How to deal with super-stubborn defensive drivers

What is the right way to deal with drivers who defend too aggressively?

In this week’s article:

1. How to overtake normal defensive drivers.

2. How to deal with ‘out of order’ defensive drivers.

3. Knowing when the gloves have to come off… When war is declared.

I’ve written about how to defend a lead here:

Defending the lead- Dominating vs running scared

So, I better give you the lowdown on how to beat drivers who are defending like that, especially since one reader asked me in substack chat to do just that.

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Getting stuck behind a defending driver can be an absolute nightmare.

Firstly, if you have reeled them in and suddenly your lap-times are half a second slower, then that just gets on your nerves. It’s nice to be banging out quick laps and a defender can just ruin that feeling.

Second, if they are holding you up, then you are going to get caught by the drivers behind.

That can get extremely annoying, and can easily cost you all your progress. If they are super-effective at defending and it goes on too long, you are not only going to get caught, but most likely get into fights with drivers who you dropped earlier.

At that point your potential win is gone. You are in a sh** fight, and you’ll need luck to come out on top.

So, what do you do about drivers who are defending?

Act fast. Be decisive and strong

Don’t mess around pretending you are figuring out their weak spots on the track. You know the track and you know their weak spots already. Make actual moves with full intention to get through. Don’t do weird little fakies, moving around behind them might vent frustration but it means nothing.

The ‘you can’t defend ME!’ move.

This is my favourite power play when dealing with a defending driver. When they move to the inside, you go down their inside anyway.

Most drivers defend more as a gesture than actually forcing the issue so that you can’t possibly get by. This means they want you, and everybody else, to understand that they don’t want to allow you to pass. But when push comes to shove, they aren’t prepared to impose themselves on this situation.

They will leave just enough room on the inside before a tight corner that you can forcefully take, it will be tight and a bit uncomfortable, but they leave that gap for aggressive drivers….They don’t want to block aggressive drivers, just weak willed ones.

Or maybe they will white line it, right until the last moment when they take a more sensible line into the corner, leaving you room to dive down the inside.

Overtaking these normal defenders requires you to know two things:

1. Most drivers don’t really want to defend to the death, and will leave a gap on the inside.

2. If they don’t leave a gap that’s obvious, they will open up the gap just before they turn in. The discomfort they feel before entering a corner on the tight line eventually wins, and they go wide.

So, as a predator waiting to pounce, if you know they will do one of those, you can always be ready to force the issue - and laugh to yourself with the thought in your head ‘you can’t defend me!’

Standard cut-back moves

A driver who is defending in a normal sense, and doesn’t really like defending, is going to compromise their exit speed by running tight into corners. That allows you to take a wide cut-back line and get a faster exit.

Easy-peasy when they don’t really want to defend, they’ll very often just let you take the place and try to follow you.

Dealing with stubborn and skilled defending drivers