2021 FIA Series Race Discussion

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Now that the season is over it's time to make up the balance I started a few days back with the above analysis of the GR4 result by adding the GR3 results and tallying them for a total combo result also.

I refined the method so this one may be even more scientific compared to the previous one. No idea.

Group 3 results

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For me, this result was interesting in a few ways. I think (since the GR4 results were so poor for them) the players that chose Porsche and Chevrolet did so because of their strong GR3 cars. Are there any readers in the forum that did so or not and would like to share their thought process?

It also tells me that (as numerious streamers have said in the past) that the GR3 cars are more balanced than the GR4 ones. From looking at the results I tend to agree,

So what does that all lead to? Well according to the race results from this particular set of tracks, rules etc. The combined result of combo's of cars is:

View attachment 1002229

With one brand clearly dominating this season. Whether it is a result from the actual cars strengths or is inescapable because of the sheer number of players that actually drives the Jaaaag is something I will address in a few days time with a different stat. but for now I've come to the conclusion that altough the cars in GR3 are better balanced, GR4 a bit less so, the combo's could use a revisit as a whole. Again: based on the results of this season based on all A class participants.

For the science improvement. This time around I did not "circle" the cars but actually put in the effort of making the boxes based on a "below/above" average. I think that is an improvement over the former method.

R1 Interlagos
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R4 SPA
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R6 Tokyo
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I hope you will enjoy the findings.

Cheers,

Seth
If you search back up the thread, when exhibition started, you'll see plenty of us chose a Manu for either Gr.4 or Gr.3 only.
 
So, if you didn't experience yesterday's Manufacturer's race, here's some of the finest driving examples that I got to be a part of/witness. This was taken from 3 races in North America. Just... my God.



I feel that Tokyo South Inner Loop is one of those tracks that are great to drive on, but are a nightmare to race on.

- Turn 1 is a medium speed corner that lulls you into thinking that your tyres are warmed up on lap 1. Then you take your normal braking point into the Docks, realise too late that your tyres are stone cold and you’re spearing off and bulldozing anyone ahead into the wall.

- A substantial portion of the circuit is single file only, such as the tunnel and the entirety of Sector 3. The tunnel is especially bad, because there are two kinks that are single-file, but the tunnel is wide enough for two cars to go side by side, resulting in people getting shoved into walls and potentially spinning out as my friend HealAgi found out the hard way.

- With the narrow track making side by side battles very hazardous and only two very hard braking zones on the circuit, you have people trying to make passes by braking ridiculously late trying emulate Daniel Ricciardo and only succeeding in putting themselves or others in the wall.

- The really desperate and/or aggressive can try divebombing into the other 3 braking zones, as I did to a Porsche on the final corner and final lap of Race 1. I ended up spinning him out in my reckless aggression.
 
I feel that Tokyo South Inner Loop is one of those tracks that are great to drive on, but are a nightmare to race on.

- Turn 1 is a medium speed corner that lulls you into thinking that your tyres are warmed up on lap 1. Then you take your normal braking point into the Docks, realise too late that your tyres are stone cold and you’re spearing off and bulldozing anyone ahead into the wall.

- A substantial portion of the circuit is single file only, such as the tunnel and the entirety of Sector 3. The tunnel is especially bad, because there are two kinks that are single-file, but the tunnel is wide enough for two cars to go side by side, resulting in people getting shoved into walls and potentially spinning out as my friend HealAgi found out the hard way.

- With the narrow track making side by side battles very hazardous and only two very hard braking zones on the circuit, you have people trying to make passes by braking ridiculously late trying emulate Daniel Ricciardo and only succeeding in putting themselves or others in the wall.

- The really desperate and/or aggressive can try divebombing into the other 3 braking zones, as I did to a Porsche on the final corner and final lap of Race 1. I ended up spinning him out in my reckless aggression.

Oh definitely, South Inner Loop is a great driving track, but it can only be raced on if everyone understands how to race/be smart due to all of the single-file areas you mentioned. I've had some good racing here before with people who understood when and when not to make moves and also when to work together to catch people ahead. But then, we get to the general racing public who don't, and then you throw in the non-existent penalty system which lets even the dirtiest drivers get 99 SR, and you have this mess.
 
You know something is fundamentally wrong when people who set a worldwide Top 10 time in time trial still need to use slipstream in qualifying to guarantee their spot near the front of the grid. With combined regions the fields are tighter so this becomes even more critical.

Adding 15-20 seconds to pit lane times have predictably removed any sort of strategy in these races, so unless there is carnage (there was plenty in Tokyo) you will probably finish near where you started.

It’s esports. In sports players do everything they can to win if it’s within the rules.
I guess if there’s no penalty it’s ok.

Isn't that exactly the problem?

But the alternative penalty system was even worse so here we are.
 
You know something is fundamentally wrong when people who set a worldwide Top 10 time in time trial still need to use slipstream in qualifying to guarantee their spot near the front of the grid. With combined regions the fields are tighter so this becomes even more critical.

Adding 15-20 seconds to pit lane times have predictably removed any sort of strategy in these races, so unless there is carnage (there was plenty in Tokyo) you will probably finish near where you started.



Isn't that exactly the problem?

But the alternative penalty system was even worse so here we are.

Yeah, that’s why I commented. The entire games quality depends on the penalty/sr system.
It’s not the players, they play to the system, excepting a very small minority of them.
It’s beyond me why this hasn’t been fixed either by adjusting scoring for sr or penalty sensitivity.
After all this time my faith is gone that they could ever do it right.
Sad. The games got everything in place to be great, but indestructible cars with no penalties and pinball collisions make a mess. It’s sad. Players like those posting above and yourself should never be matched with cretins if the games scoring were setup right on sr and dr but here we are.
I wish they would invest SERIOUS resources into making the pen system industry leading but I ain’t holdin my breath. :(
 
You know something is fundamentally wrong when people who set a worldwide Top 10 time in time trial still need to use slipstream in qualifying to guarantee their spot near the front of the grid. With combined regions the fields are tighter so this becomes even more critical.

Adding 15-20 seconds to pit lane times have predictably removed any sort of strategy in these races, so unless there is carnage (there was plenty in Tokyo) you will probably finish near where you started.
Qualifying has been broken for so long but I don't see a fix coming at this juncture. With pit lane, that's another case of PD going way overboard with a change when only a small adjustment was required.
 
I earned in Bathurst and Tokyo 133 and 118 points driving a Ford Mustang. I just take 4 slots to become an A driver again.
From 25k DR to 32k.
I tried much in training lobbys last week for Tokyo and I had so much good fights and races with all these other people in lobbies.
But the only thing changes in online races in FIA, it is so dirty. So I just had on race and said I won't enter another race on this track.
But indeed it was a good combination and it was funny to see all people doing a pitstop:confused:

Yesterday I startes some Laguna training, and I was switching through a few lobbies to see other times. Most people use the Cayman and in the race I was able to drive 1:29,XXX consistently, only the last laps a 1:30,XXX, but I was defending a greece man, who was much faster than me.

In other lobbies I just saw 1:30,XXX as fastest lap in the race.
 
So, if you didn't experience yesterday's Manufacturer's race, here's some of the finest driving examples that I got to be a part of/witness. This was taken from 3 races in North America. Just... my God.



Put this in Le Louvre. This thing was great. Every stage on the ugly scale is represented here.

Awful driving, pure bad luck, zero awareness, unnecessary aggression, absolute savagery, glorious karma and some purely gorgeous pettiness on show. What a beautiful mess
 
Adding 15-20 seconds to pit lane times have predictably removed any sort of strategy in these races, so unless there is carnage (there was plenty in Tokyo) you will probably finish near where you started.
Aye, wholeheartedly agree.

Does anyone else feel PD is throwing things at the wall trying to see what sticks, but never lining them up in a way that makes sense? It's like the people who work on planning out the race calendar aren't aligned with nor have any idea what's coming up on the game balance side. For example, all those long races in the Manufacturers a couple of seasons ago with the silliness of everyone diving in to do 1 lap on the mandatory tyres over a a 35-40 minute event and spamming the softest compound into oblivion.

Now with this season it seems like the races were planned out to expect people to make use of the softer tyres, then the pit stop change goes in at the last minute and suddenly we've got a season almost full of no-stop sprints because you simply can't make back the pit loss using the softer compound.
 
Just had an awesome race with @Jwptexas and TPC_Gooners (can't find his username).
Started P2, 1s off JWP's insane time... and messed up the start. Held on while I could, with the help of TPC_Gooners, but eventually tire wear was too high and I started being picked off.

I was hanging on to a podium... until, in the last corner, a fellow brazilian divebombed me. Lost two positions, to him and to @Jwptexas , whom I suspect had forgotten to change his tires to M before the race started.

Got 221 points, which isn't enough to increase my total...but oh well... am happy with what could have been !!



It was good seeing you out on the track very unfortunate final corner there. I planned on doing the one stop the entire way so everything went to plan I just got caught up in some traffic. When I saw you lined up on the grid though I almost decided to no stop thinking your acceleration would keep in my slip off the start.

I ended up one stopping in three slots I'm probably the only one :lol: it worked out well for me though, had lots of fun.
So I went into tonight cautiously optimistic. I had a good amount of practice, got good practice races in, had coaching from @Jwptexas , and was in one of the OP cars.

Slot 3: Door #15 @51.6k, 260 points for the win.

Following Tex's advice, I waiting until everyone had cleared T1 before I left the pits to qualify. I wanted nothing to do with the slip stream train. T1 seems to be the make or break point for me, and I got a pretty good run through. Rest of the lap was going well, and as I came around the hair pin, someone was leaving the pits. No good. Fortunately, they got a good run through the esses and I grabbed their slip on the straight to come in with a 55.2xx. This was about as fast as my laps in practice. Good. I was catching the guy who came out of the pits so I just exited and waited. Provisional pole, and then one of NA's finest streamer got a good two to nip me by a tenth on the second set of laps.

P2 start. P1-P4 gave each other the wink and the nod to work together. I got a good start and could've tried to take P1 on the first turn, but backed off and took his slip. The shipyard that first lap was ugly. I managed to avoid it, but some of the rowdy folks from south the equator bowling balled through the field taking out my draft buddies, and they were hot on me coming out of the shipyard. I was the streamer's slip, and got a great run coming off of him heading into the hairpin. I went inside mostly to make sure I didn't make contact in the braking zone, and then the opponents from the Southern hemisphere sent it again, and there was lots of contact. I went way wide to avoid most of it, and popped out in P3. One of the guys who passed me had a 3 second penalty. I followed them through the shipyard, passed P1 as he served the penalty, and then the new leader missed his braking point and went way wide at the hairpin. I took P1 and with a slowly rising gap each lap (and each time they swapped places behind me) I finished that way with a 9ish second gap.

View attachment 1002154

260 flipping points! I'm still a little bit in shock after taking 78 points (combined) from the last two manu rounds and feeling the struggle hard this season. I beat my previous best (from DTS this season) by 15 points, and will finish with 505 points with my two keepers. I should finish in the top 100 in the Americas and P4 for Ford (my bud @Jwptexas nipped me by 3 points for P3, lol).

Before this season, 203 points was the most I'd ever taken. I'm pretty happy to say the least, and hope that I can find the time to put the practice in and get results when the new season kicks up.

Congratulations on the strong finish to the season! You ran away with that one big time. I'm going to have to watch out next season. That one came down to the wire :cheers:
 
This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:
This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on April 5th, 2021 in the Gran Turismo Sport category.

I'm not sure if I understand this whole "World Series" thing. It almost seems to be a way of obtaining more Worlds Finals points, like the Top 12 Superstar races. Is that not the case, here?

Also, I'm excited to hear about the name change for the former GR Supra series. There's quite a few GR-branded vehicles in GT Sport, and that's before we get into other potential additions, either for GT Sport or GT7. Just in GT Sport, we've got stuff from the 86 GRMN to the SF19 with the Toyota engine; the latter of which does have GR branding on the nose. Then there are GR-branded vehicles that could come in a possible update for GT Sport or in GT7, such as the GR010, or perhaps the Lexus LFA that raced in the N24 could work as a Gr.3 vehicle.
 
Only news about GT Sport Mode. Isn’t there anything else they can do? That gets boring.
Only focus on this. Thought Polyphony would have recognized to go back to their history.
 
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I'm not sure if I understand this whole "World Series" thing. It almost seems to be a way of obtaining more Worlds Finals points, like the Top 12 Superstar races. Is that not the case, here?
I don't really know what the superstar races have to do with anything. They give extra points for your online qualifying, to improve your chances of qualifying for the live events. They don't give anything towards the live events.


The World Series is what the World Tour was supposed to be last year, where the top three in a WT event got three, two, and one points towards their overall total. That meant starting the World Final in November on some points rather than none. In the end that didn't happen, except for Sydney, and PD reworked it into the Regional Finals - and was in fact how Miyazono won (he actually got fewer points than Gallo in the WF itself, but his points from Sydney and the Asia-Oceania Regional Final meant he won).

This will be the same thing. There's a maximum of three points for each of the four WS events, and ten for the WSS, so in theory someone could start the WF on 22 points.
 
I don't really know what the superstar races have to do with anything. They give extra points for your online qualifying, to improve your chances of qualifying for the live events. They don't give anything towards the live events.


The World Series is what the World Tour was supposed to be last year, where the top three in a WT event got three, two, and one points towards their overall total. That meant starting the World Final in November on some points rather than none. In the end that didn't happen, except for Sydney, and PD reworked it into the Regional Finals - and was in fact how Miyazono won (he actually got fewer points than Gallo in the WF itself, but his points from Sydney and the Asia-Oceania Regional Final meant he won).

This will be the same thing. There's a maximum of three points for each of the four WS events, and ten for the WSS, so in theory someone could start the WF on 22 points.
Ah, I think I see. So the World Series simply replaces the World Tour, got it.
 
@Seth_Logan Are there any readers in the forum that did so or not and would like to share their thought process?

I used to drive the Chevy (mostly because I´m a Chevy fan) and your conclusion is quite right. I finished 4th in CSA season 2020 Chevrolet leaderboard and skipped a lot of Gr.4 races due to the car not being competitive. Also in some tracks the lap times are good but fuel consumption puts the vette in a bad position to fight for big points.[/QUOTE]
 
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GT Sport has been the best GT game to date, I hope we never go back. Offline racing again AI gets boring by the end of lap 1.
I personally like the online mode of Forza 7. A lot of rooms hosted on servers with different type of races and groups. In GT, i get three daily races and only peer to peer connection with often worse connection. They should hoste rooms like Microsoft.
 
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Manufacturer's Cup 2021 Exhibition Season Recap:

This was my first attempt at focusing on the Manufacturer's Cup instead of treating it as an aside to the Daily Races. I spent my driving time each week in Free Practice, Custom Race, or Lobby to prepare for each round. I hadn't spent much time in the lobbies before, but it was some of the most fun I've had playing this game. Much more relaxed and friendly in chat, but still very intense racing.

I chose Jaguar this season after debating between them and Chevrolet. The Gr. 3 Vette is a car I am pretty quick in, but didn't have much time in the Gr. 4. I thought the Gr. 3 Jag was comparable and I knew the Gr. 4 was quick, so I basically chose based on Gr. 4 at DTS. I never unlocked the full potential of the Gr. 3 Jaguar, but found myself fighting for top 10 finishes which was good for me. In the Gr. 4 those goals elevated to top 5 finishes, even after the power reduction BoP update. My two races that counted were DTS and Bathurst both P5 finishes.

The racing was great all season long, even the chaos of lap 1 at Tokyo was fun. I really like the merging of the Americas and felt that really raised the level of competition. Some names became more familiar as the season went on and more trust was built. I knew when I saw a Vortex driver that I was in for a race.

Very happy with my finishing results. A year ago I had a total of 1 DR point, so having an A+ rating and these results makes me feel proud in the progress I've made and I'm grateful to this forum and its members for all I've learned here. I didn't make the cut for S ranking in my Jaguar place (17th) and I don't think my regional finish is good enough either (188th) unless the limits changed with the merger. That gives me a good goal to strive for in the upcoming season, though **EDIT** New rules for S rank rule this goal out. I might switch to Ford just so I can sing, "Ford is the best in Texas!" if I can reproduce my local finishing spot. Texans know what I'm talking about. Good luck to everyone!

upload_2021-4-5_10-11-47.png
 
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I used to drive the Chevy (mostly because I´m a Chevy fan) and your conclusion is quite right. I finished 4th in CSA season 2020 Chevrolet leaderboard and skipped a lot of Gr.4 races due to the car not being competitive. Also in some tracks the lap times are good but fuel consumption puts the vette in a bad position to fight for big points.
I find the Chevy's are pretty decent at fuel saving actually. Not the best, but competitive. They can be shifted really early (as soon as a sliver of the red bar appears) and lose only a couple mph on the straights.

While I agree the Gr.4 doesn't feel as good as the Gr.3, especially after the Gr.4 lost power 2 BoP updates ago, I strangely end up with my best score in a given season coming from the Gr.4 most of the time (even though most of my counted scores come from Gr.3). Last season was the exception where my best score was the Tokyo round, but it was still only 8 points more than my other counted score at DTS in the Gr.4. I think the Gr.4 is decent even if it is the weaker of the 2, and it's definitely not "overrated".
 
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