I know what you mean about Shell - I generally find if able to take a free line that a late turn in and a late apex seems to work best, but it is one of those bends I often feel I've never quite got right. There are many others I haven't got right, but at least at most I feel I know what I should have done, and have managed it on occasion, but I'm sure like many late-comers to the race circuits I'm only extracting about 80% of the car's capabilities.
I do remember thinking when I first started racing that although generally considered to be a quick driver in road terms, it was only on the circuit that I really started to try to work out just how late and how little I could brake, how much I could lean on the tyres, etc - and how vague and undefined those parameters could be. Its often only by tagging onto a quicker car that has passed me that I've discovered a gain of a second or so a lap just by the determination not to let it pull away too quickly, leading me to corner quicker than I thought possible. The trick is repeating the performance when there's no-one to tail
