F1 2011 My fault or...

[deknegt]

Ok there is something that annoys me about the game.

But first off as a sim and as a F1 game it's the best one i have played in a very very long time. It trumps F1 2010 in every way imo and it really is a very addictive game.

But here is the problem i have been having.
I started a career immediately when i got the game and i am racing for HRT after i started with Lotus last year and other than qualifying and practice the races themselves are driving me mad.

I mean i qualify in pretty respectable places with the highest point of my new career being a 6th spot in Shanghai after what seemed like a utterly mad qualifiying session.

But i am not interested in talking about Qualifying because the thing that is nagging away at me are the races themselves.


All the races start off the same for me, in the first 2-3 corners i climb up a few spots and manage to get into a higher spot.
But after that moment in the race everything just seems to go downhill for me.

I feel i drive pretty decently and i do my best to keep competitive. But i have a few problems.

1) The racers in front of me are gone for the rest of the match and only a pitstop for them can get me their position in the race. I never get close enough to use DRM or manage to overtake them in corners. They are always ''GAP'' in front of me with no apparent chance to get closer.

2) The cars behind me are a bit of the same story, they stick behind me because i tend to be aggressive to people trying to overtake but once they finally manage to get alongside me just like the cars in front of me, they are gone for good and i never ever catch up to them until either they go into pit-lane or they have some freak accident.

Of course it's useful to know my difficulty and assists because most of the time they tell the whole story to the more experienced players on these forums.

Braking Assists: OFF
ABS: ON (even though it's ON, i never slam on the breaks)
TC: Full (I hate spinning out and that's why i have TC on full, gives me more pleasure overall)
Racing Line: Corners Only (Again, it's just for me to remind what way the corner goes and not fly out like a madman)
Gearbox: Automatic (Too fast action to shift back and forth)
Tyre Sim: On
Fuel Sim: On
Damage: Full
AI DIFF: Pro (The gap is too huge and on Intermed i just walk over the entire grid with the HRT, i like a challenge.)

Well those are my assists and diff settings for whoever wants to know.
Of course i do not expect to win every race, i don't even expect to win ANY race in the HRT or finish top 10 every race because that isn't fun either.
It just annoys me that even the class i am driving against, 24-14 positions are never in any type of battle against me unless they are behind me.

I want to be able to fight with the car in front of me for his position instead of never seeing him after lap 2 and only having to defend against everyone behind me.

So what is my problem? Is the HRT car so much more inferior to all the other cars on the grid? Am i just such an average driver. Or is the AI just going out there to laugh at me as they drive past me?

It's probably a very silly and easy answer, but i would rather have one instead of just going crazy with this annoyance.

 

[Alberto Casado]

It sounds to me like you are barely able to match the pace of the rest of the cars. You need to be slightly (1 s per lap or so) faster than the average car in order to have fun races, since the AI will hardly ever make a mistake.

A real race can be also extremely boring in that sense (for example think in Button's last race, 80% of it was just over 10 seconds from the nearest car), the fun ones happen usually when a superior car has to recover from some mistake/crash/puncture and needs to overtake half of the grid, or when the conditions change (wet, terrible usage of hard tyres...) and suddenlty the front is slower than the back.

 

[John Robertson]

Yes just as in real f1 after the first couple of laps the field usually sorts itself out into who can do what lap time, and everyone starts to spread apart slowly. occasionally you'll get battles in the top 10 but they're much more rare than mid pack battles, although after the 1st 5 or 6 laps I wouldn't expect to make up many more positions, maybe 1 every 2 or 3 laps if you've got the AI paced right.

 

[Adam Lawson]

I use exactly the same difficulty settings as you (except on Legend AI) and you are in the exact same situation as me. This game is almost the same as real life. If you watch actual F1 racing, the three bottom feeder teams (Lotus, Virgin, HRT) are all consistently around 1.5 seconds slower per lap than the likes of Toro Rosso, Sauber, and Williams. This is why you are struggling to keep pace with the majority of the field.

I have also found that in a race (I usually qualify 19th) I can jump up to about 11th by the first 2-3 corners, only to see those ahead disappear into the horizon and those behind me line up. It is only a matter of time before they eventually pass me (it normally takes a mistake on my part) and they too disappear. In a HRT, you are only expected to be competing with the two teams around you, so You may have to get used to this for the first season. It's good that you have taken up the challenge of not starting with Force India or Williams and I wish you luck.

Hope this helps you.

 

[Ryan Sylvester]

pretty much what the guys above have said to be honest, but you will feel the benefits of this in season 2 (be it through a move to another team or performance upgrade in the HRT by meeting your objectives for the season) the difference feels big and your confidence will soar in season 2. only advice i would give is that you will find that you will be able to turn more of the assists off as your car gets better as it becomes more controllable.

I only use auto gears now in season 2 in williams (first season in a Lotus) and the differences are huge! where as i felt like in the lotus i was just avoiding the next spin/lock up/car passing me!

Stick with it like the guys said, it does get better and like Adam said, the challenge of not accepting a better car right from the begining deserves respect. and i personally felt it has given me a better level of control as the other cars are like a dream to drive, compared to the bottom 3 teams and thats the challenge.

 

[deknegt]

I use exactly the same difficulty settings as you (except on Legend AI) and you are in the exact same situation as me. This game is almost the same as real life. If you watch actual F1 racing, the three bottom feeder teams (Lotus, Virgin, HRT) are all consistently around 1.5 seconds slower per lap than the likes of Toro Rosso, Sauber, and Williams. This is why you are struggling to keep pace with the majority of the field.

I have also found that in a race (I usually qualify 19th) I can jump up to about 11th by the first 2-3 corners, only to see those ahead disappear into the horizon and those behind me line up. It is only a matter of time before they eventually pass me (it normally takes a mistake on my part) and they too disappear. In a HRT, you are only expected to be competing with the two teams around you, so You may have to get used to this for the first season. It's good that you have taken up the challenge of not starting with Force India or Williams and I wish you luck.

Hope this helps you.

pretty much what the guys above have said to be honest, but you will feel the benefits of this in season 2 (be it through a move to another team or performance upgrade in the HRT by meeting your objectives for the season) the difference feels big and your confidence will soar in season 2. only advice i would give is that you will find that you will be able to turn more of the assists off as your car gets better as it becomes more controllable.

I only use auto gears now in season 2 in williams (first season in a Lotus) and the differences are huge! where as i felt like in the lotus i was just avoiding the next spin/lock up/car passing me!

Stick with it like the guys said, it does get better and like Adam said, the challenge of not accepting a better car right from the begining deserves respect. and i personally felt it has given me a better level of control as the other cars are like a dream to drive, compared to the bottom 3 teams and thats the challenge.

Thanks for the replies guys, it's good to see it's not purely my fault and it's just a case of grinding it out and paying my dues for the team and also the competition itself.

Hopefully my fortunes improve quickly and the team gets me more and better stuff to play with, the thing i can take home with me is I am kicking Liuzzi's ass back and forth and I just have to tough it out and fight for it.

At least i know it's not my fault

Thanks again.