Watching so many of the rookie F1 drivers struggle at Monaco with looking for the track limits and missing, got to me thinking. How does one find track limits, braking points, turn-in points, etc., especially in a situation where a small miss has severe consequences?
I would say most drivers need to build up to the limit. Start at driving 90% and dial it up 1% at a time until you’re comfortable at each level and eventually you’ll just be flowing at the limit. This is basically how most get up to speed I would imagine, but it’s especially important at Monaco.
Of course you have the pressure and focus of racing at Monaco so that adds an emotional element to it all and maybe makes drivers more anxious and impulsive. But in some situations you need to try and set your emotions aside and try and focus on the job.
F1 teams have the benefits of all of their previous year data and simulators. So a rookie is going to know where the drivers braked, turned in, apexed, and tracked out last year, the gear selection for each corner, and get to practice it for hours in the simulator before ever getting out on the real thing.
To TJ’s point, then on those first laps out they are probably pretty conservative braking early, leaving themselves some space to barriers and gradually turn up the wick as practice laps tick by.
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