Interesting chat (40mins in) in this podcast about online racing....
podcasts.google.com
As someone who has over 150 RD races over the last 18 months I can testify that this is a sometime frustrating hobby. But great fun.
I've gone from "slow" to "not as slow". I've watched onboard laps with the fast guys and still can't see how they are going so fast. I've watched countless videos and read loads of articles. I've also gone down the sim upgrade route - no magic bullet here but so much nicer to drive.
As others have said, consistent is your friend. The race stats can tell you how consistent you're being so they are worth looking at after each race.
At the end of the day I do it because it's fun and the race battles I have along the way make it more enjoyable.
I keep telling myself that I'm racing with some of the fastest drivers around - so a great opportunity to learn and get better.
Just chiming in since the thread popped up multiple times while I checked for updates on the drive to survive track decision...
From my experience you can't spot the differences in replays. Everything happens way too fast and inputs aren't accurate enough.
You'd need some nice video editing stuff to do some splitscreen stuff, putting your lap with a great lap side by side, adjust offsets and put the inputs in the center to see them while trying to compare them.
Ooooooor you get into motec, ask some fast people for telemetry and setup and analyze the crap out of it.
Differences, especially in AC with the very high telemetry tick cycle AND GPS sensor for line comparison, are clear as day then.
I'm trying to get into ACC right now and after having absolutely no idea about how to start adjusting the setup, since acc is very pitch sensitive and you have very accurate, adjustable bump stops:
I subscribed for coach Dave academy.
You get a qualy setup, a race setup, one qualy lap for motec and 3 consecutive race laps for motec.
Plus an onboard video (not the qualy lap sadly, just a brutally fast hotlap).
And ofc the conditions.
Then you go into a hotlap session, load the race setup, adjust your line and general driving via the video first.
You'll be 3s slower.
You open your motec lap, compare it to the race telemetry.
You'll see how massively wrong your pedal inputs or steering inputs are. In which places you're losing the most time etc etc.
You analyze, write down notes, go back on track and after half an hour you'll be a full second quicker. If not more.
You continue this cycle until you're consistent and your delta to the coach Dave race lap goes down on the straights, since you're on low fuel and he's using 70L...
Then you load the qualy setup and try to control it. It's a lot more risky, but faster!
And if you manage to beat the race lap from coach Dave, you look into the qualy telemetry and your jaw will drop again
If you're having any doubt:
I was lower midfield for the first 2 acc races although I practiced a few hours in advance.
Had no idea what to do, tried Internet setups that were faster but felt strange etc etc.
Got the cda subscription, downloaded setups for the Aston Martin v8 and amg evo, practiced like I explained for Zandvoort and if I hadn't screwed up in qualy, I would've gotten pole position.
At least I set the fastest lap of the race...
Yesterday at Spa I got pole position!
And also set the fastest race lap again
Sadly I lost the car at Radillion and since acc has no dmg multi for online, I dropped down to 9th.
The amg is a real handful through that corner, no matter the setup...
But yeah, I'm pretty proud about that!
Sadly we don't have coach Dave for AC, but some fast guys might share their data with you for one track if you ask nicely.
If you did it for one track, you'll be faster everywhere!
It's annoying and it's time consuming but it's the most efficient way of pushing your plateaued pace level one step higher every time you put in the energy.
Currently looks like this for the next event at Brands Hatch:
Variance below the line = I'm losing time compared to the coach Dave telemetry.