5 Reasons You Need to Trail Brake in Sim Racing

If you're not trail braking when sim racing, you won't be lapping at your ultimate pace.

Scott Mansell, racing coach from Driver61 and the new Driver61 Sim Racing channel explains what trail braking is, why it's important and how you can use it to get faster on your racing simulator.

The Driver61 Sim Racing channel is here to help you learn driving techniques, win races and ultimately enable sim drivers to fulfill their potential.

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[martindammable]

I just recently discovered a huge mistake I had been doing since day one. I don't know how I missed it, but I would be on the gas going into the corner, meaning I was braking too early and being too eager to get out of the corner. Trail braking into the corner and getting a better corner exit improved my lap time at Monza by 1.5 seconds.

[BenFreedmanRacing]

This is great, turn 1 at Suzuka would be a great example for this as well

[MJTbreww]

Oh wow the 2nd video is mine! It was a scrappy lap in certain parts.

The GT-R GT3 to me struggled with turn in, a lot. This only emphasised the importance of trail breaking

[rainvillecreative]

I found that trail braking extra to induce a bit of oversteer right into an acute apex (such as T1 at Monza) can help. Focusing on this will also tell you if you're braking too early, because you'll find yourself lifting off the brakes before turning in.

[unotoli]

Interesting topic, but please:
1) compare wrong / right techniques using same corner
2) use telemetry or vivid tools like LiveForSpeed's forces, works much better than words

[MahTeddy]

You don't need to hear what you already know, but you're a pro's pro Scott, and you've helped me tremendously just by your ability to explain these concepts simply and in a logical manner. Thank you!

[troypachal]

Could I encourage to think the term, “loading” and “unloading”? This way we consider how we are loading or unloading the front tires. “Load” helps me to remember that the pedals shift the weight load around the corners (or ends) of the chassis.

[ArnoldVette]

Watching this video made me realize how I massively underestimated the importance of trail braking, despite me thinking I perfected it. Thank you for this fantastic videos!

[shaneseiber]

You're ability to explain breaking is top notch, ty

[alec]

This man is very good at explaining his point to make it easy to understand. I keep learning things from this channel.

[MrPeterhemm]

Thank you! This is the best explanation of why you trail brake I’ve seen so far.

[Theoloop]

Brands hatch GP forced me to learn trail breaking, great track to practice in because weight management is key for a quick lap there, especially in GT cars.

[GODENGTOOLS]

This is the main technique to learn. I'm having a hard time doing this as you can see in my video in Mount Panorama, I'm turning 2: 24: 000, the best time I got was 2: 22: 500 from Porsche GT4

[nicholasmills]

Tried your techniques. Simply put for me is feeling the balance through the corner.

Practice this technique now. The control of my car is significantly better after one session of practice. The car I drive on sim is a lot better balanced.

[FG-vpid]

Thanks! Im kind of new to gt racing, i've raced plenty of open wheel cars in sims and didnt know how to brake when in a gt car.

[drkelu]

Hi Scott, love the videos. I am new to sim racing and really getting into it. I have just started using paddle shifters and i found it makes car control much easier, but I am struggling to downshift effectively, I would love to see a video on how to do that effectively in terms of timing.

[Silkysime]

I'm new to sim racing and this was incredible information. Going to take to the track now to practice!

[igorlopes]

Using a front soft spring helps a lot. It can be obvious but some people could have problems about it

[CensoredFreedom]

Thanks for the education. I'm a beginner on road courses on the sim and am having trouble getting the car to handle.
Thanks for your vids.

[calvn]

Would lowkey be really cool to have my driving judged by someone like you but I’d probably just get roasted. 😂 I’ve hit a point where my times have plateaued or just gotten slower. Looking forward to more vids and hopefully I can start improving my times again.