First, I'd like to start off with a quick intro.
Haven't done too much sim racing, I think getting Live For Speed and recently (as of 2007) becoming a F1 fan helped me decide to get F1 2010, bugs and errata aside.. here's my deal - I have no real-world driving skill that I'm aware of, so I attempt to just emulate and attempt to adapt to the track as much as possible, but thats been kind of hit or miss.
Anyhow, started a career for STR. Couldn't drive worth a damn at bahrain, I gave up and crashed. Then by melbourne, I was a little better, managing to qualify 12th. At this point I had thought I figured out a decent setup (not going too far from defaults though). In my driving, I was attempting to look as far ahead of the track as possible to prepare for upcoming corners etc, and that helped alot as opposed to focusing directly infront of me or on the racing line (which is set for corners only). My qualify time was, I believe, 1:30.144, a full second from 11th place oddly.
Track notes (from qual):
First corner:
I noted struggles with the first corner, but figured if I treat it as a chicane i can get through that pretty well, so I brake late as possible, downshift to 4th gear and accelerating as soon as I break left for the straight.
Second corner:
Trying to follow the line here, but braking as late as possible, rapidly downshifting into first and accelerating coming out, by middle of 3rd I left off of the gas to make the turn and ease back into it
Third corner:
Pretty simple, I go as fast and smooth as possible until I get through to the next slow corners:
Fifth/Sixth(?) corners:
This is tough, I would brake late as possible, downshift to 3rd and sharp right, cutting as much as possible without going over the kerb, but it seems like I would get spin, or be on the verge of spinning-out, I lost time in that corner.
Seventh corner:
Another slower corner, I approach it similarly to the previous, though I find it hard to not have to slow down in order to stay on track for the exit... very sloppy, frequent spin.
Eighth corner:
I let off gas and downshift into 6th, slightly cutting the sharp right corner, I make up a lot of time lost in the previous tricky corners, though it is extremely difficult to maintain that speed, lot of steering input required sometimes... other times its smooth as Keith Stone.
Tenth, Eleventh corners:
Slow down from 7th to 4th pretty quickly, approach as wide as possible, I'm going about 90 mph and hitting the outside kerb and then quickly accelerating for a second before the next immediate turn which I simply let of the throttle and ease back in and accelerate to 5th
final corners:
Slow from 5th to 2nd gear following line, maintain decent speed and follow that through to the straight, though sometimes if there is traffic, I will spin off from going too wide.
That was how I drove qualifying, for 12th place. I did get a grid penalty, it was 5 places and it somehow became 10!?.
Now the fun part, the race is WET.
I figured I didnt need so much downforce and I let some up, that was a huge mistake, so I had to quit, restart, and just went with the setup i used for qualifying... I struggled for hours, decided to do some research.
I came here, searched a bit, watched some videos of people driving melbourne in the rain and saw some guy who posted, if i recall, a 1:26 lap! I also noticed he was slowing down a little quicker/earlier and not downshifting so much.
I set the car up with the info from the setup that's posted here for melbourne wet and that worked quite well, but i still struggled with pace. I would get up from my 22nd starting pos to about 15th and then noticed the cars I passed were catching up with me while I was getting slower and slower, I was wearing my tires out. I eventually spun, lost my gains and got pissed.
I think my times were somewhere around 1:33-1:36...
I decided that I would try using TIME TRIAL mode and set that up for the race conditions, the STR car, the same setup and I would apply the driving style I saw in the 1:26 video
<-- 1:26.149
I was able to get down to 1:31 and some change, but that was no where near good enough, albeit close to my qualifying time, but seeing that video I figured I coudl do better, so I tweaked the setup a bit, adjusting downforce, spring tension, balance and roll bar, and got down to low 1:29s. I was satisfied because I knew that this was much better than my dry qualifying time, and that I could probably use that setup in race mode with some success... turns out not to be true though.
The first corner MASSIVE understeer, no grip.. understeer everywhere, WTF?!
I then read that on TT mode there is *NO SIMULATION* - WTF is the purpose of that ?! Why the hell would anyone waste time tweaking a setup if the tire simulation isn't even on? My new setup is infinitely worse from where I started (again, the melbourne wet setup posted here) and now I pretty much have my hands up in the air.. WTF can I do or try in order to not wear my tires out in 10 laps and not slip and slide all over the place? even if I try to be as smooth and use as little steering input as possible, i still find myself running wide, and into the grass on the 3 PITA corners..
Ok that concludes my long-winded first post! Looking for some expert opinion
Additionally, though perhaps another subject all together, I'm not too familiar with how to tell what part of my car is limiting my ability - springs, roll bar, alignment.. I pretty much know that with little downforce I am unable to make the faster curves as easily as before, and the mid-speed sharp corners are noticably worse, I run about 7 front and 3-4 rear which ends up being decent.. everything I'm trying to do is maximize cornering grip and general traction, and when in TT mode, I ended up with a happy balance, a little on edge of oversteering but much easier to corner.. but it's all pointless right?
I am using no driving aids, PC version, and a logitech DFP wheel
Haven't done too much sim racing, I think getting Live For Speed and recently (as of 2007) becoming a F1 fan helped me decide to get F1 2010, bugs and errata aside.. here's my deal - I have no real-world driving skill that I'm aware of, so I attempt to just emulate and attempt to adapt to the track as much as possible, but thats been kind of hit or miss.
Anyhow, started a career for STR. Couldn't drive worth a damn at bahrain, I gave up and crashed. Then by melbourne, I was a little better, managing to qualify 12th. At this point I had thought I figured out a decent setup (not going too far from defaults though). In my driving, I was attempting to look as far ahead of the track as possible to prepare for upcoming corners etc, and that helped alot as opposed to focusing directly infront of me or on the racing line (which is set for corners only). My qualify time was, I believe, 1:30.144, a full second from 11th place oddly.
Track notes (from qual):
First corner:
I noted struggles with the first corner, but figured if I treat it as a chicane i can get through that pretty well, so I brake late as possible, downshift to 4th gear and accelerating as soon as I break left for the straight.
Second corner:
Trying to follow the line here, but braking as late as possible, rapidly downshifting into first and accelerating coming out, by middle of 3rd I left off of the gas to make the turn and ease back into it
Third corner:
Pretty simple, I go as fast and smooth as possible until I get through to the next slow corners:
Fifth/Sixth(?) corners:
This is tough, I would brake late as possible, downshift to 3rd and sharp right, cutting as much as possible without going over the kerb, but it seems like I would get spin, or be on the verge of spinning-out, I lost time in that corner.
Seventh corner:
Another slower corner, I approach it similarly to the previous, though I find it hard to not have to slow down in order to stay on track for the exit... very sloppy, frequent spin.
Eighth corner:
I let off gas and downshift into 6th, slightly cutting the sharp right corner, I make up a lot of time lost in the previous tricky corners, though it is extremely difficult to maintain that speed, lot of steering input required sometimes... other times its smooth as Keith Stone.
Tenth, Eleventh corners:
Slow down from 7th to 4th pretty quickly, approach as wide as possible, I'm going about 90 mph and hitting the outside kerb and then quickly accelerating for a second before the next immediate turn which I simply let of the throttle and ease back in and accelerate to 5th
final corners:
Slow from 5th to 2nd gear following line, maintain decent speed and follow that through to the straight, though sometimes if there is traffic, I will spin off from going too wide.
That was how I drove qualifying, for 12th place. I did get a grid penalty, it was 5 places and it somehow became 10!?.
Now the fun part, the race is WET.
I figured I didnt need so much downforce and I let some up, that was a huge mistake, so I had to quit, restart, and just went with the setup i used for qualifying... I struggled for hours, decided to do some research.
I came here, searched a bit, watched some videos of people driving melbourne in the rain and saw some guy who posted, if i recall, a 1:26 lap! I also noticed he was slowing down a little quicker/earlier and not downshifting so much.
I set the car up with the info from the setup that's posted here for melbourne wet and that worked quite well, but i still struggled with pace. I would get up from my 22nd starting pos to about 15th and then noticed the cars I passed were catching up with me while I was getting slower and slower, I was wearing my tires out. I eventually spun, lost my gains and got pissed.
I think my times were somewhere around 1:33-1:36...
I decided that I would try using TIME TRIAL mode and set that up for the race conditions, the STR car, the same setup and I would apply the driving style I saw in the 1:26 video
I was able to get down to 1:31 and some change, but that was no where near good enough, albeit close to my qualifying time, but seeing that video I figured I coudl do better, so I tweaked the setup a bit, adjusting downforce, spring tension, balance and roll bar, and got down to low 1:29s. I was satisfied because I knew that this was much better than my dry qualifying time, and that I could probably use that setup in race mode with some success... turns out not to be true though.
The first corner MASSIVE understeer, no grip.. understeer everywhere, WTF?!
I then read that on TT mode there is *NO SIMULATION* - WTF is the purpose of that ?! Why the hell would anyone waste time tweaking a setup if the tire simulation isn't even on? My new setup is infinitely worse from where I started (again, the melbourne wet setup posted here) and now I pretty much have my hands up in the air.. WTF can I do or try in order to not wear my tires out in 10 laps and not slip and slide all over the place? even if I try to be as smooth and use as little steering input as possible, i still find myself running wide, and into the grass on the 3 PITA corners..
Ok that concludes my long-winded first post! Looking for some expert opinion
Additionally, though perhaps another subject all together, I'm not too familiar with how to tell what part of my car is limiting my ability - springs, roll bar, alignment.. I pretty much know that with little downforce I am unable to make the faster curves as easily as before, and the mid-speed sharp corners are noticably worse, I run about 7 front and 3-4 rear which ends up being decent.. everything I'm trying to do is maximize cornering grip and general traction, and when in TT mode, I ended up with a happy balance, a little on edge of oversteering but much easier to corner.. but it's all pointless right?
I am using no driving aids, PC version, and a logitech DFP wheel
