How to overtake
without wrecking it

The sum almost nobody does

Before any technique there's a sum that decides 80% of overtakes: what you gain against what you're risking.

Gaining a place in a 30-minute race is worth a few points and a bit of pride. A contact in that same move can cost you the race, your rival's race and a penalty. Seen that way, the question stops being "can I get in there?" and becomes "can I get in there and come out the other side?".

That second half is what everyone skips. Getting down the inside under braking is easy: just brake later. Coming out of the corner pointing at the next straight, without having locked up and without having run the other car off, is not.

It's set up early, not in the braking zone

A clean overtake is built in three steps, and only the last one happens under braking.

Step 1: the corner before

If you're going to attack into turn 3, the work happens in turn 2. Sacrifice a little entry, prioritise traction on exit and get close on the straight. Arriving in the braking zone one car length back and carrying speed is what makes everything else possible.

Step 2: the air

Behind another car you lose downforce: the front axle grips less and the car pushes. On long straights that works for you, because the slipstream pulls you along. In fast corners it works against you. That's why the tow is for getting there, not for trying to go round the outside of a quick corner.

Step 3: show the nose

Position yourself on the inside before the other driver starts braking, not during. If your rival sees your nose in the inside mirror while still on the throttle, they'll leave room. If it appears once they're already turning, there's nothing they can do even if they want to.

The four places overtakes actually happen

• End of a long straight into a slow corner. The classic. There's room to place the car and the braking zone is long. The textbook inside move works here.
• A slow corner followed by one the other way. The "undercut": you go in tight, lose a bit, but come out lined up for the next one while your rival is on the outside. It's one of the cleanest overtakes there is.
• Exit of a slow corner onto a straight. You don't overtake there: you set up the move for the next braking zone. If your rival gets it wrong once, you have the whole straight to line them up.
• Their mistake. The most common one in amateur racing. Somebody overshoots or puts a wheel on the grass; you should already be close enough to use it. Being close is the technique.

Outside those four cases, attacking is usually a coin flip. In a fast corner, in a narrow section or over high kerbs, the odds of both of you ending up off are high.

How much room you owe the car ahead

The rule used by every serious rulebook, ours included, is easy to say and hard to apply in the heat of the moment:

If there's overlap at the moment of turn-in, both cars are entitled to a car's width.

In practice:

• If you've gone down the inside and you're alongside, they must leave you room — and you must be able to make the corner without running wide. Diving in 20 km/h too fast and taking you both off isn't "having the inside", it's launching a missile.
• If you're on the outside and the other car has taken the inside properly, the corner is theirs. Hanging on around the outside with a wheel in the grass is how races get lost.
• If there's no overlap when the car ahead turns in, the corner is theirs, no argument.

And one rule that prevents more incidents than any other: on lap one, be conservative. Half the retirements in an online race happen in the first thirty seconds, and almost none of those moves would have changed the final result.

Defending without causing the contact

Defending well is just as technical. What works:

• Cover the inside once. One move, made early, then hold your line. That's it.
• Defend with the line, not the wheel. Turning in tighter and coming out covered costs a tenth and makes attacking very hard.
• If they've got the inside, give it up. Leave the room and set up your exit: you often get the place back at the next braking zone because they came in too hot.

What doesn't work: moving twice, closing the door once your rival is already alongside, or braking much earlier than usual to "surprise" them. That last one counts as erratic braking in most rulebooks and gets penalised.

When to back out

There is always a moment when the move is no longer going to work. Recognising it is what separates a driver people trust from one who hands out damage.

Signs it's time to abort: you've locked up, your rival hasn't seen you and is still closing, or you're going to reach the apex at a speed that won't let you turn. In any of those three cases, open the wheel, let them go and reset. You lose a place. You'd have lost the race.

And if contact happens anyway, there's a habit that says a lot about a community: whoever is at fault lifts and gives the place back without being asked. It's what's expected in our races, and it's the difference between racing with people you know and racing in a random public lobby.

If you're new to racing online, start with the procedure for your first race.

Frequently asked