February 26, 2024

Why You Can't Open Your Hands At The Apex

Dion von Moltke

Car Racing

These are the four main reasons you cannot unwind your steering wheel at the apex.

1) Too Early of a Turn In

When you turn in too early, you cannot turn as aggressively at initial turn in. That means your line into the corner is shallower and the angle of your car is looking more straight (more towards the outside of the corner) at the apex.

This means as you apex and head towards the corner exit you will likely need to add steering wheel, so you don't fly off the edge of the road at the exit.

2) Not Using All the Track at Corner Entry

When you do not use all the track at corner entry you are essentially reducing the radius of the corner. The tighter the corner, the more aggressively you need to turn. The more aggressively you turn in, the slower you need to go.

So, if you try to roll in the same amount of speed as someone on the ideal line but turn in a half car width from the outside of the road, you will have too much speed at the apex and won't be able to start unwinding the steering wheel.

3) Too Early to Initial Throttle

As we have covered in our [weight transfer](https://www.blayze.io/blog/car-racing/weight-transfer-in-under-60-seconds) articles we know that when we pick up the throttle the weight shifts to the rear. As we shift the weight off the front end, we are effectively lowering the amount of front grip we have.

If your racecar is still heading towards the apex after the turn in and you get to throttle you will be inducing understeer. That understeer will mean you are likely adding steering input right at the apex, right at the moment we want to be opening our hands.

4) Too Much Entry Speed

This last one is quite simple. If we roll too much entry speed either the rear of the racecar or the front will start to slide. If your front starts to slide you will understeer past the apex and will not be able to pick the throttle up where you want to.

It is usually best for drivers to analyze their driving and ask themselves if they are making any of the first three mistakes. If you are on point in all of those then we know we likely just need to reduce our entry speed a little bit.

More Great Blayze Articles

Braking Fundamentals Explained In 60 Seconds

The Trail Braking Webinar

Learn More With Blayze!

The secret to mastering any skill is practice! Do you have questions about your racing journey? Could you use direct feedback from a professional coach on how to improve your racing and motorsport skills?

At Blayze we give you a personalized coaching session from the very best coaches in the world. For a truly unique and personalized feedback experience, submit your performance video to one of Blayze’s highly qualified coaches. The custom-developed coaching session can help you improve your on-track, so you are performing at your very best in every race. One easy click here will take you to more details on our coaching sessions.

Blayze | Dion von Moltke

Enjoying Dion von Moltke's post?

Take your game to the next level by working 1:1 with them.

About the coach

Dion von Moltke

Daytona 24 Hour Winner

Car Racing

I've spent 20 years of my life in this sport that we all love so much. During that time I was fortunate enough to have a 10 year professional career where I won the Rolex at Daytona 24 hour, the Sebring 12 Hour (twice), and became an official driver for Audi. After retiring from professional racing I became a co-founder at Blayze. My goal with building this platform is to make it more affordable, accessible, and convenient to learn personally from the best coaches in the world!

View Profile
Be My Coach

Subscribe to our mailing list for updates and exclusive deals.