We’ve talked about reference points on the ground, as a rhythm, as your engine note, and now we can talk about using your hands and the steering wheel as a reference point as well. As with other “soft” reference points, the benefit is that you have some additional frame of reference after your last “hard” reference point. But you need to recognize your consistency (or inconsistencies) and any changes in your baseline or you may be sloppy at best and get yourself into trouble at worst.

The idea of using your hands and/or the steering wheel is very close in practice to using a rhythm as a reference point. Indeed, this technique actually requires using a rhythm to be effective.

When to Use the Technique
First lets talk about when you can use your hands as a reference point, and that will make explaining what to do much easier. Basically, on longer sweepers and hairpins you are turning for a long time. And usually throughout the course of the corner you will need to make a few steering inputs. And I’m not talking about your normal, minor steering inputs, but broad changes in the attitude of the car. A double apex is the best example. Your hand inputs are 1) turn in for the first apex and hold until 2) you reach the apex and begin unwinding for the track/turn in point at which point you 3) turn in again for the second apex. Between the two apexes, you are pretty much in no man’s land. You are often in the middle of the track, and on some tracks you may not ever get all the way to the edge before turning back towards the second apex.

The Andretti Hairpin at Laguna Seca and Big Bend at Lime Rock are both excellent examples of this. Both are double apex corners in which you don’t track all the way out until after the second apex. And now that Lime Rock has been paved, both lack any visible markings on the track itself that you can use. So what do you do? How do you know where that track out/turn in point between the two apexes lies? You don’t really (unless you have a hard reference point) - you just know after your into the second apex whether you got it right or not.

This is where using your hands comes into play. And it should be noted that this technique applies in exactly the same way whether you base it off of your hands or off of the position of the steering wheel itself. Many people like to put a piece of tape at the 12 o’clock position when the steering wheel is perfectly straight. This lets them know at a glance how much the wheel is turned during a corner. Whichever method you use is ultimately irrelevant. I tend to prefer going off of my hands because I can feel their position better than I can see a piece of tape on the wheel. But someone else might have the reverse preference, and that is fine as long as they do what they need to.

What You Do
So how does it work? Simple, remember the 3 main parts of the double apex turn mentioned above? Well, each of those 3 parts will have a distinct amount of steering input. So once you get the general rhythm of that corner down and you are consistent through it, each of the 3 steering phase will occur for a set amount of time. No one is sitting there with a stop watch timing them - you just have to feel it. And when you can feel it is time for the next stage

Now obviously you may need some other steering inputs/corrections to keep the car pointed where it needs to be. That is normal, naturally. The important thing is that the general amount of steering input you are giving the car (those who deal with math might call this the “average,” or they might not, I’m not one who deals with math) is what it needs to be.

Isn’t this really just using rhythm as a reference point?
Yes, rhythm is still the underlying soft reference point, but your hand position lets you know that the amount of input is correct, which a simple timeframe reference point cannot.