Learning a
new track

References are everything

A racing driver doesn't brake "when it feels right". They brake when they pass a specific point chosen in advance. That's the whole difference between being consistent and not.

A good reference meets three conditions:

• It's fixed. A board, a post, a change in tarmac colour, the end of a kerb. Never another car.
• You see it in time. If it appears when you're already on top of it, it's useless.
• It's unambiguous. If there are three similar trees, none of the three works.

For each important corner you need three: where you brake, where you turn and where you get back on the throttle. With those, the corner stops being an improvisation.

A trick that speeds the process up a lot: say it out loud as you drive. "Brake at the board, turn at the kerb, throttle when I see the fence." It sounds ridiculous and it works.

Breaking the track into chunks

Nobody memorises a circuit in one go, just as nobody memorises a song by hearing it once from start to finish.

Split the lap into three to five blocks, always cutting at a point that's easy to recognise: the end of a straight, a very distinctive corner, a crest.

Then work block by block:

1. Run block 1 several times in a row, ignoring the rest of the lap.
2. When you can say what's coming before you see it, move to block 2.
3. Link 1 and 2. This step is the important one: joining is what turns pieces into a lap.
4. Carry on until the lap closes.

On a short circuit this takes half an hour. On something like the Nordschleife, weeks, which is why it has its own method.

What order to work in

Not every corner deserves the same attention. The order that returns the most time:

1. Corners onto a long straight. What you gain on exit multiplies down the whole straight. Always start here.
2. Linked corners. Where one sets up the next: getting the first wrong costs you two.
3. Blind corners. Not for time, but for confidence. While you're unsure, you'll lift.
4. Fast corners. You spend a lot of time in them.
5. Isolated slow corners. Last. Very little to gain and a lot to risk.

How many laps it really takes

Fewer than people think, if they're done with intent:

What multiplies that number is lapping without a plan. A hundred laps staring at the clock teach you less than thirty working one specific corner, as explained in the fast lap method.

Making it stick

What you learn fades if you don't consolidate it. Three things that fix it:

• Always finish with a long run. Ten or fifteen minutes at a comfortable pace. That's where the layout moves from your head into your hands.
• Come back the next day. Sleep genuinely consolidates motor memory. Two one-hour sessions on different days beat one two-hour session.
• Drive in traffic. Knowing a track alone isn't the same as knowing it with cars ahead and behind, which is how you'll race it.

And an honest test that you have it: close your eyes and recite the lap. If you can list the corners in order with their references, you know it. If you lose the thread halfway, that's the block that's missing.

Our track guides have a corner-by-corner breakdown of each circuit, which is exactly what this is for.

Frequently asked