Vanja #66 wrote: ↑14 Sep 2024, 20:51
Xyz22 wrote: ↑14 Sep 2024, 19:55
Why no one asks Leclerc why he uses the throttle while braking into the corners... No one in the grid does it.
Even in this track he is only one who is using a bit of throttle in each corner. The biggest difference is in the last one before the long straight, where all the other drivers are at 0% and he is at like 10ish %.
When front wheels are turned, they generate steering force and torque around CoG. As far as I understood when this was explained to me by vehicle dynamics engineers, when the car starts to pivot around CoG during steering, RWD cars induce oversteer with throttle application due to inertia of the rear end that "wants" to keep going straight and generates torque around CoG. With small amount of throttle, you can induce a bit of oversteer to your preferance, like Leclerc has
Again, I hope I understood and conveyed this explanation correctly. It's too small amount of throttle to really contribute to rear tyre remperature I think, so I think it's more about driving style (especially when he's comfortable with the car)
This is part of each drivers unique technique, we can't expect they'll explain this to anyone in public
If I may add further :
it also arrests the weight shift diagonally outwards a little bit => keeps the platform as nearly parallel to the floor as possible => allows application of full throttle at the exit of the corner, marginally earlier.
Effectively, it's "throttle steer" as @Vanja explained, and as an added benefit, it's also "flatter steer", the price to be paid (there is no free lunch) is higher tyre temp due to more sliding friction, which 'can' accelerate 'deg' if the tyres are already near the hot end of the temperature window.
This technique provides the greatest benefit, in tracks with point and shoot layout, like Baku and Singapore with almost all corners being 90 degree. However in circuits with lots of 'actual racing corners' like a quick slalom or long radius heavily banked corners - for example Suzuka/Silverstone/Zandvoort - this technique has no benefit in particular, but will have it's detriment of more deg.