HOW TO SIM YOUR WAY TO A REAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Written by Wes McDougall
“Wow, this place is nuts!”
Todd Hazelwood laughed to himself and shook his head at the same time as he stepped out of the Motion Force MF1 Simulator. He had just completed his first ‘virtual’ laps of the Newcastle Street Circuit – the un yet raced venue that would hold the finale of the 2017 Supercars Championship, and more importantly for Todd, the final round of the 2017 Super 2 Championship.
Throughout the course of 2016 and 2017 Todd and I set up a training schedule and a plan that revolved around using a simulator as part of the pre-race weekend preparation. This plan centred around a key philosophy that I think some race drivers miss when they drive a Simulator; and that is, IT IS A TOOL – it’s not a game, and it’s not (100%) real. Let's dive in and take a look at how a structured approached helped Todd achieve his goal: to win the 2017 Super 2 Championship. And how a similar plan can help you improve your (real world) race driving.
TREAT THE SIMULATOR AS A TOOL
The modern day simulator can be, in its own right, a powerful, lifelike, hyper-realistic gaming device with high level competition and eye watering prizes for victors. However, this can be the simulators biggest crux when it comes to trying to use it as a training tool. Namely, a simulator can provide hours of entertainment as well as provide a home for learning the crucial fundamentals of race driving.
In Lesson 7.4 of The Complete Race Driver online course, I talk in detail about the double edged sword of using a simulator as an aspiring or active race driver. A sim can seemingly turn into a time-machine; that is, it is an incredible way to suddenly lose track of time and 'waste' 3-4 hours without batting an eyelid. In other words, it is extremely easy to get lost and lose focus with what I call 'laptime chasing', when the inner competitive urge rises up, takes over and any chance of learning gets cast aside quicker than you can say 'iRacing Class Win'. 'Laptime chasing' can occur when there are small quirks in the software where it is advantageous to do things that wouldn't otherwise work in the real world in order to post a competitive 'virtual' laptime (i.e. think shortcutting a chicane that goes unpunished, using a gear that wouldn't necessarily work in the rear world etc etc.....)
IT'S NOT A GAME
You may very well say 'hey, Wes, of course <insert your favourite sim racing title here> is a game - there is a whole world of competitive racing occurring in the virtual world!' - and you'd be right, but for me, that misses the point. If you are on a quest to try and consciously and studiously improve your driving, you need to change your approach and attitude and use the simulator like the incredible collection of electronics and mechanical components that it is - a learning machine.
Using a simulator to improve your driving begins with the right mindset - use it as tool to help your technique and you will flourish - treat it as a game, and the only trophies you collect, may very well be virtual ones......
True, drivers of such ilk like Max Verstappen and Shane van Gisbergen are active in the online sim racing world. But what often gets overlooked with this short-sighted view is that they have already learnt the fundamentals. (And some would say, mastered them........)
One area where racing against others online can provide some tangible benefit however is learning racecraft - that is, using the sim race to trial overtaking techniques and car placement relative to others. Of course, this can be a great way to learn through trial and error, as any erroneous mistake will only result in virtual damage, no doubt some verbal online abuse and negative licence points, rather than 4 flat spotted tyres, and a potential hefty real-world repair bill.
IT'S NOT 100% REAL
One of the most common gripes I hear from drivers who don't 'gel' with a simulator is that it 'doesn't feel like the real thing'. Notwithstanding the fact that 'realism' (or whatever metric you wish to judge a simulators authenticity with), depends largely on price and target market; Simulators are improving with every passing year, to try and give the driver that all immersive experience.
My suggestion to someone who thinks this way is always the same. If this happens, and you think the simulator has nothing to offer you, try this approach: Think of getting into the simulator like you are arriving at the track for real, to drive a car you have never driven before. Something totally foreign. In this real world scenario, you would drive the car out the pits, and spend some time feeling the level of grip, understanding the pedal movements, the quirks of the controls, the heaviness and feel of the steering wheel, the amount of roll and pitch the car has and so much more. Why then would you hop in a simulator, mash the accelerator, brake 10 metres past the optimum brake maker, lock the tyres and disappear off into the sandtrap and subsequent tyre barriers, only to declare 'This doesn't feel like the real thing......'
Instead, I recommend driving the simulator, just like you are driving a car in the real world - learn it's intricacies, understand and feel the weight of the pedals and steering wheel and then, and only then, start to push and explore the limits of the machine, and your driving.
HOW TO TURN THE SIM INTO A REAL WIN
Throughout season 2016 and 2017, Todd and I would treat the time we had available on the MF1 Simulator in such a way to guarantee that learning was paramount, and time well used. Depending on the particular day, and time constraints, we usually had 2 to 4 hour blocks of time available, and would end up spending 4-8 hours of time on the simulator prior to each event. This is how we would break down the time available.
1. The first step would be for Todd to perform some initial laps to get used to the sim, the track and setup, and these initial laps would allow a good baseline for me to download the data from the simulator and compare against real world data. From here, I would fine tune the sim to ensure the laptimes and corner speed would be representative for Todd. After this initial hit-out, we would look at this data together, and we would discuss the run, and I would get Todd's feedback on his experience so that I would be across his level of realism, and he would be aware of the closeness of the sim to the real data.
2. Practice - Just like you would do at the track, we would then roll into a 'Free Practice' Session where Todd would have 30-60Min to drive and work on improving his laptimes, and technique. The focus for this session would be dependent on whether we would be working on a particular skill (i.e. Trail Braking, smooth steering etc), optimising's Todd driving around this particular track, or learning a new track for the first time. After this session, we would once again review the data, and replay the session to look for areas to improve.
3. Qualify - Once again, just like the real thing, I would get Todd to do 'qualifying laps'. Now, this varies in every series in terms of tyre quantity, compound and construction, but one of the inherent performance factors with Supercars lies with the difficulty extracting the most out of a new tyre. This was also true with Super 2 at the time, as in most cases, there would only be 1 set of tyres per qualifying session, and the pressure was on for the driver to 'nail' the lap. for the majority of these 'qualifying' sim sessions we would have two "one-lap" shootouts to set a qualifying time, and see after a break, whether he could match his practice laptimes.
4. Race - finally we would do a race sim - most Super races would be around the 60-70Km distance, and I would press home the desire to Todd to use this session as a focus and consistency experiment. Say the qualifying laptime was a 1:12.00, I would ask Todd to do as much of the race distance as possible within the 1:12.50 to 1:13.00 window (laptimes as an example). This was to promote concentration, consistency and awareness that the car would be slower in race trim due to fuel load, used tyres etc.
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
This really is an important point, and it ties in with what I mentioned earlier about making sure you don't 'Laptime chase'. Quality time spent in the sim is worth much more than pure quantity. Sure, repetition is an important part of learning muscle memory, which in itself is an important facet of learning to drive, but don't confuse laps for the pure sake of it, with actual learning. There is a common saying that goes 'Practice makes perfect' but there is also another one that echoes stronger I believe - 'Practice makes permanent'. In other words, if you teach yourself bad habits, they can be very hard to disassociate with. So, ensure you start prioritising quality over quantity with your sim sessions.
“Accuracy is going to be SO important here........”
Todd emphasised this point after completing multiple sessions on the simulator, amazed with the tightness and close proximity of the walls on the Newcastle East Street Track. "It's like a rollercoaster! And you are always turning....braking into Turn 11 is going to extremely crucial."
A little over a week later Todd Hazelwood won the 2017 Super 2 Championship at Newcastle, by clean sweeping the weekend - claiming both pole positions, and winning both races to become a worthy winner of the title.
If you would like to learn more about using Simulators to improve your driving, you can find out more at The Complete Race Driver.
And if you have any topics you would like me to cover in "The Racing Line", please let me know at [email protected]
