Mazepin's Fast Line

So how could Mazepin ifhe were a better driverdefend his position. A better defensive line isone that's just close enoughto the inside edge of the trackthat an opponent won't fit,but far enough outside to maintainas much speed as possible. Again, it's a slower linethan ideal racing line,but it's one way that championsstay in front and win races.

These are two simple examplesof passing and defendinglines, which like the geometric linedon't include lots ofdetails that lead to success. There are many other strategies too,and whether any one will work or not,will depend on a lot of factors,differences in power andgrip, Formula One's DRS,whether the corner issimple or part of a series,even how much race is left andwhat position each car is incan change the winning strategy.

But all those strategiesrequire knowing howand when to deviate from the racing lineand all of them only work when the driversare competent insane, becauseboth passing and defendingdepends on the other drivernot running into you. Race craft it also includesknowing that stayingon the fastest line ordefending your position,doesn't matter if it end your race.

Finally, of course, knowingall the ins and outsof track conditions and howto pass don't mean anythingif a driver doesn't understand their car. Formula One cars have somepretty amazing abilities,which means the winningline can be quite differentfrom the geometric racing line.

F1 cars can accelerate fromzero to 300 kilometers per hourin under 10 seconds. They can also generatefive GS under braking,but they're limited to someof the fastest wearing tireson the planet. Designed to degradequickly, they can becomea full two seconds slowerafter just five laps.

So a winning strategy hasto include tire management. Limiting wear to maintainconsistently fast timesfor 20, 30, 50, or more laps,depending on pitch strategyeven if no single line isthe fastest lap possible. That requires using aline with a slower entry,sharper turn-in and later apex.

But why would you wanna do that? Well, because F1 tireswear more under turningthan braking or accelerating,that's because when a tire is turning,it's sliding sideways just alittle bit at the microscopiclevel. The rough roadsurface acts like sandpaper,and it's constantly removinga small amount of rubberfrom the slipping tire.

This type of wear doesn't happenunder ordinary braking or accelerating. So one way to make tires last is to spendas little time as possible turning. In an F1 car, you can do thatby relying on the massivebraking force to over slowthe car at corner entry,then turn turning harderbut at a lower speedto spend less overall timewith the tire slipping.

And rely on the massiveacceleration to get back up to speedat corner exit and beyond. This line has some otheradvantages in a Formula One carand Hamilton is an expert attaking such a squared off linebecause he's breakingfurther into the corner,he can apply brakes later on the straight,that makes this a good linefor out breaking an opponentand passing.

Also becausehe's breaking later,he spending longer on thepower in reaching higher speedson the straights. That's also a result of thesharp return in late apex. The cars pointed straightearlier in the corner. So full throttleacceleration happens earlieron the straights leadingto even higher speeds.

Hamilton he's a seven time world championbecause of his race craft. And a huge part of thatis the line he chooses. It saves tires helps withpassing and produces higherstraight-line speeds, and that leadsto more consistent, faster laps.

The end result is higheraverage lap times for longerthan if he followed the linehe might use in qualifyingto produce the fastest single lap time. Formula One drivers andespecially championslike Mr. Hamilton, understandhow varying conditions,their opponents and the specialcharacteristics of an F1 carmean that they can throwout the racing 101 textbook.

The racing line will only get you so far,in an F1, it definitelywon't get you on the podium. Here's me on the podium. Oh yeah the crowd's going wild. (people cheering) Yeah, hmm, yeah I put abig wreath around neck,it's a wreath. Thank you guys so much forwatching this episode of B2B.

Follow us here on Donut at Donut Media. Follow me on Instagram at Jeremiah Burton. If you wanna see some extracontent from this episode,follow me on TikTok, my name is suckmytruck. They didn't have uncle Jerry,and that's why I went it with. Till next week, bye for now.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- On the first day of racing school,you'll learn that the racingline is the fastest wayaround the track.Well guess what?Just like a bunch of otherstuff you learn in school.That's total (beep).It's like Newtonianphysics all over again.Thanks for messing that one upEinstein. So open your eyes.They don't want you to knowthat in the real world,winning isn't about followingsome predetermined line.The best drivers inthe world lead the packbecause they don't follow the racing line.And today we're gonna figureout how champions drive.So if you ever wanna be achampion, and I think you do,you better stick around,let's go. (laughing)(upbeat music)Thank you to Off The Recordfor sponsoring today's video.Listen up like my colleague, best lawyer,friend and occasional bigspoon told you yesterday,coppers are going to be out infull force this 4th of July.They'll be keeping an eye out for you.Yeah I'm talking about you and Nathaniel.They got a fast, easy,technologically centric wayto fight your trafficticket and save you money.They even offer a full refund.If they're not able to either reduceor keep that ticket off your record.So enjoy your holiday andregister now use code donut.It's a 10% off your first ticketat offtherecord.com/donut.A successful race car driverhas to develop race craft.That's the art and science of winning.And it requires knowingthe physics, strategy,and even psychology of racing.But the most basic partof that understandingis the geometry of racing,because that's how you beginto understand the racing line.It's day one in developingyour own race craft.Lewis Hamilton he's on day 10,000.So you need to pay attentionif you want to become a champ.So what is the geometric racing line?Well, that's the theoreticallyfastest way round the corner.And it's all about gripovercoming inertia.To understand why considera car going aroundand around in a circle.The faster the car goes, thelarger that circle becomes.That's because the car'sinertia overcomes its gripand it runs wide from its original path.If the car slows down, itsgrip can overcome that inertiaand it can make tighter circles.As the car speeds up, it'sinertia overcomes its grip,and it can't stay on that circle.The faster this car goes,the larger the circle pathhas to be to prevent a loss of gripand the car spinning off the path.Car cornering on a racetrackis following a circle.For every corner there are multiple pathsor lines a driver could choose.Now I could follow the insideline, but that would be slowbecause that circle has a short radius.Or I could follow the outsideline, and that would be fasterbecause the circle has a longer radius.But there's a path withan even longer radius,and that's the geometric racing line.The geometric linefollows an out in out pathrelative to the track.The driver enters thecorner at the turning point,steering towards the apexand an unwinding the steeringto move back towards track outpoint.Geometrically this createsthe gentlest possible arc.It follows the largest circleand should be the fastest waythrough any corner.That's because the driver isturning as little as possibleusing the least amount of grip necessaryto overcome the car's inertiaand therefore able tomaintain the highest speed.The maximum corneringvelocity for a given circleis the square root ofthe radius of the circletimes the force of gravity andthe coefficient of friction,or more simply grip.So if the radius of the circle increases,so does the max velocity,if your velocity exceeds thatmaximum, then your circlehas to increase or youexceed the available grip.But if you increase grip, youcan increase the max speedfor the same radius.Or I guess if you could justincrease the force of gravity,you'd have maximum corner speed,but that's just crazy or is it?The geometric racing lineshould be the fastest wayaround the corner, but driving that linedoesn't always win races,especially in Formula One.So why?Well, one reason is becausethe geometric racing lineis what a physicistsmight call a toy model.That's a mathematical model,which only illustratesthe most basic parts of a complex system.Because it makes assumptionsand omits details,it doesn't accuratelycapture what's happeningin the real world.So what sort of assumptions are made here?Well, for one, the cornersradius is assumed to be constant.On a Formula One track, mostcorners aren't simple arcs.They come in all shapes and sizes.You know all corners are beautiful to me.Some with increasing radii,some with decreasing radii,some would do both.Corners also come in groups or complexesand the geometric linethrough one might put a driveronto a slower line fora subsequent corner.Another assumption is thatthe coefficient of frictionremains the same.In a real world grip is a resultof tires and a track surface.And both of those thingschange when you're scootingalong the racetrack.As the surface changes intemperature or in texture,your grip changes.As the tires angle changesbased on steering input,your grip changes.The amount of grip is constantly changing,and the simple model of the geometric linedoesn't account for this.There are also important andsomewhat obvious details beingleft out of the tour modellike, oh, I don't know,cars have four tires and theamount of grip usually isn'tidentical between them.One reason why the driftnugget is so hard to control isbecause the front tires havemore grip than the rear.Differences in grip like this are oftenbecause of the distributionof a car's weight.Another fact omitted from the model.As the car breaks, turns and acceleratesits weight transfers sideto side and back front.When the way of the carloads up certain tires,they gain grip and others lose it.F1 cars also producedliterally tons of downforce,which isn't evenlyspread across the tires.Downforce effectivelyincreases weight and gripas speed increases and that'snot in the toy model either.So the racing line mightbe the fastest on paper,but the actual line isn'tbased on doing complex math.It's based on three things,the ever changing trackconditions, your opponents,and the specific details thatmake Formula One car special.In other words, if you're Lewis Hamilton,you drive based on race craft,and that tells you how todeviate from the racing lineto make a race winning line.Think about that circle again.The maximum speed for any turnsradius is determined by thecoefficient of friction andthat's based on the tiresand the surface.So if tires remain the same,the top speed for a hundredmeter circle will be differenton a tarmac versus icebecause the ice has a lowercoefficient of friction.Knowing what the maximumgrip is for your tireson that surface is ahuge part of race craft.But that's still missinga ton of important detailsthat separate a simple mathematical modelfrom a real F1 racetrack.Actual racetracks are bumpy.They have pavement seams and curvesthat can launch a car offthe road surface entirely.An airborne tire hasa friction coefficientrelative to the track of zero.Zero friction means zero grip.Tracks also get hotter and grippieras the temperature increasesthroughout the day.But as the sun angle moves,shaded section of the tarmac can cool off.The breaking zone for acorner could be grippywhile the exit is slipperybecause of the temperature differences.Also the parts of the trackthat I've seen a lot of traffic,they get rubbered inas the day progresses.Those areas get grippier becausethe coefficient of frictionbetween your tires and therubber left by other carsis higher than betweenthe tires and the tarmac.And in Formula One,especially less used areas,get more slippery as marbles.Those are loose chunks of rubberfrom F1 fast wearing tirescollect at the edge of the track surface.Turning some ideal fast lapmight be good for qualifying,but it won't when you race this.For that, you got to know how to passand how to keep your opponents behind you.If you guessed, get off the racing line,give yourself freakinghigh five and give mea like and subscribethat really helps me out,and I appreciate it.Understanding other cars and their driversis a huge part of race craft.And champions know that whenyou've got opponents nearby,you can't stick to the racing line.So suppose you're Hamilton,you're following Mazepinand he's managing to stay offthe racing line for a change.So should Hamilton stay on the line too?Well, not if he wants to win.To pass he'll have to take a slower line,but one that puts him in front.Slow to go fast.Before every turnthere's a breaking point,which is where you haveto start slowing downif you wanna take the ideal line.That's what Mazepin is going to do.But Hamilton is gonnaoutbreak his opponentovershooting the normal breaking point.And instead of following theoutside edge of the track,he's going to move to theinside and pass while breaking.He'll be turning after the turning pointat a much sharper anglethan the ideal line.Now this passing lineis actually much slowerthan the ideal racing line,but Hamilton he'll end upin front blocking the exitand wrecking what should havebeen Mazepin's fast line.So how could Mazepin ifhe were a better driverdefend his position.A better defensive line isone that's just close enoughto the inside edge of the trackthat an opponent won't fit,but far enough outside to maintainas much speed as possible.Again, it's a slower linethan ideal racing line,but it's one way that championsstay in front and win races.These are two simple examplesof passing and defendinglines, which like the geometric linedon't include lots ofdetails that lead to success.There are many other strategies too,and whether any one will work or not,will depend on a lot of factors,differences in power andgrip, Formula One's DRS,whether the corner issimple or part of a series,even how much race is left andwhat position each car is incan change the winning strategy.But all those strategiesrequire knowing howand when to deviate from the racing lineand all of them only work when the driversare competent insane, becauseboth passing and defendingdepends on the other drivernot running into you.Race craft it also includesknowing that stayingon the fastest line ordefending your position,doesn't matter if it end your race.Finally, of course, knowingall the ins and outsof track conditions and howto pass don't mean anythingif a driver doesn't understand their car.Formula One cars have somepretty amazing abilities,which means the winningline can be quite differentfrom the geometric racing line.F1 cars can accelerate fromzero to 300 kilometers per hourin under 10 seconds.They can also generatefive GS under braking,but they're limited to someof the fastest wearing tireson the planet.Designed to degradequickly, they can becomea full two seconds slowerafter just five laps.So a winning strategy hasto include tire management.Limiting wear to maintainconsistently fast timesfor 20, 30, 50, or more laps,depending on pitch strategyeven if no single line isthe fastest lap possible.That requires using aline with a slower entry,sharper turn-in and later apex.But why would you wanna do that?Well, because F1 tireswear more under turningthan braking or accelerating,that's because when a tire is turning,it's sliding sideways just alittle bit at the microscopiclevel, the rough roadsurface acts like sandpaper,and it's constantly removinga small amount of rubberfrom the slipping tire.This type of wear doesn't happenunder ordinary braking or accelerating.So one way to make tires last is to spendas little time as possible turning.In an F1 car, you can do thatby relying on the massivebraking force to over slowthe car at corner entry,then turn turning harderbut at a lower speedto spend less overall timewith the tire slipping,and rely on the massiveacceleration to get back up to speedat corner exit and beyond.This line has some otheradvantages in a Formula One carand Hamilton is an expert attaking such a squared off linebecause he's breakingfurther into the corner,he can apply brakes later on the straight,that makes this a good linefor out breaking an opponentand passing, also becausehe's breaking later,he spending longer on thepower in reaching higher speedson the straights.That's also a result of thesharp return in late apex.The cars pointed straightearlier in the corner.So full throttleacceleration happens earlieron the straights leadingto even higher speeds.Hamilton he's a seven time world championbecause of his race craft.And a huge part of thatis the line he chooses.It saves tires helps withpassing and produces higherstraight-line speeds, and that leadsto more consistent, faster laps.The end result is higheraverage lap times for longerthan if he followed the linehe might use in qualifyingto produce the fastest single lap time.Formula One drivers andespecially championslike Mr. Hamilton, understandhow varying conditions,their opponents and the specialcharacteristics of an F1 carmean that they can throwout the racing 101 textbook.The racing line will only get you so far,in an F1, it definitelywon't get you on the podium.Here's me on the podium.Oh yeah the crowd's going wild.(people cheering)Yeah, hmm, yeah I put abig wreath around neck,it's a wreath.Thank you guys so much forwatching this episode of B2B.Follow us here on Donut at Donut Media.Follow me on Instagram at Jeremiah Burton.If you wanna see some extracontent from this episode,follow me on TikTok,my name is suckmytruck.They didn't have uncle Jerry,and that's why I went it with.Till next week, bye for now.