One of the first things that instructors say to new students on the track is to “look THROUGH the corner to where you want to go.” Invariably this always comes up with my students too. But unlike most instructors, I’m always a bit hesitant as to what to say. You see, for me, I DON’T do my best driving looking through a corner. Rather, I drive best when most of my attention is focused right in front of me, analyzing where my car is RIGHT NOW.

So which approach is best? The answer is that there is no right answer to this question. All that matters is that you take the correct line through the corner AND that you are aware of what other cars around you are doing. Where you look is irrelevant as long as both of these criteria are met. That said, most people accomplish both of these criteria best by looking through the corner, and that is what I have my students, at least at first.

Why Looking Through the Corner is Useful

The main reason why looking through a corner is useful is that people naturally tend to go in the direction that they are looking. Back in drivers ed, your “instructor” (it’s kind of funny to me to call them that, now that I know how much they don’t know) probably told you to look where you want to go, and you will naturally head in that direction. Conversely, you were probably told, “DON’T look where you DON’T want to go.” I.e., if you start to lose control, don’t look at that guardrail you don’t want to hit because if you do, you’ll be drawn right towards it (so that line of thinking goes, anyways). The same logic is also used when teaching people how to downhill ski and ice skate.

So how does that rationale apply on the track? Well, if you are looking through a corner to your track out point, you will naturally be drawn and thus drive your car to that point. The problem with looking right in front of you is that if you are a novice or unfamiliar with the track, you may be drawn to a spot well short of your track out point. This will effectively be an early apex, and that is always a problem, sometimes catastrophically.

The other major benefit of looking through the corner is that you will be more likely to be aware of other cars or hazards that are on the track. If you are looking at the apex 5 feet in front of you, you may be oblivious to the car 100 feet ahead of you that just spun out and is now right in your path. Or you may not see the flagger frantically waving the yellow flag to warn you of a situation just out of your field of view.

Drawbacks to Looking too Far Ahead/Benefits of Looking 5 Feet in Front of You

In my experience, most people never get to this question of why NOT to look ahead in the corner. Everything in the previous section is simply taken as gospel. OR, people actually end up doing what I do without realizing it, which is to combine looking ahead with looking 5 feet in front of you.

The main problem with looking far ahead at all times is that while your general line may be correct, you aren’t paying enough attention to where you are NOW to fine tune your line and get it perfect. 6 inches (or even 1 inch) may not seem like much, but it means a lot at the limit. If you are 6 inches away from your apex, you are not using as much road as you could and thus are going slower (as a general rule). And if you track out 6 inches off the track in the dirt, well, you can probably deduce why that is a bad thing.

For me, the main benefit I derive from looking right in from of me is gauging how my line is through that particular corner. The three main reference points in a corner are turn in, apex, and track out. But there are a myriad of other reference points you can use along the way to ensure that you connect these three main points correctly. With longer corners, using more reference points along the way becomes even more important. At Watkins Glen, for example, the right hand sweeper just after the bus stop is very long and you have a blind apex going in. You can either go by “feel” to make sure you hit the apex, or aim for another point part of the way there. As of last season, there was a darker patch of pavement right in the middle of the track well before the apex. I always used that as an additional reference point to know whether my line was correct at that point.

The End Result is All That Counts

Remember, the reason why everyone says to look through a corner is because you see where you want to go, and then naturally drive the car to that point. This end result - putting your car at the correct track out point - will always be constant. In other words, all you and anyone else cares about is getting through the corner on the correct line. As long as you can repeatably drive on the same line, it does not matter whether you do so by looking at each pebble 2 inches from your front bumper as they whiz by or the tops of the trees 5 miles ahead.

The only other consideration is that you are aware of what other cars are doing, around and ahead of you. This really comes down to your own level of awareness and your peripheral vision. I’ve always been good at taking in things peripherally and generally being aware of them. I can thus afford to spend a bit more time looking closer in front of me. If you cannot, then you need to make a conscience effort to look farther ahead. Again, there is no right answer - all anyone cares about is that you are aware of your surroundings 100%. How you do so is up to you.

You Need to Know the Track VERY WELL to Look Right in Front of You

As I just stated right above, your line through the corner is the end result that you care about. If you don’t know the track very well, then you don’t know what line is best through any given corner. Or, you may not even know whether it is a right or left! In this situation, you may think you are at correct turn in or apex, but may be completely off. At best, this will just yield a bad and slow line through the corner. At worst, you’ll be early apexing and won’t even realize it until its too late because you didn’t look ahead to see where your track out point was.

Again, you are just connecting points through a corner along the line. If you don’t know where those points are, you cannot gauge where your car is on the line based on those points. So LOOK AHEAD UNTIL YOU KNOW THE TRACK WELL ENOUGH TO LOOK RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!

So, Where Should You Look?

As you have probably gathered by now, my answer to this question will always be look wherever you need to look to 1) drive a consistent line while 2) being aware of your surroundings. For ME, I do best looking mostly right in front of me to make sure I’m where I should be on the track at any given point. For most people, they do best looking far ahead through a corner.

So what should you do? I would FIRST look through every corner, as that will help you figure out your line and ensure you are aware of your surroundings. Once you are familiar with the track, you can begin fine tuning your line and looking closer in front of you to see if that helps. Just make sure you don’t sacrifice your awareness in the process or you can end up ramming into someone or something that could have been avoided.