Brands Hatch

What you'll find

Brands Hatch is built inside a natural valley, and that explains everything about it: there's barely a flat metre on the whole lap. It has two very different configurations — the Indy, short and amphitheatre-bound, and the GP, which heads out into the woods — and in Assetto Corsa EVO the rollercoaster feel is very well captured. It's one of the fastest circuits to fall in love with, because the first corner after the line is already one of the best in the world.

Paddock Hill is blind and downhill: you enter without seeing the exit and the car goes light exactly where you need grip. It's taken on faith with your eyes a long way ahead. Behind it comes the climb to Druids, a slow hairpin where the better braker recovers everything lost up top.

The GP layout opens into the woods after Surtees and drops towards Hawthorn and Westfield with fast, blind corners. It's the part that separates the fast from the very fast: there are no clear references and it all runs on feel.

Sector by sector

How the lap unfolds from start to finish, with the lines and the places where time is genuinely won and lost.

How to set the car up

Brands Hatch wants a car that copes with load changes. Paddock Hill unloads, Pilgrims Drop unloads and Dingle Dell compresses, all in the same lap. Too stiff a setup skips over the compressions and too soft a one bottoms out on the descent.

Downforce goes relatively high because the straights are short and there are several fast, blind corners where grip breeds confidence. Losing a little top speed on Cooper Straight pays if it buys security at Westfield.

On the Indy configuration front-right tyre wear is high because of the constant run of right-handers. On long runs it pays to watch pressures and avoid a setup that only works on new rubber.

What almost everyone gets wrong

1. Looking at Paddock Hill's apex. It's blind and downhill: you have to look where the car will be, not where it is. Look close and you'll correct, and correcting there means losing the corner.
2. Frenar tarde en Druids. You arrive uphill and the temptation is enormous. Overshooting means losing the whole exit and being repassed immediately.
3. Confiarse en Westfield. It's blind and downhill, with less grip than the speed suggests. It's the corner where most people go off on the GP layout.
4. Entrar pasado en Clearways. It's long and it opens. Gaining on entry here ruins the exit, and the exit is worth the whole pit straight.
5. Treating the Indy as an easy circuit. It's extremely short, so traffic is constant and finding someone at a different speed in Paddock Hill is the most normal thing in the world.

From the real circuit to Assetto Corsa EVO

Un valle escaneado

Brands Hatch is a circuit where elevation is everything, and that's where laser scanning makes the difference. The exact fall of Paddock Hill, the compression at the bottom and the climb to Druids are all measured, and they're precisely the places an approximate model would render flat and false.

The surroundings provide the references: the Paddock grandstand, the control tower and the trees in the woods, which are all you have to orient yourself by on the GP layout.

What carries over well

The technique of looking far ahead. Brands Hatch teaches you to lift your eyes, and that's a skill that works the same in a sim and on a real track. It's one of the best circuits for developing an amateur driver.

Also the braking references at Druids and Stirlings, the two heavy stops, which are perfectly marked in both worlds.

What doesn't carry over

The felt gradient. Paddock Hill drops in a way a screen only half conveys: in a real car, the hollow feeling on entry is what makes the corner intimidating. Triple screens or VR get reasonably close.

And the atmosphere. Brands Hatch has the crowd right up against the track, to the point where you can see people's faces from the car. That affects you, and it isn't modelled.

Rodar en Brands Hatch

It's one of the busiest circuits in the UK for enthusiasts: it runs track days throughout the season, with sessions split by level and instructors available. Being short, you rack up a lot of laps in little time, which makes it ideal for learning.

It's less than an hour from central London, which probably makes it the most accessible legendary circuit in Europe for a short visit.

Where it comes from

It began as a dirt motorcycle circuit in the twenties and was surfaced in 1950. The short layout, the Indy, is still used for touring cars and bikes; the longer GP opened in 1960.

It hosted the British Grand Prix alternating with Silverstone until 1986. Today it's the home of the BTCC, and its atmosphere of grandstands right against the track is among the most recognisable in British motorsport.

Visiting the real circuit

Brands Hatch is less than an hour from London and one of the easiest circuits in Europe to visit. It runs track days for private drivers almost every week of the season, with sessions by level, and driving experiences in the circuit's own cars.

For racing, the regular date is the BTCC, the British touring car championship, which fills the natural amphitheatre around Paddock Hill. It's one of the most intimate atmospheres there is: the crowd is a few metres from the track.

Walking access inside the circuit on race days lets you watch Paddock Hill from above, which is probably the best viewing spot in British motorsport. [Confirm calendar and tickets on the official website.]

Frequently asked