This was a bit of an impromptu "track guide" during a Caterham Supersport race at Sepang. I highly recommend turning on captions - the voice isn't super clear and I talk fast!
I just talk through some of the basics such as braking points, track use, and gears - while pushing at 100%. Pedal-cam and some simple data overlays added.
The Supersport is an amazing "driver's" car. The light-weight means that it responds quickly to driver inputs and the slightest change in driver inputs has a big effect on the handling.
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A few comments on the commentary:
Turn 1:
I mentioned that "We'll 'V' the corner". What I meant by this is that we effectively double-apex turn 1. The "V" is because we are then able to brake later for the corner, and cut down the distance vs a later turn-in. With the later turn-in you also find yourself in the annoying situation of having to hold "maintenance throttle" on for a very long time, simply because you still have so much of turn 1 left, and you need to still stay quite close to the inside of it for a wide entry into turn 2.
The reason this works is mainly because there’s a very tight corner immediately after turn 1. By using the “V” line, you can brake later, and as long as you’re patient enough rotating the car at the slowest part of the corner, you can still position the car perfectly for a good line into turn 2.
Turn 4:
Why do we not shift to 5th gear here and hit the limiter for a while instead? Basically it’s because the most that we’ll be on the limiter here without a very strong slipstream is about 1 second. That isn’t long enough to benefit from what is a slow up-shift to 5th gear. The shift in the Caterham from 4th to 5th is a bit difficult (the space between the gates in the shifter are quite far apart), and the 5th gear ratio is quite tall. So for just a second or so you would actually lose time making the shift.
You can also add the difficulty of an additional required down-shift in the entry if you did decide to use 5th on the straight here.
Turn 5 & 6:
In most cars this series of corners really is about balancing the car with the throttle pedal. You’re primarily controlling how much the car is understeering. Staying hard on the throttle of course keeps the car speed up but also keeps the rear tyres loaded. When you ease off the throttle the load transfers back towards the front of the car, reducing understeer. Whether you should have gentle/partial lifts, or more sudden aggressive lifts off the throttle depends on exactly what you need the car to do and how it’s balanced at that particular point in the corner.
Turn 12:
This is a very interesting corner entry. In many cars you will want to turn-in to the corner just a little bit before lifting off the throttle. On the day of this video there was a lot of grip, so I was able to get away with just a partial lift in the Caterham Supersport. A common mistake particularly in cars that this corner requires a bit more of a lift is to lift before turning-in to the corner.
Turn 15:
The very off-camber design of this corner creates a very interesting challenge. As mentioned in the video the off-camber track actually creates a bit of a crest on the exit, and even in low-power cars this car easily result in wheelspin and oversteer. Lots of patience is required here. Both with getting the car rotated nicely on entry, and being patient on throttle application.
