Rally1 hybrid cars (2022-)

[Rallyper]

I remember that already in the era of the fully active 2.0 litre WRC they often said that left foot braking isn't needed if you set the diff maps right (at least on asphalt). After all the left foot braking wastes energy and adds heat to the brakes. In pure theory it shall be avoided. The new cars don't have the center diff and shall therefore behave more like an overpowered R5 car. It would be interesting to hear from the drivers how much they actually use it in them.

There's a difference to using your left foot for braking (while not throttling) and doing the "left-foot-braking" which is used to balance the car to improve turn-in.

From what I've heard from various interviews, Ogier's style is to brake before corner, roll through the corner and apply throttle upon reaching exit angle. Thus there's no simultaneous braking and throttling.

Out of the current drivers Esapekka Lappi seems to be a heavy left-foot-braker, braking lights are alight while turning as well. Remember when he and Ogier were teammates at Citroen, they struggled to find suitable front diff ramps for Esapekka.

Left-foot breaking is used for many reasons, as mentioned above. Third reason is the time it takes to move right foot from throttle and back just for breaking. So left-foot breaking I guess is used by every (fast) driver. Even driving RWD rallycars you perfectly can use left-foot breaking, if car has dogbox gerabox. However not at same time throttling in corners...