Car
Williams
Condition
Dry
Distance
100%
Aerodynamics
Front Wing Angle: 4
Rear Wing Angle: 5
Differential
On throttle: 75%
Off throttle: 70%
Suspension Geometry
Front Camber: -2.90
Rear Camber: -1.30
Front Toe: 0.09
Rear Toe: 0.38
Suspension
Front Suspension: 3
Rear Suspension: 4
Front Anti-Roll Bar: 7
Rear Anti-Roll Bar: 6
Front Ride Height: 2
Rear Ride Height: 2
Brakes
Brake Pressure: 85%
Front Brake Bias: 54%
Tyre Pressures
Front Tyre Pressure: 22.6
Rear Tyre Pressure: 20.7
Weight Distribution
Ballast: 7
Notes: Tons of notes as it's a new track and a hella race. The setup changed a lot from Time Trial conditions to Career as the tyre wear was severe and needed tweaking. After changes I got Tyre wear along the line of "Expected", although too much sliding will put you over so it's important to drive clean.
Fuel is a major issue as you're on throttle most of the time. To counter this, I purposely failed the fuel program to give more for the race (and I still had to run Lean sometimes). The ERS program was difficult too, with half the track needing low deployment to bring me to the optimal. This may have given me less power down some of the straights.
I had to complete the "Top Speed" speedtrap objective, but could only do so with Ultrasofts and low fuel. This is where I found it tricky to set up for Paul Ricard. I was easily the quickest driver in the first sector, but I was losing ground in the second to the front runners; with the third usually even. This made for a tricky race as I had to fight back and out brake rivals at the end of long straights, going side-by-side at awkward moments. But once I found this disadvantage it was too late as I was in parc ferme conditions. Had I known I'd have experimented with 2-3 wings and accepted some loss in the first sector where the AI seem slow.
Race: Despite the straight line disadvantage, I had a real ding dong battle with Bottas, Vettel and Lewis in the early stages after qualifying 4th (a tenth behind 'em). Bottas disappeared after pitting early, and Vettel went out of the race with a failure after his first stop.
I was the only car around me starting on the harder tyre (supersoft to others ultras), which let me get out in front and put in a 15-lap stint while Lewis went very soft with his selections (two ultra, two supersofts, no softs I think). After going with the Soft for the second stint (no one else doing this) I found Perez of all people fighting me for 2nd place; no idea where Kimi, Bottas or the Red Bulls were. I dealt with him, but his straight line speed was way better than my own. Lewis pitted and worked his way back up to me on Ultras.
Running low on fuel .. I went total "F You" mode on Lewis as it was advantageous for me to cruise and hold him up with lean mode through the 1st/3rd sectors. Of course this meant letting him by several times early on straights so I could pick up the slipstream and re-pass before the next corner. I have to applaud Codemasters for making the AI even harder to screw with, as Lewis especially is good at finding the perfect line to shut you out. The dirty tactic not only helped me save grip & fuel for later, it killed Lewis' race strategy as he couldn't get the best from his ultras.
After Lewis pitted for his last supers, I pitted for mine a lap later (hammertime) and came out in front. It was hard to keep him behind at first, but something happened to Lewis as I came over the line ten+ seconds ahead. Lewis had issues with Magnussen, a back marker who he kept passing before being re-passed several times. Didn't have sound on .. so maybe Lewis had an issue with his car? I'm not sure. So while the setup wasn't optimal in the 2nd sector, I managed to win the grand prix with a stop less. Surprisingly awesome track for racing. Just need to get the right balance with the setup and it will be perfect.
Corners: Paul Ricard may be new to many fans as it's not been used in many F1 video games (if it all). Here's my take on it:
1: You can't be too far to the right on entry as the curb will upset the car. Brake as early as possible so you can get the best angle for the second corner; which is way more important.
2: The turn in depends on how brave you are and what you did in corner 1. It's so easy to cut track on the inside & outside, but you can't afford to tiptoe through. Getting it right gives you an advantage over the AI who are noticeably tentative.
3,4,5: Learn the braking point early in to 3 because you can make up time through 4. You can enter turn 5 from many angles, but if you're either too wide or too tight .. you'll lose out. There's a small curb on the inside of five you can attack without penalty.
6: This is one of the freakiest corners on the calendar. I don't know why, but the game allows you to run as wide as you like off track and gain a better entry to 6. This allows you to pick up the power early from 5. But you don't want to run too wide off circuit or you'll lose time, so find the spot I aimed for (you'll figure it out) and abuse it .. or not, it's up to you. Avoid going over the fat inside curb, or running off the outside of the corner as you'll scrub off speed needed for the next. You have to lower the angle needed in to 7 to not put any added stress on the tyres. Aim for the racing line and you'll be ok.
7: Like I said, this corner depends on where you are after 6. It's not really a corner, but you can have some tyre wear if you're not smooth through it. Clipping the inside curb might scrub a little speed, so avoid it if you can .. but it's not the end of the world if you do.
8 & 9 chicane: Had some serious battles in here. Going too wide in 8 screws you for 9, but going in too early gets you penalized for cutting. Again the curbs in 9 (especially the outside one) are likely to scrub off speed so avoid if possible. 9 is my weakest corner. The AI cruises through like it's nothing and get my slipstream to fight me through the next couple of corners. I think my issue is figuring out how to approach 9 without having to brake a 2nd time after doing so for 8.
10: Do not think of this corner like it's a straight with no penalty .. it will harm your tyres if you're not smooth. Curbs are low so they shouldn't have much effect. If you're having to defend through here take the inside line so you can keep it for turn 11. Make the AI go the long way round.
11: What a fun corner which feels more like two! Wow. The most important thing is not to allow yourself to slide or lean too much on your left tyres as they're the ones which take the most wear. AI should give up fighting if you have the line as they'd rather avoid an incident.
12: Another unique corner. It's all about the braking here, and not taking too much of the inside curb. The more curb you can avoid the better exit you should get. 13 isn't worth mentioning.
14, 15: There's like a double apex here through 14, and your right tyres can afford to be leaned on heavily. Think about where you want to be for 15, which is preferably somewhere which lets you get the cleanest exit without hitting any curbs. AI seem slow in their exit from 15 for some reason, so you shouldn't need to worry about them attacking you in to 1 even with DRS.
Hope that helps! Feel free to give me some feedback on the wing angles you prefer, or if you think something else works better with a different setting. Cheers.
Williams
Condition
Dry
Distance
100%
Aerodynamics
Front Wing Angle: 4
Rear Wing Angle: 5
Differential
On throttle: 75%
Off throttle: 70%
Suspension Geometry
Front Camber: -2.90
Rear Camber: -1.30
Front Toe: 0.09
Rear Toe: 0.38
Suspension
Front Suspension: 3
Rear Suspension: 4
Front Anti-Roll Bar: 7
Rear Anti-Roll Bar: 6
Front Ride Height: 2
Rear Ride Height: 2
Brakes
Brake Pressure: 85%
Front Brake Bias: 54%
Tyre Pressures
Front Tyre Pressure: 22.6
Rear Tyre Pressure: 20.7
Weight Distribution
Ballast: 7
Notes: Tons of notes as it's a new track and a hella race. The setup changed a lot from Time Trial conditions to Career as the tyre wear was severe and needed tweaking. After changes I got Tyre wear along the line of "Expected", although too much sliding will put you over so it's important to drive clean.
Fuel is a major issue as you're on throttle most of the time. To counter this, I purposely failed the fuel program to give more for the race (and I still had to run Lean sometimes). The ERS program was difficult too, with half the track needing low deployment to bring me to the optimal. This may have given me less power down some of the straights.
I had to complete the "Top Speed" speedtrap objective, but could only do so with Ultrasofts and low fuel. This is where I found it tricky to set up for Paul Ricard. I was easily the quickest driver in the first sector, but I was losing ground in the second to the front runners; with the third usually even. This made for a tricky race as I had to fight back and out brake rivals at the end of long straights, going side-by-side at awkward moments. But once I found this disadvantage it was too late as I was in parc ferme conditions. Had I known I'd have experimented with 2-3 wings and accepted some loss in the first sector where the AI seem slow.
Race: Despite the straight line disadvantage, I had a real ding dong battle with Bottas, Vettel and Lewis in the early stages after qualifying 4th (a tenth behind 'em). Bottas disappeared after pitting early, and Vettel went out of the race with a failure after his first stop.
I was the only car around me starting on the harder tyre (supersoft to others ultras), which let me get out in front and put in a 15-lap stint while Lewis went very soft with his selections (two ultra, two supersofts, no softs I think). After going with the Soft for the second stint (no one else doing this) I found Perez of all people fighting me for 2nd place; no idea where Kimi, Bottas or the Red Bulls were. I dealt with him, but his straight line speed was way better than my own. Lewis pitted and worked his way back up to me on Ultras.
Running low on fuel .. I went total "F You" mode on Lewis as it was advantageous for me to cruise and hold him up with lean mode through the 1st/3rd sectors. Of course this meant letting him by several times early on straights so I could pick up the slipstream and re-pass before the next corner. I have to applaud Codemasters for making the AI even harder to screw with, as Lewis especially is good at finding the perfect line to shut you out. The dirty tactic not only helped me save grip & fuel for later, it killed Lewis' race strategy as he couldn't get the best from his ultras.
After Lewis pitted for his last supers, I pitted for mine a lap later (hammertime) and came out in front. It was hard to keep him behind at first, but something happened to Lewis as I came over the line ten+ seconds ahead. Lewis had issues with Magnussen, a back marker who he kept passing before being re-passed several times. Didn't have sound on .. so maybe Lewis had an issue with his car? I'm not sure. So while the setup wasn't optimal in the 2nd sector, I managed to win the grand prix with a stop less. Surprisingly awesome track for racing. Just need to get the right balance with the setup and it will be perfect.
Corners: Paul Ricard may be new to many fans as it's not been used in many F1 video games (if it all). Here's my take on it:
1: You can't be too far to the right on entry as the curb will upset the car. Brake as early as possible so you can get the best angle for the second corner; which is way more important.
2: The turn in depends on how brave you are and what you did in corner 1. It's so easy to cut track on the inside & outside, but you can't afford to tiptoe through. Getting it right gives you an advantage over the AI who are noticeably tentative.
3,4,5: Learn the braking point early in to 3 because you can make up time through 4. You can enter turn 5 from many angles, but if you're either too wide or too tight .. you'll lose out. There's a small curb on the inside of five you can attack without penalty.
6: This is one of the freakiest corners on the calendar. I don't know why, but the game allows you to run as wide as you like off track and gain a better entry to 6. This allows you to pick up the power early from 5. But you don't want to run too wide off circuit or you'll lose time, so find the spot I aimed for (you'll figure it out) and abuse it .. or not, it's up to you. Avoid going over the fat inside curb, or running off the outside of the corner as you'll scrub off speed needed for the next. You have to lower the angle needed in to 7 to not put any added stress on the tyres. Aim for the racing line and you'll be ok.
7: Like I said, this corner depends on where you are after 6. It's not really a corner, but you can have some tyre wear if you're not smooth through it. Clipping the inside curb might scrub a little speed, so avoid it if you can .. but it's not the end of the world if you do.
8 & 9 chicane: Had some serious battles in here. Going too wide in 8 screws you for 9, but going in too early gets you penalized for cutting. Again the curbs in 9 (especially the outside one) are likely to scrub off speed so avoid if possible. 9 is my weakest corner. The AI cruises through like it's nothing and get my slipstream to fight me through the next couple of corners. I think my issue is figuring out how to approach 9 without having to brake a 2nd time after doing so for 8.
10: Do not think of this corner like it's a straight with no penalty .. it will harm your tyres if you're not smooth. Curbs are low so they shouldn't have much effect. If you're having to defend through here take the inside line so you can keep it for turn 11. Make the AI go the long way round.
11: What a fun corner which feels more like two! Wow. The most important thing is not to allow yourself to slide or lean too much on your left tyres as they're the ones which take the most wear. AI should give up fighting if you have the line as they'd rather avoid an incident.
12: Another unique corner. It's all about the braking here, and not taking too much of the inside curb. The more curb you can avoid the better exit you should get. 13 isn't worth mentioning.
14, 15: There's like a double apex here through 14, and your right tyres can afford to be leaned on heavily. Think about where you want to be for 15, which is preferably somewhere which lets you get the cleanest exit without hitting any curbs. AI seem slow in their exit from 15 for some reason, so you shouldn't need to worry about them attacking you in to 1 even with DRS.
Hope that helps! Feel free to give me some feedback on the wing angles you prefer, or if you think something else works better with a different setting. Cheers.
