F1 2010 Rain strategy?

[subferro]

Hey all,

So I'm slowly getting better at the driving part of this game, but some of the strategy aspects still confuse me. Mainly dealing with the weather.

I race on 40%, and whenever I have a race with changing conditions, I always always always have my race ruined by pit strategy. It seems that no matter how the race starts, I pit one lap before the weather shifts. For instance I just had a race at Hockenheim. Started in the rain on Inters, did well for 15 laps, then pitted for a fresh set of Inters. The very next lap, my engineer comes in my ear "looks like teams are switching to primes"... Seriously? You just had me change tires, and now you tell me that I should've gone for a dry compound?

I've had it go the other way too. As soon as I switch from Options to Primes, he comes over telling me that the track is getting wet and teams have switched to more appropriate tires.

Is there anyway to approach these races so that I don't end up pitting twice while other teams (who clearly employ better meteorologists than Virgin) only make one stop? Is the trick just to hold off and run with worn tires until I get a better idea of track conditions? I'm just baffled here.

Thanks

 

[My993C2]

I think the number one rule is "Don't listen to your engineer". Quite often he is going to give you the wrong advice. On more than one occasion I have been caught out on the track with slicks when the wet track became undriveable as I was waiting for my engineer to call me in. What I needed to do was watch my teammate or the other cars around me for the cue as to when to pit (or when in doubt play it safe and just pit).

There is one scenario where I took advantage of the changing weather. The race forecast was calling for heavy rain sometime in the race, but the race started on a dry track. When my engineer did call me in for intermediates, I ignored his advice and went straight to full wets. This turned out to be the right thing to do as most of my competition pitted twice, once for inters and another time for full wets.

Finally I am not sure there is a "Holy Grail" how to win in the wet strategy. But don't rely on everything your engineer is saying. This I have learned, the hard way.

 

[Mark Spaeth]

If you pit early, don't get thrown off by the fact that they will want you to pit anyway. My993C2 gives some good advice though. However, I'm not too sure of how he found the cue that cars were pitting, unless he went a lap past them, or he made a last second maneuver for the pits.

 

[Dylan Hember]

If your statring the race in the dry, and it says it will rain. Start the race on primes. Then you can stay out longer.

 

[glight]

Good point H3MB3RD, however I remember I raced Melbourne with the same scenario (start on primes with 30% chance of rain, 100% race). But the rain did not start early enough and I had to pit because my primes were falling apart.

It is all about risk/reward. I would say that if the race is dry at the start, you should start on options if the chance of rain is <40%. You will have to pit twice if you start with primes anyway so may as well use the stickies. If you come in for new tyres and it is still dry you could stay with the options on the assumption that it will rain, but you are risking having to unnecessarily pit to primes if it does not rain (because of tyre rule).

If there is a 40-60% chance of rain you could start on primes assuming that options will not last until the rain starts and that everyone will have to pit twice and you once. You could still get caught if it decides to rain earlier in the race than expected since you will have lost your advantage of going with longer lasting but slower primes.

I find it pretty hard to race with a full tank of gas and primes.

So my race strategy with rain in the forecast is:
Start on options
Pit to options if the first set wear out
Pit to inters (light rain) or wets (heavy rain/malaysia)
If it doesn't rain, suck it up and pit a 3rd time to primes

And never EVER listen to Rob, he is full of it. You should pit to inters/wets about 1 lap before there is water on the camera, any longer and you will be sledding. When the track is drying out do not listen to Rob when he says to come in for dry tyres, try to pay attention to other racers. If you gain a spot while passing the pit lane then people are in for dry tyres, or if your wets are wearing down or if the track looks dry it is time to pit.

Who else loves the strategy of the race when there is rain? I think it makes racing 100% length really enjoyable.

 

[subferro]

That last bit about wets wearing down actually brings up something I hadn't thought of. If the conditions match the rubber, how long should I expect inters/wets to last? I've kind of figured it out with primes and options so I'm not surprised when I see the wear icon start to pop up, but at Hockenheim, for instance, I started on inters and had a scheduled stop at lap 15 (I forget of how many, it was 40%, 15 was roughly the halfway point) for new inters. The rears were orange and the fronts yellow when lap 15 rolled around, which seemed normal given I was supposed to be stopping. Should that have been a clue that it was too dry to get new inters?

Thanks all for the advice, I should just know better than to trust Rob.