Entry Vs Exit – Where Do You Want To Rotate?

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

We’ve talked about rotation multiple times across the 6-month training program, but in this lesson I want to address the difference between rotating mostly on the entries, on the brakes, and rotating mostly on the exits, on the throttle.

Should you rotate the kart on the entry or on the exit?

On the entry. Among the racing community it’s quite common, and it’s quite clear, that the rotation has to happen mostly until the apex. Then you’re still rotating a little bit on the exit.

But you should not have to rotate more on the exit. If you rotate more past the apex, it’s a problem.

It means you did not complete the corner.

If you rotate mostly on the entry, you get a much better exit, and the whole corner is going to be faster. Of course, there’s a limit to it. But that’s what I see studying data for many, many years, and it’s what I feel myself when I’m driving. If I’m rotating the kart mostly from the entry to the mid, the exit is going to be very easy.

If I don’t rotate the kart enough from the entry to the mid, because for some reason I turned in early, then my exit is going to be a nightmare. And it’s the same for every driver.

And if you force the rotation then, the kart slides. I explain that kind of slide in why missing the line makes your kart slide.

What does rotation actually mean in a kart?

There are many ways to define rotation. My simple way is this: taking the kart from pointing in one direction on the entry to pointing in the other direction on the exit, as quickly as possible.

Imagine you had an arrow pointing from the centre of your kart, one metre ahead of it. You want to take that arrow from where it points on the entry to where you want it to point on the exit. And if you want to be fast, you want that to take as little time as possible.

In this lesson the question is where you rotate. Why rotation is lap time, and what the weight does while you rotate, I explain in what rotation is and why it is lap time.

What are the four phases of a corner?

Remember, a corner has four phases. In a hairpin, with a straight in front of it and a real braking zone, you get all four. In all the other corners we have three.

The first one is from the moment you hit the brakes until you stop braking in a straight line. That’s the straight line braking. You brake in a straight line, maximum pressure, without really turning.

Then we have the entry. From the moment you start turning with the brakes, until the moment you are about to come off the brakes. That’s your entry.

Then you have the mid, from the moment you come off the brakes to the moment you go on the gas. And that’s normally a little bit before the apex. The apex is slightly later. In most categories we get on the gas a bit earlier than the apex, especially in Mini, Junior and Senior. In KZ, maybe we go on the gas right at the apex most of the time.

And then everything else is the exit.

If you want the whole corner, phase by phase, with the line, I go through it in what the mid corner is for.

Can you rotate the kart in the straight line braking?

No. You can’t really rotate there. Your rotation in the straight line braking is zero.

Your goal there is just to shed the speed as quickly as possible. The goal is to complete the maximum rotation, as much rotation as possible, in the entry. Not in the straight line braking.

And the moment you start turning, the straight line braking ends and the entry begins.

Where does most of the rotation happen in a corner?

Where you get the most rotation is actually the mid corner. And the area where you get the second highest amount of rotation is the entry.

But I like to call them and consider them the same when it comes to rotation. Entry and mid together. Because here’s the thing, and this is my rule of thumb to be fast: you need to complete the rotation by the end of the mid. So right before you’re going to go on the gas.

How much of the rotation should be done by the apex?

From the entry to the end of the mid, you need to have completed at least 50% of the rotation of the corner.

And you’re like, what the hell does this mean, Alessio? So this is the thing.

Say the corner is 180 degrees. A textbook hairpin, maybe a bit more open on the exit. The theory is that you complete at least 91 degrees before you go on the gas. So a little bit more than half.

So the goal is that you complete more than 50% of the rotation by the apex. You do most of that in the mid corner, and the rest of it on the entry. And then the rest, let’s say 40, 45%, is on the exit.

You see, on the exit you still rotate. Just less.

Where should the peak of rotation be?

On the entry. And that’s the reason why so many drivers make the mistake.

The peak of rotation, the single moment in the whole corner where the kart rotates the most, comes on the entry. Why? Because you’re holding the brakes and you’re turning. The brakes are creating the rotation.

If you don’t get that maximum rotation there, remember, at least 50% of the rotation from the entry to the mid, you will then be forced to complete the rotation on the exit.

Why is the average rotation higher in the mid corner?

I don’t want to make it too complicated. You’ll be like, Alessio, you said before that most of the rotation you get in the mid corner. In theory, yes. And in practice, yes.

Think about it. The mid corner is very short. It’s very little. But in that area you have very high values of rotation, for every tenth of a second you spend there. Whereas where the entry starts, at the very beginning, you have very low values. You start the entry with a little bit of rotation and it builds up.

So the average rotation is higher in the mid, and so is the rotation per metre. The peak is on the entry. The average is in the mid.

What does the driver do with the brakes at the peak of rotation?

He’s holding the brakes and he’s turning. That’s it.

In this lesson I used a driver at Lonato, and you can see it very well. He’s stamping on the brakes. Then he’s just holding on to the brakes. And the moment he starts to turn, still almost braking, that’s where he gets the peak of the rotation. The reason why the kart is rotating so much is because he’s holding the brakes while he starts turning.

And of course, it’s not just the brakes. The speed he’s carrying into the corner is also making the kart rotate. That is exactly what we need to make the corner as fast as possible. You need to get the kart to rotate.

The number one way to rotate is with the brakes. Yes, you heard me well. That’s the reason why you trail the brakes and hold them all the way up until the apex. When you hold the brakes, you transfer the weight forward. In a kart you don’t feel it as much as in a car, but you feel it with the flexing of the tubes. Sometimes I’ve driven my KZ with a very low front bumper, and when I was braking hard I could feel the bumper touching the ground.

So I always tell my drivers: you have understeer. What can you do with your pedals to get more rotation? With the brakes. Then go out and do it. If you feel there’s not enough rotation and you’re at 80% of your braking capacity, get to 100%. In the hairpins you can really make a massive difference by braking later, harder and holding the brakes a bit longer. You’ll see the kart rotate better.

And when you do a proper rotation from the entry to the mid, the exit almost always comes as a consequence. How deep to trail and how to let go of the pedal, I go through in the art of trail braking.

Why do so many drivers end up rotating on the exit?

Because they brake early.

It’s 90 percent of the time the case that when a driver brakes early, he will automatically turn early. It’s an automatism of our muscle memory. When we brake, we wait a tiny bit and we start to turn. Of course it varies from driver to driver, track to track, corner to corner. But we all have that sequence.

So if we brake early, we turn in early. If we turn in early, we get an early apex. We don’t have the right rotation by the mid corner. We’re pointing in the wrong direction at the mid corner.

And so we have to do the rotation on the exit, when we should instead be almost straight with the steering wheel.

Add going on the gas too early, before the apex, with the wrong angle, and that’s the disaster corner. You couldn’t do more mistakes than braking early, turning in early and getting on the gas too early.

Most beginners make this mistake, not only in karting but also in race cars. The fix is that they start focusing on braking later. That automatically gets them to turn later, make a later apex and get a better exit. What happens when you turn in too early or too late, corner by corner, is in how to prioritize exits, and fixing the braking point itself is in how to fix your early braking.

What does rotating on the exit cost you?

Think about it. If you apex early by turning early, you give up rotation on the entry, and you need more rotation on the exit. And then you have a worse exit, because you still have to slow the kart down and rotate it on the exit.

That does not let you use all the traction of your tires to accelerate in a straight line. You are asking the tires on the exit not only to accelerate, but also to rotate the kart.

Whereas if you do most of the rotation on the entry, on the exit you are left with mainly the acceleration part. And that’s much better than doing the acceleration part and a lot of rotation at the same time.

If you try to go on the gas anyway, without the rotation, you get pushed out wide. Your line is affected and your exit speed is affected. Then you have to lift, or put in too much steering and scrub the speed.

So if you feel that the drivers in front of you are getting way better exits, and it’s not just the concertina effect, try a later apex. Stop the kart more on the entry and induce more rotation on the entry. Then on the exit you are left with getting the power down.

How do you overlap coming off the brakes and getting on the gas?

When the kart has completed the rotation and I know I’m not going to get pushed out wide, I go on the gas. So as soon as you reach the maximum part of the rotation, most of the time before the apex, you go on the gas. Or just a tiny bit later than that. As soon as you feel the kart has rotated nicely.

Normally I get on the throttle at the apex, or one, two metres earlier. It’s very rare to go on the throttle after the apex. I can’t really recall any corner, unless you overshot it. Of course I’m talking about a single corner, not a double apex or a chicane.

In a KZ you hold the brakes pretty much until the apex. Not past the apex, that would be silly, because right at the apex you also want to be on the throttle. So the transition between off the brakes and on the gas has to be really, really fast.

But you need a transition. Between the brake and the gas I want 0.1 seconds, maximum 0.2. In that moment the kart loads, it lifts the inside rear wheel and it rotates. If you go from the brakes straight to the gas with not even 0.1, you put both rear wheels down and the kart pushes you on the exit.

You see, that’s the perfect overlap. Coming off the brakes, rotation done, getting on the gas.

And to be clear: I don’t want kids to become robots, with their coaches or their dads telling them you have to go on the gas two metres before the apex because Alessio said so. Everything happens quite rapidly and almost instinctively. You need to let the driver feel it. The goal is to give him the technique knowledge, that he needs to trail the brakes until the apex, and let him feel the rest.

What if you reach the apex and the kart has not rotated yet?

Then you wait on the throttle.

Maybe you turned in early. Maybe you overtook somebody, or you had to stay tight. Whatever the reason, if you haven’t rotated the kart properly from the entry to the mid, you won’t be able to go on the gas before the apex. It’s going to push you out even more.

That’s why everything goes hand in hand. If you brake really late and trail the brakes all the way to the apex, you generate more load on the front and more rotation. And that lets you get on the gas earlier.

Not only because you rotated, but also because you stopped the kart more efficiently. Say the maximum speed the grip lets you carry at the apex is 60 kilometres an hour. If you try to carry 61, 62, you’re probably going to miss the apex or slide. So to get to that 60 you have to hold the brakes a little bit more. And once you’re there, you pick up the gas as soon as you have the maximum rotation completed.

I learned it on a wet day, and in my book draft I wrote it down like this. You need to complete the rotation before picking up the throttle. You need to rotate quickly so you can pick up the throttle sooner.

Is it ever fine to leave more rotation for the exit?

Yes, sometimes. But it has to be a choice.

The faster the corner, the earlier the apex. The slower the corner, the later the apex. That’s the rule of thumb. In medium and high speed corners you go for an earlier apex most of the time, so you leave a bit more rotation for later. In the slow corners and the hairpins, the late apex and the rotation on the entry win.

The kart balance matters too. If the kart has a lot of understeer on the exit, you want a later apex so the steering is as straight as possible when you go full power. If the kart has great rotation on the exit, you can go for a bit of an earlier apex, because you can rely on it.

And if you feel you’re losing on the entries and gaining on the exits, but overall it’s still a time loss, then the next lap try to carry more entry speed. Turn a bit earlier, do a bit less rotation on the entry, and sacrifice a bit on the exit. The goal is that the whole corner is quicker. When the exit itself deserves priority, before a long straight, I explain in how to get a good exit.

Can you see where you rotate in your data?

Yes. The way I like to look at rotation is with the lateral accelerometer. It tells me, in a good way, where the maximum rotation point of the corner is. You can see that on a MyChron.

If the peak sits inside the entry, where braking and steering overlap, you’re doing it right. If it comes after the apex, the rotation is happening too late.

Reading that trace corner by corner is a data job, and that’s what PURPL, the app I built, is for. Upload your MyChron file and it hands back the three things to change next time out.

If you’d rather I look at your driving myself, send me your onboard for an onboard review and I’ll tell you corner by corner where you’re still rotating on the exit. And if you want to build this week after week with me, that’s what the 6-month training program is for.

What do drivers ask most about entry and exit rotation?

Should you rotate a kart on the entry or the exit?

Mostly on the entry and in the mid corner, on the brakes. You still rotate a little on the exit, but if you rotate more past the apex than before it, you did not complete the corner and the exit gets worse.

How much of the rotation should be done by the apex?

At least 50%, by the end of the mid corner, when you go on the gas. On a 180 degree hairpin that is at least 91 degrees. The rest, around 40 to 45%, is on the exit.

Where is the peak of rotation in a corner?

On the entry, where you are holding the brakes and turning. The mid corner is short but has the highest average rotation for every metre.

Why do I keep rotating on the exit?

Most of the time because you brake early. When you brake early you turn in early, you take an early apex and you arrive at the mid corner pointing the wrong way. Brake later and the later turn in and the better exit come automatically.

When should you go on the throttle in a corner?

When the kart has reached its maximum rotation, normally at the apex or one, two metres before it, with a transition of 0.1 to 0.2 seconds between the brakes and the gas.