Both my quali laps were poor which put me midpack, got a penalty on lap 1 and then only gained positions through others' misdemeanours but could've been worse I guess.
A brilliant drive from @watto79 in that one
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Guess you need to know when to call it quits.
I'm just not *fast* around here. Qualified 18th, 16th and 15th. First race, finish 10th having run out just before start-finish line. Could have been a lot worse. Second race, appalling, I finish 18th having run out of fuel coming out of the last corner. This race, I manage to keep it on track with plenty of fuel, and what do I do? I bin it on the final corner, pick up a 1.5 second penalty. Dropped from a possible 5th down to 11th. I could hang myself at this point. Not going to go again.
Very good race from your side ! It was nice to meet you again.Did have faith in getting a good result after completing some promising test lobbies in the '16 GT-R, but this was before last night when I found the Lexus to be more stable and @Ashthebash suggested that the half-shift technique would be a more optimal way of saving fuel. Prior to that, I had relied on the leaner maps plus higher revs to get me through and, as @MetaBrain put it, 'obliterate' some of the test races I had been in.
After completing the 18:20 EMEA slot with @GR33N, I am happy to say that taking Ash's advice on board made a massive difference to the way that my real race turned out...
18:20 Nations
Two turbo RC Fs against 18 turbo GT-Rs. It would be easy to assume just from reading that that it would be a Nissan whitewash, but even in later tests I knew there was a chance to upset the status quo. Followed one GT-R around to set a 1:31.727 on brake balance -2, all while avoiding an incident involving a separate driver at the first corner. Got a good slipstream down the straight, but had to back out of my second lap when I realised too late that I would end up compromising the GT-R's run if I committed to the apex. Apologised to him straight after, but still wound up 7th on the grid. The other RC F snatched pole by a whopping four tenths (1:31.080) which did make me wonder how things would've been different if I matched the 1:31.2 I managed in testing.
First lap and we already have two GT-Rs (one dark grey, the other in Sega colours) running wide out of Coca Cola curve. Enough of a hindrance to allow the stock-liveried GT-R (driven by the same person who treated the V8 Vantage like a battering ram last week) to squeeze past. Said GT-R proceeds to lunge and punt the dark grey car past the Sega car, earning a 2-second penalty. The dark grey car got out onto the kerb and spun into my path as a result, allowing a Spanish GT-R to pass as I briefly backed out in avoidance. The Spaniard and the Sega car proceed to trade paint all the way up to Turn 1, where the Spaniard is punted wide and spins out on the outer kerb. One place gained out of all of this, and a combination of gentler braking and the Lexus' more stable character allow me to easily catch up to the Sega car plus the 4th and 5th-placed runners.
Throughout the race, I maintained my initial approach of using higher fuel maps into and through corners, which was especially important as it allowed me to save a bit more fuel behind traffic. On Lap 6, the GT-R in 4th place went wobbly through the Coca Cola curve and dropped back upon sliding onto the Turn 4 runoff. It was on the same lap where I finally pulled past the Sega car into Turn 1. A bit forceful by my standards, but a good opportunity to use the extra juice I had saved to rev high and sow up the move. The very next lap, I pull off the same move on the French car with plenty of room to spare. On Lap 9, another Spaniard in front loses a significant chunk of time through the Coca Cola complex, allowing me to sweep around the outside into 3rd. Dipped into the high-1:32s and cranked up the revs towards the end in a bid to catch the remaining Spaniard in 2nd. Think the tyres were starting to lose their edge by the end, likewise my entries into Turn 1 were getting bit sloppier. Still clawed up enough ground to finish four tenths behind the Spaniard with 2% fuel remaining.
View attachment 1017883
Like Laguna Seca on Saturday, everything in this race just clicked. Compared to the GT-R, the RC F felt like it was on rails through tighter sections and worked just as well on the straights with the half-shift approach. Again, I have to wonder how much a better qualifying position would've changed things up, but I'm incredibly thankful to have made the car switch and to follow Ashthebash's advice on shifting and fuel maps before matchmaking. I was doubtful about the half-shift approach after seeing a YouTube streamer attempt it and not get enough pace, but in the end it proved much better than relying purely on leaner mixes and potentially losing positions to faster cars behind.
My best result in the main Nations championship for a very long time (not counting the RBR Gr.1 podium last year which got reassigned to the "Exhibition Stage"). Good job GR33N on making the top 10, too! Also, guess which obscure BTCC livery I used for inspiration behind this evening's paint scheme...
Most likely just a rounding correctionSo funny, I got 3rd place aswell in the 4th slot and it was worth... 239 points !
(Although it shows 240 on my score list )
Did have faith in getting a good result after completing some promising test lobbies in the '16 GT-R, but this was before last night when I found the Lexus to be more stable and @Ashthebash suggested that the half-shift technique would be a more optimal way of saving fuel. Prior to that, I had relied on the leaner maps plus higher revs to get me through and, as @MetaBrain put it, 'obliterate' some of the test races I had been in.
After completing the 18:20 EMEA slot with @GR33N, I am happy to say that taking Ash's advice on board made a massive difference to the way that my real race turned out...
18:20 Nations
Two turbo RC Fs against 18 turbo GT-Rs. It would be easy to assume just from reading that that it would be a Nissan whitewash, but even in later tests I knew there was a chance to upset the status quo. Followed one GT-R around to set a 1:31.727 on brake balance -2, all while avoiding an incident involving a separate driver at the first corner. Got a good slipstream down the straight, but had to back out of my second lap when I realised too late that I would end up compromising the GT-R's run if I committed to the apex. Apologised to him straight after, but still wound up 7th on the grid. The other RC F snatched pole by a whopping four tenths (1:31.080) which did make me wonder how things would've been different if I matched the 1:31.2 I managed in testing.
First lap and we already have two GT-Rs (one dark grey, the other in Sega colours) running wide out of Coca Cola curve. Enough of a hindrance to allow the stock-liveried GT-R (driven by the same person who treated the V8 Vantage like a battering ram last week) to squeeze past. Said GT-R proceeds to lunge and punt the dark grey car past the Sega car, earning a 2-second penalty. The dark grey car got out onto the kerb and spun into my path as a result, allowing a Spanish GT-R to pass as I briefly backed out in avoidance. The Spaniard and the Sega car proceed to trade paint all the way up to Turn 1, where the Spaniard is punted wide and spins out on the outer kerb. One place gained out of all of this, and a combination of gentler braking and the Lexus' more stable character allow me to easily catch up to the Sega car plus the 4th and 5th-placed runners.
Throughout the race, I maintained my initial approach of using higher fuel maps into and through corners, which was especially important as it allowed me to save a bit more fuel behind traffic. On Lap 6, the GT-R in 4th place went wobbly through the Coca Cola curve and dropped back upon sliding onto the Turn 4 runoff. It was on the same lap where I finally pulled past the Sega car into Turn 1. A bit forceful by my standards, but a good opportunity to use the extra juice I had saved to rev high and sow up the move. The very next lap, I pull off the same move on the French car with plenty of room to spare. On Lap 9, another Spaniard in front loses a significant chunk of time through the Coca Cola complex, allowing me to sweep around the outside into 3rd. Dipped into the high-1:32s and cranked up the revs towards the end in a bid to catch the remaining Spaniard in 2nd. Think the tyres were starting to lose their edge by the end, likewise my entries into Turn 1 were getting bit sloppier. Still clawed up enough ground to finish four tenths behind the Spaniard with 2% fuel remaining.
View attachment 1017883
Like Laguna Seca on Saturday, everything in this race just clicked. Compared to the GT-R, the RC F felt like it was on rails through tighter sections and worked just as well on the straights with the half-shift approach. Again, I have to wonder how much a better qualifying position would've changed things up, but I'm incredibly thankful to have made the car switch and to follow Ashthebash's advice on shifting and fuel maps before matchmaking. I was doubtful about the half-shift approach after seeing a YouTube streamer attempt it and not get enough pace, but in the end it proved much better than relying purely on leaner mixes and potentially losing positions to faster cars behind.
My best result in the main Nations championship for a very long time (not counting the RBR Gr.1 podium last year which got reassigned to the "Exhibition Stage"). Good job GR33N on making the top 10, too! Also, guess which obscure BTCC livery I used for inspiration behind this evening's paint scheme...
I think the main problem is related, but different, and that is the pit length. In typical PD fashion, they massively overcorrected for a previous problem (which I personally didn't think was a big problem anyway...), which was that the pit stop times were often too short, so the obvious strategy was to do only 1 lap on the harder tires, then do multiple stops and change the softer tires as many times as necessary. Any tracks with stop lengths less than 7s encouraged spamming the pit lane (Maggiore and Fuji were some of the shortest at ~5s for a pit stop).As much as I like these races, today's race just really pissed me off. Fuji is such a fun track that promotes good racing with multiple lines through all the sectors. And group 2 is arguably the most fun group to race despite its lack of options. It just really bugged me to unrealistically have to baby this high performance race car around the circuit to get a good finish.
Thinking about some of the recent FIA races lately that have all more or less, left something to be desired (Tokyo, Nurbugring, Laguna Seca, Fuji, Spa this weekend). They've all lacked a variety of plausible winning strategies. We've all been complaining about it. I think the problem is the length of races. There's only so much you can do with a 25 minute race and multipliers to get a variation of races that are "winners" for us. And by "winners", I mean races that require some strategy without being total snooze-fest. These last races, your qualifying position has really had a huge influence on how you finish...especially in the higher lobbies. Not to mention if you get punted or whatever in the beginning...your race is effectively over. I don't think going back to shorter pit stops are the answer because that was just too unrealistic and it too, also lended itself to stale races in terms of strategies.
Not sure how realistic it would be for PD to do this, but I really think the sweet spot for these races need to be in the 30-35 minute time frame. That gives the race enough time where you would really have to think about strategy going into the race and make some on-the-fly strategy adjustments if needed.....depending how your personal race, and the races around you played out. I'm not suggesting that every race get lengthened, but I think some of them could. As an added bonus, if you have a mishap somewhere in the race (wether its self-inflicted or you've fallen victim), you'll have at least a "puncher's chance" at recovering
What say ye'?
I think they should make more of the races now have TWO mandatory tyres, so everyone will do at least a stop. Maybe give the choice of three tyres to catch people out if they don't pay attention, but force a pit stop through two tyre compounds and strategy comes back into it. Not just do a no-stop and save 28s by not pitting....I think the main problem is related, but different, and that is the pit length. In typical PD fashion, they massively overcorrected for a previous problem (which I personally didn't think was a big problem anyway...), which was that the pit stop times were often too short, so the obvious strategy was to do only 1 lap on the harder tires, then do multiple stops and change the softer tires as many times as necessary. Any tracks with stop lengths less than 7s encouraged spamming the pit lane (Maggiore and Fuji were some of the shortest at ~5s for a pit stop).
But there were already tracks that had the ideal pit stop length for the typical races we have in the FIA - which was 10s. DTS, Willow Springs, Suzuka, Spa, and RBR all had pit times around this length; and as long as the tire multipliers were set right, making an extra pit stop was often tempting, but the 10s pit time made it JUST difficult enough to close the gap again that you actually had to think about it. Of course, rather than just adjusting all of the pit lengths to be 10s, they decided to make all the pit stops 3x longer than that and occasionally result to annoying fuel multipliers and mandatory usage of more than 1 tire compound so that the entire season wasn't just a bunch of no-stoppers (but still 75% no-stoppers anyway...).
That's what I've been saying.I think they should make more of the races now have TWO mandatory tyres, so everyone will do at least a stop. Maybe give the choice of three tyres to catch people out if they don't pay attention, but force a pit stop through two tyre compounds and strategy comes back into it. Not just do a no-stop and save 28s by not pitting....
That's what I've been saying.
I can see having a tyre multiplier to simulate abrasive surfacing. Maybe also a hot day. When we have these no stop races, may as well make the fuel/tyre multiplier 1x/1x.
A Mandatory stop with a pit window, even make a timed race with a pit window, can help those in traffic. Pit early for an undercut. Pit later for a run on light fuel to the finish.
Why just leave the excitement of racing to the World Tour? All FIA races should be like the World Tour strategic races.
What's ironic is, reading this week's Daily Race C versus the FIA nations in the same cars. No matter the track, the mandatory stop adds flavour.Pit windows are just a common sense idea.
How PC2 did not explode into a huge game is beyond me. Everything we say we want in GTS from an on track product exists there.