F1 2010 How you guys start your seasons

[Kris Cabrera]

just wanted to get your advice a bit on what difficulty did you start your first season?

 

[Bruno Lancksweerdt]

amateur for first races than gone to intermediate and halfway gone to pro , i drove a virgin , now I'm in 3th season with ferrari

 

[Si_Crewe]

As above really.

Started my first season on amateur then increased to intermediate and then pro but left a bunch of driving aids (ABS, traction control etc) switched on.

Having won 3 championships (last one with the skill on legend) I have now switched off more and more of the driving aids and then decreased the skill level again.

The one thing I would say is that if you're gonna ramp up the skill level and dial back the driver aids it's probably better to leave the penalties on reduced and switch off the damage (at first anyway). There's no point in getting kicked while you're down.

 

[Steve Stoop]

started on amateur with all assists on (even the brake lol), but quickly gave up on that and said : sod it, I'ma go expert in this. I was a proper backmarker through most of my first season with lotus, then started scoring some podiums and two wins (wet races hehe) near the mid-end season and finished 7th in the WDC lol.

I'd suggest to turn off driving aids asap, it will only give you bad habits that are harder to correct later instead, learning to drive without assists from the start is hard at first, but very rewarding once you get the hang of it, you'll also be quicker in general.

 

[Chris Bull]

I started my season on Expert as I have been playing all types of driving games for many years but!!!!!!!!

I won in Bahrain,Australia and lost in Malaysia and won again in China....When I got to Spain I am at least 8 to 10 seconds off the pace and cannot catch up.
I am only like this after Patching the game. I decided in the race as I was doing so bad that I would do a spectacular crash and get a DNF. However Next race and Monaco here I come....I love this track and I know it very well But!!!!! I am still 6 seconds off the pace?
Why is this?
I am in a Torro Rosso so its not a slow car but its even behind the Virgin and Lotus cars in Spain and Monaco? Why Why Why???

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

just wanted to get your advice a bit on what difficulty did you start your first season?

Started with the highest possible AI and on purpose also answered the interview questions in a way that I get maximum resistance in my 3 year career in F1. Quite a handful

 

[My993C2]

I am new to this game (playing the PC version with a G25 wheel/pedals). I started a 7 year career season driving the crappiest car (the HRT) with minimal driving aids (I do have medium traction control turn on and I did turn on both pit stop aids, everything else is turned off) and I am driving against Legend AI opponents at 100% race distances. I don't think I will ever drive one of the top cars (Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari) because it will take me several real world years to get good enough to be promoted to a top team and by then a new iteration of this game will be released to the world. No I started myself in a crappy car against the hardest AI opponents because my initial goals in this game are not to win races. My initial goal are to learn to drive the tracks at close to 99% speed running full race distances without making any major mistakes. If I ever get to the point where I want to start winning races, I can always tone down the difficulty, but the majority of the new arrivals in the sport are not given seats in the top ranked teams. My name is NOT Lewis Hamilton, I do not possess the skills to arrive on the "virtual" F1 scene with a seat in top ranked team in my rookie season. If I want a ride in a fast car, I will need to improve and earn that ride. I have some decent driving skills (this includes driving my real world '97 Porsche 911 at my local race track), but I am not God's gift to the sim racing world and most of these tracks I do not know yet. I have a lot of hard work ahead of me and if/when I earn WDC points driving in a bottom feeder or mid pack team against Legend opponents at 100% race distances, I know I will have earned it.

PS: I have installed the latest PC patch which has seemed to improved the AI in the races a little bit. But it would be nice to see the AI have random failures. I have 2 full length races under my belt so far (both on Bahrain as I restarted my career, pre-patch and post-patch), and I have yet to see the AI cars crash or have any mechanical failures. This is unfortunate that the AI cars are bullet proof because you watch a real world race and there is 4-8 retirements (sometimes even more) in every race. It would be nice to know that I could occasionally place higher by finishing the race error free. I took 17th place in my post-patch race at Bahrain (started 12th on the grid) something I am happy with as I drove well, but my next race in Australia will be harder as my qualifying time of 1:31:600 was only good for 20th place on the grid. I doubt I will score any WDC points in my rookie year. But then again the real world HRT drivers didn't score any points as well. No my goal this rookie year is to learn the tracks while driving hopefully major mistake free at 100% full length race distances. Monaco will be interesting ... haha

 

[David Kaye]

I have yet to finish a 1st season due to the corrupt save game issue. But I started all seven with medium difficulty and just traction control set to medium and auto gear's is all I choose. But I am abandoning this game and no intention of buying their patched version of 2010 re-released as 2011.

 

[Neil Bateman]

Well its quite easy to work out, test your ability against the levels of AI difficulty in single races, make sure you get to grips with manual pitting and changing your strategy on the fly, if you find you can do all of that stuff fairly comfortably it then just a matter of lap times based on the AI's lap times.

If you use expert settings there are no second chances, you make a mistake on track or in the pit stops you fall way down the field with not much chance of recovering to a good result.

If you think you need a comfort blanket to allow for mistakes then drop down a level, i personally now use expert with no custom settings once i got my pitting sorted out, i no longer use flashbacks now the stupid puncture problem is fixed, i used to try too hard to pass every car at every corner but soon realised just damaging your front wing has a big effect on tyre wear and now pick and choose how and where i do my overtaking.

I concentrate on my own race and my own pace, i try to look after my tyres when i have to and push hard when i have to, i no longer try for qualifying laps every lap like i used to as this is the wrong way to do things. The big thing is to be consistent with lap times and to realise when your tyres are wearing out and to drive accordingly, earlier on brakes, more gentle on the gas out of corners etc.......

If your at the point where just to try to keep up means killing your tyres and engines and resorting to last gasp banzai overtakes then you need to drop down a level.

 

[1Coopgt]

Loving the game so far . Started with Sauber . Still in my first year racing on easy . Using a Xbox360 controller on my pc. Just won the drivers championship with 3 races left in the season. Also signed with McClaren for next season.

 

[Jack Curzon]

I'm in the same boat as My993C2. I've joined Torro Rosso, I think for a three year career but its been however many months since the game was released and 50 odd hours playing since then so I can't really remember. I play on a PC with a formula force wheel and pedals, all aids off, except medium TC, 75% race distance, AI difficulty one below legend and auto pit control and I must say this game is tough. I'm up to Hockenheim and have never managed a points finish (hang on that's a lie, yes I have, I think I have about 15 WDC points, 12th overall in standings, but definitely never finished on the podium). Qualifying on some tracks has been okay - get through to Q3 about 50/50 but every race i pretty much fall off from the start - I just can't lap as consistantly as the AI and as we know, one slip and boy do you loose places.

So far, every track seems to have a sector where the AI manage to fly through and I just can't find the line or the right reference for the breaking point. For me its a bugger watching the AI perfectly judge corners and braking distances lap after lap while I'm always on the edge trying explore how much grip I have as my car lightens up. Sometimes it's quite depressing, but like My993c2, I'm a rookie in my rookie year and I don't play any other racing games so I guess that's quite real (I mean game real of course!). I hope I'll get (much) faster over time because sometimes it feels like I'll never catch up, especially when you see the lap times people seem to be capable of putting in on these forums! I wonder if I can really be that much worse than some others! Having said that, as I do improve I'm sure I will feel richly rewarded. Whether I can bother putting in another season which may take another 30 hours after this one, just to carry on finishing mid table, we'll have to wait and see. At least I won't have to spend 90 minutes learning each new track though. The one lesson I've learned: pray for rain.

 

[ASenna4ever]

Neil hit it on the head all the points. But i just started a career mode with HRT Cosworth, and the car is absolutely amazing. Lotus was too tight, and the Virgin was in between. I felt as though any set up wouldnt get me what i wanted out of the races. I have brake assist off, ABS off, full damage, fuel and tire sim ON... but the AI is at intermediate and i find that the times are pretty close. If you havent mastered the lines at a track, then youll get competitive times(well thats the case with me). The driving experience feels alot more loose and comfortable with the HRT. have fun!!