F1 2012 Last stint in 50% races

[Reanimocio]

I'm currently in my second season, driving for Lotus. In the first season I was driving for FI and had fair amount of fun on Professional (didn't win a race, which I though was cool considering what I could do in a FI in F1 2011; but still pretty much matching the pace of the front runner). After I went to Lotus I started having tremendous fun on Legend. So far Kimi has outquilified me 4-2 but three of these times it was less than tenth! I match his pace during the race, the McLaren is mighty, though. I two races I have won so far was because the one of the McLaren was involved in first lap incident and the other starting 11 or 12th (China), and the other Button starting 10th and Hamilton making mistake on the hairpin. But I have a problem with the last stint, I just can't match them. I know the car becomes much lighter but I just can't throw it around like they do. Do you guys have any tips how to improve my pace in the last of the race? In Spain I tried Cautious fuel strategy and in the last 10-14 laps I was running rich fuel and Kimi was still pulling away from me.

 

[James Bannister]

Could be the set up you have, it's tough to get a good balance for race and qualifying pace, but I find if your gears are too set up for qualifying then come the race you won't be able to match them at all (more so in earlier stints), it could be your tyre strategy, maybe yours are dropping off before there's and causing you not to be able to push as hard as them.

Do you find the car feels uncomfortable to push or sliding away from you? It's always a mix of things to go by, hard to say as Kimi is your best target being the same car, but I'd say it would be a mix of set up and how much fuel you have left, if you're on optimal then you should be able to start putting in decent laps as long as your tyre's are good enough.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

Perhaps you are not so well adapted to how the car handles on prime tires (assuming you are starting on options and change to primes mid race), it has less grip and requires a bit more finesse than the options.

My advice, use the practice session to run them into the ground, do 30+ laps on them, that should prepare you.

I still miss having more practice sessions.

 

[TMDoll]

50% - Pro AI, racing for Force India, first season Career.

Melbourne - strategy - Normal fuel - Option/Prime. Last stint bad
Bahrain - strategy Normal fuel - Prime/Option. Last stint good!
Catalunya - strategy Normal fuel - Option/Prime. Last stint bad.

Hard to find the right solution ot these bad stints on any forum. Many different experiences and ideas.

I had a great race in Bahrain starting on Primes, overtaking in the last stint when on options. But on the other two I get a stupidly slow last stint on primes and can't seem to correct it. I'm not bouncing on off the limiter too early on the straights late on, and I'm sure my gears are sorted. Can't seem to get anymore pace by changing gears.

I was thinking that maybe the grip levels increase more that I think during a race, meaning you can comprimise on settings that give you the grip, and opt for a speedier, but less stable car. Will try Catalunya again tonight with a totally different setup. Maybe it's to do with fuel and on some tracks it's better to go aggressive? More to test, but a lot to test.

Hoping that some good solutions to this start appearing, because it's taking me hours and hours of practise and research. All this before I probably decide to restart career again once I'm happy.

 

[James Bannister]

It's definitely a tough one, based on what you've said, you're much better on Options than Primes! It could be you just have too much grip and downforce on Prime tyre's so your lap times and speed is suffering as a result.

Do you do your set ups on Prime tyre's? As I find these are the best for working out how strong your set up is.

 

[Reanimocio]

Could be the set up you have, it's tough to get a good balance for race and qualifying pace, but I find if your gears are too set up for qualifying then come the race you won't be able to match them at all (more so in earlier stints), it could be your tyre strategy, maybe yours are dropping off before there's and causing you not to be able to push as hard as them.

Do you find the car feels uncomfortable to push or sliding away from you? It's always a mix of things to go by, hard to say as Kimi is your best target being the same car, but I'd say it would be a mix of set up and how much fuel you have left, if you're on optimal then you should be able to start putting in decent laps as long as your tyre's are good enough.

The car doesn't slide too much unless I push it too much. I just can't get the laptimes in the final stints. I've won two races so far (China and Bahrain) and in both I managed to open a 4-5 second lead coming into the last 8-10 laps. I gradually start to lose the gap and both times I won by a second or less.

Perhaps you are not so well adapted to how the car handles on prime tires (assuming you are starting on options and change to primes mid race), it has less grip and requires a bit more finesse than the options.

My advice, use the practice session to run them into the ground, do 30+ laps on them, that should prepare you.

I still miss having more practice sessions.

Maybe you are right. I'm gonna do some long stints on the prime to try and improve on it. Maybe I've done too much options run and I'm too used to it. For example I must have done 80+ laps in every track in F1 2011 (time trial) to get used to the track and I'm too used to the alien physics and super grip in TT. And I couldn't find much a difference between Primes/Options (relative to the AI) because it was ****, even on Legend.

TMDoll, I'll try that. The problem is that I'm so close to the AI in qualy (And that's great, to be honest. Qualy versus Kimi is 3-3 after 3 rounds and all the times I've lost it was LESS THAN A TENTH) so if I put primes in Q3 I'd be starting from P10 almost everytime and I try to keep things realistic (no contact, not too agressive in overtaking/start) so I rarely make up more than 1 or 2 places at the start. I'll give it a shot, though.

Thanks for the tips, guys, appreciated. If you have more - feel free to share them.

 

[HROAndi]

I can absolutely relate to this phenomena of the AI getting really fast near the end of a 50% race.
Practicing Bahrain, I could (easily) catchup and overtake the AI in Pro difficulty during the first stint, even on primes (when everyone else is on options). For some reason I seem to loose a lot of time close to the end of the race. The car should be getting lighter, the option tires should give me an advantage over the other AI drivers and yet I'm not faster at all! It's like my fuel consumption is reversed and the thing that keeps my pace at a steady level is the grip improvement throughout the race. I also have a feeling that the AI seems to be slower in 100% races. I'm not totally sure on that though.

 

[Reanimocio]

I did some .. research shall I call it. My main 3 suspects for weak last stint are - a) setup that destroy the tyres, b) driving style that destroy the style, c) not taking advantage of the light car. I turned on the racing line a tried braking later (not too late tho) and there was some improvment.