway.
The best advice I could give you on this subject has little to do with the setup: Make sure you know the circuit first (Point 1 of this article). If you don't, and are not able to be consistent with your driving, you cannot make accurate setup decisions.
You need to make sure you can consistently and quickly drive the circuit. By the time you have reached this point, you will usually have the mental capacity when driving to be able to decide car setup points.
After you've done this, it's usually pretty simple:
1. Go out on circuit with your chosen setup. Do some laps, noticing the finer points of the setup - it's strengths and weaknesses, such as all aspects of suspension, brake bias and ABS setting (where applicable), oversteer and understeer, traction and TC settings (where applicable), aerodynamics (where applicable), stability, gearing and every other thing you can feel.
It is important to understand what feels good at one track might not feel good at another, due to circuit characteristics such as bumps and cambers, which can require complete overhauls in suspension and geometry settings. The same can be said for different temperatures, which I will explain in another article.
2. Take the appropriate actions to fix the issues you've been having and do more test laps, looking for those same things. If they've improved, great, you can keep on improving them or stop, depending on how happy you are, or if you are unhappy, you can try other things.
You can also start doing full stints with setups at this point. Watch for factors like tyre wear and car behaviour on heavy fuel and as fuel drops and tyre grip levels decrease.
3. Repeat until happy
Notes: Make sure to check if your chosen sim progresses time and temperature. If it does, you can usually turn this off if you wish. Changes in temperature can affect lap times and car feel, which may give the impression a one setup is slower than another, which may not be the case.
Another thing to note, especially when developing a race setup, faster isn't always better. Even if a setup is 0.1 or. 02 slower per lap than another setup, if you can drive more consistently on it, it may be better to run that setup - There's no point having a fast setup and gaining 1.2 seconds in 10 laps if you spin everytime and lose 5. This logic can apply to other things such as tyre life too. If you can go 4 extra laps, and cut out a pitstop, and you lose less time than you would pitting, it may be worth using the slightly slower setup.
Trying to improve your personal best laptime
This is probably the most common reason people practice. To get quicker, more competitive lap times. Whether to just climb the leaderboard or be quicker in qualifying, everyone has tried to improve their laptimes before.
The way I would recommend to do this is:
1. Make sure you have an understanding of the circuit (see point 1 of article)
2. Make sure you have an understanding of the car. (see point 2 of article)
3. Go out and drive a few laps, focusing on hitting all your references for braking, turning and accelerating, etc. Just "getting a feel" for the circuit.
4. Review your driving - bring up replays and watch your lines from different angles. Watch where you brake and turn, where you accelerate and ask yourself - how can I do this better? If you know how to, review your telemetry (brake traces, throttle traces, steering angle). I will cover this in a future article.
5. After reviewing where you can improve - noting what you have done right as well as wrong (you don't want to take out some good techniques, even if the overall lap was poor), and making any setup changes, go out and do more laps.
6. Repeat until you are happy with your improvement or run out of time - perfection cannot be reached - that doesn't mean you should stop chasing it.
Trying a new driving technique
We've all done practice sessions like this. We see a new way to do something, and we instantly want to do it - I have many times after learning a new thing (usually from Suellio Almeida - check out his YouTube). But you need to do it in the right way to effectively learn the technique and make the most of it.
Patience is crucial here. Old habits die hard, as they say, and it takes a lot of time to implement new techniques in your driving. One session isn't usually enough.
The way I go about this is:
1. Know the car and track I'm using to learn the technique (see above points). It's important to use a car and track you understand, so you can spend more time focusing on the technique.
Note: It may seem pretty obvious, but make sure your car is suitable for the technique you are hoping to learn. For example, driving a road going car when trying to learn how to work with aerodynamics isn't going to work.
2. Try to drive normally whilst implementing the technique. You will likely be slower initially as you are focusing on learning, but you don't want to be 40 seconds a lap slower.
3. Don't get angry if you are subconsciously falling into old habits. It takes time to get used to doing something differently after doing something another way for so long. If you find yourself driving without the technique you are trying to implement, just restart it again at the next corner and keep going. Or, sometimes it's best to just stop for a break and try again in a moment, maybe after a refresher of the technique.
4. Try to use the technique in every driving session you do. The only way you will truly learn is to keep practicing the technique. If you can and know how, try to review your driving after a session to see if you are using the technique in the right way.
Trying to improve at a particular circuit or with a certain car
This is another pretty common purpose for a practice session. Trying to improve at a track you are always bad at, or a car you just can't get along with.
There are different aspects to improve though, and you need to be clear on what aspect you want to improve in this respect though. To help with this, ask yourself:
- What am I not good at in regards to this circuit? - Is there a lack of pace? Lack of consistency? Struggling to understand the layout?
- What am I not good at in regards to this car? - Am I not quick? Am I not consistent? Am I struggling to drive the car, even if my pace is good?
My process for doing this is:
1. Following the steps in other sections of this article to make sure I am familiar with the circuit and/or car - take the time to learn about them, and understand them. It might be better to start from scratch. This alone could give you time.
2. If you can, analyse your driving and compare it to other, quicker drivers where possible. What are they doing right? - Are they using different lines, braking points, even something like car setup could be the issue.
3. Keep repeating the process of drive and analyse - you may become quicker just with more practice - but that's not much help for future experiences if you don't understand the issue that existed initially.
Trying to improve consistency over a stint
Consistency is often more important than outright pace in a race scenario. If you can set similiar laptimes every lap, you will almost always have the advantage who can't string three laps together without making a big mistake, even if they are a little quicker - they will lose more time with the mistake than they gain by being fast. This isn't to say you need to be slower to be consistent. Understanding the car and track is critical to consistency, rather than outright pace. You can be quick and consistent.
As I just said, understanding is critical. If you can predict to a certain degree what a car is going to do, and have some form of confidence in it, you will be able to repeat an action again and again, as you already know how the car will respond. As a side note to this, ensure your car setup isn't overly aggressive - the reason you aren't consistent may be because the car is unpredictable.
This is the same with track knowledge. If you know where you need to brake, turn and accelerate, you can repeat that action every time - if you're doing the same thing, chances are you will get the same outcome.
Another part of stint driving that is often overlooked is mental fatigue. When driving stints, you are usually driving the car for a long period of time, so it is easy to get distracted or become too caught up in important things.
Don't focus on the laptime itself when trying to be consistent over a stint. Focus on taking each corner one by one. If you've followed my previous advice, you will know what to do at each corner. Don't overtnink it. It's simple. You have the ingredients mixed together, now you just need to put it in the oven, so to speak. You're not doing anything new. You're just repeating what you've likely done a thousand times before.
Just focus on hitting your marks and repeating it. If you make a mistake every so often, don't worry - this is why you are practicing your stint. The more you practice, the less common mistakes become. This is a natural process.
There are many different ways to practice stint driving, with varying lengths, fuel loads, scenarios. Because of this wide range of variation, I do not use a step-by-step program to practice stints. I believe for you it is best to understand everything I have told you and use it in your stint practice, your own way, dependent on the variables.
Wet weather practice
Simulators vary wildly when it comes to wet weather physics and the effect this has on driving. There are a number of things that are transferable to all different simulators though.
First though, a point on wet lines. A wet line is almost always different to the racing line. It usually avoids the racing line as much as possible. This is because tyre rubber is layed onto the racing line when cars drive over it. Rubber becomes super slippery when wet, and therefore grip on the racing line is significantly reduced. I will do an article on wet lines and driving.
Wet lines are rarely well implemented in sim racing - Iracing is currently the only sim with a wet line. Hopefully more will follow in the future because it plays a big part in reality.
But, wet lines or no wet lines, there are basic principles you can follow to effectively improve your wet weather driving in practice sessions:
1. Again, understand the car and track (see above). You need to understand the basic dynamics of both car and track, such as what drivetrain the car is, so you can understand how it will likely react to wet weather.
Your knowledge of the track only applies to layout, as braking distances, acceleration points and turn-in points are different too.
2. Re learn the track (using the above recommended steps from earlier in the article) - you will relearn all your reference points. Note these down if it helps.
3. You can repeat this process for different levels of rain if you wish. Or you can move on to focusing on lap time and potentially changing the car setup (it is almost always different in the wet).
And that's it, now you know how to make the most of your practice time to improve your driving in so many different areas!
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