Hello fellow RD members,
I did do a GP at Melbourne in GP mode for Williams (expert difficulty except for auto gears) after having done some Time attack scenarios to get a feel for F1 2011 and the wheel settings.
Man, it was hard! Was hard to be faster than my teammate but I did (by very little though) and no hope of getting to Q3 from the looks of it in practice. But then qualifying was gonna be wet, so from F1 2010 experience I thought this was my chance to get into Q3 as the AI has always been slower in the wet compared to dry. Well not. My god are the AI driving like aliens in the wet! With a very good lap I could have outqualified the 3 backmarker teams, but then I would still be like 3seconds behind the nearest competitor in front! Okay, all this dry and wet running was done with a quick setup, but still. Something is very wrong here. I don't think I suck that big in the wet compared to the dry so the AI must just be crazy quick in the wet. Anyway, i didn't manage a very good lap and started 24th.
Race was 20% and start was okay (no barging through the field, bumping other cars out of the way) and was running like 14-16th or something after the first lap. My teammate was behind me and faster, and was having a really hard time keeping up with the guys in front. After the first stops I was 13th...lost some more time to Di Resta in 12th due to slow outlap but my teammate was gone. Some guys were doing 2 stops in a 20% race? CM should have eliminated that for 20%. So thanks to that I managed to creep up to 13th. Was trying hard to close the gap to Di Resta at 5sec but it stayed pretty much the same. Then I made a big mistake and ended up in the gravel and lost over 5sec and was able to keep 13th just ahead of Buemi and my teammate. But Buemi was faster than me (I'm thinking he might have been on options). Crossed the line in 13th and my teammate in 15th. Was very enjoyable.
But after that I have done quite a bit more running in time attack mode, in the meantime perfecting my wheel setup. So I finally did my first career race with Williams on expert difficulty again (except for auto gears) at 20%. Also tried a custom setup but boy oh boy was I fast all of a sudden. Managed to set the fastest time in every single session in a long weekend and pole with 1.1sec on p2 (could have been 1.4sec if I could have managed my Q2 time). I know there is a setup bug with the front and rear springs when you set them to 11-11 you get crazy grip. But I guess it´s not just 11-11 that is bugged, as I was using 10-10. Probably the explanation why I suddenly was that fast. I hope CM fixes this ASAP as it is kinda game breaking.
Anyway, as for the race...one of the hardest fought races I ever had! Managed to keep first place at the start but I had to push like hell to try and keep the guy in p2 from using DRS and defend with KERS. Stayed ahead until the stops and came out just ahead of Vettel but I eventually dropped to 2nd after everyone had stopped a few laps later as Massa had jumped me with a longer stint and was just ahead by maybe 2sec. In the meantime I was having a hard time fending off Vettel who was faster most of the time. Cranked up fuel mixture to rich mode for the last few laps and managed to creep away a little from Vettel and creep up to Massa. In the final lap in sector 3 I managed to attempt an overtake on him and made it stick to take first place. Very rewarding, but yeah, shouldn´t have been possible in a Williams.
As for the setup bug...I could leave the springs untouched at 6-6 to keep it more realistic...but really, CM should instead fix the problem as TT and online racing sure will be affected big time by this. You can´t really expect guys not to use high spring settings as they would stand no chance against people who do.
I did do a GP at Melbourne in GP mode for Williams (expert difficulty except for auto gears) after having done some Time attack scenarios to get a feel for F1 2011 and the wheel settings.
Man, it was hard! Was hard to be faster than my teammate but I did (by very little though) and no hope of getting to Q3 from the looks of it in practice. But then qualifying was gonna be wet, so from F1 2010 experience I thought this was my chance to get into Q3 as the AI has always been slower in the wet compared to dry. Well not. My god are the AI driving like aliens in the wet! With a very good lap I could have outqualified the 3 backmarker teams, but then I would still be like 3seconds behind the nearest competitor in front! Okay, all this dry and wet running was done with a quick setup, but still. Something is very wrong here. I don't think I suck that big in the wet compared to the dry so the AI must just be crazy quick in the wet. Anyway, i didn't manage a very good lap and started 24th.
Race was 20% and start was okay (no barging through the field, bumping other cars out of the way) and was running like 14-16th or something after the first lap. My teammate was behind me and faster, and was having a really hard time keeping up with the guys in front. After the first stops I was 13th...lost some more time to Di Resta in 12th due to slow outlap but my teammate was gone. Some guys were doing 2 stops in a 20% race? CM should have eliminated that for 20%. So thanks to that I managed to creep up to 13th. Was trying hard to close the gap to Di Resta at 5sec but it stayed pretty much the same. Then I made a big mistake and ended up in the gravel and lost over 5sec and was able to keep 13th just ahead of Buemi and my teammate. But Buemi was faster than me (I'm thinking he might have been on options). Crossed the line in 13th and my teammate in 15th. Was very enjoyable.
But after that I have done quite a bit more running in time attack mode, in the meantime perfecting my wheel setup. So I finally did my first career race with Williams on expert difficulty again (except for auto gears) at 20%. Also tried a custom setup but boy oh boy was I fast all of a sudden. Managed to set the fastest time in every single session in a long weekend and pole with 1.1sec on p2 (could have been 1.4sec if I could have managed my Q2 time). I know there is a setup bug with the front and rear springs when you set them to 11-11 you get crazy grip. But I guess it´s not just 11-11 that is bugged, as I was using 10-10. Probably the explanation why I suddenly was that fast. I hope CM fixes this ASAP as it is kinda game breaking.
Anyway, as for the race...one of the hardest fought races I ever had! Managed to keep first place at the start but I had to push like hell to try and keep the guy in p2 from using DRS and defend with KERS. Stayed ahead until the stops and came out just ahead of Vettel but I eventually dropped to 2nd after everyone had stopped a few laps later as Massa had jumped me with a longer stint and was just ahead by maybe 2sec. In the meantime I was having a hard time fending off Vettel who was faster most of the time. Cranked up fuel mixture to rich mode for the last few laps and managed to creep away a little from Vettel and creep up to Massa. In the final lap in sector 3 I managed to attempt an overtake on him and made it stick to take first place. Very rewarding, but yeah, shouldn´t have been possible in a Williams.
As for the setup bug...I could leave the springs untouched at 6-6 to keep it more realistic...but really, CM should instead fix the problem as TT and online racing sure will be affected big time by this. You can´t really expect guys not to use high spring settings as they would stand no chance against people who do.
