F1 2011 Locking up under braking

[beaker342]

Hello all, I finally got around to buying F1 2011 when it went on sale last week on Steam and I have to say I'm impressed with the tweaks they made to the driving model. I was pretty proficient in F1 2010 playing on the hardest difficulty with no aids, and so my masochistic side was pleased when I fired up F1 2011 and went to the hardest difficulty with no aids and found myself in a completely different experience. The game was much, much harder, and beside the much more challenging pace, the biggest change for me is that the game seems much more delicate under braking and acceleration. No longer can you brake hard, turn in, and accelerate hard like you could in F1 2010.

My question then is what to do about locking up under braking. It happens a lot more in 2011 than it did in the past. I suppose it's cool because it's a much more faithful recreation of what the actual cars do, but that doesn't much help though when you're going for a good lap time. So when I'm locking up going into a corner, what's the solution? It became such a problem when I was pushing hard that I'll admit that the only way I was able to meet the expected lap times was through the use of ABS. Ideally I'd like to get my skills back to where I don't need those kinds of assists. Am I braking too hard? Looking at the readouts for actual F1 driver's you'll see that they all brake hard at 100% for a fraction of a second and then feather off to about 90% for the rest of the braking phase to prevent locking up. Or is this a setup issue? I've been using the setups posted in the other threads, but those setups can't give me lap times if I keep locking up and sliding into the gravel on turn one. Should I adjust brake balance back to stop the fronts from locking?

I play with a controller and I'm enjoying the challenge of a new experience, but right now I need someone to point me in the right direction.

 

[Tobias Samuelsson]

Dont brake hard and turn at the same time and maybe if you put the brake balance a little back

 

[Alberto Casado]

Coming from f12010 you need to forget about a couple things.

First, forget aero setups from last year, try much higher wing values. This should fix high and med speed wheel lock.
Second, for the low speed, difficult. Unlike last year, where the car was quite neutral and you could set it up for over and under steering, this years car is (IMHO) understeery in braking and oversteery in acceleration. You can try to offset this with the setup, but for braking I've never been able to get a rear lock before the front, (although I did not explore near 60% rear brake balance).

My feeling is that any setup that reverts the natural unbalance of the car will be so extreme that will be undriveable, so the other alternative is to get used to feather brake and throttle. (Easy to say, but with a controller...)

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Does your car lock up on the front or the rear? If it locks up on the front move the brakebalance more towards the rear or visa versa when the rear locks under braking.

For beginners: try to brake and shift down in a straight line and complete it before you turn in. When you enter your brakingzone (where the asfalt is dark of the rubber) you push the brakepedal as hard as you can (all the way up to 100% and when you enter your apex you gradually release your brake pressure to avoid locking.

More experience players can use a little trail braking into the corners.

But in general locking means that you missed your optimal braking zone and you will need to brake earlier. Try this rule of thumb: slow in, fast out

 

[eaurougef1]

Slow in, fast out is the key indeed. Make sure your slowest point is exactly at the apex. Requires quite a bit of practice, but that is how it is in real life.

 

[Wojciech Grabowski]

My racing style is to turn in late to get more speed when going out of corner. Like Jenson Button. We need to remember that late braking can give us around... 0,2 second? But if you are accelerating after corner faster, your speed will be better on the whole straight before next turn, so focus on OUT, not on IN. Really, really important. Don't be afraid of braking earlier, because out speed is more valuable. Don't take me wrong... late braking while fighting in race, OK, but I'm saying about average conditions, when driving lap by lap.

In this game on almost all tracks my brake bias is 49/51 with medium pressure (on some tracks like Monaco and Monza I have to use different settings, but on "usual" track it's the best for me). Practice, practice, practice. That's all. And remember: It's better to brake earlier and lose around 0,2 secs, than to brake hard and late, lock up, lose 0,5 secs and scrap tires...

 

[beaker342]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll try to get the braking zone right and make sure I'm not applying steering input during braking. If I recall there were a lot of corners in F1 2010 where the game actually rewarded steering under braking. In general I'd say it's the fronts that are locking after coming off straights, so that would seem to me to mean either too much brake pressure being applied (to the fronts at the very least) or not enough front downforce to keep the tires on the track. In general I've had a lot more success getting good lap times out of the high downforce setups posted. Either way looks like a lot of practice in my future, but that makes it all the more satisfying when it all comes together.

 

[Skitzy]

Definitely braking in a straight line helps alot, and also ride height can be a factor. Especially in the wet, if your ride height is too low, you'll just aquaplane off the road.