[rtkwe]

It's a balance, many of these cars can accelerate and decelerate very hard so the time to get back to the full speed for the next section is fairly short reducing the effect of slowing down. The effect of taking a too wide racing line though means a large multiple in the distance travelled.

[dotancohen]

  > The effect of taking a too wide racing line though means a large multiple in the distance travelled.

So a better driver typically takes a shorter route than a less skilled driver? Can a very skilled driver get the Kessel Run down below 12 parsecs?

[rtkwe]

In ideal scenarios without having to account for other racers yes generally. In reality it's a difficult to talk about mix of driver skill, mechanical car performance and race strategy that determines the actual best line at any given moment though there is still one fastest theoretical line through a corner.

On race strategy it's rare for drivers to be pushing their cars to the limits for entire races because tire wear and the stops required to replace them is a major time sink because you can only drive so fast in pit lane so even the 1-2 second stops F1 cars go through today lose drivers position that then has to be regained using the extra performance fresh tires provides.

Then driver skill can put the better driver in the correct position to take the correct line more often when you include other cars in the mix and they also know better how to deal with suboptimal routes (eg being force to take an inside route by traffic so you have to know how much harder you need to break to not wreck into another car).

On an unrelated side note because I'm just personally annoyed by the 12 pArSecS!? misunderstanding. The 12 parsec run is impressive because Kessel is in a part of space ridiculously dense with hazards so the usual route to it loops through a narrow region where it's relatively safe to travel through. Han's 12 parsec run cut through the dangerous parts through either luck, superior navigation, or he was just lying the commentary is mixed. [0]

[0] https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/1/17/Kesse...

[HPsquared]

Cars can usually brake and turn harder than they can accelerate.

You also tend to spend more time on the straight after the corner, than in the corner itself

So you mostly optimise for corner exit speed, especially if the car has particularly slow acceleration and a long straight comes after the corner.

[drivebyhooting]

For F1 I was under the impression exit speed wasn’t as important as minimizing arc length of the turn.

[dns_snek]

They call that the geometric racing line and it might minimize the amount of time that it takes you to navigate one specific corner but if the corner is a hard braking zone followed by a long straight, your exit speed will likely be lower which will cost you time all the way to the next braking zone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIbTPvHFf-w

https://driver61.com/uni/racing-line/