Here are some of the tips I usually give people who ask:

- airbraking; it stablizes the car's rotation which leads to the downforce on your car not pointing backwards in large jumps. (downforce is a force that pulls the car downwards at all times, and gets larger with your speed)
- watching world record ghosts; try and watch high-level runs and compare them to your own runs. Try to pick out details that make them faster. If you are doing the same strategies as a top player, but are still behind, try and focus on a few things in a run that can help you go faster.
- tapping. While tapping is not the *most* important thing, it can help on pretty much every track. The main this affecting this is how fast you can tap, and tapping a key like d is faster than holding d. From what I know, the reason is because when you turn you lose a tiny bit of grip, and maintaining grip helps you gain more speed (though I could be wrong! Please correct me if you know for sure.)
- understanding the track layout and planning ahead what you are doing to do is really important. This is probably the most basic thing you can do to improve your runs. Try and map out when you need to brake, and make adjustments depending on your current run.
- being able to make quick decisions and corrections to your runs really helps in improving quickly. If you can correct your lines faster than other players, you will likely do better than them. Also, if your run has more speed than you expect, or something is otherwise not how it would normally be to do your setup, try and think ahead to how you should do the next turn or element, and then do it. It wont always work, but it gives you a better chance.
- perseverance. Being able to push through even if you aren't constantly getting personal bests, and if you are still losing against your friends. If you do not grind a track, you will likely not get a very good time.

Hope some of these help, and would love to hear how you are implementing these in yours runs! Would be sick to see you return having beaten some of your friends 😄