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A graph of vehicle speed plotted against track distance or time. The speed trace is the single most useful view in data analysis and can reveal braking points, corner speeds, acceleration rates, and areas of inconsistency.
Going Faster! demonstrates the power of speed trace analysis with a specific example: "Graphing both speed and brake effort for Turn 7 exit through the carousel exit, you can see that a half-second of lap time is lost on overslowing the car." The text shows how speed traces at the exit of both corners "are nearly identical" between two drivers despite a 2-second lap time gap — the time is lost in the transitions, not the corners themselves. Segers adds the coasting detection technique: overlaying speed with his coasting math channel (throttle < 5% AND brake < 5 bar) reveals where "Driver A has a longer coasting period on corner entry compared with Driver B" — flat spots in the speed trace between braking and acceleration where time simply evaporates.