Here’s What Braking By Feeling Looks Like

By Alessio Lorandi, 2013 CIK-FIA World Champion, KF-Junior. Updated on 18 October 2026.

So here we are at Franciacorta. This is my onboard from before I drove the KZ1 World Championship here in 2025. It was a really great experience. In qualifying my lap was literally the same as my theoretical, and it got me P2. I still feel I made a small mistake into the last corner that would have put me on pole.

But anyways, let’s not talk about that. I want to show you exactly what I mean by braking by feeling. By sensing the speed, by sensing the grip, and also just using some memory, like visual memory, rather than just relying on braking points.

To be honest, reference points are very good when they are there. I love reference points, don’t get me wrong. But when you don’t have any, it’s just simply impossible to use them, right? You can’t invent them.

What does it mean to brake by feeling in karting?

In karting you don’t have lots of braking references. So you brake more by feeling. Feeling the conditions, feeling the grip level, and braking to the limit you felt in the previous lap, in the exact same corner you’re braking in right now.

Some drivers may say you have a reference point to the left in this corner at Franciacorta, but I don’t find any real reference points. What I think, though, is that I can sense the braking point by my memory, by visual memory.

I did thousands of laps on this track. And what I can tell now is that once I turn for that corner, I know. It’s muscle memory, basically. I know that as soon as I straighten up the kart, that’s pretty much the moment I will hit the brakes.

Of course, depending on the grip level, the tyres, etc. And as soon as I’m on the brakes, I’m not looking at a braking reference anymore. I’m braking and I’m already pointing myself at the apex. That’s where I’m looking with my eyes, and that’s where I’m pointing the kart.

What goes on in your head during those few metres is in inside the mind of a driver during braking.

Why are there no braking markers on a kart track?

Look at Franciacorta. You can see we have a little bit of a reference point at the last corner. We have a cone. But the cone is not going to be staying there for the race. There’s going to be the red line, but they tend to move it.

So we don’t have any clear reference points to brake in this corner. The only way you brake is just by feeling, as most pro karting drivers do.

And by the way, there are not even that many reference points in karting. If there were, drivers would start to take advantage of them, and it would probably make things more consistent and repeatable. But the reality is that we just don’t have many.

Even where you have some, every corner is right next to the other. It’s all happening so fast that it’s almost impossible, I would say, to find those reference points and use them. That’s why you shouldn’t really focus on them.

Why do race cars brake off boards when karts don’t?

If we were in a Formula car, it would be much easier, in a way. You would have all your reference points: the 50 metre board, the 100, the 150, the 200. So it’s much easier to get your braking point right, compared to karting.

The difficulty with GTs or Formula cars is that you ride with way more speed. In karting you get to 150, or sometimes 160 if you’re driving tracks like Sarno or Zuera in a shifter kart. A Formula 2 car arrives at 300 at Monza. It’s literally twice the speed.

To calculate it: the speed divided by 3.6, then multiplied by 0.1. At 300 km/h you travel 8.3 metres in a tenth of a second. At 150 km/h it’s just over 4 metres. In a blink of an eye, two tenths, you make 16 metres in a Formula car. In a KZ you make eight. It’s still quite a bit, but it’s way more manageable.

Arrive at the first chicane at Monza at 300 and you know you have to brake at 100 metres, because if you brake at 90 you overshoot the corner. Try to brake by feeling there and sometimes it’s too late, sometimes too early. You can’t build a consistency around that.

When you’re driving cars, you’ve gotta have these reference points. Otherwise it’s gonna be super unpredictable for the driver and super hard to be consistent.

Should you put cones on the track as braking markers?

You can do it in testing. In fact we do it a lot at the summer camps with BabyRace. But you can’t really do it in your race. And even in testing, for sure somebody will move them.

So if you relied only on the cones you put here and there, you’ll be quite disappointed when you realise they’ve moved them.

Drivers coming from formula cars down into karting notice this a lot, because they are so used to driving with reference points for their braking. But it is what it is. You can’t change that. As a racing driver you will get used to it.

If you’re not sure whether you’re braking by feel or just braking early, send me your onboard for an onboard review and I’ll tell you where you could brake later.

Where should you look when you brake in a kart?

At your targets, not at a braking marker. Here’s my sequence going into this corner at Franciacorta. My first target is this little area. That’s where I want to place my kart, with 5 to 10 centimetres of gap from the white line.

Why not on the white line? Because it helps me get a little bit better angle for the braking, even though I end up making a little bit more distance. If you want, this is probably the only braking reference I have on the whole track.

1. First target: the entry placement, 5 to 10 centimetres from the white line.
2. Second target: the apex, perfectly on the white line.
3. Third target: the double apex and the exit positioning.
4. On the exit I’m already thinking of my next target, the next apex.

The only way for me to brake there is by feeling, by sensing the speed, by just being courageous, by being brave.

The only goal I have is to open up the entry as much as possible, placing my outside tyre on the white line. Use up as much space on the entry as possible to make the corner a little bit wider. A tighter entry would give me less mid corner and exit speed.

My goal is just to brake as late as possible. And you see I end up using the whole white line in a nice way, almost dipping the wheel onto the grass.

When is a braking reference point worth using in a kart?

I believe karting drivers should always brake by feeling, by sensing the speed. Unless you have some unbelievably clear and obvious reference points, like you do in Lonato.

There you have the braking for the mechanics corner, turn 4, and the braking for the chicane, which are very clear. The mechanics corner is the one I’ve always used: the entry of the kerb to the left. You use that kerb, it opens up the corner very well, and you brake at the beginning of it or a little bit later.

Except in shifter karts. In a KZ you don’t really use that entry kerb, because you’re pointing at the apex while braking, in a V shaped style.

And the rest of Lonato? I’ve been there for 20 years, since I was six years old, and I didn’t find any other real reference points on the braking. You can overthink them, and I think they’re not too effective.

So in KZ, most of the rest of the corners will be just you braking by feeling. Feeling the grip, feeling the speed, and then just pushing. Trying to brake as late as possible, and being later on the brakes than everybody else, that’s it. Nothing else.

Can you brake by the sound of the engine?

Yes, and I like it. Instead of only using visual reference points, you can use the sound. In a shifter kart it’s actually quite easy, because you match the gears to the RPM sound. You build a rhythm and a pattern around the upshifting and the downshifting, and that rhythm builds the repetition, the muscle memory around it.

You’re arriving in fifth gear, and as soon as you arrive at the limit of the gear, that’s when you have to brake. When you feel the engine has screamed and stopped screaming, it’s not going up anymore. OK, then you brake.

I mean, it’s not exactly like that. It’s a mix. The visual cues, the speed you arrive with, some marks on the track, some kerbs you can reference to. And then the sound, because you can really hear the moment you have to brake.

Imagine driving a kart with no sound. I’ve never tried an electric one, but for sure it would be harder, because you wouldn’t hear the engine screaming. That’s a bit of a pity.

How do you know you’re on the limit when you brake by feel?

You have to develop a sort of mental simulator that runs in your head all the time. Did I push too deep and lose on the exit? Or was I too conservative on the entry, and I could have braked 2 metres later?

Then you push the limit yourself. You cross it, you make the mistake, and you bring it back slightly the next lap to hit it perfectly. Then rinse and repeat for the rest of the session. This, my friend, is a very rare skill to have.

When I go through the data with the kids at BabyRace, in a WSK weekend for example, I’m amazed how many can’t feel the optimal braking points on their own. They always need their faster teammate to light up the way for them. I know they’re between 8 and 12. But that’s exactly the skill to build.

That’s how I learned, by the way. I didn’t really have a coach. My mechanic would just say: brake later, brake later. That was his number one advice every time. I was already braking really late, but being pushed to brake later and later turned me into a braking monster, in a way.

The signs that you’re braking too early are in braking too early in karting, and how hard to hit the pedal is in threshold braking in a kart.

Why does your braking point move during a race?

Because the grip is not the same across the race. Say you start on new tyres. The first two, three laps the tyres won’t be up to temperature and pressure, even if you warmed them up in the formation lap. And you’re full of fuel, so the kart weighs roughly three kilos more than at the end.

So you physically won’t be able to brake the latest of the race and still stop the kart. But you still want to brake as late as you possibly can, to warm up the tyres and the brakes.

By lap five, six, seven or eight you have the peak grip. That’s when your braking point moves a bit further down, a tiny bit later. Then by lap 17, 18, 19 you start to slide on the tyres, temperatures and pressures go up, the tread goes down, and you may not brake as late as in the middle of the race.

I was watching the KZ World Championship race at Le Mans and in the first laps the track was two, three seconds slower. I think lots of drivers were fighting hard, going on the grass and bringing dirt back on the track. Brake there like you did in qualifying and you go straight.

That’s why braking by feeling doesn’t mean braking anywhere. When everything stabilises and you have the peak grip, that’s exactly the moment you want to get super precise and repeat it every lap.

Should you look for a new marker to brake later?

Same with videos. From race videos you can get an idea of the lines and the turning points. But you can’t really see the braking points. And they depend massively on the grip level on the track, on the setup and on the category.

The braking point from the session before won’t be the right one either, if the track got faster. You need to develop the feeling of the limits, sensing the grip and adapting from session to session.

And if you would rather have the data read for you, I built PURPL: you upload the MyChron file from the session you just drove, and it hands back the three things to change next time out.

How long does it take to learn to brake by feeling?

Thousands of laps. It comes down to muscle memory and experience. It’s not something you buy from day one.

And you can’t fix it in one second after looking at the data, saying OK, go and fix it. It would be like telling a newbie basketball player to match Kobe Bryant just after watching his game. You’ve got to put the work in and build that muscle memory.

When you’re testing, don’t stress too much about the performance. The goal is to build those neuropaths in your brain, that myelin insulating your nerves. That’s what gives you the subconscious driving, on autopilot mode.

And it’s not only laps. You can train it by visualising yourself, by rewatching videos, by going through that specific braking over and over again. It’s not going to happen in six months. It’s going to take a bit more time than that. But with enough practice, visualisation, discipline and focus, you’re going to get there.

If you want to work on it with me over a season, that’s my six month training program.

Why are you faster when you stop thinking about the brakes?

Because at race speed there’s no time to drive consciously. Muscle memory is basically what your body does when you’re not thinking about it. You drive on autopilot mode, on a subconscious mode. That’s how you win, that’s how you get pole positions.

And that subconscious way of driving is really what gives you so much mental space to process other information. The race around you, for example.

Watch Ayrton Senna’s onboard in Monaco. It’s like driving in a tunnel. Driving unconsciously, not really consciously.

That’s when you’re fast, when you’re driving in a flow, when everything is happening to you and you’re not really forcing it.

The best drivers are the ones where you can’t tell the difference from one lap to the other. Not when you watch them, not in the video, not in the data. It’s like autopilot. In my golden years I’ve been able to do that. You’re in a state of flow, getting faster and faster, and at some point you stabilise and you’re hammering the same lap times over and over again.

Frequently asked questions

Do pro kart drivers use braking points?

Most of the time, no. Most corners on a kart track have no clear reference point, so pro drivers brake by feeling, sensing the speed and the grip. They use a reference only when it’s obvious and it stays there, like the entry kerb to the left at the mechanics corner in Lonato.

Why don’t kart drivers use braking boards like Formula cars?

Kart tracks don’t have them, and karts are much slower. At 150 km/h a KZ covers just over 4 metres in a tenth of a second, a Formula car at 300 km/h covers 8.3 metres. In a kart that is manageable by feel. In a car it is not.

Is it bad to use cones as braking markers?

In testing you can, we do it at the BabyRace summer camps. But you won’t have them in the race, and somebody usually moves them. If you rely on them, you’ll feel lost on race day.

How do you learn to brake by feeling?

Laps, thousands of them, with focus. Push your braking later until you cross the limit, then bring it back the next lap. Rewatch your onboard and visualise the corner. It takes more than six months.

If you want me to look at your onboard and tell you where you could brake later, send it for an onboard review.