rF2 Indy Car @ Sao Paulo - Mon 3rd Nov

[David O'Reilly]

Sounds eventful, it was for me for 7 laps.
This car is so fast its like driving on fast forward.
I found a second once online but was still +2 sec in quali.
After a race length test run I was running a no stop strategy with 48 litres. Generally my race pace is better than my quali pace and knowing that some would be on low fuel and sprinting I was expecting to be "dropped" but hoped to get back in the game when the leaders pitted.

Contacts from behind can be good and can be bad:
Was P9 I think in Quali and like one above I had trouble with the uphill start (no assists) so I was heel toeing on the grid.
I think I stalled or certainly near stalled but in probably the only time I was happy to be hit from behind I think the car behind me hitting me actually bump starting my engine (try it you can bump start this car).
After a few laps I was running in P7. My downshift lever is playing up and it was at its worst in T1 where all the rapid downshifts occur. I was in 3rd in T1 and got a poor line which led to a less than perfect exit of T3.
The car behind me managed to miss the opportunity to make a pass and instead hit my gearbox crashing me out of the race.

Special Mention to @David Cook a fellow Codies F1 Xbox refugee who in his first ever RF2 multiplayer race qualified mid field and was running well.
David I think that we must conclude that on a practical, professional, competitive and personal level that your outqualifying me has to officially end our recent unofficial mentoring agreement.

 

[Nicolas Delamare]

I would have done the race without any pit, concerning me.I know my alternates tires can stand 30 minutes with 45L (but in a slower pace !).The 3 guys around me were so fast at the beginning of the race, it was just like quali lap over quali lap, over and over !
I was thinking: "Euh, my tires will go off in the midrace if I stay on that pace !!!"

Too bad I couldn't continue the race, because I would probably take the lead after Eugene's pit, or not really far of him !

My first game crash was at the beginning of the quali session.And when I decide to retire of the race and exit to monitor, the ctrl+alt+suppr command show me the rFactor2.exe stop to work well blablabla..."

Anyway I was alone for the race win at Sonoma but now there is much more serious opponents, so looking forward to the next IndyCar race.

 

[Eugene van Loggerenberg]

A bit harsh

Nope, the truth for the race distance we did, time lost was to big for the use of that tire, sure 75 lap race is a different perspective all together.

 

[Ho3n3r]

Nope, the truth for the race distance we did, time lost was to big for the use of that tire, sure 75 lap race is a different perspective all together.

Agreed. And if the race was 3 laps longer, the harder tire would have been the way to go for myself, since I would have had to stop twice then on my wear.

 

[Jon Denton]

Nope, the truth for the race distance we did, time lost was to big for the use of that tire, sure 75 lap race is a different perspective all together.

Oh I know it was no use for the race on pace, for the leading group. I meant that "retreads" is a bit harsh, it was still a very drivable tyre, just not fast enough to be competitive. Though ultimately, at a second a lap it would mean a 25 second deficit, and how long does a pit stop take? Maybe 25 seconds.

In a choice between running a one stop on softs or a non-stop race, arguably the hard became something of an option to consider. As @Nicolas Delamare says, the soft could be made to last the race distance, but it more or less involved having to run at the same pace you would on hards to look after it, with the difference being that the hard would have more "meat" on it by the end of the race.

I opted to stop on the softs, however, because the gap was not big enough. As the performance drop on hards was equivalent to a pit stop it left no bandwidth to work with. The soft runners would be on fresher tyres and upon you by the end of the race and there would be no way to hold them off, especially, as you say, because the hard is so slow in the middle sector. If the difference between the tyres was closer to 0.5 seconds a lap, or even 0.7, that could have brought the hard very much into play.

So ultimately the one stop was the faster strategy presuming the driver can extract the pace from the tyre, but as far as i can see the hard was a better choice if you were to go without a stop, because of it's better pace at the end. Ultimately though, the "no stop" was not a winning strategy. However the one stoppers could have potentially ended up bottled behind "no-stop" traffic, passing here is not that easy if the driver ahead is suitably defensive, which would have made the no-stop, on hards, was a reasonable contrasting strategy for a midfield runner.

 

[Jon Denton]

Agreed. And if the race was 3 laps longer, the harder tire would have been the way to go for myself, since I would have had to stop twice then on my wear.

Indeed, same here on practice runs. Which means it was closer that it may have at first appeared.

Perhaps next time a race length more like 40 minutes, or 45 would introduce more variable strategies into the field.

Is it built into the car mod that tyres cannot be changed in the race? After i had my front wing hoofed off on lap three I came in and tried to switch to hards but it was not an option on the pit menu. I know that you have to start on the compound you qualified on, but didn't realise you couldn't change mid race?

 

[David O'Reilly]

It might have been the way the mod was done.
I agree that race distances of 45 mins or so would bring in more interesting strategy.
So also would a race that just managed to use the full fuel range.
As it was there were already 3 options.
No stop on hards
No Stop on softs
1 stop on softs.

A few weeks ago we ran a 90 min at Suzuka in this car.

For me I can run race pace flat out (vs quali flat out where you care not at all for tyres) on the alternates for 30 mins. In the final 5 mins I have 1 red tyre.
Setup has a BIG impact on tyre wear in this car. On the default it eats front tyres like donuts.
You can move wear to the rears with setup. Primarily slow bump dampers and diff lock adjustments. Also traction control hurts front tyres. The tiny bit of rotation at the rear that helps you point where you want (oversteer) is lost and the fronts have to do it all. In the second half of a stint you are faster with if TCS is not used at all in the stint.

Because I really like that geeky tech stuff for me its interesting when a fast guy with a tyre hungry setup slows or pits and you take the place.
This aspect of RF2 is priceless.

 

[Jon Denton]

I must admit i am very keen to start to dig deeper on setup in this car. Though i know an update to it is coming which could bring some changes so i am keen to not put too much "work" in just yet.

Also since i updated to 860 my Motec plug in has stopped working so need to fix that.

 

[David O'Reilly]

I must admit i am very keen to start to dig deeper on setup in this car. Though i know an update to it is coming which could bring some changes so i am keen to not put too much "work" in just yet.

Also since i updated to 860 my Motec plug in has stopped working so need to fix that.

once you get motec working please let me know how.
I have been without since the 64 bit executables.

 

[Stefan Woudenberg]

I got it working.....

 

[David Cook]

If you do get a replay i would like to see it too. That strange crash on the exit of T3 took me out and I would kind of like to see what happened. I also managed to get a penalty for speeding in the pits when I came in to replace my nose, so had a couple of trips down pit lane before the sim crashed completely (hence no replay saved). Like i say, what could go wrong, went wrong. Had some good practice runs though!

I still haven't got one I'm afraid. Can one of the finishers please upload the replay file?

Special Mention to @David Cook a fellow Codies F1 Xbox refugee who in his first ever RF2 multiplayer race qualified mid field and was running well.
David I think that we must conclude that on a practical, professional, competitive and personal level that your outqualifying me has to officially end our recent unofficial mentoring agreement.

Oh bother. I suspect we'll see the effect of that in the coming days. I'm in the wilderness with the Nissan GTR and FR3.5.

 

[Gijs van Elderen]

I still haven't got one I'm afraid. Can one of the finishers please upload the replay file?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r9d8tg100nvoai1/SaoPaulo GP R1 5.Vcr?dl=0

 

[David O'Reilly]

I still haven't got one I'm afraid. Can one of the finishers please upload the replay file?



Oh bother. I suspect we'll see the effect of that in the coming days. I'm in the wilderness with the Nissan GTR and FR3.5.

so that's what the wilderness looks like eh.
I did a 6-8 and 12 hours endurance series in this car last year and say 300 laps of testing.
I had to use a shampoo bottle for a fuel tank to beat your lap times today.
Seriously though, nice driving.

 

[David Cook]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r9d8tg100nvoai1/SaoPaulo GP R1 5.Vcr?dl=0

Good man. Thanks a lot.

so that's what the wilderness looks like eh.
I did a 6-8 and 12 hours endurance series in this car last year and say 300 laps of testing.
I had to use a shampoo bottle for a fuel tank to beat your lap times today.
Seriously though, nice driving.

I was feeling very comfortable in the car. Feels like a real race car, that GTR. But despite that I was well behind you by the end and I don't see how I can improve the setup anymore without a LOT of studying setup guides. I've taken as much wing off as I can comfortably and I've lowered the ride height to where the worms live so I'm all out of tricks.

 

[David O'Reilly]

Good man. Thanks a lot.



I was feeling very comfortable in the car. Feels like a real race car, that GTR. But despite that I was well behind you by the end and I don't see how I can improve the setup anymore without a LOT of studying setup guides. I've taken as much wing off as I can comfortably and I've lowered the ride height to where the worms live so I'm all out of tricks.

Yep I love this car.

From the lap times and the brief race start we did I think the GTR field will be very close. The race will most likely be decided on who can run that pace and not kill their tyres in 8-10 laps and make them work for 15-16. That and lapped traffic will close it up. So it should be busy and exciting but still require patience and be interesting late in each stint too.

 

[Jon Denton]

Hotlap from practice on Monday, 1.13.417 on 24 litres of fuel.

Because - videos.