What is Understeering in Sim Racing?

In sim racing (and real-world racing), understeering is a term used to describe a situation where a car’s front tires lose grip during a turn, causing the car to not turn as sharply as the driver intends. Essentially, the car "pushes" wide or continues straight ahead, rather than following the curve of the corner.

Here’s what’s happening in more detail:

• Loss of front grip: Understeering occurs when the front tires are not able to generate enough grip to turn the car effectively. The rear tires are still gripping the track, but the front tires can't maintain the required level of traction to follow the turn.
• Driver's experience: As a result, the driver may have to adjust by either reducing steering input (to regain grip) or slowing down (to reduce the forces on the tires), which may cost them lap time.

• Excessive speed into a corner: The car might be entering the corner too quickly for the available grip at the front tires.
• Wrong tire pressures or balance: If the tires are not set up correctly or the car's balance (front vs. rear weight distribution) is off, the car can understeer.
• Wrong technique: Applying too much brake and turning too early will cause the weight of the car to shift forward, which will overload the suspension and tires, this will cause them to lose grip instantly.
• Poor car setup: A car with too much front-end weight or too stiff suspension may be prone to understeering.

• Brake earlier: By braking earlier and more progressively, you reduce speed before entering the turn, allowing the front tires to regain grip.
• Trail Braking: helps you to prevent understeer: bring a small amount of brake force within the corner until the apex comes, this helps to rotate the car and get a smoother entry in the corner.
• Smoother inputs: Be gentle on steering and braking especially, so you do not overload your steering inputs, the smoother you are, the less likely you will lose grip.
• Adjust car setup: If you're continuously battling understeer, you might need to adjust your car’s setup, such as reducing front tire pressures or shifting the car’s weight balance to improve front-end grip.

So, you’ve followed all tips religiously, and yet somehow you find yourself going straight in a corner, that can happen indeed, but there are ways to correct it:

• First things first, if you’re throttling down take you foot of the gas smoothly, reducing speed might help to get the grip back on.

Another thing you can try is to reduce the steering input, this will straighten your wheels which will force them to catch grip back faster.

Of course that a good load cell pedal, which allows you to develop muscle memory, will help perfect your braking technique, the ClubSport Pedals V3 offer a strong, yet adjustable load cell brake pedal with adjustable stiffness, and capability to withstand up to 90kg of pressure, which is ideal to simulate the realistic feeling.