F1 2011 Practise / Set-up Strategy??

[dazzadp]

I'm currently on my first season of F1 2011 and i'm confused about the whole practice strategy.

What fuel level and fuel mixture do the AI use during practice?

Also I see them using Options aswell as Primes during P1-P3?

I like to keep my gameplay as realistic as possible and I find that using the Hard setting with Braking assist ON and MEDIUM traction control gives me that but during practice im always 2 secs of the pace as i use 10 laps of fuel with Standard mixture on Prime tyres.

Is it realistic for F1 teams to use minimal fuel level with Rich mixture and Option tyres during practise?

I'm fed up with being 2 secs off the pace in all practice sessions but dont want to lose the realism by going flat out in practice.

Any help would be appreciated.

Please NO "turn the brake assist off"

 

[Chris Bull]

Yes the fuel should be set at 3 laps...1 out lap 1 timed lap and 1 in lap.
put in fuel for 4 laps and put the mixture up to rich for extra speed.
Use the best tyres for the track you are on....Not all tracks have the prime as the best tyre of choice? they may be 1 second quicker but the race length may be better on option.

The size of your breaks matters also. bigger discs means more breaking so it slows the car faster so no need to break at 100 mts board say in australia instead break just after, giving you a very slight speed advantage.

I hope this helps...

 

[David O'Reilly]

Firstly it doesn't matter what your practice pace is relative to the AI if they are on options and you are doing a proper setup session (primes and heavy fuel load, no KERS/DRS Fuel mix 2).
In my view you should do this and once you have optimised your setup and got max race pace in this way you can then run a quali simulation with 5 laps fuel and options KERS, DRS. Fuel mix 3. The difference can be 4 sec or so.
BTW if the AI don't run quali setup in practice you would not know if your pace was any good would you?

My 1st However: You can't effectively test setups with TCS on as it will camouflage bad car setup that would otherwise make the car unstable on corner exit.

My 2nd however re your comment "Please NO "turn the brake assist off" You can't ask for advice conditional on it being what you want to hear. Brake assist will slow lap times and again not help with setup.

TCS and brake assist definitely do not fit with "I like to keep my gameplay as realistic as possible"

So I must remark that you can't have it both ways. IE Want realism from AI but brake assist and TCS for you.

Bottom line: I recommend dropping the assists and then setting AI speed to match your level w/out assists. You will get good racing and learn to drive the car much better.

 

[dazzadp]

OK

"Use the best tyres for the track you are on....Not all tracks have the prime as the best tyre of choice? they may be 1 second quicker but the race length may be better on option."

Thought Options gave you a quicker time??

Thanks David

Ive just read "The Art of Set-up" and its very good advice on setting up the car, so ive decided to get some practice in with Assists turned off.

Thanks

 

[Alex Bikazzan]

The options give more grip and will therefore give you better laptimes. The Primes are more durable and will give you slower laptimes than the options, but you will be able to go for a longer period before they are worn out.

The practice session is there for you to learn the track, setup your car and try out different scenarios. When I practise, I usually take the primes and go for a few laps to learn the track and create a setup that I like. Then I usually put on the options and minimum fuel to see how fast I can be. Sometimes I also put in loads of fuel to see how the car behaves when it's heavy.

If you practice with low fuel during the whole practice session and then qually, and then enter the race with max fuel, you will probably struggle because the car is a lot heavier than when you practised.

Also, if it rains during practise, you can do some laps and create a wet setup incase it rains during the grand prix or qually