Test Race Hungaroring 24th July

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Practice server is open, I also opened a race server with:

59 min practice
7 min open qualify
5 min warmup
62 min race
tyre wear x2

I do not intend to dictate the server settings, and the server can be canged if we desire to do so

Also, the pb.s from Hungaroring is recorded and displayed at prestogp.com, but they have the same id tag as the other Hungaroring track, which was a bit faster, so...you see what I mean

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

1:29? I am at the edge at low 1:34, barely keeping it between white lines..

Duco, using qualy laptimes for compare is the only way to go. We got different race pace, mine are very close to my qualy times (in F1 i usually made fastest laptimes in the whole event at lap 3 on the actual race with heavy fuel and medium tires or at the last stint.) so i'm definitely not a qualy runner...) when faster drivers will "suffer" more in race setup. So comparing those will not give out the raw performance and of course we've driven for sometime together, we kind a know how to judge each other pacewise.

I should be maximum 3 sec a lap slower in qualy to keep my place here, so my pace at Hungaro seems abysmal right now. Losing grip and using too high risk if i go any faster. I was sure fastest times to be closer to 1:31 to be honest so 1:29 seems unrealistic, at this point. And the car behaves beautifully too, kind a baffled again. Maybe i need to just strip the wings off and go for uncomfortable high risk, slipping sliding, biting my lips for 65 minutes to get speed aarrghh..

But i'm sticking to my "Kimi" routine of practice, i won't do a buttload of laps as it really does not help me at all.. Too many laps and i start to go backwards and thinking too much, getting frustrated and generally, not enjoying driving at all.. Season 9 it started to show as all-over boredom, anger and frustration, i didn't want to drive the races and was actually happy to crash at midway just to get off the track.. It was more like a chore to do at least one full race simulation and about 2 racelengths of stints.. But if we meet at server i'm more than happy to get some tire-to-tire action and work as a "practicetarget", it helps me more than lonely laps

Also knowing the tracks really well helps, so Kimi-method all the way:"Others can sit in the simulators if they want. I´m here to drive."

 

[Reik Major]

What laptimes are you doing on high fuel, Reik and Sean?

Yesterday evening was my first ever run at this track with the F3000, so I have no good experiences with much fuel there. Before bed time I just filled up the quali setup with 95 liters and set radiator at 2. I think I drove something around 1:33:3xx in the first few laps.

I'm suprised you guys seem to do only quali laps, or at least that's the laptime you always talk about.
With the race being more than 1 hour, I find it pointless to practice quali.
Also the grip level in quali is very different.

I think it's a matter of taste how to approach to the best race pace. Me (and some others) try to find the quickest possible setup and lap time by hot lapping very much. When squeezing everything out of the car I experience the boarders of the track the best way and find the required fine tweaks to make the setup perfect for me.

When I feel I reached the limits in doing that, I fill up the car and do some tests to fine tune it for the long race. Having much race experience shortens that last step very much. And the higher the level I reach in hot lapping, the higher my general race pace will be, because all the inputs I have to make at a track are fine tuned as much as possible then. Besides that the comparison of fastest lap times is a nice challenge by itself and makes me improve very much due to that challenge.

I usually fill my car up with plenty of fuel and then improve the car.

There are also some guys who prefer this way of preparing. There's nothing wrong with focusing more on race pace instead of quali pace. (I prefer to focus on both )

Doing fast laps for more than 1 hour is something else.

There you say something. We all aim for a consistant race pace in the first place, not at least to be safe for each other. Being quick and consistant is the next step, wich we also seem to achieve very well.

 

[David Turnbull]

Anybody can do 1 fast lap. Doing fast laps for more than 1 hour is something else.

your talking the talk duco, but can you walk the walk? (joke)

weve all got our own practise routines, no ones is better than anyone elses its whatever floats your boat.

rough idea of laptimes are....

2 stopper fuel - 1.31's
1 stopper fuel - 1.32's

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Just thought of something, we have working time trial mode now (in F1 MAK 2007 time trial mode won't work). Has anyone uploaded or is willing do one of their better laps there?

On subject of hotlapping, i take about 30-40 liters of fuel as outlap-hotlap-escape cycle it takes forever to get anything done consistently (most likely never..).

I think most of us use a similar approach; take 6-8 laps of fuel, tweak the setup, go out, do few laps, tweak, repeat. After that comes the empty tank laps when setup and driveline are already where you want them to be. This repeats a few times and final tweak to qualy setup are made, this is usually the setup that is shared to others. And then to check tire wear and setup on heavy load and do a stint, if it's not right you need to tweak and do another one.

Some do more and some less, usually you can see in the race who has done more long stint practice as they have their tactic bang on and suffer less at the end of stints (= not me, i'll take a beating in the last laps..)... If the vehicle and/or track is strange, then you need to do more to make sure there's no awful surprises like unexpected tire wear or overheating engines. But i feel that's pretty good routine, takes 3h max.

 

[David Turnbull]

im the opposite of kennett i start with purely hotlapping, as much as i can possibly do, that teaches me the limits of the track at my fastest speed, from there i add fuel and do either a couple of 33 mins stints or a full race, usually starting 3 days before the event this is where i slow it down to stay within track limits while still pushing as much as i can, it really doesnt need to be rocket science, its a game afterall, the more laps you do the more consistant you get wether thats qualifyign fuel or race fuel.

funny story, the only track i never did a stint on in practise, i purely hotlapped everytime i was on, valencia street circuit, it was my first win with mmg

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

It can be argued that the best practice is what you think is the most fun. The more fun you have preparing/practicing, the more you (likely) will do it, and at the end of the day nothing beats track time.

Personally 90% of my practice is in race trim, but that is because it is what I enjoy the most.

 

[Richard Hill]

1:29? I am at the edge at low 1:34, barely keeping it between white lines.."

I am the same as kennett. The car is beautiful to drive the best that it has felt to me to be honest but I just can't get any lower than a 1.34.005 grrr that's with 10 laps of fuel I thinks.
Don't want to change the setup as it feels so nice

 

[Dino Paolini]

Nicolai Nicholson You accidentaly opened the practce and the race server with Radicals assigned to it instead of f3000

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Nicolai Nicholson You accidentaly opened the practce and the race server with Radicals assigned to it instead of f3000

Wops, you are right. I corrected it now

 

[Alberto Casado]

And I think none of the servers have tyre wear.

 

[Dino Paolini]

And I think none of the servers have tyre wear.

They all have
If they show with tyrewear x0, it's just a wrong display

Thank you nico

 

[Duco Jansen]

I was in a 15 minutes quali server and did a low fuel run resulting in a 1.31. Same as in practice.
In quali there's usally more grip so I think the server is faulty. Either that or I suck.
The car felt great so probably it's not me then. With 100 liters of fuel I was lapping about 2-2.5 seconds slower

 

[Reik Major]

Just uploaded my best lap from a third person view for those who are interested in the racing line...

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

My practise is about same as Reik and David, something else to i do now is like here and usually every new or next track I use setup from previous track it may not sound most logical and don't think many real f1 teams would follow .
So here 1st practise around 1 hour for me, I started with Bahrain setup adjusted wing, gears a few small other things after a doing few hotlaps found something I was happy with and managed a 29.9.
Next night did a couple 33 min stints with David and as he said we were 31s 2 stop fuel and 32s 1 stop fuel and then finished with some hotlaps and managed a 29.5 (Sos I forgot to say, back to you Reik ). About 2 hours
Next night some hotlapping and couple short races with Reik best I got was 29.7. about 1 hour odds.
So that's about 4/4.5 hours driving hungary so far and that's actual driving time not server time, usual for most races would be close to that or with maybe a hour or 2 more if I love track .

I think we found that q position is quite important for our races with it sometimes really close times at front so its just about trying to be as best prepared and when talking of q pace or pace we all tend to know that resulting race pace is usually 1 to 2 secs slower most tracks.
Also Duco practise grip compared to quali on servers , I can usually go from .5 to 1 sec faster in q maybe more hotlapping in q will let you find extra grip, if you can do same times in both perhaps its just you haven't found the little bit extra grip that's in q.

Only real tip I can give is practise with some practise on top lol if you haven't tried my setup give it a go and try and replicate whats in video, me David and Reik and all around same times with it but its not for everyone to Everyone has different driving styles to especially with what your right foot is doing i tend to use a lot of accel with these even in braking,
Dino for example found it to understeery for him where as i actually find it slight oversteery and pointy how i like it and planted for putting power down which is good for here,a few corners here are bad for understeery feel to though.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

1:32.1, time attack: https://www.dropbox.com/s/c3ivnhg36z0mxsm/Kennett Ylitalo - 1_32_144.ta

A lot less understeer needed than what i had, a bit of nervous and oversteering car is quicker. It's not so nice to drive long runs anymore but it was a bit like that in Bahrain too and i enjoyed that twitchy rear very much.. Add +1s as it was time attack and it's close to expected qualy speed, a lot is decided in first two turns and finally at last corner. I'm satisfied with this pace, it ain't gonna get any quicker.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Some facts about the race (assuming 62 minutes lenght)

Race length most likely 40 laps for those not lapped. For it to be 41 laps average pace for winner (assuming 2 stop strategy) must be 1:31,250 or better. For it to be 39 laps average pace for winner must be 1:33,590 or worse.

1 stoppers will lose roughly 40 seconds in the pits
2 stoppers will lose roughly 70 seconds in the pits
2 stoppers must on average be 0,75 seconds faster than 1 stoppers to catch up

Also, you should agree if one should respect the very long pit exit line at all times or not

Here is my setup, a bit softer and more forgiving in my view, allowing me to push harder

EDIT: I added a table that illustrates a theoretical "even" race. The values are inspired by David's predictions

2 stopper fuel - 1.31's
1 stopper fuel - 1.32's

 

[Reik Major]

As long as the pit exit line isn't complete nonsense (which isn't the case here), I'll allways support to respect it as they do in real life, so no crossing with any wheel allowed IMO.

If it's about pit entry lines, I think there's no need to stay within the lines if they are there but to aim for the safest entry all time.

 

[Reik Major]

59 min practice
7 min open qualify
5 min warmup
62 min race
tyre wear x2

David, could you confirm the final settings for tonight plz? Will it be Nicos suggestion from above? Do we start at normal PrestoGP time again? How will strategy finally be allocated to the drivers?

thx mate!

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

Good question Reik.
I think normal PrestoGP time and about strategy I will be there with feet at floor . Will be some good battles at skyline mine pace is like Kennett and Richard