Consistency is key for me when it comes to practicing sim racing. You can drain the car of fuel and try and show people how big your balls are, but I'd rather work on consistency, as this is the important part of racing for me. Your pace is what it is, generally speaking, but if you can drive consistent laps, just banging in the same time, or near enough the same time lap after lap you won't go far wrong. If you are a consistent sim racing driver you can often fend off faster drivers through race craft and good car positioning, especially on the smaller, tighter race tracks like Zolder, Lime Rock Park or Watkins Glen. Consistency should also allow you to gain race places when others ahead of you either take themselves out of the race though over ambition, or through accidents created either by poor racecraft or due to over ambition by other drivers.


Lap chart from Zolder driving the Formula Renault 2.0 at iRacing
Consistent laps and careful car positioning will take your sim racing to the next level. As well as creating serious problems and dilemas for your opponents. I know of a number of sim racing drivers that on a given day in a specific car I may be quicker than them, but I know that I will have to work my socks off to get past them, due to their clever thinking, great car placement and overall race craft. Even once you have made it past these drivers there is still the potential for them to come back and re-pass you either through the use of your draft or just through them outwitting you in your mirrors. At this point you may be thinking what has this got to do with consistency? Well with consistency comes the ability to think on other matters whilst you lay down the lap times. The consistency of your lap times lets you plan your attack on drivers ahead of you and also allow you to focus on putting your car in the correct position to stop other drivers from passing you. Because you are able to consistently lap at the same pace due to practice and driving just under the limit, it lets your mind concentrate on racing rather than lapping. Your brake points, acceleration zones and knowledge of the track are ingrained in your mind and this allows your to race to your potential.

F1 Japanese Grand Prix Mind Feature


As the video above suggests freeing your mind from the mundane parts of sim racing such as braking, accelerating and gear changes etc. allow you to concentrate on the mental side of sim racing. The car positioning, whether defensive or offensive. My best driving occurs when I can free my mind of thoughts to some extent and just drive. However, this comes from repetitive practice and experience gained over the years. The more time you can spend on track consistently putting in lap after lap the easier it will be to have more positive sim racing results.


Lap chart from Brands Hatch Indy driving the SRF at iRacing