There’s a reason why they say that. In the video below, which happened in our qualifying session last weekend (on the outlap after a black-flag all, no less), you’ll see the #36 Miata miss the brake zone for T10 and get into a big slide. What she should have done at that point is just put her feet on the clutch and brakes and ride it out.
Instead, she tried to save it. The car see-sawed back and forth a number of times, and I didn’t know whether to zig or zag to avoid hitting her. It was qualifying, so I just patiently waited it out, but if it had been the race and I’d been in a real hurry … I don’t know. She’s lucky she didn’t get hit.
If you just stomp on the brakes in that situation, the car might spin, sure … but it’ll at least travel in a straight line while it spins, and everyone behind will be able to easily avoid it.
If you prefer to skip downloading the Silverlight browser plugin, you can see the video here.
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