This Video Will Transform Your Driving Technique

Summary

In this enlightening video, Suellio Almeida, a successful real-life driver who started his journey through sim racing, shares invaluable tips to enhance driving techniques both in simulations and real-life racing. Starting with no prior carding experience, Almeida has become a championship leader and credits his success to sim racing. The video delves into the essential steps to develop muscle memory and technical skills in simulators like iRacing, which significantly translate to real-life racing proficiency. With practical examples and in-depth analysis, Almeida debunks common myths and provides a comprehensive guide to mastering car handling, braking, and the balance between lateral and longitudinal forces, transforming the viewer's perspective on using simulators for racing improvement.

Highlights

• Suellio Almeida started as a latecomer in sim racing without carding experience and became a championship leader. 🏆
• Focus on developing technique and muscle memory rather than memorizing track features. 🎮
• Sim racing tools like iRacing can effectively enhance real-life racing skills. 🔄
• The importance of adaptive driving techniques according to track conditions is emphasized. 🛣️
• Proper gear setup enhances performance, but essentials can still be covered on a budget. 💸

Key Takeaways

• Sim racing is a powerful tool for developing real-life driving skills. 🚗
• It’s not about memorizing tracks; it’s about refining your technique and muscle memory. 🏋️‍♂️
• Join a team and a league to accelerate learning and stay disciplined. 📈
• Adapt your driving to real-time track conditions instead of relying on fixed braking points. 📊
• Proper equipment setup is crucial but don't overspend on unnecessary gear; focus on stability and comfort. ⚙️

Overview

Suellio Almeida opens up about his unexpected journey from a sim racer to a real-life championship leader, emphasizing the transformative power of simulation racing. Without a background in carding, he successfully translated his skills from virtual to real tracks, showcasing the underestimated potential of simulation tools like iRacing for practical driving skill development.

The video is a masterclass in driving technique, where Almeida dismantles the outdated notion that effective sim racing is merely about memorizing tracks and timings. Instead, he advocates for a deeper understanding and development of one's driving instincts and techniques, encouraging drivers to embrace the variables of each race rather than sticking to static methods.

Almeida stresses the importance of community and collaboration in sim racing, citing joining teams and leagues as catalyst for personal improvement. He also discusses equipment essentials and the real value of various tech options available to sim racers, advising viewers to prioritize function and comfort over expensive gear. His holistic view on driving improvement through sim racing is both enlightening and empowering for aspiring racers.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Sim Racing Transformation The chapter 'Introduction to Sim Racing Transformation' discusses the journey of a sim racer who began their career five years ago without prior experience, familial financial support, or a background in karting. Now a leading figure in the Radical North America Cup, the racer attributes their success in real-life motorsports to the skills and training obtained through sim racing. As sim racing gains legitimacy and popularity, even skeptics in the racing community acknowledge its effectiveness as a training tool. The author reflects on their dedication, documenting over 10,000 hours of practice, and underscores the growing bridge between virtual and real-world racing experiences.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Importance of Technique Over Memorization This chapter emphasizes the significance of mastering driving techniques over merely memorizing tracks or car setups, particularly in the realm of both sim racing and real-world racing. The author advocates for focusing on driving skills in the most realistic racing simulators, specifically highlighting iRacing. Based on personal experience, the author suggests that the driving techniques honed in iRacing can greatly enhance real-life racing abilities. The chapter underscores the broader applicability of these techniques across various racing simulators, aiming to improve overall driving proficiency.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Developing Muscle Memory for Driving The chapter discusses the common misconception that practicing on a simulator right before a real-life driving event is the best way to prepare. It emphasizes that memorizing braking points and trying to replicate the exact conditions of a real event on a simulator is not the most effective method for developing driving skills. Instead, the focus should be on using simulators as a tool for overall improvement in driving techniques. The chapter is sponsored by the motor racing checklist and Logitech G, and references advanced online courses for improving driving skills.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Understanding Track Conditions and Adaptation This chapter discusses the importance of developing personal techniques and muscular memory for racing, which can be applied across various track conditions. It features a personal anecdote about the author missing several practice sessions and qualifying due to car issues, yet managing to start a race from the last position and finishing on the podium. This success is attributed not to simulator practice but to the adaptability and skills honed over time.
• 02:00 - 03:30: Four Stages of Core Driving Technique The chapter discusses the importance of core driving techniques and the process of refining these skills over time. The speaker reflects on their experience of racing without prior memorization of the track's brake references, illustrating that effective practice spans years of technique development rather than short-term memorization. They highlight the significance of understanding car handling and the ability to quickly find the car's limits. The chapter aims to teach viewers how to assess a car's grip and get up to speed quickly, potentially within just one lap.
• 03:30 - 05:00: Tips for Faster Improvement and Equipment The chapter provides guidance on improving racing performance and selecting the right equipment. It emphasizes using a simulator to build muscle memory rather than memorizing braking zones, as conditions vary greatly between simulations and real-life scenarios.

This Video Will Transform Your Driving Technique Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 5 years ago I started in Sim racing with no carding experience no Rich parents and starting pretty late in my life now I'm the championship leader at the radical North America cup I can now say that I'm a successful real life driver thanks to sim racing Sim racing has exploded recently to the point where real life drivers that used to refuse to believe it was useful are now finally realizing the power of this tool after 10,000 hours of experience and currently racing in real life almost every week
• 00:30 - 01:00 here are my most important tips for you to improve your driving and Sim racing in a way that can be 100% translated to real life racing because my expertise is competitive Sim racing I will focus on tips that apply to the most realistic simulators with a special Focus to iRacing I recommend iRacing more than any other SIM because my real life experience confirms that almost everything you can develop in iRacing when it comes to driving technique will be incredibly useful in real life most steps will apply to to other Sims and
• 01:00 - 01:30 even console games like Formula 1 or Grand Turismo but they won't be my main focus this guide is sponsored by the motor racing checklist my Advanced online course for intermediate and advanced drivers and Logitech G please stop thinking that in order to benefit from simulator before a real life event you have to practice on that week before the event memorize the breaking references and try to match the same car on the same track that's not how you're going to use the simulator to improve
• 01:30 - 02:00 instead what you're going to do is develop your Technique develop your own muscular memory that you can apply in any track on my last race weekend I missed practice one because my car was broken I missed practice two because my car was broken I missed qualifying because my car was broken I started the race in last and finished on the podium how it was not because I practic in the simulator the week before in fact I did not practice in the simulator on that week I went to Laguna sea and my radical
• 02:00 - 02:30 and I did the race from last with no breaking references and I learned everything that I needed to do during the race now and let me explain why it's not practicing that week and memorizing the references it's practicing the five years that I practiced before developing my technique understanding the car handling techniques that I used to find the limit as quickly as possible I'm going to teach you in this video how to get up to speed in record time like in literally one outlab you can have an idea of how much script the car has and
• 02:30 - 03:00 already be just 2 or 3 seconds off the ideal racing lap times if you know exactly what process you're taking so you're going to never forget this you're going to use the simulator to develop your own muscle memory your own set of techniques not to memorize breaking zones that's stupid that's a waste of time and the conditions in the simulator in real life will drastically change the conditions within the same track in real life can go from being super fast to being 3 seconds lower in a matter of
• 03:00 - 03:30 hours because of how the track gets greasy because of other tires with different rubber laying Rubber and decreasing the grip that your car has and you have to quickly adapt to these things and memorizing your braking zones is not going to be it what you're going to do is learn how to understand how much grape you have and lap by laap adapting your breaking zones adapting your lines and your entry speeds and adapting what you do to extract rotation from the car without spinning or crashing first I will teach you the best most effective process to reach
• 03:30 - 04:00 perfection in any car track combination in Sim racing or in real life the most common problem with all my early students is that their methods to find speed are often dangerous and inefficient here's what they do they break early they go around the track doing the ideal racing line getting a feel for the car second they break later and they see what happens then they they break later
• 04:00 - 04:30 and they see what happens then they break later and see what happens and then they break later they crash and finally they go back one stop this guessing game of breaking later is what's making you take so many hours to become competitive in a new car or track let me fix that for you the tires in a race car are able to extract two forces longitudinal and leral based on that I've created a process called the force stages of the core technique
• 04:30 - 05:00 if this doesn't fix your driving skills nothing else will here's how it works stage one testing the longitudinal grip the longitudinal force or longitudinal grip can accelerate or decelerate the car when we learn a new combo the most important thing is the deceleration Force this comes before anything else you need to test how much the car can stop get a feel for how fast the speed will go down you should do that early and progressively during the outlab and
• 05:00 - 05:30 still far from what will be the final breaking references for each Corin this is what I do in real life and in the simulator it is simply the fastest way to build Speed without crashing the biggest reason people crash in real life as beginners is because they don't Master the speed control and because of that they become hesitant hesitating at 200 km hour before heartbreaking zone is a big red flag stay two testing the lateral grip after after we learn and
• 05:30 - 06:00 feel how much the car can decelerate it's time to test the lateral grip the car can produce and if you got in this part of the video I want you to know that most people don't do this stop properly so if you do it you will easily be already faster than 80% of the racing population this is a promise the lateral Force starts happening as we start rotating the car that's the only way we can activate these forces if the car is too fast the lateral forces won't be enough to keep the car in track track
• 06:00 - 06:30 and you will go off track and crash the only way we can safely determine what speeds we will be carrying through Each corner is by testing the lateral grip here's the process and I will show you a video where I do this exact same thing in real life testing the grip in the rain on the formation lap of our race I want before you get in the corner make sure your speed is low break way before get to a safe speed and then start turning into the corner as soon as you turn in accelerate just a a little bit
• 06:30 - 07:00 then add a little bit more steering if the car turns too much and you start moving towards the inside of the corner that means you can carry more speed than that on the next lap experiment with slightly higher and higher speeds until the car starts refusing to go to the inside of the corner if you're still doing the same correct processes a little bit of steering a little bit of throttle when you get closer to the ideal speed range of that corner your car will start under steering a little bit this exercise is called inducing under steer at first you overdo it but
• 07:00 - 07:30 when you get used to it you will be able to do it in such a subtle way that most people won't even notice when they watch you driving the reason we induce under steer first is that through under steer the car has a predictable trajectory and won't spin out or do anything chaotic we'll talk about overseer later if you can do this exercise in almost all corners and carry a healthy cell under steer while doing the racing line you will already have a good idea of how much speed you can be carrying through
• 07:30 - 08:00 Each corner now you're probably 5 to 10 km/ hour below the ideal minimum speed you should be carrying on a perfect lap you can do step one and step two at the same time since you're still testing you're braking on a straight line and then you're testing the lateral grip during the corner stage three minimizing the under steer on step two we induce under steer because it's safe and predictable which
• 08:00 - 08:30 allows us to pay more attention to the speed we're building up the next step is to start minimizing that under steer and making the car rotate more and more and more until we start getting into over steer territory and we will do that by managing our weight transfer for example if at first you were trying 40% throttle while doing the under steer exercise you had a lot of weight being transferred to the back of the car increasing the grip on the rear tires which are responsible
• 08:30 - 09:00 for resisting that rotation and keeping the car pointing forward on another lap you could try less throttle say 20% and you will have less weight on the back throughout the corner which will mean less grip on the rear tires and more grip on the front tires compared to the 40% example try less and less throttle during the corner entry until you reach a coasting phase which means zero throttle and zero brakes all that while while continuing to test the lateral
• 09:00 - 09:30 grip of the car depending on what car you're driving coasting will already be enough to make the car over steer so it will depend on the nature and setup of the car if the car continues under steering on entry with zero throttle then you should start adding a little bit of brakes start with what feels like 1% just to see how the car behaves then try 2% brakes and then five then 10 and so on at some point the car should snap on you and over steer a little bit what
• 09:30 - 10:00 you need to know here is that if the speed is being maintained by the throttle as you turn into the corner the car will most likely under steer as we remove the throttle from the equation we will turn into the corner with the speed going down which means the weight is being transferred to the front tires and the front tires become a lot more capable of rotating the car which could lead into too much rotation or overseer turning into the corner while coasting
• 10:00 - 10:30 or slightly breaking will make the car rotate a lot more than turning into the corner while gently accelerating at this point you will notice that you need a lot less steering to rotate the car which helps you understand the power of the pedals in the car handling Dynamics and you should be carrying as much minimum speed as possible on that coin now this is why this step is so important when we start breaking later and later we will be close closing down the distance between the breaking phase
• 10:30 - 11:00 and the cornering phase and in an ideal corner you will be doing the Turnin phase with the speed going down which makes it a lot more difficult to handle if you're not prepared for it stage four combining the longitudinal grip to the lateral grip this is where things become a lot more complicated and where the good drivers are separated from the slow drivers by separating the lateral grip from the longitudinal grip testing we are now able to fully understand the
• 11:00 - 11:30 building blocks of a perfect lap now that we found the ideal minimum speed ranges of each corner it's time to finally start breaking later the later we break the higher will be the corner entry speed which means we will be forced to do the corner entry while still decelerating now by breaking late we are not able to induce under steer using the throttle because if we do so then we're going to be too fast and the car is going to under steer off track immediately this is the moment where braking traces will matter more and more
• 11:30 - 12:00 where engine braking will matter more and more and where your line choices will matter more and more and finally where the car setup will start to play a role in your lap time only then your setup will start to play a role in your lap times people think that if you're not on the limit you should try to change the setup to find the limit no you find the limit first and then you change the setup stage four is the beginning of highlevel Motorsports if you can nail St stages 1 2 and three you
• 12:00 - 12:30 can easily beat 90% of the drivers in the world I have literally 50 lessons about high level Motorsports in the motor racing Jack list my online course for intermediate and advanced drivers and you get your money back if you don't improve I have created Concepts like the maximum rotation Point exponential steering three tools for rotation checkpoints just to name a few we have professional drivers Formula 1 engineers and Esports drivers taking part in this course let's say this is the speed graph of an ideal Corner we accelerate then we
• 12:30 - 13:00 reach Peak speed the speed goes down very slowly as you are on the brakes then the speed goes down a little bit less slowly here as you can see this is not a straight line there's a faster deceleration here but then the speed starts going down more slowly because now at this point we're already turning and we're already transferring the longitudinal grip here to longitudinal plus lateral as we are trade breing to the corner and then we transition and
• 13:00 - 13:30 get back on power as we lose rotation this is an ideal one how do we get there well stage one is doing this you're going to test your braking before just to get a feel for it this is stage one you're testing the breaking you're not testing your limits and maybe crashing then on stage two around here stage two you're kind of maintaining the speed and testing the amount of lateral grip you can have through under steer in a safe way and then as you get this better
• 13:30 - 14:00 stage three is also around the minimum speed where we try to minimize a little bit the UN steer by trying to add a little bit more brakes but for that we have to carry a little bit more speed so you start doing something like this and then stage four is gathering your experience knowing exactly how much the car can stop here knowing exactly how much the car can turn here and then bridging this capap this is where now not only here you are on the limit and here you are going to start breaking later and then this happens you start
• 14:00 - 14:30 breaking later and then you have less time to mess because your speed is high you need to decelerate but your deceleration is causing rotation so you are now matching the limit of deceleration with the limit of rotation and blending them so you're going to be on the limit throughout the whole deceleration process all the way until you get back on power which of course you're also going to be at the limit consequently after you see we're really not talking about exit in this video I'm Only talking about entry because entry
• 14:30 - 15:00 determines everything if you don't have a good entry you will never have a good exit and a good exit is about preparing is about setting up is is about rotating the car so that by the time you get back on power you can commit to carrying as much speed as possible best tips for faster improvements in your driving these are the best General tips for you to become more competitive in record time when I joined iRacing in 2018 the first thing I did was to join a team I had some F drivers watching me and
• 15:00 - 15:30 giving me some tips as well comparing our laps this allowed me to not waste any time developing bad habits and just driving repeatedly without knowing exactly what was the next step since then I've never been alone in Sim racing always with a team always looking for good people to grow together and if I was alone this whole time I would not have achieved anything I've done in my career there's nothing more fun and productive than sharing a practice session or a race with a teammate
• 15:30 - 16:00 ideally find someone who's faster than you and use them as a carrot also in 2018 when I joined the team I wanted to prove that I was dedicated to improve I didn't care too much about the lab times but rather how they change over the course of the week what really helped my discipline throughout my steam racing career was knowing that every Thursday evening there was a league race to be done I've always participated in leagues and having a deadline having rivals having a proper schedule allowed me to
• 16:00 - 16:30 be way more disciplined than I've ever been in my life the bonus is that all that is just way more fun than driving alone in the simulator so join a team and join a league with your teammates another very good tip repurpose the stress and anxiety of racing especially in racing competition it's very easy to get nervous stressed anxious and finally frustrated with your performance in the races my advice here is to you think that if you're caring so much about it
• 16:30 - 17:00 it's because racing is important to you so try to embrace and repurpose these feelings towards actual pure presence and enjoyment feel the adrenaline as if it's a good thing as if it's a good sign you're in the fight or flight mode with enhanced focus better reflexes and let yourself really experience the whole event there's nothing better than that be it in the Sim or in real life racing let's talk about it quick the equipment you use in your same
• 17:00 - 17:30 racing setup doesn't matter as much as you think it does I'll focus on what's really important so you don't have to worry about unnecessary stuff ideally you want a sturdy setup the worst case scenario being an office chair with wheels and the best case in there being a full aluminum rig what really matters is that you're allowed to break 100% of your pedal Force comfortably without moving around and that you can use 100% of your force feedback on your steering wheel without ripping it apart from desk or cockpit on my very first setup I had
• 17:30 - 18:00 an office chair with the wheels removed and supported on the side of my bed it didn't look good but it was sturdy enough that I got in the top 1% ey rating in the planet my point here is that as long as you can comfortably drive for hours without having things moving around you're good adapt your cockpit to the strength of your pedals and wheels if you have a potentiometer pedal where you don't need a lot of force to reach 100% breaking pressure you can use less sturdy rate or even a chair like my old setup but as soon as
• 18:00 - 18:30 you upgrade to a load cell and you have to break over 80 kilos of force then a stronger cockpit becomes necessary wheel and pedals start with a Logitech t920 if you're on the budget this is the wheel I used for many years became champion in several leagues started coaching and learned the bulk of my driving technique if you're willing to invest a little bit more then my advice is that you get load cell pedals not hydraulic load cell and a direct drive wheelbase with at least 11 Newton met like the Logitech gpro
• 18:30 - 19:00 which is the one I'm currently using there's a lot of great equipment out there and as soon as you get into load cell and direct drive territory your driving technique won't be affected too much monitors or VR I started with monitors then I moov to VR then I move back to monitors here's what matters VR headsets work fantastically with Sim racing almost more than anything else the feud of view is true to life and the immersion is unbelievable if you never drove in VR you should try at least once in your life to understand what I'm talking about from a fun and immersion
• 19:00 - 19:30 standpoint VR wins for a while after you get used to it that fun Factor starts to become your normal and you start noticing more and more the problems in VR you can't use overlays reliably you start sweating and getting tired if you drive for too many hours you can't quickly check your phone people can see your face if you're streaming and VR tends to fail a lot more than monitors which could destroy your online races from a competitive standpoint monitors win by a lot the image quality is better
• 19:30 - 20:00 and more consistent you can add useful overlays and arrange them the way you want and you can drive for many many more hours without getting tired when I moved from VR to monitors I was 7,400 irating which was around the top 0.5% world ranking in iRacing so you can still be competitive in VR but when I did move to monitors I did improve that tiny hair that allowed me to go further up to 8,500 I rating and I stopped there because I started focusing in my real life career I have triple monitors and I
• 20:00 - 20:30 don't ever plan on going back to VR should you get a motion system motion systems come in many different formats all of them trying to emulate the movements and g-forces that we get in your life all of them fail in some way there's just no way you can simulate g-forces in a simulator and after trying many Brands and systems I believe they are not necessary for your sim racing practice and performance some of them can be fun and erive just like we are but you will see that almost all
• 20:30 - 21:00 high level Esports Sim Racers don't use motion systems if you're willing to spend hundreds sometimes thousands of dollars to get the X-ray immersion go for it if you set it up correctly it will not hurt your performance and it will definitely be more fun software calibration imagine losing a second per laap just because your calibration is wrong and you have no idea about it listen I have coached over 2,500 drivers and I can say that at least a 100 of them had Wrong settings that were
• 21:00 - 21:30 costing them at least a second for L here's what really matters in this topic paddle calibration is the most important part of your sim Racing Experience bad pedal Precision bad left times a good pedal calibration should allow you to break 1% 25% 50% 75% 99% and then 100% in the motor racing check list I have a lesson where you have to do an exercise to break to 100% And then go down 1 by 1% slowly to train your brake releasee
• 21:30 - 22:00 precision and of course this becomes nearly impossible if your pedal is not set up properly calibrate your pedal according to your software and then make sure it's set up to be linear in iRacing this is called Force vector and it should be at the lowest setting if you have a load cell so that you don't distort a brake Trace most cars will be incredibly precise to every perent change in your braking inputs now you decide if this video deserves a slap on that subscribe button or not I'm SOA and
• 22:00 - 22:30 my mission is to introduce Inspire and educate racing drivers see you