Hello Fellas
Well, as I said in a previous post, this was a steep learning curve for me. One of my mistakes has been highlighted again, so whilst I would have prefered to avoid doing this, I guess it will be for the benefit of all to ackowledge what happened and provide some explanation.
I did put a substantial amount of practice prior to this event. For one I had never used RD for race purposes and two I knew I had precious little experience compared to others in this. My practice routine consisted of multiple laps of Interlagos on a Training Day. my priorities were a balanced set up to provide a stable and consistent car for 71 laps. I went for a medium to high downforce set-up, which for this track i didnt think would do me many favours in regards to speed but would allow me more control when other cars were in close proximity. That said, my main priority was to finish the race no matter where in the field that left me. So, after finding a stable set-up that allowed good grip and minimal tyre wear I was in high 1:12's. On the previous Friday evening I had managed 1:13's on the RD server, which I was happy to go with.
Unfortunately I didnt find the time until Saturday morning to try long runs with high fuel on Hard Tyres. When I did, I hit a brick wall with regards to pace. I was finding it extremely difficult to lean on my tyres at any point during some of the fast corners around track. Also i noticed a massive difference in traction when exiting slower corners. I was losing up to 7-8 secs on a lap and struggling big time. I felt it was too late to start from scratch with set-up so tried various tweeks to improve my lap times. Tyre pressues, harder suspension/softer suspension, lower aero/higher aero. Nothing seemed to work. So I went with the set-up you will see in the Video below.
At start of race I was caught out big time, through lack of experience, when the race started without me. Andrew has explained that the race could not be started manually and I had assumed it was. So starting from pitlane when Guys were coming through for Lap 2 was not anywhere near my ideal scenario. I purposely missed qualy to start from the back and see where I could finish up. I would like to think that I coped fairly well with the constant Blue Flags for the first 3 laps and I don't think I hindered anyone's progress or caused accidents. Please let me know if thats not the case and more apologies will come forth. It took a long time to find any sort of rythmn and get hard tryes where I needed them, which is why my HUD was constantly set to Car Status. Everytime My tyres exceeded 90c in corners I was in trouble with wheelspin/traction. The rest of the race was consigned to the rubbish bin, as it mainly involved staying out of other Drivers way and I had absolutely no opportunity to battle for a place. Gutted I was, but determined to finish the race. I suffered only one penalty due to speeding in the pitlane, all other pitstops went well and I managed to use the LCD to acheive that.
The Incident
As soon as the race was finished I apologised to Andrew, although I confess I didnt know who I had hit at the time, I had no Labels activated and due to constant use of the Car Status LCD had been paying little attention to the Positioning side of things. I have included the incident on video, which again I would have prefered not to do, but pick the bones out of it at your will Fellas. Agressive is not a word I would use to describe my actions, but if the majority say it is then I cannot argue. Yes, I had DRS activated, but I had applied brakes by the 100 mtr board which IMO is very early into that corner. I had NO intention of trying to overtake Andrew, more to get a feel of how car behaviour is affected by both DRS and close quarter racing. I pushed myself over to the right with the thought in mind to avoid anything dangerous and give myself a run off if need be, but unfortunately I did not anticipate Andrews braking too well and just clipped his rear wheel. After I went through the replay I realised that Andrew was just behind 8th Position which is why he has every right to be annoyed. Just to say though, I wasnt trying to be aggressive in any way and certainly had no intention of ruining someones race. In the video I have left in a lap of my own with my normal braking point for that corner, feel free to pick my driving to bits Guys as thats the best way I can learn.
Bottom line, I was glad I saw it through to the end and more importantly learned something from the experience. Sorry again Andrew.
Anyway Guys, so endeth War and Peace: The Diary of a Newb.
