10 Things I Learned During the Perfect Day at the Mercedes-Benz Driving Academy

3. Going slow is hard

Our first exercise is learning the trickiest corner on the track: turn five. It’s by far the slowest corner on the course, as you make what is almost a 180 degree turn before heading up the back straight.

It’s actually two corners, 5a and 5b and the trick to driving it right, our instructor emphasizes, is to drive it as such. That means combining all the tricks of a proper corner, in what is essentially the space of just one curve.

We’re practicing trail braking (bleeding off brake pressure gradually, to greatly oversimplify) and getting that technique right, not to mention all of the other skills, while maintaining smooth operation of the vehicle. Doing it at speed, (twice in the space of one turn) is challenging, especially on a wet track.

Mess up your technique or add too much speed and you’ve got plenty of understeer. Too slow and, well, you’ll be REALLY slow.