5 Common Mistakes iRacers Make in Qualifying (And How to Fix Them)

Qualifying often decides how difficult your race will be before the lights even go out. A clean, fast lap can put you in clear air and set you up for a strong result. While mistakes in qualifying can bury you in traffic, force unnecessary risks, and leave you fighting uphill from the start of the race.

Many iRacers underestimate how different a qualifying lap is compared to race pace—it’s about precision, preparation, and execution under pressure. But most common qualifying mistakes are avoidable once you know what to look for.

By understanding where drivers typically go wrong and how to correct those habits, you’ll be able to extract more speed consistently and give yourself the best possible starting position. I’m Marian Barbieru, and I’ve coached more than 1000 sim racers at this point which helped me identify the most common five mistakes that happen in qualifying.

1. Pushing Too Hard on the Out Lap

The mistake: Many iRacers treat the out lap like it’s already part of qualifying, overdriving the car and overheating the tires before the flying lap even starts. This leads to less grip when it matters most.

How to fix it: Use the out lap to methodically bring the tires into the optimal window. Drive at 80–90% pace, weave gently to add tire temp. Aim to start the hot lap with everything stable, not already on the limit.

---

2. Overdriving the First Sector

The mistake: Because adrenaline is high, drivers in iRacing often push too aggressively in the opening corners of a qualifying lap. Early mistakes not only cost lap time but also unsettle rhythm for the entire run.

How to fix it: Approach the first sector with controlled aggression. Focus on hitting every braking point and apex cleanly rather than maximizing speed immediately. A slightly conservative first sector usually produces a faster overall lap.

---

3. Not Resetting After a Mistake

The mistake: When drivers miss an apex or lock a brake early in the lap, they keep pushing harder, often compounding the error and throwing away the whole lap.

How to fix it: If the lap is compromised, ease back and treat it as a practice run or cooldown. Reset mentally, prepare the tires again, and focus on executing cleanly on the next lap. Qualifying is as much about composure as it is about speed.

---

4. Ignoring Track Limits and Track Usage

The mistake: Many iRacers either leave free time on the table by not using all the track, or they push too far and invalidate their lap with off-tracks. Both are costly in qualifying.

--- Article continues below --- Shop Sim Racing Discounts

How to fix it: Study track guides or replays to understand exactly where you can extend to the white lines or curbs. Build confidence in practice by pushing boundaries until you know the safe limit. In qualifying, use every inch—but stay within bounds.

---

5. Poor Fuel and Setup Choices

The mistake: Some iRacers head into qualifying with race fuel levels or suboptimal setups. Carrying extra fuel slows you down significantly, and a setup tuned for long runs may not extract peak one-lap pace.

How to fix it: Always run minimum fuel required for 2–3 timed laps in qualifying, and consider a setup that favors short stints—more aggressive brake bias, slightly looser rear, or lower downforce if the track allows.

---

Overview

Qualifying in iRacing it’s about the ability to perform under pressure when you only get a handful of laps to show your best. The difference between a strong starting position and being buried in the midfield often comes down to eliminating the small but costly mistakes we’ve just covered:

• Mismanaging your out lap
• Overdriving early sectors
• Missing track limits
• Failing to reset mentally after an error

On paper these may seem like details, but in practice they stack together into a huge performance gap. The technical side is about refining your processes—consistent warm-up routines, precise braking, exploiting every inch of track, and understanding car setup for low-fuel stints.

--- Article continues below ---

But the psychological side is just as critical: learning to stay calm when your heart rate spikes, building confidence in your preparation so you don’t second-guess braking points, and training yourself to see qualifying not as a one-off gamble but as an execution of habits you’ve rehearsed.

That’s why the best iRacers don’t simply “send it” in qualifying—they trust their preparation, commit to clean laps, and let precision do the work.

If you take anything away, it’s that speed comes from structure, not from chaos. Every qualifying session should feel like a repeatable routine: control the out lap, nail the first braking zone, flow through the lap with smooth but committed inputs, and reset if something goes wrong.

When you learn to treat qualifying as a mental game as much as a technical one, you’ll find yourself calmer, more consistent, and often surprisingly faster.

This is exactly the kind of blend between technique and psychology that I focus on when coaching sim racers. Inside my GITGUD Racing Academy and courses, I go much deeper into structured qualifying preparation.

How to build repeatable habits under pressure, and how to use tools like telemetry, lap comparisons, and mindset drills to extract maximum performance. If you’ve ever felt like you have the pace in practice but can’t quite deliver it in qualifying or in races, that’s not a lack of talent—it’s simply a gap in preparation and mental approach.

And the good news is, those are skills you can train. The drivers I’ve coached often discover that once they fix these underlying processes, not only does qualifying improve, but their entire racecraft feels easier because they start races further up the grid with confidence already on their side.

So next time you’re in qualifying – remember these points, put them into practice, check other resources here on the website and you’ll be getting those poles in no time!

---

Frequently Asked Questions

---

• Written by Marian Barbieru Article updated on October 3, 2025 Tags: Sim Racing How To Guides, Tips & Tricks, iRacing

---

Grab Your Sim Racing Gear Here

You can use the links below to shop for your favourite sim racing products, or for any products that we may have recommended. These links are affiliate links, and will earn us a small commission, with no additional cost for you.