Practice vs Qualifiers vs Warmup vs Race

I found out not so long ago that the practice session has a lesser amount of track grip than qualifiers/warm up/race. The track is considered dirty. So, my question to you. Why do we even bother practicing in these conditions since they do not reflect the race situation? I understand in the case we have superpole we dont have a choice. However, otherwise why not have a 1 hour long qualifiers instead of 30/30 as we do know. Thoughts?
 
Personally i never use the practise session in an event for this reason. If i use it and practise for 30 min or so then i will be used to that low grip and when qualify comes along the added grip level is harder to cope with. I instead have a personal offline warm up session where the grip is the same as in qualify/race. That way this is never a problem. I think the practise session should never be more then 15 min or something and should be considerd just a chans for everyone to get on the server.

This is not a big problem because does of us who think like me can just practise offline first and join the server at the appropriate time. The only problem i have with long practise sessions is that the race will end much later and that can be a problem if the event is scheduled late in the evening/night.

Also i think that it would be best if the qualify session is not longer then 30 mins. The only reason for that is the extra excitment that is added with a shorter qualify. Also a very long qualify would also make the event run much later which as i said is not that great if the event is scheduled late. I think 15-30 min is good. But i would much rather have 60 min qualify session then 30 min practise and 30 min qualify.
 
Eric the grip change from sessions cause the game simulate the track temp, if you look at the track temp in praccy you'll see that its lower by a few degree. the same thing apply for practice mod and time attack mod. personnaly for me praccy is essential, i know that in qualy and race the car will behave and have more grip then praccy and that my time will improve.
 
hour long qualifiers with no practice sessions sounds like a good idea to me. I've noticed that my times are always quicker in qualify than in practice sessions. So set-up changes need to be made prior to qualify, so therefore, I spend more time re-setting up the car in qualify instead of just running fast laps. Go ahead and change it! I'm all for it!
 
Eric the grip change from sessions cause the game simulate the track temp, if you look at the track temp in praccy you'll see that its lower by a few degree. the same thing apply for practice mod and time attack mod. personnaly for me praccy is essential, i know that in qualy and race the car will behave and have more grip then praccy and that my time will improve.

How is that essential? I am not sure I understand? Since the track will never be the same during quali or race why practice in such a different environment?
 
Eric you have done real bake racing right ? you were practicing right ? and then qualy ? and then the race, were you redoing your setup for each sessions, you would change a few things like tires pressure and thats about it, well its the same thing with the car, you might play with tire pressure and the wings but thats about it, like in real racing a setup is mainly done in praccy nowhere else thats what i mean by the praccy session is essential, for me anyway and i'm pretty sure its the same for lots of people.
 
So, again why not have a 1hour qualifiers session instead of 30mins practice and 30mins qualifiers? wouldnt that be the same? you can adjust your setup there?

Yes, I did race motorcycles for a few years. Usually the track was open for practice for several days before the Sunday race (Thursday, Friday and Saturday). Practice was several hours throughout these 3 days and all the setup was done there. I only used different tires for quali and race. Very or no other changes otherwise. I believe it is done the same today in MotoGP and F1 when all the teams start practicing on Thursday.
 
i don't really have nothing against it, i just think that it help for the immersion and to socialized cause when i'm in qualy i concentrate mainly on driving and getting faster.

I can see that argument. Maybe if the qualies are longer that might relax people, but I am the same. Much more focused during qualifiers than practice.
 
  • Matt Alpeter

nah, i don't like the 1hr long qualy idea. when i go into a practice session i know i can fiddle with the car and chat to people and not drive as hard. the entire qualy time i'm super focused and trying to push as hard as i can to get that last bit of time off. i think i would feel pressured too much if we only had qualy and no practice
 
...practice for several days before ... all the setup was done there. I only used different tires for quali and race. Very or no other changes otherwise.

nah, i don't like the 1hr long qualy idea. when i go into a practice session i know i can fiddle with the car and chat to people and not drive as hard. the entire qualy time i'm super focused and trying to push as hard as i can to get that last bit of time off. i think i would feel pressured too much if we only had qualy and no practice

Speaking from my vast RD racing background of 1 race :laugh2:, I tend to agree with Yves and Matt. Presumably, people have practiced offline or on the practice server and refined their setup in the day's (hours) before the the race.

Practice then becomes the buffer time to leave the regular world behind(job, kids, chores, bills, etc) and mentally transition into "the race zone". Qualification signals the start of the serious(fun) racing at a higher level of intensity. You just wouldn't get that (real world)-(race world) transition buffer with an hour long qual.

If you show up on race day expecting to develop your setup in real time, then you will probably get thrashed by the speed deamons in the group. As they say : "Luck favors the prepared". Perhaps a 20-40 split rather than 30-30 would satisfy both points of view.
 
When I found out about the grip levels in practice vs quali I was a bit miffed to be honest. I'd much rather have a long qualifying session personally as I dial my setup based on quali track conditions. Ideally I'd love to see two qualifying sessions - 1 for practice, and 2 a shorter one for actual qualifying. I'm not sure if that can be setup, but my vote goes for a long quali session.
 
I believe that the Race grip is somewhere between practice and qualifying, actually closer to off-line practice mode. I don't think 1 hr Qualy practice before a race is a good idea really because people will get used to the higher grip and immediately start braking too late in the opening lap, and we know what problems that usually causes. The practice session before Qualy is designed to allow people to get settled, learn the track if needed, and take the time to get to know fellow racers.
For me personally, I usually try to have a brief private off-line practice run to get my setup sorted, then I don't usually do too many laps in on-line practice, rather just use it for a bit of social meeting (without disturbing others too much). I also don't do too many Qualy laps either, but concentrate on my race preparation. Of course, I don't enjoy hotlapping much anyway, so I don't put much importance on my starting position ( I'm a lousy starter anyway).

You may have noticed, I usually go better in the race than qualy. :rotfl:
 
I like the practice session to see if I am on pace with others and how much harder I have to push to get there. I know I always go a little faster in Quali, but dont feel that much difference with the car or track between the two. I think we could do 20/20 or 20 and superpole. I definatly would like to keep the practice time. Marty:jump:
 

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