F1 2010 F1 2010 - Complete Noob - Advice on brakes

Rich Maskell · Aug 2, 2011

Hi guys, I guess most people won't bother reading this as I'm a complete newbie to the game but, I have a question:

--Is the use of "autobrake" seen as a complete and utter sacrilege and cheating of the highest order?

I ask because I am awaiting the arrival of the game tomorrow on ps3 and after having tried and tried on a demo to use proper brakes (even with the racing line on!) it seems incredibly difficult to drive, and I'm enjoying the demo on autobrake more. Am I cheating myself?

Thanks

Michael Vinall · Aug 2, 2011

In honesty it would be much better for you to start without autobrake as you'll get used to it easier, as you can probably imagine the autobrake isn't perfect especially in races where you may be taking an alternate line and need to brake sooner/later than you normally would. Keep the racing line on to begin with and you should be able to get used to it, one tip would be you want the majority of your braking to be in a straight line through most corners and focus on slow in, fast out!

Just as a side-note, this is the 2011 section for discussion of the upcoming game, there is a section for the current just above it

Rich Maskell · Aug 2, 2011

Thanks for that. I guess practice will make perfect. It just feels way off at the moment.

Hopefully a mod can move this thread. sorry about that.

Michael Vinall · Aug 2, 2011

smallclone said:
Thanks for that. I guess practice will make perfect. It just feels way off at the moment.

Hopefully a mod can move this thread. sorry about that.

Just try to separate the phases of a basic corner to begin with to make it easy, nothing tricky like monaco.
I'm not sure which circuits you actually have, but try:

1. Brake early
2. Let off brakes
3. Turn in progressively (with a controller you can pretty much steer right completely anyway)
4. Hit that apex!
5. 3/4 out of the corner accelerate and straighten the car during the exit

I would say try some of the wider tracks like Melbourne to begin with and just work with those steps, gradually decreasing the break between each step, braking later and accelerating as early as you can. Obviously if you're breaking to late to turn and hit the apex go take the braking point a bit further back, and if the car is spinning put the throttle down further out of the corner.

But as you said it, practice will make perfect. You just don't want to restrict yourself to one racing line around the whole track.

Rich Maskell · Aug 2, 2011

Nice. Thanks. I am making improvements so that's all I can expect really.

I also wanted to ask about the crash damage function. Obviously, most experts leave it on, but how quicly can I expect to be good enough to do this? Does the average gamer have damage on or off?

Allan Sinclair · Aug 2, 2011

I wish some people would use auto brakes in online races lol, however if you want to get better I would suggest not using auto breaks. Also turn racing line off, I find you normally learn the racing line and not the actual track, learning the track is much more useful than constantly watching that line.

Pick one track and go round at a slow pace until you know where you need to be on the track for the next corner, know which corner is next and even the one after that. Once you are fairly familiar with the track start to pick up your pace. Learn the braking zones, the best way to do this is to have a visual marker like the 100 meter mark or sometimes it may be a speed trap or anything you want really.

The faster you go the earlier your breaking point will be so keep that in mind, also if you find you are exiting the corner to slow you may be breaking too hard. The idea is to break, let go of brake, turn with some throttle and then apply full throttle once you are safely through the corner, different corners need different throttle amounts so also keep this in mind.

Again nothing beats practice, the more track time you put in the faster you will get, aftert you have learned your first track perfectly (note this may take 500+ laps) move on to another track. Now that you understand how the breaks work, it will be much easier to apply this to the next track even though yoo dont know it.

Watch F1 videos, and not the game videos, RL F1 this should also help.

If you want to get competitive in this game the key is practice and believe me you need a lot, so if you dont have a lot of time to dedicate you wont get very good (unless your a natural of course)

As for the damage system, I would leave this off untill you feel more comfortable as a driver.

Good luck and hope to see you on the track soon!