why in rally races there is a guy on a passenger seat explaining where to drive?
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Eli5: reacting when you come up to things in racing is slow, being able to commit to inputs prior to reaching them is fast.
Most racing is done on circuit courses and have practice sessions. Circuit courses are usually only really 2-3mi long and 20 corners max, taken repeatedly. Cars get to test and attempt the same corners dozens or more times. Drivers know corners coming up and how to take them.
Rally is non circuit and can be several miles and a hundred corners long. Competition may only be the third or fourth time the driver sees the course. In rally, the driver and navigator (passengers seat) will predrive the course before hand and take notes on all the features. During the actual competition, the navigator will read back to the driver the notes to let them know what is coming up ahead to commit to inputs.
It depends on the team but a something like “500 hard left 5 wide exit” means to the driver in 500m there’s a 20mph left turn where you can get full on throttle at the exit. This doesn’t seem like much but if you were blind driving the corner it can be several seconds of difference.
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