The most common method of practice adopted by simracers is to hyperfocus on one car class and spend a lot of time driving the week's combo exclusively, often relying on track guides and trying to imitate faster drivers inputs. While this method may see you improve your lap times on that particular combo, it doesn't necessarily builds core racing skills and you might get lost in racing conditions, or when it is time to drive a different race altogether.
While it remains a necessary step to prepare for any event you take seriously, adding variety to your simracing routine is a great way to develop a more global skillset that will help you build more confidence as a driver. Of course, you will most likely keep treating one or two series as your main focus, but driving other cars and disciplines, even with a more relaxed approach, is valuable.
Let's take an example : you want to compete in a GT3 series, and maybe you have a favorite car you decided to stick with. Hotlapping it will mostly teach you how to drive fast in perfect conditions when you're alone. But what will happen when track conditions deteriorate and you find yourself with worn, overheated tyres while the racing line is blocked by another car driving next to you, or get slight aero damage ? Or maybe your car of choice is particularly slow on this week's track and you want to try a car with a different layout ? These are common situations that track guides and practice sessions don't necessarily prepare you for.
This is where taking the time to explore other things comes into play. While all cars require a bit of every skill, they all do to different proportions, and different surfaces, tyres and aero levels will highlight different characteristics. Oval racing for instance will exacerbate the need for tyre heat management, low powered road cars like a Mazda MX5 Cup will make you work on managing weight transfers and mechanical grip, open wheel cars will teach you to trust downforce, drifting will help you build countersteering reflexes...
In the end, all these skills may be more secondary with your usual GT3 car, but they are what will separate you from all the other drivers who have a similar one lap pace to you, as racing is not only about trying to go fast, but also being capable to mitigate the unexpected. You can even go further and play different games as well : the differences in physics engines can be similar to driving a different class and contribute to your adaptability.
Varying pleasures is also a good way to break monotony and just keep a good dose of fun. Keeping the pressure down for a few races every week does wonder for your mental health and will prevent you from going into a burn out, which many pro simracers who fully dedicate to their competitive series end up experiencing.
And remember, if you need some help to identify your strenghts and weaknesses, we offer coaching sessions to help you figure out what you need to work on !
See you on the race track !🚦🏁
The Race Clutch Center Team