Left Foot Braking Tutorial - How and Why to Use It
If you want to be faster than the next guy or simply improve your driving you need to have some tricks up your sleeve. Using your left foot to brake is one of those tricks.
How it saves time
When you go into a braking zone and lift your right foot off the gas pedal it takes time. Even the best drivers in the world can’t escape this. Let’s assume the left foot braking saves you 1/10th in a braking zone. A small amount, right? Not when you consider there might be several large braking areas on a track. That 1/10th can multiply to a net gain of 3 or 4 tenths per lap. It definitely adds up!
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Practicing the technique
Karting is a great tool to learn the muscle memory required to gain confidence with your left foot. You are forced to use this style because of the physical layout of the machine. If you ever go into Formula style racing (Formula Ford, Formula Mazda, etc) it is almost a guarantee that the top guys have come from karts and are comfortable with it.
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The car you’re driving matters
How easy it is to implement these changes does depend on the car and there are certain situations where you will find it near impossible to use. If you have a traditional H pattern manual gear box with a clutch pedal it is going to be impossible to heel toe downshift and left foot brake. If you have a double clutch gearbox or a racing transmission it will free up your feet.
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Habits are hard to break
It is extremely unnatural to left foot brake in a sports car for some people. I know it has advantages, but I simply don’t do it because it doesn’t feel comfortable. In a kart or formula car it feels completely normal so I will use it in these types of cars. If you can train yourself to do it then by all means do so. However, if you do not feel comfortable my advice would be not to attempt it. A few tenths, in my opinion, is not worth risking your safety or the safety of others on a track.
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Famous lefties
Colin Mcrae was lightning quick in the World Rally Championship and is arguably one of the greatest drivers of all time. He used left foot braking, but he didn’t need a clutch to downshift. Rauno Aaltonen who was also a rally driver used this technique.
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Famous righties
Ayrton Senna during his test of the NSX for a Japanese publication at Suzuka can clearly be seen right foot braking the entire way around the circuit. I attempted to time his transition from throttle to brakes and wasn’t able to stop the clock fast enough to get a time. Dario Franchitti is also a famous right foot braker who has won the IndyCar series four times and the Indy 500 three times. Clearly right foot braking works for him!
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Conclusions
Left foot braking is great if you can get used to it. In some cars, you will be forced to be comfortable with it. Is it the end all be all of going fast? I would have to say no. It’s a great thing to know how to do, but you aren’t going to become a world champion just because you know how to do it. There is a lot more to racing than any one technique. As always thank you for reading.
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