I have a couple general questions about setup and driving style.
- With Reik's setup (and any other I tried) I've never found braking oversteer, yet for race you recommend to put it even further front. Am I doing something wrong? Because my feeling is you could put it even more to the back to help turn in. Maybe I am not using enough engine brake, but I drop gears like a machine gun (cannot go faster unless I program a button to skip gears) and still I don't get an unstable back.
- Any advice for the extremely slow turns (hairping and rascasse)?
Well, maybe it's a good prove that most of the setup are well balanced. To give you the best feedback it would be great to see your best lap, for example via youtube or by posting the replay file. Otherwise I can only guess the reasons so far.
One guess would be that you are completely ready with braking when turning in. So braking hard and downshifting fast in a straight line holds the car in a line and afterwards when turning in the car's weight is back to neutral so it doesn't over steer.
In most cases I brake as late as possible and when I turn in I'm still braking by constantly releasing the brakes. By doing this, the rear is still lighter when turning so it wants to overtake me. If I downshift in the wrong moment in such a situation, the rear tyres will lock easier because of the lighter rear. Then I spin. But most likely I'm able to controll this effect so the slightly oversteering rear helps to turn the car quicker.
If the car's rear is very nervous in the early phase of braking (and the start of turning) I add few clicks to rear wing to put more load on the rear by more downforce and/or I move the brake balance some clicks to the front.
If the oversteer comes late when turning in I increase engine brake mapping by one or two numbers in the svm-file.
Why I do those changes for longer stints? Well, I think my setups have some "agressive" touch (sometimes harder/stiffer than usually). So the car tends to slide a little bit earlier as it would do with a softer setup. On the other hand it's quicker when you drive it well (smooth). But when tyre wear increases during a longer stint sliding increases too and the rear becomes harder to tame. To compensate that I soften the rear here and there and move braking more to the front.
Finally such effects depend very much on driving style. If you don't experience turn in over steer you can be happy and maybe increase your agressiveness. Why increase agressiveness? The tricky effects occure when you're very close to the edge. Maybe you still aren't close enough to the edge so there's something more to gain? That's why I always show the speed indicator when showing my laps, so you can compare the corner speeds.
You could try the following:
Lets say there's a corner you are significantly slower than the one you compare to. First focus on taking the corner with nearly the same speed and without caring for the (late) braking point in the first step. If you manage to hit the same entry point and the same line like the other one you should be able to do the same speeds. This way you learn the line and explore the grip limit of the car. If you're done with that you can move the braking point closer to the corner but still try to take the corner the same way you learned before. You'll finally notice the naturally loose rear if you brake at the latest possible point, turn in still under braking and still carry the highest possible speed into and through the corner. Now taming the rear by style and setup is the task...
Hmm..., advices for the hairpin and rascass.
For the hairpin you need to find the right braking point, brake hard and turn in when you are nearly ready with breaking so the car likes to turn. Exiting the corner you can help turning with a controlled power oversteer. By shortly hitting the brakes then and counter steering you could benefit from the counter reaction to enter the following right hander quickly. But donig it just clean should allways be good. Overshooting it means you have to turn much more and drive it much sharper so you'll loose time.
Rascass should also been taken very tight and clean. I brake hard on the left track side when the black rubber on the track begins. I'm ready with braking when I turn to the right. Taking the right hander very tight is important becasue it's the grippy racing line and takes you the least time. The car likes very much to power oversteer at the exit so I often need to make an anticipated counter steer.
