A few notes for those taking part who may not have much experience with online racing or who haven't had enough time to test for this event...
Qualifying Display Order
The driver order shown during the 30 minute quali session on screen may not reflect the true quali order if/when people have been pitting or leaving the track. Example:
I shoot out of the pits at GP/F, do a warm up a lap, blast off a 1'57.1 for the pole on my next lap and then return to the pits. I will go from the top of that leader board as soon as my lap is complete, to the bottom when I enter the pits. That's because although my time is saved and I will start on the pole, the order list in the game will put me in my current "on track" qualifying position and since I'm not on the track I'll go to last place, or close to it, depending on how many are in the track or in the pits. Come the start of the race I will start on pole (unless someone gets a faster time). The only time the display is relevant and accurate is if everyone exits the pits, qualifies and stays on the track and never leaves until the race starts. So the order shown on screen just before the race starts will not necessarily correlate to where we start on the grid. Kind of an odd way for PD to implement it, but that's how it works.
So just realize your best overall lap counts, not the listed order at race start.
Fuel Load & Quali Strategy
It benefits you to run some laps during quali to use up fuel and then pit, change tires and NOT add fuel during quali pits. The fresh tires with lower fuel weight *will* help your lap time on track. Regardless you will start the race with a full tank and you won't have to add fuel during the race either as a tank will last 25 laps.
Expect the best times to be run right at the end of the quali session with lighter fuel loads and fresh tires. If we all do that the display order right as the race start will probably be pretty close.
The strategy I expect to run for quali is as follows. Run a couple 10 minute qualification stints to try and get a banker lap in the books. Each stint with 1 warm up lap and 3 hot laps and then a "cool down" lap to enter pits. Then somewhere around 7:20 make my final quali pit do the warmup lap and then go for the front of the grid with 3-4 flying laps on lighter fuel.
If we all follow the same strategy the last 10 minutes are going to be crucial on track. If you happen to be doing a warm up or cool down lap OR you went off and the current lap is not going to be "good" make sure to keep an eye on the map and make way for someone on a hot lap. If you are running a clean hot lap you
DO NOT have to give way to a faster driver. It's up to the faster driver behind to make sure there is enough space before starting their lap and they should not mess up your lap either.
Similarly if you are coming out of the pits during quali keep to the right and wait for an opening for turn 1... stop on the right well before turn 1 if you see someone approaching who may get there before you are out of the line. It's your warm up lap anyway and there's no way that lap time is going to matter.
Drafting
Drafting is not enabled for practice mode/qualifying, which is good to avoid "assisted" laps. Drafting is strong during the race however and it will impact your brake zone significantly. A good technique after drafting to a very high speed and catching another car is to brake full *early* and then modulate the brakes at 50% as your speed is reduced so you can adjust the gap and basically be on the tail of the guy in front again by apex and ideally set up a better apex exit. If in doubt brake too early and you'll make up the time in the draft anyway or set yourself up for a better exit. Passing by out breaking is allowed, but just make sure you know what your doing. It gets more tricky with 3+ in a pack of course and incidents will happen.
"Team work" drafting will work well here... it can be a good strategy for a pair to separate or catch up a little on a lone car. Probably best to back off a bit past the start/finish line though as drafting too close after this may actually mess up brake zone and slow corner 1.
Pit Strategy
Based on testing it's hard for me to believe anyone is going to make 25 laps on 1 stop. Feel free to try, but be prepared for some pretty large speed differences from oncoming drivers. A two pit strategy with stints of 8/8/9 is probably going to
Final Comments
This event is
for fun so don't sweat it, just try your best and have a good time. Last week set the perfect precedent with everyone racing hard and fairly clean, but occasionally some paint was exchanged and that's just good racing. More of the same this week although this car and track are a little more sensitive so adjust accordingly 👍
All our events may have a few drivers with much less experience racing online and less experience with a particular track/car. Just understand these drivers may be slower and/or make more mistakes during the race than others (and this event is particularly demanding). As long as said drivers are courteous and don't do anything intentional they will always be invited back and are always welcome to take part in our events. Enjoy!!!
. I've never raced online but since I did pretty well on this event maybe I would stand a chance!
).
) to give you guys room though, I think next time if somebody is hogging my bandwidth I'll either get them to stop or back out.
