3 Reasons Why I Hate “Slow In Fast Out”

By Alessio Lorandi, 2013 CIK-FIA World Champion, KF-Junior. Updated on 22 October 2026.

Guys, welcome back. I just got back from a race today. I mean, I didn’t drive. I was with the team, with BabyRace. We had an X30 race in Lonato. It went pretty well. We did one, two and three in Under 10, and P3 in Gr.3 in 60 Mini. So I was quite pleased. But while I was having a shower, like literally an hour ago, I was thinking about what happened this morning, when I was watching the data of one of my drivers against another driver. Two teammates.

And I could see something that I think relates to a lot of drivers, and that a lot of drivers make as a mistake. And I think it starts from mechanics or coaches or parents giving the wrong advice and the wrong guidance. That is the concept of slow in, fast out. In this guide I will share with you three reasons, plus a couple of bonus ones, of why I hate the concept of slow in, fast out, and why I believe it’s just bad to teach the kids, and any racing driver, to drive with this kind of approach and mentality.

And I’ll go through each one, one by one. Agree or disagree, I would like to know. It’s something that I have discovered over the years, not only by driving myself, anything from karting to Formula 3, Formula 2, etc. I have really seen it not only in my driving, but also in my drivers at BabyRace.

And here at Senndit, I can see that all the drivers who have this sort of mindset are going to struggle in the long run. They may get some fast laps here and there, but in the race pace and in the racecraft too, they will always kind of struggle. And I will share with you the exact reasons why.

What does slow in, fast out actually claim?

What actually happens when you brake early?

But the reality is not like that. The reality is that most of the times when you try to brake early, stop the kart early in order to get a better exit, 90% of the times, I would say, based on my experience, not only do you get a bad entry, so you lose time on the entry, but you also lose time on the exit. Even more.

Why does that happen? For many reasons.

Why does braking early make you turn in and apex early?

Because normally when drivers brake early, automatically they start to turn in early. And when they turn in early, they apex early. And they apex early with not enough rotation. Because when you attack that corner, you generate rotation. When you’re not attacking the corner, because you’re going slow, you do not generate the rotation. And therefore you will have some understeer in the mid exit.

So normally what happens is you brake early, automatically you turn early, you apex early, which means you have to rotate the kart on the exit, and therefore it’s a worse exit too. That’s what people sell you, the coaches, the mechanics in the paddock. They say, “Oh, you got to go slow in to get fast out.”

What does slow in, fast out look like on the speed trace?

If you are familiar with data, this is basically the speed trace. The red is braking earlier in order to get a better mid exit, and the green is braking later. And typically what’s thought is that the green is going to get the worse exit. But the reality is not really like that.

The reality is that most of the times, when you are the green and you’re able to brake really late and stop the kart, you’re going to possibly lose a bit in the mid corner, but most of the times you’re going to get an equal exit or a little better. This is really what I see day to day.

And I will show it to you in the data. Actually, let’s show you right away.

What did the data of two teammates show in the warm up?

So this was from this morning, literally from the warm up, these two drivers. The driver in red finished P3 in the race, and he had P2 in quali. The driver in green finished P5 in the final and P4 in quali. What you can see here, which is very interesting, is that the green is approaching the slow in, fast out technique.

It’s exactly what I’m talking about. So what does he do? As you can see, he brakes earlier. Even though the RPMs here are a little bit offset, but anyway, stay with me. He just brakes a bit earlier. He comes with less speed from the previous corner. I think this is more of a slipstream thing. Interesting there. But anyway, for whatever reason, he arrives with a little bit less speed into the corner and he still brakes in relatively the same place. The end result is that his entry speed into the corner is slower. It is 77 against 80.

And you would argue, okay, if the slow in, fast out technique works, the green should have a way better exit, right? No. And it’s exactly what happens most of the times when you are braking early. As you can see from the map, look at the green.

The green starts to turn in earlier, but then he ends up missing the apex. And just washing out wide. Now, I’m not saying that every time you turn in early, you miss the apex. That’s silly for me to say. But when you brake early, turn early, I see lots of drivers doing that.

What is the crossover that gives it away?

And you can look at this crossover. This is the definition of not holding the brakes properly, and this is exactly what happens to many of the rookie drivers, especially in 60 Mini, the young drivers. They are braking maybe initially quite well, but then they come off the brakes too early, because they realize they’re too early, and automatically they release and start to turn in.

They go a bit too quick on the entry. They miss the apex, as I mentioned. You can see very quickly he missed the apex.

But then you can see, most importantly, he loses a lot on the exit.

How do you lose three tenths in a single corner?

So overall, if you look at the delta time, by the next corner he lost three tenths. In that corner alone. What we can see is that he’s doing the slow in, fast out technique, but the problem is, as I would say, most of the times when you are approaching the corner slower on the entry, you also get a bad exit. Because, as I said, most of the times when you brake early, automatically you turn in early, and you release the brakes because you realize you’re too slow.

And most of the times the kids, or normal drivers, or even adults, they don’t realize that because they’re releasing the brakes, they’re actually carrying too much speed into the mid corner. And then they end up missing the apex and getting a worse exit. But again, anytime you’re turning in too early, for whatever reason, most of the times you’re going to get a worse exit.

Especially in the hairpin. Now, in the fast corners it’s probably fine to turn in very early, but in the slow corners, especially hairpins like this, it will not work.

Reason 1: why do you never build car control?

So the number one reason why it’s so bad to do slow in, fast out is that you don’t train your car control. You’re not developing your car control skills. This is what I’m trying to point out. No car control development. You have to think about it.

Every time you are going fast in the corner, you’re developing car control. But think about it. There’s a limit, I already talked about this a few days ago in another guide. Call the limit 100% in a given corner. If you drive below the limit, because you’re not pushing hard enough on the entry, and you drive at 90%…

…you’re not developing your car control skills. Because the kart is not understeering and it’s not oversteering either. And if you’re not driving in that zone, where you’re testing your car control skills, you’re never learning. You’re never developing as a racing driver. You know what I mean?

Why does car control only exist at or above the limit?

So anywhere from 100% onwards, that’s beyond the limit. From 100% to, let’s say, 110%. You still lose time, because maybe you miss the apex, you brake too late, etc. But you do that because you over push.

So from here to here, that’s car control territory. You develop your car control. Below, you do not develop your car control. Think about when you’re running in the engine. Anywhere from zero to 100, you’re not developing car control.

When you’re running in the engine, are you pushing in the corners or not? Not. So are you developing your car control or not? Not. No car control. So that is the number one reason why I hate slow in, fast out: you never really push your limits, you never really get used to driving beyond the limit, and therefore you are never really learning how to drive.

You’re just like a passenger. That’s my take. You’re not attacking, you’re not learning.

Reason 2: why do you never find the limit?

The number two reason is something I take very, very personally, and I think it’s very related to the first one. It is that you never really know where the limit is.

What did the old mechanic’s corner at Lonato teach me?

This is something that my mechanic told me when I was like 10, 11. And I wish somebody could have told me even earlier. We were in the hairpin at Lonato. For the guys who know Lonato, there used to be an old layout of the track, and it was so cool, because there was a corner named the mechanic’s corner.

There is still a corner named mechanic’s corner, but it’s a completely different corner. It used to be a very low speed hairpin, and then you go onto a straight. So in this hairpin you would have to smash the brakes.

You would have to smash the brakes so hard, and you have to really attack the entries. And to be honest, it would be good for you to attack the entry, because there wasn’t a long straight after it. So this would be a typical line.

You’d be all open, attacking the entry like crazy, and then you’re preparing for the next one. So even if you overshot the corner a little bit, because you braked so late, you wouldn’t have lost much on the exit, because you’d still be able to make it back for the next one.

You know what I mean? So it was such an amazing corner for me to develop my own braking skills, my car control skills.

What does “frena più tardi, prova di più” mean?

And I remember my mechanic used to tell me, “Oh, Alessio, if you’re not over pushing, I mean, if you’re not braking so late that you miss the corner, how do you know where the limit is?” And he was right. At first I was too focused on making the apexes, I was too focused on being precise. He did not say it in English, of course. In Italian it was: “Frena più tardi. Prova di più.”

Brake later. Try more, try harder. And he was totally right. God bless him for giving me that insight. I wish somebody could have told me earlier, and maybe this is the wake up call for you. You do not want to drive constantly below the limit. Because if you drive constantly below the limit, you will never know where the limit is.

For real. Like for real. Going back to the example I was sharing with you before.

Why is 98% every lap not good enough?

Let’s say you drive at 98% every lap. 98% means you’re like half a second off at the end of the lap. Maybe it’s not a very bad lap. Maybe not top 1%, but it still puts you among the top 5% drivers in the world, if you’re within half a second at a WSK race weekend or a CIK-FIA race weekend.

But let’s go back to it. If you’re driving at 98%, you’re basically never testing the limit. This is your 98, then your 97, 99, across a session. You’re never testing the limit. How will you know where the limit is? It’s going to be impossible for you.

So that’s why I want the drivers to do the opposite. I want drivers to go very aggressive on lap one, beyond the limit, and then bring it back a bit. Okay, now I’m under the limit. Now beyond the limit. And then let’s say by lap four they found the limit. And ideally they drive on the limit till the end of the session.

Vice versa, the drivers who drive under the limit and are not really pushing the entries, the slow in, fast out guys, are always driving at 98%, 99%, 97%, and they will never be able to find the limit. I’m telling you. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it. These guys will never find the limit. So point number two: never testing the limit.

And there are two bonuses at the end of this, not one.

Reason 3: why do you never heat the tyres?

The number three. When you are going slow on the entry and you’re not attacking, you’re probably not braking as late, you’re probably not braking as hard. What happens to your tyres? Are they being stressed, or are they being massaged? Think about it. They’re not going to be stressed so much. And what happens when you’re not stressing the tyres?

You’re not generating temperature. You’re not generating heat.

How does tyre temperature give you grip?

And when you’re not generating temperature, you’re not generating grip. Because remember, guys, the grip of the tyres is directly correlated with temperature. If this was a graph, like the XY graphs you did at school, I will make it very simple, just don’t quote me on this: the grip level increases, it goes up and up.

It goes from cold to green. And then at some point it starts to go down, when it’s too hot. But it’s very hard in karting to get the tyres too hot, especially in the winter.

So this is grip, and here is the temperature. As you can see, the higher the temperature, the more grip there is, obviously until a certain extent.

For example, here is 90°. It depends, obviously, guys, don’t quote me on this for every tyre. But if you go past 90°C, most of the tyres on the market are going to start to blister, or overheat and lose the grip.

But from 0° all the way up until 90°, you’re going to get more grip. More and more grip, I’m telling you. But again, every tyre is going to behave differently. Some tyres are very hard and they will have a window a little bit later.

Some tyres are very soft and they don’t need a lot of working temperature. I love those ones, like Vega. Some are even softer. So you will get many different types of tyres, obviously. Don’t quote me for all the dry tyres, I’m just giving you an example here.

What I was about to say is that there’s a direct correlation between temperature and grip. Clear? So the first few laps, unless it’s summer and it’s like 60, 70 degrees C asphalt temperature, in any other conditions you will want to generate as much temperature as you can, until you feel like you got to the optimal peak of the tyres in terms of temperature. And then you have to control them.

But again, that’s something that the driver needs to feel. You need to feel when the grip has arrived, and then you don’t want to over push, because otherwise you’re going to be blistering and overheating the tyres, and that’s not good.

So point number three is that when you are driving constantly under the limit, guys, you have to consider that you’re not stressing the tyres so much. No tyre temperature. That’s what I’m talking about. It’s going to take you more laps to get up to temperature in this case.

It’s going to take you more laps to get to this peak. Let’s make a hypothetical scenario. The driver who attacks like crazy is going to be up at the peak early and then it’s going to stay there. The driver who’s driving with the slow in, fast out technique is going to take so long to get the tyres up to temperature.

Now, I’m exaggerating, but it’s really like that. I’m not joking. It’s going to make a big difference whether you attack the corners or you’re being conservative. Especially if you’re driving with MG or Maxxis tyres. The best ones I’ve ever seen are LeCont and Vega, and to be honest Komet is not too bad.

They’re quite good. I quite like them as tyres. They’re quite soft. For me the best of the best is LeCont. The second best is Vega. The Vega white for the KZ is very good, and also for the other categories. Then Komet. The worst in terms of grip level are Maxxis and MG. I mean, they’re good if you just want to go and drive and do like 200 laps without changing the tyres.

Those are fine, but if you want to go and attack the lap and try to get max performance on a random day, those tyres are not soft enough. They’re too hard. And on top of that, that’s actually an interesting thing: the harder the tyre, the more you’re going to feel this issue of not enough temperature and not enough grip.

Why are hard tyres and a cold track the worst combination?

So if we go towards MG tyres or Maxxis tyres, the tyres are very hard. And if you combine hard tyres with cold temperature and low grip, if you combine these three things, the slow in, fast out technique is going to be even worse. In those conditions, when it’s cold, you’re going to attack the entries like crazy.

What did I see from Verstappen at the 2012 Winter Cup?

You’re going to attack the entries like crazy, and I’m telling you, I remember Max Verstappen. I was looking up to him. We were at South Garda Karting Lonato, it was the Winter Cup 2012, the first time I was watching him live with my eyes. I used to watch his races on YouTube, but the first time I saw him was the Winter Cup 2012. And every session, in the first couple of laps, you could see smoke coming out of his tyres on the brakes, for how hard he was braking, for how hard he was attacking. I’m telling you, he was definitely not driving with a slow in, fast out approach.

It was fast in and fast out. Fast in, fast mid. He was attacking the entries, because guys, the entry is the only opportunity you have, especially in the slow speed corners like hairpins, to generate temperature. And I’m telling you, if you attack the entries you’re going to have more temperature, and more temperature equals more grip for the rest of the corner.

So Max that day made me realize, holy, we’re all getting it wrong. We need to attack the first laps like crazy. And every time I watched his races, he would just pull such a massive gap in the first laps, and then he would just be cruising in the end.

Bonus 4: why do you never train your braking?

So bonus number four is that you are never developing your braking skills. Because guys, braking is a skill. And if all the time you brake below your limit, below the potential pressure of the brakes and the potential grip of the tyres, if you’re braking all the time below the limit…

…you are never going to get the feeling of braking on the limit.

How hard should you actually be braking in a kart?

Guys, in karting, with most categories, most tracks and most tyres, you want to brake so hard that you lock the rears. You want to almost have the rear moving a bit on the brakes. And I love that, but it’s really something that you have to develop.

It’s not something that, as soon as you’re born, before even jumping into the kart for the first time, you’re able to do, braking perfectly. No, it’s something you develop. I’m sure Max Verstappen was not able to brake like a legend already from day one, session one, lap one at the track.

He got a lot of laps to practice, and he became the driver he became, and I think he is the number one. I raced Russell, I raced Norris, I won the world championship against Norris in 2013. I raced Stroll, I raced Leclerc as well, I raced a bunch more. But I think Max was just another level, for many reasons.

But going back to the slow in, fast out technique: if you are doing that, you’re not putting your braking skills to the test. You’re never going beyond your limits, and again, you are always staying within your comfort zone.

That is the problem. You stay within your comfort zone, and staying in your comfort zone is basically the recipe for not improving. You just stay the same. And I don’t know about you, but if we stay the same, we’re not improving, and we’re just not going to go anywhere. We’re just not going to develop as racing drivers.

The goal is to win, sure, but more important than winning is developing as a racing driver. So bonus number four is that we’re not going to develop the braking skills if we brake early to get a better exit all the time. Which again, most of the times, means you brake early, turn early and get a worse exit.

So much for slow in, fast out.

Bonus 5: why does it make you a target in a race?

And the fifth bonus, which I think is extremely important, not really in qualifying but in the races. Last time I checked, you don’t get trophies for qualifying. Now in F1 you do get a trophy, since a few years, and even in some categories you get trophies, but let’s forget that.

Last time I checked, the big trophy and the points for the championship are in the final. They’re in the races. So even if you are really fast on paper, but you cannot race, it’s still not good, right?

So think about it.

What happens on lap one in a pack?

You’re in a group of five drivers on lap one, and you’re going into a hairpin. What happens if you are, let’s say, the third driver in the group, and you try to apply the slow in, fast out technique? And you have drivers around you who are the opposite, who are extremely aggressive on the entries and extremely late on the brakes.

What do you think is going to happen? Are they going to say, “Oh, let’s just follow him, because he takes it easy on the entry, because he wants to get a good exit”? What do you think?

No. They’re going to see you brake early, and they’re just going to dive into you. That’s it. I’ve seen so many drivers who have not developed their skills on the brakes. They have this slow in, fast out mentality. They’re always below the limit.

They’re always within their comfort zone. And because of that, even if they somehow manage to get a decent lap and start at the front, which I don’t think is the case most of the times, but let’s pretend they get to the front: guys, if you drive with a slow in, fast out mentality, you’re going to get passed every lap.

You’re just going to go backwards, as we say in Italian, like a gambero, like a shrimp. Because shrimps go backwards. They don’t go forward, they go backwards. I don’t know if that’s the same joke in English. It sounds nice in Italian. But yeah, the fifth reason is that you’re just vulnerable on the brakes.

Vulnerable in the race. I hope you understand what I’m saying. Whenever drivers are behind you, they’re going to be overtaking you easily, effortlessly, because you are so focused on your exits.

And if you try to make the switch directly in the race, this is the problem: it is too late. You have not got the skills for that. It takes the skills, it takes time. It’s not that you were not born with those skills. It’s that you never pushed yourself, you never pushed your comfort zone, and because of that it’s something unnatural for you to push the entries. And you need to push the entries, you have to brake late, not only because you want to warm up the tyres, not only because you want to be on the limit. For many reasons.

Because when you are in the race, braking late is like a safety. It’s like a shield. It protects you.

Why is late braking a shield?

When you brake late, you make it hard for drivers to overtake you. I remember I had this driving style where I would brake so late, thanks to the mechanic that pushed me so hard, and all the brake bleeding that I asked him to do. Guys, you cannot believe it. I drove my mechanic crazy. I drove him nuts, because every session I would ask him to bleed the brakes.

You have no idea. By the way, it’s a joke within the team at BabyRace: there’s like 20 mechanics, and nobody wants to be my mechanic. Nobody, because they know how obsessed I am. I always tell this to my drivers at BabyRace. You guys need to be obsessed. Anyway, back to it.

If you are not strong on the brakes, if you’re not attacking the entries as your driving style, if you approach the slow in, fast out technique, you’re going to be vulnerable in the race, most of the times in the first laps. Especially in juniors, where the level is so high. Looking at the CIK-FIA races, the champions of the future, the level is so high, the field is so close, and if you are not strong on the brakes, even half a metre early on the brakes, people will send it from behind.

In a race, people do not only overtake because they want to. Sometimes they have to, because the best defence is to attack. So sometimes they look in the back, there’s a group of 10 drivers all behind, and they see you’re not defending and you’re braking early, and they’re like, “Oh, there you go.

Here’s my lunch. I’m going to eat this guy.” And that’s it, you’re going to be their lunch. You don’t want to be eaten for lunch, you want to eat the others for lunch. And if you are early on the brakes, because you have this slow in, fast out mentality that a lot of coaches and a lot of mechanics unfortunately keep preaching, you’re just going to be easy prey in a race.

What did that driver do in qualifying, two hours later?

So these are the five reasons why I hate the slow in, fast out technique, and I showed you the data from this morning, literally. And after watching this, the kid made a massive step from this session. He went into quali and he was P1 until the last two laps. Look at that. Yeah, the track got quite a bit better, but have a look. He braked later, look in the red, he stopped the kart and obviously got a way better mid exit, and he also made the apex.

Here he apexed later, in the red. He got better rotation. In the green he didn’t make the apex, in the red he did, and he got a way better exit. Between entry and exit he found about four tenths, without touching the kart between sessions, which is quite extraordinary. And it was not thanks to me. Definitely I pointed this out to him, but it was thanks to him.

It was him realizing that the slow in, fast out technique doesn’t work. I believe it works sometimes, very rarely, in some corners. But as a mentality, approaching every corner slow in, fast out just doesn’t work most of the times.

So when does slow in, fast out actually work?

Now, do I like this style? Not really. But there’s a time when the “brake early, gas early” approach could actually work.

Let’s say you’re behind a teammate and you want to follow and push him, to go together and get a good lap time, or to pull the gap on the others behind while collaborating. You don’t want to overtake (maybe it’s team strategy), but you also don’t want to lose time.

Both of you can pull away from the pack behind if you work together like this.

It’s super common in categories like Mini 60 or Juniors, and even more in X30 or Rotax, where drivers work together a lot, because there’s no engine limiter and drafting is really powerful.

So in those scenarios it’s good for the driver in front to push super deep on the entries, and for the driver behind to set up for better exits, so he can push him all the way through.

Look, if I had the choice, I’d always rather be the one attacking, not the one pushing from the back.

I want to be the one braking late, pushing the limits and going for the overtake. That’s my style. But again, racing sometimes isn’t just about pure speed. It’s also about knowing which strategy to use and when. And even if this isn’t my go to move, it’s important that you know it and know how to use it when you need it.

What should you work on instead?

Slow in, fast out is just one strategy in your toolkit. If you really want to master cornering, work on:

• Late braking
• Trail braking
• Racing lines in general

And of course, to analyze all of them, telemetry. That’s where you start gaining serious lap time.

Related: the good and bad karting mistakes, and deceleration efficiency explained.

If you want me to work on your braking and your entries with you, one corner at a time, that is what I do in the 6 months transformation. And if you just want me to look at one of your sessions, send me your onboard for an onboard review.