^Pretty much what the title says, what do you guys think are the best tracks for practicing cornering?
I would like it to be (a) track)s) with no “completely lying break line” although this isn’t super important considering those would be learned several laps later.
More importantly, I’d like them to be tracks with all (or close to all) possible cornering / turn types (As in, the perfect track would have sharp hairpins, some S’s, some regular 90 degree turns, long 180 degree turns, a "weird* turn, and long straights, and more that don’t come to mine at the moment, but is a completely or near completely flat track (ex. mostly little to no vertical climbs or drops).
A track that comes to mind that is “sort of” what I’m looking for is the “Circuit of the Americas Grand Prix” circuit, though I’m sure there are plenty more that even closer to what I’m looking for.
every track is different, you can’t just learn one track and then say that you are good at all of them
and when you race a lot of the time you can’t even use the racing line anyway, you’re better off learning what the true lines are for each track then just keeping them in mind when you race
However, the reason I asked the question was because I think it’s best for me to practice every kind of the “most common” corners until I master them, and then translate that knowledge to tracks with more difficult corners.
And yes I also know that the race line they give you in game is NOT the optimal race line. I was going to go through rivals mode in each of the mentioned circuits and see how the world record holder handles each corner, as well as racing my own ghosts for about 100 laps per circuit until I’ve perfected (or, I should say “Got good at”) every corner.
I don’t mean to sound cocky by saying “Yes, I know all of this” by the way, because I should have posted my current setup / skill level in the original post.
For any further posts, you can use this information:
I use no assists (I only play A and S class 98% of the time, the other 2% is R class grip cars for now).
The only one I do use is the brake line as a reference only (Not the entire race line, as it’s incredibly inaccurate)
I would consider myself a top 20-30% player, as it’s rather easy for me to get a 1-2% lap time on the leaderboards within the first 3 laps of any circuit.
Mugello is a nice track because of the broad, fast corners, but also the Arrabbiata corners which are uphill and very difficult to get right, especially the second leg. I also like Laguna Seca, Suzuka and Hockenheim, but generally anything with fast corners should help.
Leguna Seca. Just about every type of turn you could ask for. Not a super high speed track and easy to memorize so it’s great for practice. That’s my go to track any time I test a new car or tune.
You got it right with COTA. Also Silverstone full has all the types of corners. I also use Silverstone national especially for slow corner exit speed and brake testing. Short track so easy to compare lap times when tweaking or testing tunes.
Silverstone GP. It has esses, tight/sharp corners, high speed sweepers. The only thing I can think of that it doesn’t have is a “bus stop” style chicane.
Yas Marina full is a great teaching circuit. The complexity of the corners with almost no room for error puts it as my go to circuit with a new car to try. Learning to feather the accelerator out of the corners, knowing your braking zones before the corners and the numerous gear changes with a clutch is a great learning tool that would make all the other tracks look easy.
Lime Rock South Chicane has always been my go to track for tuning/cornering practice. It’s plenty short enough to see results very quickly. The shorter length track the better for seeing improvements. Longer tracks are only going to fool you into a sense of improvement. You gain in one turn and lose in another, so there is no true way of gauging your improvement.
Lime Rock South has all the basic ingredients for testing a car and or your cornering skills. The big sweeping right hander of Turn 1 coming off a heavy braking zone, leading into what looks like a simple set of esses, but they are very tricky to get just right and maximize your exit speed onto the No Name Straight. Hitting the South Chicane just right for perfect entry is also a good test of your braking and cornering skills. Get that turn wrong just by a tiny fraction and your lap or race is basically over because there is no room for error with the tire piles being on either side of the turn.
Catalunya has every type of corner you need. Slow speed hairpin, medium open hairpin, slow chicane, medium chicane, high speed chicane, medium to high speed corners, slow speed corners. Top that off with a lengthy straight to test straight line speed. There’s a reason why F1 team have tested there for decades.
Suzuka also has all of these and esses to top it off.
Depends on what type of corners your looking for. There’s a difference between slow corners and fast corners. One requires good mechanical grip the other requires good aero grip.
From a driving viewpoint, I agree with this one. Catalunya GP has a great variety of turns.
From a building/tuning perspective. I do all my base tuning at Catalunya National, the shorter circuit. Depending on the type of car you’re trying to work on, you could add Lime Rock for a momentum type of handling track. Or, for a fast track that requires some good high-speed handling, you could use Spa.
I see someone mentioned Nordschleife. It is a great challenge but it is too long. Best to start small on a short or club circuit. You can run a lot of laps quickly and learn it much faster than a long track. Run rivals that way you can compare your times to everyone else. Once you get a good ballpark lap time on that track you can compare builds/tunes and different cars. You can then move on to the larger tracks. Only way to learn is practice, practice, practice.
