2021 FIA Series Race Discussion

[OJBrit]

That livery is awesome! Liking that a lot.

But yeah the Manu race is on Saturday. The Nations race at Bathurst is on Wednesday.

This has just saddened me. I could not do today's race due to being away. I wouldn't mind missing LM but the TC at Bathurst would have been right up my alley. A car and track I love. Annoyed they have swapped days this week.

 

[Stoobert]

Had to start in slot 4 due to some major issues at work, but was feeling OK considering I was matching the pace I have been doing and trying to be sensible.

Qualifying wasn't brilliant, slid a bit coming through Forest Elbow and going up the mountain so I started 10th. Race time. Lap 1 I got around Turns 1 and 2 pretty ok, but was on the inside after turn 2 heading up past turn 3 to the braking zone for turn 4 where surprise surprise I was punted multiple times and span around ending up practically dead last. I got my composure together and started go get back with the pack. On lap 2 coming in to Forest Elbow I notice 2 cars, ghosted after a coming together. I past the first car and when overtaking the second, said person decided to sideswipe me off the track to prevent me from passing. Catching up on lap 3 they again decided to use every dirty trick in the book to try and both a) stop me from passing and b) attempt to coerce me in to foring myself off (which happened at the chase). Lap 4 I managed to spin him out good so they were off the back of the pack and couldn't hurt anyone else (except those who made mistakes to get reigned back in). At this point though the damage was done and I was a minute off the leading pack. Lap 7 was the first time I had a clean lap and managed to go nearly 8 seconds faster than the previous laps.

Final slot I went again. I had better qualifying and started 7th. 6th false started giving me a clear run in to T1 and a nice slipstream down to T2. Queue a double punt in said corner putting me practically dead last again. This time though death just happened all around and I got up to 8th on finish.

I swear to god, one make, no fuel/tyre spint races are just so unbelievably dirty and impossible to try and have a decent race, and you are relying more on luck than skill.

 

[Brisso_4173]

Holy crap I won a race! Don't come on here to brag at all but that was totally unexpected. A/S lobby and 184pts in the bag. First FIA win since being a B/C driver.

Been liking this combo in free practice all week and got my time down to a 2.29.04 but then got in a practice lobby and the car felt different to me especially going down the mountain (pad player, MT and TC 0).

Got a tow down Conrod in qualy (much appreciated) and got a 2.29.5 on the board and good enough for pole.

For the race I planned to stick with TC on 1 for the first lap and a bit until the traffic thinned out and by that time I was out of P2 slip range and could ease off the gas earlier coming down the mountain and ensure I didnt make any mistakes and ended up finish 4 seconds ahead of 2nd.

As an Australian living in Canada it feels good to say I won my home race 😁.

Cheers all and good luck for the rest racing tonight. 👍

 

[D_Dragline]

Dredge's Alt Adventures; Chapter 8

NA slot 1, door 4 of 20 starting with 14345/99

Qualifying was again chaotic. Got out in p8 but was p2 by skyline. Got a run on the on-track leader down Conrod and was a length clear into the chase. This was, apparently, not allowed and i was "escorted" into the sand. Quit out and no qualied. Pole was a 2:34.xxx 6 seconds slower than my FP best.

Grid start caught out both of the cars in front of me on the grid, and I had a Moses moment as I slipped through the middle. Turn 1 was carnage ahead and the loss of momentum for most of the field gave me a run up mountain straight. P8 into Griffin's for the first time. 3 cars sideways out of Griffins and another 2 at the Cutting and I'm P3 at McPhillamy.

P2 gets it wrong into the dipper and another place made. Get a good run down Conrod and pass p1 into the chase. Cross the SF line for the first time having cleanly passed the entire field. I then drive one of the worst imaginable races which includes a 1 second track limits penalty for the damned dipper farce and then lose the rear into the cutting on lap 5 and end up in the wall. This drops me back to P2.

Once i get myself neat and tidy again it takes me about half a lap to catch p1 again and I get past down Conrod. Last 4 laps are much better and I pull a 15 second gap for 72 points and FIA win number 7* for the good doctor. Up to 15845/99.

* - 8 if Fisherman's Ranch counted as a win.

 

[Yard_Sale]

2nd slot, NA account A\S lobby.

Qually ruined by 2 amateurs who made big mistakes, but wouldn’t let anyone through. It was like I was in a low B lobby. Finished with a disappointing 2:33.

It was all for nay tho…. As I got disco’d before everyone was done qualifying.

Lost over 1000 DR for my trouble 😑

 

[AstroVex]

Fun racing tonight! Here it goes: Qualified 4th amongst a lobby with very familiar faces . The front of our train quickly lost a wagon in the middle of turn 2 , and another one going through the downhill esses. I was in second place after the first lap, but small and costly mistakes got me to end the race in 4th position.

A little sad because, 1: I was about to beat my personal best score, and 2: because I lost the podium around the last lap 😐. Still, I equaled my best score yet with 180+ pts, its not a bad thing. Thanks to all, it was a fun, clean and legit race (from what I saw at least). Combos like this are always great, and seems like the whole world forgot about round 5 already...

Thanks. Stay safe folks!


Meantime at PD:

 

[Geauxgreddy]

2021 FIA Nations Exhibition Race 6 - Mount Panorama
Mazda Miata - Touring Roadster
DR A+ SR S
Slot 1 and Slot 2
Door 2 and Door 5

Slot 1
Room opens and its full of lovely names of drivers I know and have raced with many many times. Which is good!! I decide to lead the pack in qualy because I'm just crazy like that. Which seemed ok at first, but then I quickly feel back to Q9 as the times started falling in place. However, my start was on point and I moved up quickly as deaths began to stack up. I was up to p4 before the down hill on lap 1!! Then I was hit from behind just before the big dipper and sent into the wall, damage to front right which caused the car to spin and Forests Elbow and I hit the wall got sideways and fell all the way to last place. Spent the rest of the racing clawing back towards the front...p11 to finish and missed p10 by a hair. Had to go again.

Slot 2
Again, may familiar names, including Z28, who came out of the pits in qualy just in front of me. Like a complete tool bag, I screwed up the cutting and lost the slip, but I was OH SO CLOSE, so I kept at it. Never did get back in the slip but did get a Q4, 2nd row start!!
The first corner was clean and I was super ready to work with p3 to stay in p1 and p2 slip. We broke away early and all I had to do was be a good wing man...but NOOOOOOO. Greddy has to punt p3 at the end of the Conrad Straight into the Chase. He should've just cut the grass but he whipped back on track and lost it. So, I had to let off and wait on him. P12 just like that. Sigh. From there I worked my tail off and managed to get back to PSteve (P6) by the end of the race...what could have been! Took the 6th place and called it a night.

Both races were fun even though I got punted and in the other was the punter. I did apologize, like 3 times, to iRL-Psycho, for my mistake. Felt terrible. But, I had a fun time on the stream and will go to bed feeling like I had a good race with many good clean battles. Which is what keeps brining me back!

 

[LVS_1986]

Good morning! There is something about yesterdays race worth posting.There was some frenchman in my lobby, he didnt qualify, starting P20... "Starting from the back lol" he typed in the chat, at this time I wasnt sure if he is just happy person or alien on alt account... Race started, I took the lead on 2nd lap and started to build gap to P2, on lap 6 I was 3s ahead, and then, guess what... Yes I saw this frenchman on P2, he climbed from P20 to P2 on Panorama in Mazda TC, so now I was sure he is some kind of alien just having fun in 37k DR lobby... To be honest I **** my pants in this moment Gap was getting smaller and smaller, on last lap I was sure that I wont win this race, last corner he is on my rear bumper, I dont even defend, he almost passed me and then he make a contact, my Mazda spins... In this moment Im angry "you are so much faster, yes I know, cant you just pass me clean" I think to myself... And then miracle happens, he is waiting just before finish line, can you believe it? After work I will upload replay, it is worth showing that there are good people in this world

 

[Nismonath5]

I had a phenomenal race at Bathurst!! Fast, fierce and clean, don't think I had much more to give! The leader was in a whole other league, they simply bolted from lap 1 and we never saw them again.

The 2nd - 5th place battle was on for a fair while, but eventually that fractured into separate battle packs, and then after a while 3rd place crashed and left me all by myself to see out the remainder of the race.

I almost had a 2-3 finish with my teammate, Lapwing, but he got beat in the closing corners and only just missed out a podium spot.

The Roadster TC once again proving that you don't need high horsepower to have epic racing!!

 

[Hasnain282]

 

[Geauxgreddy]

View attachment 1095988

Well, isn't that special.

 

[sturk0167]

View attachment 1095988

Oh, no problem. It was only my best ever single race point total.

How they hell do they arrive at a decision to make sure nobody gets points for a race where nobody got any points, instead of resolving the issue by giving us the points we earned??? Idiots

 

[OJBrit]

They probably do not know what points people got as it is all automated.

 

[LVS_1986]

Ok, this is short video which everyone who lost faith in humanity should watch:

 

[sturk0167]

They probably do not know what points people got as it is all automated.

They sure as hell should know all the results. There are non-affiliated websites that have all the info on race results, that I'm sure they get from PD, somehow.

Speaking of, why the hell does PD not show us in-game what our SR and DR points are?
KudosPrime always knows my point totals. @Milouse has said before that he extracts the info from PD.
What could be their reason for not showing us the stats somewhere in the game?

 

[05XR8]

I used to look at that white bar in my gtprofile. The closer to the right, I knew I was nearing the next level. It’d be so close to the right for weeks! That’s one reason I never paid attention to those points. That’d drive me mad.

 

[GR33N]

Well well well. After yet another frustrating FIA round and an underwhelming result, I needed some time to try to understand why, especially in "sprint" races with no real strategy involved, I basically suck and usually finish significantly lower than my grid position. For this round, my FP time was actually very good with a 2:27:7xx and an optimal of .4xx, and "easily" doing low 28's so I was feeling pretty confident, although my race pace seemed clearly not as good, especially over the mountain (in the 30's in clean air).

So here is a (poorly edited) video that I long hesitated to make and show here. I really want to emphasise that I have absolutely no intention to shame or blame any of the players involved (especially NOT @Tidgney 's move which clearly is a racing incident IMO). You can definitely judge me though !

No, the reason I do this is because I'd love to have some feedback and opinions on my driving in those 3 first laps, the part of the race of which the end result pretty much depends...

I edited the video as follows (3 clips) :

1 - My "live" - unedited PoV of the 3 first laps
2 - The PoV of 2 drivers in particular whose actions/decisions had a huge impact on my race
3 - A bonus clip of a last lap moment, after an exhausting but still somehow enjoyable race full of shenaningans

Could you please tell me what I do right or wrong in clips 1 and 3 ? Any tips to race more effectively in those situations ?
In clip 2, how would you objectively judge the driving of the Spaniard and the Brit ? Is it okay, on the edge, too much ? The thing is, I'm definitely NOT a top split driver and I'm just wondering if this is what I should expect from that level of racing, maybe my vision of the whole thing is wrong and I should just adapt ?

 

[Milouse]

They sure as hell should know all the results. There are non-affiliated websites that have all the info on race results, that I'm sure they get from PD, somehow.

I confirm that.

 

[NekoPufferPPP]

Oh, no problem. It was only my best ever single race point total.

How they hell do they arrive at a decision to make sure nobody gets points for a race where nobody got any points, instead of resolving the issue by giving us the points we earned??? Idiots

What if some drivers in F1 for example, finish high but their points just disappear? It would be a scandal. A matter of championship-winning difference making. Naturally, the entire race would be invalidated.

They sure as hell should know all the results. There are non-affiliated websites that have all the info on race results, that I'm sure they get from PD, somehow.

If those sites get their results from PD...and the points didn't register correctly...how on Earth are those sites supposed to get the correct data from PD?...

 

[05XR8]

I’m sure there aren’t millions of players that PD can’t sort out which players raced and finished.

 

[LVS_1986]

In clip 2, how would you objectively judge the driving of the Spaniard and the Brit

If you ask me, they both are impatient and too agressive, but this is only my opinion.. They are super fast and I dont, so maybe in this high lobbies you must drive like that? IDK

 

[D_Dragline]

They sure as hell should know all the results. There are non-affiliated websites that have all the info on race results, that I'm sure they get from PD, somehow.

Speaking of, why the hell does PD not show us in-game what our SR and DR points are?
KudosPrime always knows my point totals. @Milouse has said before that he extracts the info from PD.
What could be their reason for not showing us the stats somewhere in the game?

They definitely know the results but I suspect they don’t record player DR continuously. Therefore they can’t recreate the number of points per lobby. It is absolute amateur hour.

 

[OJBrit]

They sure as hell should know all the results. There are non-affiliated websites that have all the info on race results, that I'm sure they get from PD, somehow.

Speaking of, why the hell does PD not show us in-game what our SR and DR points are?
KudosPrime always knows my point totals. @Milouse has said before that he extracts the info from PD.
What could be their reason for not showing us the stats somewhere in the game?

Oh they will have the results in a computerised log somewhere. But they are obviously unwilling to retreive it and re run it through the system. I meant that they do not instinctively know the results without having to look through streams of data which would take time and effort.

Well well well. After yet another frustrating FIA round and an underwhelming result, I needed some time to try to understand why, especially in "sprint" races with no real strategy involved, I basically suck and usually finish significantly lower than my grid position. For this round, my FP time was actually very good with a 2:27:7xx and an optimal of .4xx, and "easily" doing low 28's so I was feeling pretty confident, although my race pace seemed clearly not as good, especially over the mountain (in the 30's in clean air).

So here is a (poorly edited) video that I long hesitated to make and show here. I really want to emphasise that I have absolutely no intention to shame or blame any of the players involved (especially NOT @Tidgney 's move which clearly is a racing incident IMO). You can definitely judge me though !

No, the reason I do this is because I'd love to have some feedback and opinions on my driving in those 3 first laps, the part of the race of which the end result pretty much depends...

I edited the video as follows (3 clips) :

1 - My "live" - unedited PoV of the 3 first laps
2 - The PoV of 2 drivers in particular whose actions/decisions had a huge impact on my race
3 - A bonus clip of a last lap moment, after an exhausting but still somehow enjoyable race full of shenaningans

Could you please tell me what I do right or wrong in clips 1 and 3 ? Any tips to race more effectively in those situations ?
In clip 2, how would you objectively judge the driving of the Spaniard and the Brit ? Is it okay, on the edge, too much ? The thing is, I'm definitely NOT a top split driver and I'm just wondering if this is what I should expect from that level of racing, maybe my vision of the whole thing is wrong and I should just adapt ?

Mostly fine. Perhaps you should have done what the Spaniard did lap 1 and send it at the Chase as you had a chance to do so. As a result you got shuffled down the order.
Jack was stupid to go for that move into the Cutting which is a rare overtaking spot. He essentially shoved you aside and the Dipper penalty was justice in my opinion.

 

[Rangeraus]

To be fair I think this race was a bit of an outlier in terms of contact. Because the car accelerates so slowly, and is on racing tyres, you absolutely needed to maintain a high corner speed or you'll have 2-3 (otherwise slower) cars ready to pass over the next half a lap or so.

So I think a lot of people were less willing to compromise their speed through the corners than they otherwise may have been.

I think it would have been a better/cleaner combination if it was run on Sports tyres.

 

[Geauxgreddy]

Well well well. After yet another frustrating FIA round and an underwhelming result, I needed some time to try to understand why, especially in "sprint" races with no real strategy involved, I basically suck and usually finish significantly lower than my grid position. For this round, my FP time was actually very good with a 2:27:7xx and an optimal of .4xx, and "easily" doing low 28's so I was feeling pretty confident, although my race pace seemed clearly not as good, especially over the mountain (in the 30's in clean air).

So here is a (poorly edited) video that I long hesitated to make and show here. I really want to emphasise that I have absolutely no intention to shame or blame any of the players involved (especially NOT @Tidgney 's move which clearly is a racing incident IMO). You can definitely judge me though !

No, the reason I do this is because I'd love to have some feedback and opinions on my driving in those 3 first laps, the part of the race of which the end result pretty much depends...

I edited the video as follows (3 clips) :

1 - My "live" - unedited PoV of the 3 first laps
2 - The PoV of 2 drivers in particular whose actions/decisions had a huge impact on my race
3 - A bonus clip of a last lap moment, after an exhausting but still somehow enjoyable race full of shenaningans

Could you please tell me what I do right or wrong in clips 1 and 3 ? Any tips to race more effectively in those situations ?
In clip 2, how would you objectively judge the driving of the Spaniard and the Brit ? Is it okay, on the edge, too much ? The thing is, I'm definitely NOT a top split driver and I'm just wondering if this is what I should expect from that level of racing, maybe my vision of the whole thing is wrong and I should just adapt ?

My honest take of your first 3 laps...

Lap 1 - End of Conrad's straight going into the Chase. You should have passed kan_wrx. You had a good run and another car all over your rear bumper. You looked inside before the left, they moved inside with you, then you went back to the racing line leaving yourself wide open for the inside move. Your stuck behind the car in front so you can't even out brake him to the corner and get your nose ahead. They just freight trained you after that. I call it racing off the back foot. Just a tough spot to be in. By not passing the slower guy, you got passed by a line of cars. Same with Murray's Corner where Tidgney sent it. You should've stopped the bleeding and just defended the inside line. You went back to the racing line and Tidgney said thanks and took your corner. He could've been a little tighter on the apex but its splitting hairs. He should've been on the outside cutting grass instead of you....or trying for cut back, which likely wouldn't have because he would've left his inside vulnerable to those behind him. Read that traffic.

Lap 2 - Was a 2:30.8xx with a terrible Pit straight where you lost a ton of speed, had very little slip, and a full tank of fuel. Could've been worse. Hells Corner (T1) and Chase looked pretty average as well. So, considering all of that your bad 2nd lap wasn't too terrible. Nerves probably played a part after that first lap.

Lap 3 - This is what really good drivers do. They alter your line. VQS jack put his nose just under your bumper to keep you off your line. You SHOULD have read that coming out of Griffin's bend heading into the cutting but you failed to recognize him moving inside and his momentum (why I like a mirror instead of radar). Heck he was eyeing the inside after Hells Corner. Make him drive the long way around. Your defense there was pretty poor. Should've stayed narrow. Now, that said, I likely would've pulled out if I'm VQS Jack because many racers would consider that dirty and put you in the gravel or the wall following such a much. No thanks, I'll make my move when I can get fully along side you. But, in all honesty he's doing what you SHOULD be doing. Being more aggressive on drivers slower than you. Not dirty, more aggressive. Then he kills himself after the penalty, sigh.

Replay confirmed the above. One of them was using slip like a boss and both had two very questionable passes. One amazing pass on the big dipper. Actually, they both did. Problem racing a guy like that is you end up defending almost every corner because they don't give up on slipping to the inside. Makes for a long race. But, I wouldn't call his driving dirty. Just very aggressive. More so than most would be. You don't make a lot of friends being that aggressive.

I think overall you just need to read the traffic better. The nations cars as closely matched so you don't get the advantages and weaknesses that you can lean on in the Manu races. You have to play race-craft chess a little better. Clearly you have the pace. A very good friend of mine literally cussed me out after watching a live stream because he was so aggravated with my poor defense. It worked. I've gotten much better defending and car placement and really pay attention to what's going on around me. Just wish I had your lap times!

 

[Seth_Logan]

He @Mistah_MCA thanks for the guide once more! Question: I'm driving the McLaren 650s and can hardly keep it on the road with the hards and worn tyres. Did you happen to try a H-M-S-S strategy since the time loss is not that big I just might gamble on people having a hard time too. Do you (and the people here) think that would work?

 

[LeGeNd-1]

To be fair I think this race was a bit of an outlier in terms of contact. Because the car accelerates so slowly, and is on racing tyres, you absolutely needed to maintain a high corner speed or you'll have 2-3 (otherwise slower) cars ready to pass over the next half a lap or so.

So I think a lot of people were less willing to compromise their speed through the corners than they otherwise may have been.

I think it would have been a better/cleaner combination if it was run on Sports tyres.

I agree. The previous race we had at Yamagiwa with Sport tyres was a lot more balanced and nuanced to drive. I think it was at 100% power/weight too (can't remember the exact number but for N200 BOP at Bathurst it was definitely down on power and up in weight).

Alternatively, we could have max power/min weight with Racing tyres, but that would probably just be a Gr.4 race

He @Mistah_MCA thanks for the guide once more! Question: I'm driving the McLaren 650s and can hardly keep it on the road with the hards and worn tyres. Did you happen to try a H-M-S-S strategy since the time loss is not that big I just might gamble on people having a hard time too. Do you (and the people here) think that would work?

Pit loss is 15 seconds so you'd have to make that up in the 5-6 laps the extra soft can do. Not gonna work, especially since you will also be battling thru MORE traffic with the extra stop.

I drove the 650S over a season in 2020. It's biggest asset is the straightline speed (for an MR) and high speed cornering so save your tyres for the high speed corners. BB -5 and delay your throttle coming out of the slower corners to save the rears (big banky boy and last 4 turns). You're better off extending the RH stint than doing the extra stop. Also your car will be lighter in the end so that helps eke out an extra lap from the RS stint potentially.

It's just not a good car for this combo unfortunately. Just take it on the chin and use it as an opportunity to practice tyre saving skills 👍

 

[D_Dragline]

My honest take of your first 3 laps...

Lap 1 - End of Conrad's straight going into the Chase. You should have passed kan_wrx. You had a good run and another car all over your rear bumper. You looked inside before the left, they moved inside with you, then you went back to the racing line leaving yourself wide open for the inside move. Your stuck behind the car in front so you can't even out brake him to the corner and get your nose ahead. They just freight trained you after that. I call it racing off the back foot. Just a tough spot to be in. By not passing the slower guy, you got passed by a line of cars. Same with Murray's Corner where Tidgney sent it. You should've stopped the bleeding and just defended the inside line. You went back to the racing line and Tidgney said thanks and took your corner. He could've been a little tighter on the apex but its splitting hairs. He should've been on the outside cutting grass instead of you....or trying for cut back, which likely wouldn't have because he would've left his inside vulnerable to those behind him. Read that traffic.

Lap 2 - Was a 2:30.8xx with a terrible Pit straight where you lost a ton of speed, had very little slip, and a full tank of fuel. Could've been worse. Hells Corner (T1) and Chase looked pretty average as well. So, considering all of that your bad 2nd lap wasn't too terrible. Nerves probably played a part after that first lap.

Lap 3 - This is what really good drivers do. They alter your line. VQS jack put his nose just under your bumper to keep you off your line. You SHOULD have read that coming out of Griffin's bend heading into the cutting but you failed to recognize him moving inside and his momentum (why I like a mirror instead of radar). Heck he was eyeing the inside after Hells Corner. Make him drive the long way around. Your defense there was pretty poor. Should've stayed narrow. Now, that said, I likely would've pulled out if I'm VQS Jack because many racers would consider that dirty and put you in the gravel or the wall following such a much. No thanks, I'll make my move when I can get fully along side you. But, in all honesty he's doing what you SHOULD be doing. Being more aggressive on drivers slower than you. Not dirty, more aggressive. Then he kills himself after the penalty, sigh.

Replay confirmed the above. One of them was using slip like a boss and both had two very questionable passes. One amazing pass on the big dipper. Actually, they both did. Problem racing a guy like that is you end up defending almost every corner because they don't give up on slipping to the inside. Makes for a long race. But, I wouldn't call his driving dirty. Just very aggressive. More so than most would be. You don't make a lot of friends being that aggressive.

I think overall you just need to read the traffic better. The nations cars as closely matched so you don't get the advantages and weaknesses that you can lean on in the Manu races. You have to play race-craft chess a little better. Clearly you have the pace. A very good friend of mine literally cussed me out after watching a live stream because he was so aggravated with my poor defense. It worked. I've gotten much better defending and car placement and really pay attention to what's going on around me. Just wish I had your lap times!

This is a fantastic assessment of those 3 laps. I started a similar post, but this captures it better than I could.

This combo was a very particular one where momentum and good track position were the keys to success. Bump drafting and staying in formation were generally a hindrance.

 

[GR33N]

Thanks guys for taking the time reading and commenting my post ! Much appreciated.

I think my approach of those opening laps is probably too conservative and even if I won't be able to drastically change this (e.g. go for a harsh but fair move at the 1st opportunity versus bumpdrafting everyone), I should at least try to position myself better to avoid being the ball in a pinball game. I should stop thinking everyone else is going to patiently wait in line even if there's a high risk of making both drivers lose time and slipstream. After all, it's their right to overtake when they feel like going for it. I'm still unclear on the border between agressive and dirty though. For example the Spaniard did not push me off but he didn't leave me space at all either on the outside. Is that dirty or acceptable ?

That being said, I also wonder how much the "imposter syndrome" affects me when I end up in those lobbies with drivers that I consider much better than me in general (by reputation and maybe sometimes by mistake because... I hardly race against them, but that's another question). That often puts me on my back-foot (unconsciously ?) as I don't want to slow them down. I guess it's something you need to get used to before you're able to stand upright and look them in the eyes. At least that's the case for me with my personality.

Last question regarding clip 3 (last lap), when the Austrian goes off and I catch up really quick to him but decide to slow down behind him as he's right in the middle of the track. What do you think of this ? Would you have gone for the move (inside, outside) ? Is he allowed to stay like this in this middle or should he move left or right to give me some space ?

 

[D_Dragline]

Thanks guys for taking the time reading and commenting my post ! Much appreciated.

I think my approach of those opening laps is probably too conservative and even if I won't be able to drastically change this (e.g. go for a harsh but fair move at the 1st opportunity versus bumpdrafting everyone), I should at least try to position myself better to avoid being the ball in a pinball game. I should stop thinking everyone else is going to patiently wait in line even if there's a high risk of making both drivers lose time and slipstream. After all, it's their right to overtake when they feel like going for it. I'm still unclear on the border between agressive and dirty though. For example the Spaniard did not push me off but he didn't leave me space at all either on the outside. Is that dirty or acceptable ?

That being said, I also wonder how much the "imposter syndrome" affects me when I end up in those lobbies with drivers that I consider much better than me in general (by reputation and maybe sometimes by mistake because... I hardly race against them, but that's another question). That often puts me on my back-foot (unconsciously ?) as I don't want to slow them down. I guess it's something you need to get used to before you're able to stand upright and look them in the eyes. At least that's the case for me with my personality.

Last question regarding clip 3 (last lap), when the Austrian goes off and I catch up really quick to him but decide to slow down behind him as he's right in the middle of the track. What do you think of this ? Would you have gone for the move (inside, outside) ? Is he allowed to stay like this in this middle or should he move left or right to give me some space ?

2 points;

1. At least 3 times in your video other cars were holding you up. You were plenty fast enough to be competing in that lobby. If it’s a no stop race and someone is behind you then they’re not faster. You don’t need to defer to their superiority.

2. When you have that much of a run in a race like this, overtake. Preferably inside to discourage a robust defence. If he stays in the middle simply pick your side and give him a reminder that he doesn’t own the track by blasting by him.