F1 2010 Wing setting vs. grip and downforce

[Joakim Quensel]

To be honest, I hardly can´t tell any difference in grip levels running different wing settings.
I do notice increas of drag with higher values (although not as much as yuu might have expected for example going from min to max), but I noitice very little increase in corner speed, and balance when chaning the wing settings.

Is this some kind of bug? To me it seems like they made the wing settings have too little influence on downforce. One thing that supports this theory is that on most (all?) circuits, rearwing = 1 gives the fastest laptimes.

I think this is a shame, because it takes away the challenge of finding the optimum balance between speed and downforce on each track. As it is now, a 1 / 1 setting works fine for every track.

 

[Dimos Kapourniotis]

hi i think that codemasters gave each track a default setup and the wing settings are just for fine tunning

 

[Joakim Quensel]

hi i think that codemasters gave each track a default setup and the wing settings are just for fine tunning

Yes this seems to be the case, and I think it is a shame because I think you miss out of what could have been one of the more interesting and challenging aspects of the setup of the car. Also, if modelled in a realistic way, it would have been really intersting to find out how it was to drive a circuit with way too much or little downforce.

But even though just for fine tuning, I don´t think that codemasters succeded in the modeling of drag vs. downforce for the different settings. To me it seems like they totaly under estimated the amount of increase in grip level that comes with a steeper wing setting.

I remember when playing GP2 some 15 years ago, finding the optimum wing setting for each track was an escential part of the game. Going from one setting to another had an immediate effect on the sector times on the different parts of the track, and the challenge was to find which setting that gave you the fastest time, all sectors added. And in race mode you also need to take in consideration the increased possibility for passing that comes with a lower downforce, even if overal laptimes suffer a bit. All these things I think you miss out on F1 2010 where rear wing = 1 gives you that fastest car for I believe every track.

 

[Chris Rees]

yeh exactly what Dimos says. I always have my wings very low even so, a lot less drag down the straights yet suprisingly good grip through the corners.

 

[Paul Lock]

You only have to look at real life, and the fact if so much as a toothpick worth of material comes off the front wing, they lose bags of time and have to get a new one on, whereas in the game, you can put in fastest laps on an orange front wing thats smashed to pieces.

It is a game however, and a pretty good one at that so I dont think we should be over critical as what it lacks in some areas, it more than makes up for in others. Its a great racing game, and thats what we are here to do. Maybe Rfactor or similar offer more technical realism for the insatiable purists!

 

[Joakim Quensel]

Paul, I agree. But it feels kind of stupid to have all these detailed setup options regarding toe-in, camber etc when the most basic ones like downforce from different wing settings is so unrealistic.

 

[Dimos Kapourniotis]

personally i think its all because F12010 is not a race sim like GTR or rFactor.Its more arcade than a true sim.

 

[Paul Lock]

Paul, I agree. But it feels kind of stupid to have all these detailed setup options regarding toe-in, camber etc when the most basic ones like downforce from different wing settings is so unrealistic.

I know what you mean, and to be honest setting up the car and tweaking on the level playing field that is TT mode, im pretty sure the wing settings do make a difference to not only straight line but cornering speeds, just not enough difference.
A good setup is of course a balancing act, simply wacking more wing on or taking it off doesnt always help unless ride height, springs, camber, gears, anti rolls etc are set up to compliment the amount of wing being carried. Thats the way I see it anyway but im probably wrong - I usually am!!

 

[Peter Hooper]

The 1/1 wing settings don't work for everyone... for the quick guys probalby yes but I know I cannot run 1/1 at every circuit and I find I can get better lap times with different wing settings as I need some downforce through certain corners.

I'm still not a good enough driver to be able to notice much change from tweaking the settings too much and tend to rely on some tweaks of the engineers ones at the moment and then try to improve my times by simply driving better and more consistently.

I do agree that the damage to the front wing seems poorly modelled as you certainly seem to be able to run just as fast with a damaged front wing as a new one.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

The only real difference I notice is the final chicane in Monza. I always understeer off the first corner of the chicane, into the gravel on the right unless I put the wing up at the end of the straight.
Other than that, no difference

 

[Joakim Quensel]

The largets impact should be on high speed corners. Like for example the sweeping "snake-turns" at Suzuka, increase of wing angle should make a large difference, but I when I put my wings up to 5/5 I´m not faster through these turns compared to my PB ghostcar that was running on 1/1.

 

[Kyle Dunning]

When i first started playing this game, i came to f1 codemasters forums and tested out so many different setups on all the tracks.
Now i used to have the majority of my wing setups range from 1-1 to 6-1, and i noticed i went pretty fast, got to rank 50 in little time and i had a good setup right there against other players.

But then i noticed sometimes there are guys out there who can destroy me on lap times, getting at least 1 second more then me per lap even if i was completely nailing all the corners.
I came across some setups by a player on here called Viktor, he seems to have done some incredible laps, and shared his setups, and because of those i have been able to attack the tracks even better then before.

This was because of a number of reasons which i thought was pretty smart and i have not seen setups like them before but they are very good.
I used to run Singapore Grand Prix with a 1-1 wing setup, and it was awesome, as i pretty much like this track i am usually always strong there unless i catch a curb funny, but then i used Viktors setup which is 11-1 and i was able to get faster lap times.

Not only that but he basically keeps the back end of the car with low downforce, and have the front wing with a lot more high downforce for cornering, suspension and brakes are normally pretty balanced too, and gear ratios are closer together for better acceleration.
This change of gear ratios has helped a lot because i can now get round certain corners in a higher gear, which helps for the next straight of course.

There are tracks which do need a 1-1 setup though, Monza, and Spa only, other tracks can benefit if you focus a bit high downforce into the front wing, while keeping the rear wing as low downforce as possible, and keeping the rear spring stiffness a 6, so it makes it more stable.

I also found that having too much camber on your back tires can make the car a little unstable on certain tracks, usually i would just use max camber for all, but after leaving front camber on -1.50 and and rear camber on 3.00 or 3.10 instead of the max it seems to balance out the car a bit more, specially if your doing a long race with Tyre wear and fuel load simulation on.

I'm not the most perfect driver out there, but having setups on certain tracks with 4-1 8-1 and even 11-1 can be beneficial.

I do agree though, that the change in downforce is not as great as it should be, 1-1 is fine for a lot of tracks, for some players, but personally from my experiences, you can get better grip from higher downforce, but only in the front wing on every track

 

[Joakim Quensel]

From what I have leared about real F1, an increase in front wing only gives a minor increase in drag. The choice of how much downforce you want to have (at the expense of top speed) is done by adjusting the rear wing, and the front wing is then adjusted to give a good balance through high speed corners. Does not work like this in this game though, and just the fact that you can get fastest laptimes with a 11-1 setting I think shows that codemasters did not succeed in the modeling how the wing effect the cars behaviour.

 

[Kyle Dunning]

True, but then also realise that this is Codemasters first attempt at an F1 game.

They got a ton of things wrong, released it too soon, and they were blasted by many fans for a patch on the game, and they still are because it didnt fix a number of important things.

They didnt even get the pit lane exit rule correct, thats like making a football game without an offside rule, its just absurd.

This game is definitely more of an arcade game then a simulation game, to be honest im not too bothered about how the wings work, so long as i can have fun driving round the tracks, somethings in the game they did get right and its still a good game, but if your looking for pure realism, thats not what codemasters was trying to deliver.

Although if they knew F1 fans properly at all, they would have known that at least 75% of us wanted a simulation game, not another arcade game, the other 25% are those who come online to bash others, and play 'destruction derby' against other players, instead of playing what F1 is meant to be about, which is fair play.