What Is Trail Braking And Why Aren't You Doing It?

Trail braking is a technique race drivers employ in order to scrub off speed and corner at the same time, as well as manipulate the handling of their vehicle when it comes to either understeer or oversteer on corner entry.

The key to trail braking is an equal balance between braking at corning inputs, with more steering lock being applied as you bleed off your braking force on corner entry.

Using the traction circle or G-G diagram you may have seen in some of our previous content or the Race Driving Fundamentals course itself, Andre explains the difference between road and track driving when it comes to braking inputs, along with why we want to use the latter.

0:00 - Lesson Goal
0:20 - What Is Trail Braking?
1:00 - Problem: Road G-G Diagram Traction Circle
2:09 - The Solution
2:51 - Brake Pressure Vs Steering Angle
3:18 - Ideal Track G-G Diagram: Traction Circle
3:29 - Ideal Brake Release Practice
4:11 - Other Advantages of Trail Braking
4:42 - Oversteer
4:58 - High Speed Vs Low Speed Corners
5:24 - Moving Target: Requires Testing
5:58 - Lesson Summary
6:42 - Enjoyed This? We Have A Full Course!


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