In Search of a Grand Prix's Winning Line Valdrin Xhemaj/European Pressphoto Agency While there may be a perfect theoretical racing line around a track, many changing factors render that notion superfluous. The best drivers know how to find the best possible line according to the circumstances. When most people think of the world's greatest racing drivers fighting to be first at the checkered flag, they think of speed, guts and bravado, of brilliant overtaking moves and the car's raw power. What is often not realized is that the real challenge for a driver is not posed by the other drivers but rather by his own constant effort to find the best racing line. The racing line is the most efficient, fastest path around the track. In short, drivers do not think of racing in terms of always going at top speed, but of finding the most economical trip around the circuit and shaving as many tenths of a second off their lap times as they can. "You are trying to find the shortest way around the track," said Heikki Kovalainen, a reserve driver for the Caterham team and former driver at several other teams. You are cutting the corner when you can, going from side to side when it's beneficial. "You don't think that you are trying to go as fast in terms of kilometers per hour, as fast as possible," he added, "but as fast in terms of lap time, as efficiently as possible." As they race on the Monza circuit outside Milan this weekend in the Italian Grand Prix, the 22-driver elite of Formula One will be taking something of a break from their usually highly intricate effort to read the track. The circuit in Monza is made primarily of two long straights cut by a tight series of corners on each side, and by a long, looping corner at the end. It thus provides less of a challenge than usual in finding the perfect racing line. "In Monza, going through the chicane is always about doing a straight line, and you want to make sure that the exit is good," Kovalainen said. But in terms of racing line, it's not that complicated because everybody does the same thing, because there really is one efficient way to go around it. Still, that last looping corner, known as the Parabolica, is one of the trickiest. "The acceleration through the Parabolica is a balancing act," said the three-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel of the Red Bull team. If you make the smallest error then you will slide straight into the gravel before you know it. The secret to Grand Prix racing, what accounts for a driver's genius and talent and makes him better than another driver, is to a great extent the driver's ability to stick to the best racing line. "The standard line, not getting into detail, is trying to make the corner as wide as possible, in order to have as little amount of steering angle as possible," said Daniel Ricciardo, a driver at the Toro Rosso team. Because, obviously, a car is going quicker in a straight line than when you're steering, with less friction and all the rest of it. So that is the key: just trying to open up the corner as much as possible. Whereas it would seem to make sense to take the inside line to reduce the distance covered, as in track and field, in racing a fast car around a circuit it is necessary to widen the corners in order to prevent the car from slipping around and losing time. It's a compromise. "In a racing car, obviously with the speeds we have, the shortest distance is not always the quickest," Ricciardo said. So we need to use a bigger difference in cornering because of the speed we have. But what really makes for the fine art of interpreting the racing line is that theory and practice do not go together. There may exist a perfect theoretical racing line on any given circuit, but many changing factors spoil the simplicity. "The principle of the racing line is to find the best line possible with the assets of your car," said Charles Pic, a driver at the Marussia team. So it changes all the time, too. From race to race and even from lap to lap it can change. Because if there is tire degradation, that can change the racing line. The line is just there to optimize 100 percent the capacities of the car, and so when the capacities change, the line can change too.