3 things you don't understand about braking

“It's amazing how many drivers, even at the Formula 1 level, think that the brakes are for slowing the car down” -Mario Andretti

there are sooo many people that drive for years and don't know these tips, this man right here is doing god's work

As a person who got their license a year ago I’m always watching videos to help improve my driving. Many people I know think I’ve learned very quickly for how long I’ve been driving and I have this man to thank for that.

Trail braking is just a thing I did intuitively, it just felt right. Didn't know it was a named technique.

Driving is just a game where you have to be focused af on everything and everyone and where you have to predict everything and hit the perfect timings..

On the road, tip 2 has also another side: learning to lift gradually before coming to a complete stop. That way it feels as smooth as can be for the passengers. My gf doesn’t like me squeezing the brakes and lifting slowly, because even if I have a 2 or 3 second distance between me and the car in front, as she doesn’t feel any g-forces she is afraid I’m not braking at all. Also, as a caveat to tip 1: I use engine braking a lot but sometimes will tap my brake pedal a few times anyway because people behind you on their phone watch for braking lights to light up, so if you’re engine braking all the time they might plow into the back of your vehicle.

A lot of drivers don't even know how to apply tip one. They actually will drive fast until right behind a car ahead. Tailgaters they're called. Maybe it's a psychological thing.

I've been driving for 55 years and the one thing I've learned the most about driving is to not focus on the pavement directly in front of you but as far up the street as safely possible. By doing this you aren't constantly on the brakes unless you have traffic in front of you. It makes me mad when someone in front of me is driving 10 or 15 under the limit and constantly braking when it's not necessary. Most of these things taught here I've been doing since I was around 20 years old. Back in the early 70's I did a lot of street racing but it was always done on highways. In those 55 years I've never had an accident that was my fault. The 2 or 3 I have been in where from other drivers not paying attention to operating a motor vehicle.

Back in the early 90s (when I was a much younger man 🤣) I had a job that meant driving about 30,000 miles a year. A lot of the journeys were on UK motorways, and one of my [much older] colleagues was an 'advanced' driver. So he used to set up silly games for us to while away the boring miles — one of those games being "try and do the whole journey without touching the brakes". The challenge was usually set down for 2-300 mile journeys. I managed Penzance to the Midlands once, without touching the brakes. It was a tremendously useful learning experience. By the way, 'displaying' trail braking is much easier if you have telemetry. It looks like a triangle, with the left side almost vertical, then the right side sloping down at roughly 45º. Like a cartoon cheese wedge, if you like 🤣 Once people can 'see' how one 'bleeds off' the braking pressure, it makes a little more sense (without IRL car telemetry you can always demo it in a sim). Fundamentally what you're trying to do is keep weight on the nose of the car, to ensure the steering works most effectively (and it's the ONLY way to drive a Porsche 911 effectively 🤣). But as you rightly point out, you have to be careful with it. You can set up a 'rotation' if you lift out of the brake too fast (which is why your 'squeezing the brake' tip is so valid, in reverse). There's another fun exercise to try — when braking for traffic lights, try to get the car to come to a smooth stop, without any 'pop' at the end. It requires 'coming out of the brake' in the same way you went into it. If you're squeezing steadily, you need to 'trail' back out of it in a similarly smooth way. Loving all these short films Mick, keep up the cracking work!

Learning to trail brake on the bike has made all the difference for me in tight corners. Going into them whilst already on the brakes (having pre-loaded the front a good bit) means that if I need to slow down that extra bit more I can just add a bit of pressure (or stay on the brakes longer) as I turn in. It also helps get the most grip out of the front tyre. Even just in general, turning in while still carrying some brake pressure feels incredibly controlled and confidence-inspiring. I would add though, you also shouldn't just jump off the pedal, for the same reason you don't jump on it. Unloading the front that quickly can unsettle your suspension pretty badly and send you sliding.

another addition to the squeezing is at a traffic light. A lot of people slow down towards the stop line and then in the last bit of motion press the pedal, which leads to everybody getting pushed forward. You can also plan ahead and right before the line and stopping, let go of the break for a moment, and let the car do the rest of stopping, then press the break again. It just makes it way smoother

"Lift the gas pedal" is the first step to hazard perception in the Netherlands. Whenever you perceive that a potential hazard is approaching (say, a car on the highway is changing lanes and cuts into your 2-second following distance), you're supposed to get off the gas. Positively and noticeably take your foot away from the gas pedal. When a hazard is imminent (collision unavoidable unless you stop right now), you brake. A slightly advanced technique is downshifting to increase the amount of deceleration you get. It's "slightly advanced" because it requires you match up your engine RPM to the speed of the gear you'll be in. Note: swerving and changing lanes are not appropriate evasion techniques - there's not that many drivers out there that actually have the situational awareness to do emergency lane change / swerve in a way that doesn't endanger others.

Interesting that I basically was always using tips 1 and 2 from the very beginning of my driving experience, but I must say that these things were indirectly explained in theory lessons and also briefly reminded to me by my driving instructor when I was a learner, so I just settled with these things in mind for the rest of my driving. Surprised how many people tend to forget or just don't care about what they taught you in a driving school. Hell, I even one time faced a guy who said "Driving school teaches you nothing, you're just an idiot for thinking you know something when I have 15+ years of experience and you just got your license". This conversation was precisely about handling the car, rather than knowing the laws. Pure gold.

Best way I’ve heard trail braking described - your tires at any point i time have UP TO 100% grip available, which is distributed simultaneously across accelerating, braking and cornering. When driving fast you want to utilise as close to 100% of the available grip wherever possible (very dangerous to drive on the edge like this when on public roads I will add!). This is because as soon as you exceed 100% grip, your wheels have nothing left to give and this is how you lose traction. For trail braking we’re only interested in distributing our grip against braking and cornering. As you approach a corner you want 100% grip dedicated to braking (this can only be done whilst you are in a straight line). As soon as you begin to turn, some of that grip is now required for cornering, so you must smoothly ease off the brake and simultaneously transition your grip into cornering. Doing this smoothly will keep the car balanced and allow you to maintain full 100% usage of the available grip during the transition - e.g: when you’ve got 40% grip for braking, you want 60% grip on cornering (if you’re only using 40% for braking and 30% for cornering, you’re only using 70% of the available grip which costs you speed and time). As you turn more, you ease off the brakes until there is now no brake pressure and 100% of grip is now going into cornering. You then reverse the transition from 100% cornering into 100% accelerating as you pull out of the corner. In short, it is a technique to ensure that 100% of the grip available is being utilised at all times. Now take a shot every time I said “100%” 😂

I have been driving since last year, and the first thing I learned was heel-toe shifting and rev matching. After 2 months, I became consistent even in heavy traffic, and I fell in love with this driving style. This gave me excellent driving skills, and after a while, I was able to predict every corner, RPM, car, and pedestrian. I rarely use my brakes now, and I notice that they wear them after 15k or 20k kilometers. My clutch, transmission, and engine are in great shape, too. I realize most of the drivers dont even do that, and they drive very terrible. Some of them are putting other in risk because of it

Just been watching all of your videos and loving them, so pleased to see a new video pop up while watching this Sunday night! I'm coming over from driving stick and want to learn to drive automatic/automanual as effectively as possible on track, but learning so much about how to drive well and its a joy. Keep up the great work!

The way I think of trail braking is say you have maximum 100% grip, that is shared between braking and turning, if you are at 100% breaking then you can't turn or you'll loose grip, and if you're at 100% turning you can't brake or you'll also loose grip. So you have to balance the two so when you're at say 60% braking you can use 40% of your grip on turning. But if you go over 100% and break that limit of grip you'll either understeer at corner entry, or loose the rear mid corner.

I didn't know I was trail braking all these years! It just felt like the right thing to do as the car felt much more stable and in control this way.

I didn’t know tail braking was a thing. I thought it was no biggie until you pointed it out. It just feels natural to do so. There is so much a person can learn through racing events. Shout out from Puerto Rico!

Regarding the "Don't brake" tip, one could argue that a light pressure on the brakes (for the sake of turning on your brake lights) could help the drivers behind you who may not see the obstacle or the curving road in front of you to deaccelerate, effectively creating a feedback loop among drivers. But if you're not braking and slowing down without turning on your brake lights, I don't think the driver behind you would have much incentive to deaccelerate.