F1 2012 Fuel Management

F1 2012 The Game (Codemasters)
Hey guys, I've just completed my first career race for ForceIndia, but I struggled with the fuel.

Remembering last year's fuel situation I started with the cautious setting (driving without any aids, manual gears etc.)

I never switched to mix 3 and did every outlap on mix 1, even some more laps after my visits to the gravel. As long as the gravel sticked to my tyres, I went to mix 1. So in total it were probably around 5-6 laps on mix 1, rest on mix 2.

I did one less lap than the first but still went to "optimal" 3 laps before the finish line. So I didn't have any problem, but managed to burn quite much fuel. I guess on some other tracks with potentially more wheelspin and more hig-speed passages (hello rev limiter!) it will get quite interesting...

Despite from gear 6 to 7 I always shifted BEFORE the blue (purple?) lights went on, quite oftten even before the red lights.

Did anyone encounter similar "problems"?
 
I've only done one race so far, and only at 50% distance. What distance did you run? Did you run out of fuel?

I didn't have any problem with 50% distance. Didn't run Mix 3, but only ran mix 1 for 1lap. Had no problem with fuel at the end.
 
Oh, it was 100%.
I didn't run out of fuel, but I started with maximum fuel (cautious preset) and didn't use mix 3 at all, ran quite some laps on mix 1 (about 10% of the race), did one less lap and still had no fuel left over.
 
My past 2 races (25%) I chose cautious. Both times I have never been out of mix2 but both times I have been right on the edge of optimal/-1lap round the final few corners. I pretty much always shift up slightly before optimal so that I dont damage engine too.

When I heard about the option I was looking forward to being able to push push push most of the race but I cant :(
 
I've only had time to do a few short 25% races with a game-pad thus far, so I preferred the automatic gearbox. While a cautious fuel strategy resulted in the +1 lap information at the beginning of the race for me as well, continued use of mix 2 raised that to +3 at about the half-way point of the race. I could then pretty much drive the second half with mix 3.

I wonder if that would scale the same in full length races?! Maybe manual shifting produces a higher fuel consumption, because I can't see another reason why my first steps in the game are so different from all of yours.
 
I have found that fuel consumption is mainly affected by gearing and gear shift points.

I am desperate to collect raw data for total race duration for each fuel strategy since I still can't work out which strategy is best. I have been struggling to even use the normal strategy but don't want to use cautious since it should increase lap times- I guess the question is how much does it increase it by though.

I assume it is also important to base the fuel strategy choice on where you are in the starting grid.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Would love to know what strategy you guys use etc...
 
I have found that fuel consumption is mainly affected by gearing and gear shift points.

I am desperate to collect raw data for total race duration for each fuel strategy since I still can't work out which strategy is best. I have been struggling to even use the normal strategy but don't want to use cautious since it should increase lap times- I guess the question is how much does it increase it by though.

I assume it is also important to base the fuel strategy choice on where you are in the starting grid.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Would love to know what strategy you guys use etc...

I'm following this strategy mostly, provided I'm starting somewhere in between #1 and #10, let's say I'm going to stop in laps 13 & 37, 55 lap race. I'm always using the strategy that's giving you most fuel (Cautious, isn't it?).

Start: Option tyres
Lap 1 to 5: Rich
Lap 6 to 11: Normal
Lap 12 to 14: Lean (Tyres are worn / still cold anyway) -> switch to Prime during pit stop
Lap 15 to 34: Normal
Lap 35 to 38: Lean (Tyres are worn / still cold anyway) -> switch to Option during pit stop
Lap 39 to 44: Rich
Lap 45 to 55: Normal / Lean if necessary

I'm never running out of fuel. I'm trying not to create a large gap but only large enough to stay in front after each pit stop. The strategy above would be the one I'm using to maintain said gap. On certain tracks, say Montreal, I could go down to Lean a lot more.
 
I just recently did a 25% race in Korea (you can see the video soon on my yt channel) using the 'normal mode', and i had no trouble with fuel, keeping it at mix 2 the whole time, which did confuse me a little :unsure: maybe if your driving style is aggressive, that could have something to do with it?!?
 
I had also problems in Australia. I was driving a 100% race and most of my 2nd stint was on lean so i save fuel for ending of a race. Also wgen engeener told me that car behind was ol lean mode i also swiched on it. Let's say on Bahrain i burned my fuel to plus 1 lap and went to mix 2 and when i checled it was plus 3 laps. The problem is in Australia, maybe codemasters failed on that for Australia only :D
 
I've never run out of fuel, and I only do 100% race distance. And a lot of it comes down to your driving style. And it can be as simple as applying the throttle smoothly rather than just stomping on it.

But mainly, it comes down to how to change gears.

It uses more fuel to:
- Long shift (shifting up too late)
- Excessive engine breaking.
- Changing gears down before the revs can settle. (Letting the revs settle will result in a longer breaking distance, but will save more fuel, so you have to find a compromise).

You can save fuel by:
- Short up shifting, especially in the longer gears. It's actually bad for the engine, and fuel consumption to short shift in the lower gears (1,2,3) because the car will be working much harder to get up to speed, where as if you short shift in 5th, 6th and 7th then the engine isn't working so hard because the car has already got a lot of momentum. So in the shorter gears like 1st, 2nd and 3rd, try to shift up just before the final group of lights appear on the steering wheel.

- Using the brakes to slow you down more than the gears. It's okay to use a bit of engine breaking, but the best fuel consumption will come when you downshift once the revs have dropped to the threshold of the next gear (this will vary depending on your gear ratios).

- Apply the throttle smoothly because you use the most fuel generating momentum from slower corners and trying to get up to speed. If you stamp on the throttle, you'll get a tonne of wheel spin, and this is terrible for the tyre life. And the fuel you could use later in the race (i.e Rich mix), will be wasted in sending 750bhp through the rear wheels, only to spin them up, and you'll accelerate slower, even though your revs will be through the roof.
 
You guys know that in real life, they start with not enough fuel to fish the race and then most of the race they are conserving fuel. So setting it on cautious should result in startin with +1 fuel or so but aggresive, which is more like real life should start with -2 or -3 laps of fuel :)
 

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