F1 2012 Fuel Management

Jan Köhler · Sep 21, 2012

Hey guys, I've just completed my first career race for ForceIndia, but I struggled with the fuel.

Remembering last year's fuel situation I started with the cautious setting (driving without any aids, manual gears etc.)

I never switched to mix 3 and did every outlap on mix 1, even some more laps after my visits to the gravel. As long as the gravel sticked to my tyres, I went to mix 1. So in total it were probably around 5-6 laps on mix 1, rest on mix 2.

I did one less lap than the first but still went to "optimal" 3 laps before the finish line. So I didn't have any problem, but managed to burn quite much fuel. I guess on some other tracks with potentially more wheelspin and more hig-speed passages (hello rev limiter!) it will get quite interesting...

Despite from gear 6 to 7 I always shifted BEFORE the blue (purple?) lights went on, quite oftten even before the red lights.

Did anyone encounter similar "problems"?

Roberto Costa · Oct 19, 2012

Didn't got any problem with 50% races. Running some laps on mix 3, most of the race on mix 2 and around 2 laps on mix 1. End the races on optimal, but never out of fuel.
I did some 25% races also and it looks like you have more than enough for a 25% race. You can use agressive strategy and use mix 2 all the race. Im smooth with the throttle but i shift up most times as soon as the purple light appears and i shift down very fast while applying a lot of brake pressure.

Chris · Oct 21, 2012

The goal of perfect fuel economy is to finish the race with "optimum" fueling, or if you've been lapped X amount of times, you'll want to finish with -X number of times you've been lapped.

Basically, the goal is to finish with the lightest car possible so that in the last, say 5-8 laps, you'll be quicker than anyone else in your tier. And hopefully, as fast as the next tier up. So that you can have the best chance of overtaking anyone ahead of you.

See when I was playing 2011 I didn't really strategize with fuel levels too much because you could pretty much run most of a race on Rich and never need to change it, so I never got the chance to finish the race with a car that had just enough fuel in it to finish the race. But in 2012 since fuel usage is much more critical I've learnt to think about how it works.

That's why, if you use some of (or all of them) the fuel saving techniques in my previous post, you can save some fuel for the last 10-15 laps, where by, you can get a fresh set if boots on, and crank up the rich mix, and hopefully catch and overtake a lot of the guys ahead of you. And because you'll have a bit more fuel to play with, and fresher rubber, later in the race, you'll be able to brake later (you can use more engine breaking at this point), and your breaking distances will be shorter. So you'll be super quick, and essentially putting in qualifying laps until the end of the race.

However, it is crucial to get your strategy correct, because you'll want to base your fuel consumption around the set of tyres you've got on. So if you're easy on your tyres, then you'll have to take fewer pistops which means that you'll want to use most of your fuel towards the middle and end of the race, where you'll have the freshest rubber, (assuming you only pit once or twice. First; at the very latest pitting window of the first stint, and then for your second stop at the very latest of the second pitting window.) this gives you more options to choose from in terms of strategy, because the AI will probably pit 3 times in a race, and you'll have 1 pit stop in the bag. (And we all saw how well that worked out for Perez in the Italian Grand Prix!)

Or if you're tough on your tyres, then obviously you'll need to pit more often, because of your driving style, so naturally you'll be a little bit more aggressive, and as a result; a little bit quicker, and thus can save fuel, using some of the strategies in my previous post, and/or in combination with setting fuel mixture to "Lean". That way, you'll usually get to the point where you'll be making your final stop towards the end of the race, and you'll have some extra fuel in the bag, and fresh rubber, so you can just romp to the finish line.

F*** I love strategy.

Riesig · Oct 21, 2012

Is there a secret option to see the exact fuel usage in numbers?
I want to know this. Badly.

I wish the car status window is more informative, then again, +# laps is enough to generalize if you can turn it up or not.

Tom · Oct 21, 2012

Riesig said:
Is there a secret option to see the exact fuel usage in numbers?
I want to know this. Badly.

Nope.

Jamie Francklin · Oct 22, 2012

Tophercheese the above strategy is what I usually go for. I consider it to be a strategy of two parts: first segment conservative, second segment aggressive. I suppose there are two more strategies though: first segment, aggressive, second segment, conservative and lastly, a balanced approach throughout. The biggest factor for me when deciding which strategy to pick is starting tyres and most importantly, track position. I believe that each of these strategies is as important as the other and it's crucial to be able to adjust on the fly. Whilst the goal is presumably to have the lowest overall total race time, I believe that possibly by starting the race more aggressively like Tom Endres seems to, you maintain position, allowing you to defend etc... Thereby allowing you to finish higher. Apologies, if I'm blabbering, I have not had much sleep recently which makes me waffle!

Xavier Merle · Oct 23, 2012

Jamie Francklin said:
Tophercheese The biggest factor for me when deciding which strategy to pick is starting tyres and most importantly, track position. I believe that each of these strategies is as important as the other and it's crucial to be able to adjust on the fly.

I totally agree, track position determines pretty much everything in the fuel strategy. Dynamic weather with an unpredicted amount of rain can affect the original strategy too... And this is the real problem to me :| Adjusting "live" the strategy in changing weather.

Logan Banks · Oct 23, 2012

Xavier Merle said:
I totally agree, track position determines pretty much everything in the fuel strategy. Dynamic weather with an unpredicted amount of rain can affect the original strategy too... And this is the real problem to me :| Adjusting "live" the strategy in changing weather.

I have pretty much the same problem because it's not clear about the fuel strategy at the beginning. You don't really know what the strategy are and especially during the race what amount of fuel do you have left it juust give you laps left after the end I guess.
It is the same in qualifying where I find the fuel management very bad.