The question of how far ahead to look is big and important one. Common wisdom is that you should be looking through a corner, to where you want the car to go. Clint is a strong advocate of this technique, and it is what is taught at virtually every performance driving school.

Why Look Ahead?
There are a couple of reasons why it may be better to look ahead. The most important is that you can see if any incidents are debris are up ahead. If you are focused 10 feet in front of your car and you miss the car up ahead that just spun, well, that is going to be a major problem very fast. The other, and most tauted, reason for looking ahead is that we naturally tend to end up where we are looking. I.e, if you start to spin and focus intently on the wall you don’t want to hit, you will tend to steer the car directly towards the wall. Obviously this example is a bit extreme, but the same argument applies to your basic line. Advocates of looking ahead cite your “hands following your eyes” as the reason to look ahead.

Why I Look 10 Feet in Front of Me
I actually do not follow common doctrine as far as where I look. I effectively play a high-speed version of connect-the-dots, literally looking and driving from one reference point to the next. In a corner, I’ll look for my brake point, then look for my apex, then look for my track out. The difference between this and common wisdom is that with the “Look Ahead” technique, you are looking at or past your track out point as soon as you hit your turn-in point.

Looking at each reference point along the way works for me because it tells me NOW and far more precisely how my Line is at any given point in a corner. If I know where I need to apex corner X and I see that I’m hitting the apex early or late, I can start making the necessary corrections NOW. This helps keep me out of trouble, and can prevent having to make more dire and drastic corrections later on.

Reality is a Mix of Both Techniques
In practice, I don’t think anyone uses either technique exclusively. If you only looked 10 feet in front of you, you wouldn’t see cars in front of you, debris, or that yellow flag waiving violently. On the other end, if you are always looking 1/4 mile down the track, you’ll never see any reference points and never know how consistent you are in any given corner.

Do What Works for YOU
This is one area of driving where there is no wrong technique, only a wrong result. If you are more consistent and safer looking waaay down the track, that is the best technique for you. If you do better looking 10 feet in front of you and connecting a slew of reference points, that is the best technique for you. As I mentioned above, you will likely find yourself employing a mix of the two. You just need to ensure that whatever technque you do use keeps you AWARE and CONSISTENT.

For me, my peripheral vision and awareness is good enough that I can get away with looking right in front of me because I am still aware of what is up the road. I am aware of the larger picture, but realize the end result by connecting very small pieces of it.

It is chiefly because of this awareness issue that I always teach my students to look THROUGH the corner (i.e., NOT what I do). It is also why I always waiver when I’m asked where I am looking at any given time. I’ve had some novice drivers ask me to point out what I’m looking at at any given instance, and I usually refuse to do that. I explain that although my technique works for me, I am in the minority, and that I’d rather they started out looking ahead and being aware and then looking where I look to see how that feels.