So I decided to some more testing this morning. First of all I wanted to see how far off at least my ultimate pace that Jaguar XJR-9 was running, so I took it one, stock, in a TT on Motegi road. As per the previous test the AI was lapping at 1.53 - 1.57, I managed a best of 1.43.4 after five laps. So at worst, 10 seconds faster, at best 14 seconds faster a lap.
So, nowhere close to my limit. Next I decided to test this theory:
I didn't read all of the posts here, cause I didn't have time yet, but just wanted to add that player's PP definitely has an affect on AI level in career. When I used lower PP cars, they were also driving slower, but when I used cars similar to theirs, just dropped tires by 2 or 3 grades down, they were driving faster than before and I actually had good fight with them sometimes.
First of all I did the race again with the XJR-9 bone stock, on racing hards, identical to the AI in the race.
AI laps:
1. 1.53/4 approx
2. 1.51.4
3. 1.50.4
4. 1.49.8
5. 1.53.2
My laps:
1. 1.48.4
2. 1.44.4
3. 1.45.4
4. 1.42.0
5. 1.42.5
So nothing hugely surprising, the AI was consistently slower than me and I caught and passed it on lap 3, winning by several seconds. The AI got faster as the race went on, just like the Lambo race, but he seemingly gave up on lap 5, no chance of catching me and no challenge from third. The pace of the AI car was a little faster than the Lambo race though, but not by much.
Right so next test is to lower the tyres on the Jaguar so it laps about the same pace I could lap the Lambo. Sports Medium is what I chose, able to lap around the 1.50 - 52 region in TT. Similar to what I did in the Lambo. So i'm entering the race in the same car, same PP, but lower grade tyres that match the PP performance of the Lambo.
I've done a little table for this one:
So despite my laptimes being similar to the Lamborghini race it plays out very differently. The two AI lead cars dart away setting the best lap times yet, the BMW taking the lead. After three laps I've seemingly got no hope of winning, the AI are significantly faster or similar at best, and two laps to go. But then the 'let you win' mentality kicks in on lap four, and kicks in hard. The AI drop their laptimes by a massive 10/11 seconds allowing me to quickly catch them in the last two laps.
It's as if they went hard out to win thinking I had similar performance from my PP being the same then by the start of lap 4 they realise i'm not fast enough and they start driving very slowly to let me catch up. It wasn't quiet enough to let me win as you can see but still it made a joke of the whole 'race' and it does show indeed that the AI 'read' PP first, see how you're doing and then if necessary adjust to let you catch up. If you however start with much lower PP they'll take it steady the whole race, allowing you to catch them steadily.
If you set the number of laps to unlimited in single race, the handicap algorithm will never occur and there will be at least one competetive AI that you wont be able to overtake that easly.
This is somewhat true but of course doing that you can never actually finish a race. Endlessly lapping and then just quitting when I get bored doesn't really appeal to me.