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Feature: Driving rFactor
A Fast Lap at Essington Park
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Page 2
Turn
2L: I stay in 3rd and
I hit the rev-limiter before this turn when trying for a good
lap time. During a race you should probably short-shift to
4th gear to spare the engine a bit. As is the case everywhere
at Essington Park, smooth driving and a gentle squeeze on
the pedals is the way to avoid spins and frustration. One
helpful method for improving your driving is to acknowledge
that every corner has an entry point, an apex point, and an
exit point. Ideally you should be doing almost all of your
braking before arriving at the entry point of the corner,
before you turn in. As you turn in you should only be braking
slightly, or get off the brake entirely.
At the
apex you should be able to gently open the throttle and "feel"
for grip. If the car holds a nice line through the exit of
the turn and doesn't run too wide, you can try increasing
the amount of throttle. If the car starts going too wide on
the exit of the corner you must back off the throttle and
try again a split second later.
Another trick which can help stabilize the car is general
to most 2nd and 3rd gear turns: Use left-foot-braking if you
can to emulate the "heel and toe" technique as you turn in.
This helps you "balance" the car. By alternately
dabbing at the brake (if you need to lose speed and for turning
tighter into the corner) and gently squirting the throttle
(for more speed) and using a wider line, you can perform minute
adjustments to the positioning of the car through the turn.
The term "minute" is to be taken very literally!
Finally it is important to use as much of the road as possible
in order to achieve the highest speeds. Turning always means
a loss of speed. Very similar to flight I should think, where
you lose elevation and speed when turning an airplane.
Be very careful not to ride the curbing too hard in Turn 2
as it might result in the car suddenly snapping into the turn
at a faster rate than you had intended.
Turn
3R: Accelerating out of
Turn 2, applying power nice and smoothly, and hopefully as
early as possible, it is now a matter of taking as much speed
with you as you possibly can down the long straight. Turn
3 is the place where your nerve will be tested. As depicted
below, 6th gear is engaged some distance away from the bridge
crossing the track.
Arriving
under the bridge you can perform what in the trade is known
as a "confidence lift", just going off the throttle for a
split second. I do. It might just be possible to go through
the fast right hander without lifting, but the question is
whether it will help towards a good lap time, or if you will
scrub off too much speed by going into the turn with such
speed that you scrub off speed by pushing over the front tires
during the turn. At any rate you should get back on the throttle
as soon as possible after your "confidence lift" to maintain
as much speed as possible through to Turn 4. One thing I changed
in the set up to help me hold the throttle through this turn
better, was to reduce the differential's power-side some 5%.
This change effectively allows the car to be slightly less
pushy when the throttle is depressed. The set up I used is
available for download at the end of this article.
Turn
4L: As the revs drop, you feather the throttle, change
down to 4th gear, then 3rd, while gently steering the car
from the right hand side of the track to the apex of T4L If
you put the left hand wheels just slightly off the tarmac
and kick-up some dirt, you'll know that you nailed that one
pretty good!
Turn 4L itself is quite tricky, as you are slowing down while
negotiating a left hand kink. You'll have no time to relax
because after a very short section where you finalize your
braking, you position the car for T5R.
When you hit the cones and start braking
here at the end of the long straight, you can't get much more
perfect than that!
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