Nearly impossible to drive the F1s and F2s

[Noel Spence]

can someone tell me why it is near on impossible to drive the old f1s and f2s i just cannot get them around the track with any confidence , the f3 is fine , is there some setting to make them more drivable

 

[Alberto Casado]

Maybe if i try it in first gear only i can drive it lol

Actually it works very good to make full laps using 2nd ,3rd, etc gear to get a feeling of which gear can hold you on a turn. The problem is that if you try that in Spa you will spend the full day there.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Actually that is never a bad idea when you are new to a car or track. But try fifth gear, dont shift just brake, throttle and steer until you know exactly how to drive the track.

Spa looks easy but it's actually a pretty hard track. Seeing all the virtual mortal crashes of the last week

Edit: got ninja'd by Alberto

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Hampus posted a great movie of Jacky Stewart explaining how to drive those F1 beasts. Great video, here

 

[David Ignjatovic]

hehehehe, even Noel can't drive some cars huh{he's a fast GTR driver}.....sooner or later people will realise how unrealistic these "sims" are.
I tried to drive the F3.5 in the wet and spun on a 10deg angle, yet this is a race car, anyone can take their road car in the wet and discover how much grip it has.

 

[Gaëtan Legastelois]

310 km/h at SPA with Spark F1 N°6, it's just fantastic. It's hard to leave the track of the eyes to watch the speedometer. And you must fight against your car

 

[Craig Hume]

hehehehe, even Noel can't drive some cars huh{he's a fast GTR driver}.....sooner or later people will realise how unrealistic these "sims" are.
I tried to drive the F3.5 in the wet and spun on a 10deg angle, yet this is a race car, anyone can take their road car in the wet and discover how much grip it has.

uhmmm, have you ever driven a real race car in the wet. Lets put it this way, it easy to spin a single seater in the rain, even in a straight line. I have done it before myself. Race cars are way lighter, more powerful and handle totally different from a road car. Thus its very easy to get it loose in the rain. From the sound of it you make it sound more realistic than what you might think

 

[Ryan Vickery]

Please set off all driving aids and try again...

Not sure how to take this, but the driving aids are already off! If you do by somehow accidently turn on "Steering help" the car will become completely undriveable though.

 

[Ivo Simons]

Kimmo is always a bit cranky so dont take it to personal.

 

[Ben Tusting]

Practice masters. You shouldn't do a "quick go" but a long stint and build it up nicely.

I'm sorry, but i have to LOL at this

 

[Ivan Mills]

Kimmo is always a bit cranky so dont take it to personal.

lol..sometimes i think he is just being funny..good old Kimmo

 

[James Johnson]

I'm sorry, but i have to LOL at this

Yep I did a little as well.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

uhmmm, have you ever driven a real race car in the wet. Lets put it this way, it easy to spin a single seater in the rain, even in a straight line. I have done it before myself. Race cars are way lighter, more powerful and handle totally different from a road car. Thus its very easy to get it loose in the rain. From the sound of it you make it sound more realistic than what you might think

uhmmmm, what about the fact that it's lighter{less weight transfer}, has HUGE amounts of downforce, shouldn't that ensure much better handling in the wet...

Didn't you see Martin Brundle driving a 50yr old Ferrari in the wet fighting for position?....I didn't see him slip sliding away.

 

[April Dillon]

uhmmmm, what about the fact that it's lighter{less weight transfer}, has HUGE amounts of downforce, shouldn't that ensure much better handling in the wet...

Didn't you see Martin Brundle driving a 50yr old Ferrari in the wet fighting for position?....I didn't see him slip sliding away.

The fact that it's lighter means you can spin the wheels with less force from the engine, simply because there's less weight on the wheels. Same goes the other way. In a lighter car, it takes less torque at the brakes to lock the wheels. Weight transfer doesn't have a huge impact on that.

Although you're right about the downforce, that would certainly help, rain or shine. But there's no guaranteeing it's enough to save you from wheelspin and locking.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

Drive any reasonable sports car in the wet{your car is nearly a wet set up by default}, and see how much grip you've got, then search youtube for historic cars and wet weather, you'll see plenty of speed thru corners and especially small angle turns.

 

[Craig Hume]

A few things to keep in mind. In a sim you drive alot harder than you would in reality. Because there are no consequences for having crashes in sim racing. Compared to hitting a wall or something in reality. So you will always driver hardr and push it more towards the edge. If you watch a present day F1 race, you will also see the amount of accidents that occur in the wet, compared to the dry.
Those are the "best" drivers with the best equipment. Surely then with all their grip and special tyres they should have no problem. But they do, because racing in the wet, no matter what you racing, is totally different from taking your car out for a run in the rain.
Race cars are designed for the dry (why does nascar and indycar only race in the dry) As a rule with the real racing i do, us drivers are not allowed to drive home after the races. Why, because most end up crashing somewhere. And thats because there is such a massive difference between the two. Sudeenly the braking is different, you cant overtake so easily and most important, you have to turn double the amount.You really cant compare the 2. The steering in a race car is way more sensitive. The turning, accel, braking is way different and way better. Theres no real body roll, the suspension is way stiffer, their is a ton more power. But you cant compare a "beta" sim to the real thing at anytime, even more, to your car at home. The one thing sim racing could do with to make everything better is a cost effective way to give you the feeling of the car under you butt. Because thats the best way to see what a car is doing. You feel in your body, before you hear or feel it in the wheel. Without that, you could never realisticaly compare the 2.

 

[Sam Binfield]

Drive any reasonable sports car in the wet{your car is nearly a wet set up by default}, and see how much grip you've got, then search youtube for historic cars and wet weather, you'll see plenty of speed thru corners and especially small angle turns.

This is like comparing apples and oranges. Trying to equate experience driving historic race cars or road cars to a modern single seater is a pointless discusion as they have little in common other than four wheels and the engine that drives them. I'm not trying to make comments on rF2's realism, there is certainly work left to do on that front, mearly pointing out the holes in that argument. Without actually having been a Formula Renault 3.5 driver I would find it absurd for someone to assert how the car should handle. When there is a Toyota Yarris 1.0 mod though, I'd be happy to pass judgement.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

You guys have no concept of reality, your basic premise is always the same old boring hero worship of real race cars/drivers.....so no matter how many 1000's of hrs someone does in sim racing, they must always be useless compared to the gods of the sport.

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

I find that the F3 and 2 at Monaco are a lot of fun to drive, but the F1 is an handful. I did some online races driving the F2 in a field of F1s and I did pretty well. Mostly second place.

SPA is another matter. It's actually a lot of fun in a F1 if you earn it. It gives you a lot of respect for the guys that drove those cars on the actual track. Talk about having a death wish.

So far my biggest complaint about rF2 is the AI. Single player races are a nightmare as any AI behind you will simply run you over given half a chance. The megane especially flips like a top and all it takes is the AI behind you to bump you and race over. I often have to start a race 3 or 4 times in order to make the first lap and even then, I'll pass an AI and next thing I know I am facing the otehr direction.

They should really fix it because it's unnnatural.

However, in regard to the F1 at Monaco, my suggestion is to start with an F3, practice until you have it down. Do the same with an F2 and finally graduate to the F1 but be very careful.

The other thing I do, I dial down the steering lock from the default 25+ down to 16/20. Much easier to control any car.

 

[April Dillon]

One thing I generally find helps make a car easy to control is if when you let go of the wheel during a slide, the wheel goes straight to the point where the front wheels are pointing in their direction of travel. Or the 'optimum' opposite lock. But this is really hard to achieve with most steering wheel units.

Higher steering lock on the car and stronger FFB helps here, but you've got to be careful you aren't struck by clipping at the same time. And that high steering lock can compromise high speed control over the car, as well as fidelity in a lot of corners. This applies to all cars from what I've seen, though.

 

[Marco Boemi]

I've bought rF2 but still haven't tried F1 for 2 reason:

1. must be very hard to drive as it was in real life
2. the strong noise/vibration when you go on the grass/gravel (this is true for all cars and track)

I can't understand why should be easy to drive a beast like an old F1. I find already very difficult to drive FRR cars, which is why actually I'm stuck with cars with a weight/power ratio less exasperated.