That's the theory. In practice, it's more complex and subtle: - Not are limits are made equal. Some are okay to be approached from both sides, while others wil

That's the theory. In practice, it's more complex and subtle: - Not are limits are made equal. Some are okay to be approached from both sides, while others will make you crash very quickly. Racing is a lot about finding and feeling those limits, rather than just knowing that they exist and need to be applied. - Changing gear, breaking, and applying gas all are physical actions that need some dexterity, to quickly switch between those within fractions of a second is sometimes infeasible. So racers end up just coasting for a short moment to avoid the high risk of a mistake for just a tiny gain. - Throttle and breaks obviously can't always be fully applied depending on friction, or the danger of one of the wheels getting too much air. - In a race there is a legit trade-off between lap times and tire wear. Losing too much material early-on will gain you some time initially, but make you lose more towards the end.