F1 2010 Practice\Quali vs Race

[wantSteer]

I dont get it. Ive spent all day to set up my Virgin for quali and race in Bahrain (100% and all helps off), and I though I was succesfull at that - I was 4 - 5 secs faster than my team mate (DiGrassi), done race simulation in practice which went well (2:03 - 2:04 with heavy fuel is ok in Virgin I think, especially that DiGrassi was doing 2:04 - 2:05 in quali!), done 2:00:something in quali which gave me 13th place, and then, suddenly, in race everyone around me was 1 secs faster, including my "slow" team mate, and my car was too understeery (the conditions were almost the same in all sessions). At the beggining I was running 12 and was able to hold back one of the Saubers, but got puncture on lap 3 or 4, which took me down to 24th, and as soon as all AI cars went off my viewing range I found I cant keep up with them, even when they pitted for primes they were 1 seconds per lap faster. At lap 30 I gave up, especially when Ive received second drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags (I wasnt ignoring them, I get off the racing line on the straight, maintaining my speed, but the car behind was .. I dont know ... maybe he was trying to slipstream me, instead of just hold to the racing line and go past me?).
So after this fiasco of a race I think that
(1) the game is cheating with the AI - for example: at one point in the race I was lapped by Sutil, who was running 11th, but as soon as he was in front of me I was able to match his pace! There is definetly something wrong with the AI in race.
and (2) Im not sure if the game is loading custom setup for the race properly, because my car was totally different than in practice sessions when I was simulating running with heavy fuel).

I am frustrated and mad at the moment. I would give up on this game entirely, but I can see potential in it, I hope Codemasters will do something to make the experience better :/

 

[Anthony Lucas]

theres is alot of glitches and bugs in the game and i can understand what you are saying i dont really know any of the solutions for it if there are any but i do get the same feeling sometimes like the opposing cars are able to run faster with full fuel loads than in practice sessions and the flags thing is really stupid i get time penalties just for running the curbs in corners or for other cars crashing into the rear of my car there is lots of bugs sorry i cant offer any answers to your problem but i do know what your going through it happens to me too the only thing to do is grit your teeth and hope CMs come up with a solution soon

 

[Kraken]

I had the same problems. I would practise and qualify in the top 8 in the Virgin and then get slaughtered in the race. I turned off the fuel simulation and lo and behold I'm suddenly running top 8 in the races as well.

Some say it's because the player car starts with a full tank while the AI cars get the correct percentage. I don't know one way or the other but I certainly do much better with fuel sim off.

 

[Anthony Lucas]

yeah i tried that aswell it does help with fuel sim off

 

[wantSteer]

Yeah, thanks for replying.
I gave it another chance, (calmed myself down first), started the race with different setup, all looked good, was running 17th with Buemi all over my back, but got puncture on lap 20th (was on hard tires), pitted for options, got out of pits last of course, got puncture on lap 24th :\
I know avoiding kerbs helps keep tires in one piece, but c'mon, one or two times per lap cant do that much damage; how many punctures there were this year in real life - two, three? Besides, even Button the Smooth is riding the kerbs
By the way, I hate that new part of Bahrain circuit, good theyre going to revert back to old one for 2011.

 

[Anthony Lucas]

i havent suffered too many punctures so far but i did get one at the start of the season in bahrain right on the last lap and finished in 6th after leading for 12 laps such a wreck the head do you use your own custom setups because sometimes they wear the tyres down big time but it is abit unrealistic the way you hit the kerbs and the tyre starts to wear away its happens to me but i very rarely get too many punctures what are you playing the game on pc or 360 or PS3?

 

[wantSteer]

I am playing on PC. Maybe youre right about setup causing too much tire wear? I dont change camber or toe too much from defaults values - usually one - two clicks one way or the other, this time Ive moved it more to the right, I was keeping these sliders in the middle before and had punctures too. It's random - at least it feels like that...
Anyway, its worth looking at other setup options too, I guess.

 

[Anthony Lucas]

i use custom setups for qualys and some practice sessions nad the tires wear very quickly but there are bugs and as far as i know random punctures are one of them which is a real pain because it ruins all the hard work and it really is annoying when you drive the full amount of laps if i hear of anything that might solve the problem ill let you know

 

[stbreaker]

Not sure if you guys been following it on the Codemasters forums, but to make a long story short:
1) The AI times in practice and Qualifying are generated from a simulation table rather than AI performance. In the race itself, things are generated on the fly. Thus, the times in those sessions really don't give you a good idea of what they are going to do in the race. If you search for the official CM AI response you can read exactly what they say it does. PC modders have mentioned finding a "catch-up" code sequence - I'm sure this also has something do to with the blazing lap times. It's not uncommon to see Chandok putting in quicker times than the leaders in the middle of the race.

2) One of the major complaints from users is that the AI does not seem respond to tire wear and fuel load

3) If you quit to the paddock between sessions, it does reset your setup. Just make sure you reload it before going to the grid.

 

[RKip455]

I had the same problems. I would practise and qualify in the top 8 in the Virgin and then get slaughtered in the race. I turned off the fuel simulation and lo and behold I'm suddenly running top 8 in the races as well.

Some say it's because the player car starts with a full tank while the AI cars get the correct percentage. I don't know one way or the other but I certainly do much better with fuel sim off.

I've experienced some of the issues as well.. I will try this Fuel Sim Off setting. I already run with the tyre sim off to reduce punctures, I still get them, but better.