Gran Turismo World Series (Nations Cup Exhibition Season: Jan 22 - Feb 1)

[Moose78]

First NA GT1 slot. I was in door #11 in an all-A/S lobby, including @afc5150 (great to see you there!) with 188 points up for grabs.

Qualifying went well. I posted a 1:14.587, nearly a tenth better than my best in Free Practice. That put me in Q5.

The race got off to a fine start. I was just exiting the corner onto the straight as I took control of the car, which created a bit of gap to the cars behind. Everything was pretty orderly through the first lap until we got to the final corner. The P4 car punted the P3 into the wall, which promoted me to P4. The punter was awarded a 4-second penalty for it, so P3 was looking like a definite possibility.

That is, until the P5 car made a move in the switchbacks of lap 2 and got past me. The punter took their penalty and I was back in P4.

I chased the P3 car for a couple of laps, when on lap 4, they went deep on turn 1 and into the wall. A gift for me.

Now in P3, I focused on driving my best laps. The car behind was close and it took a while to build up a decent gap, but managed to do it and take home a podium finish. P3 for 172 points.

I have to say, that's a nice end to the day. I really didn't know what to expect going into this race, but it turned out much better than I thought it would.

 

[bduddy]

7th in top split in slot 1 is definitely my limit, and if last week is any indication, the points are only going to go down. It still floors me that I'm somehow in top split. I hope people are staying away just because of the exhibition season and weird combos... Either way, PD definitely needs to do something different next time, this format is obviously turning a lot of people off.

 

[Moose78]

Has anybody been able to enter Free Practice for the next round at Monza? They have Nitrous/Overtake set to Prohibited and I can't figure out any way to disable it on my garage car. I tried entering with a rental car, too, but those are also rejected because they don't satisfy race requirements.

 

[afc5150]

This has happened before when the SF cars are used. I guess we'll have to wait until PD realize they messed up again and fix it.

Nice seeing you out there last night in Nations, great result for you!

I wasn't expecting much, and the race delivered in that regard and I went Q11 to P11. Didn't have a bad race as such, just didn't have the pace to make up any places, and no one ahead of me made a big enough mistake for me to get by.

 

[Tazzy-91]

That will do nicely 👌 My main account has gone on a major downward spiral so I'm racing today on my ALT account. Pretty straightforward race, the French drivers are so angry they won't even work together to stop me getting away 🤣🤣 Once I cleared the slipstream it was pretty much plain sailing. Finished 8th in my first race so will go again at 2pm to see can I get 2 good results for the day 👍

Edit: 2 on the bounce 👌 Delighted with that

 

[Talon16]

Has anybody been able to enter Free Practice for the next round at Monza? They have Nitrous/Overtake set to Prohibited and I can't figure out any way to disable it on my garage car. I tried entering with a rental car, too, but those are also rejected because they don't satisfy race requirements.

100% pure PD. Like, if someone wanted to sum up PD with one action, this would be it.

I did try on my AO account and same thing.

 

[Moose78]

I'm still just trying to figure out how to drive this combo at Monza, but I ran a couple tire tests in custom races to help me get better acquainted there. These tests were mostly just to see how long the tires would last and get a feel for how tire wear affects lap times. I basically just drove each tire compound as long as I could.

You'll see from the lap times that I have a lot of room for improvement in pace and consistency. The only conclusion I'm drawing at this point is that RS tires will last me around ~15 laps. RMs would easily last me the full race if both compounds weren't required. My lap times were too erratic to get any meaningful indication of how wear affects lap times.

Here are the numbers, such as they are (from this spreadsheet):

Strategy	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Avg dev	Total time
15RS-5RM	1:30.600	1:33.250	1:35.691	0:01.992	31:53.810
19RM-1RS	1:31.013	1:33.669	1:35.926	0:02.415	31:58.515

Tread levels at pit:

Strategy	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right
15RS-5RM	30%	50%	5%	30%
19RM-1RS	55%	65%	40%	50%

Tread levels at finish:

Strategy	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right
15RS-5RM	85%	90%	80%	85%
19RM-1RS	95%	95%	95%	95%

I'll probably re-do these tests later in the week once I've gotten a little more consistent. For now, I'd recommend you take anything you see here with a large grain of salt.

 

[SPL170db]

Has anybody been able to enter Free Practice for the next round at Monza? They have Nitrous/Overtake set to Prohibited and I can't figure out any way to disable it on my garage car. I tried entering with a rental car, too, but those are also rejected because they don't satisfy race requirements.

I don't think you can disable it. It's not even nitrous.....its the push to pass KERS deployment which is only disabled via the race regulation. No wonder there's been no lap times set for this round yet lol.

 

[Norbsthebald]

When (if!) this is fixed, will it be by allowing "overtake" in the regs, or by disabling it on the cars? I didn’t race the last time GTWS used the SFs (at interlagos IIRC), so I don't know which was used then...

In other news, my race yesterday was great. After a shaky start to practice early in the week I finally got into the low 1:14s regularly and poled in a mixed A/B race high in GT2, after being passed at T1 I retook the lead at T1 L5 in an outbraking move, and won for 150pts. Flushed with success I then decided to dust off the A account for a very rare GT1 outing, I qualified 3rd in a high -160s point lobby, and drove a somewhat lonely race to finish 3rd for 155pts, my first ever GT1 podium Nice!

 

[Moose78]

When (if!) this is fixed, will it be by allowing "overtake" in the regs, or by disabling it on the cars? I didn’t race the last time GTWS used the SFs (at interlagos IIRC), so I don't know which was used then...

From @afc5150's response, it sounds like this mix up has happened before. I don't what happened in that particular case. In recent SF races that I've participated in, though, the overtake button has been usable.

 

[afc5150]

I honestly can't remember how or even if they fixed it, or if it was in a daily race or a FIA/GTWS event.

But yeah, it's because the nitrous option being disabled even though our SF cars don't have nitrous, but the game recognizes the overtake button as nitrous I suppose.

Like @Talon16 said, PD gonna PD.

 

[IngRobNy]

I was about to do some practice, but I couldn't...

Can't turn off the Overtake either...

 

[SPL170db]

I guess you can unscrew and toss the nitrous bottle in the garage but you can't yank the KERS system out quite so easily lol

 

[Moose78]

Free Practice is open now. It seems they fixed the problem by dropping the Nitrous/Overtake setting. I imagine that means it will also be available in the race.

I ran a few laps earlier. After watching the replay from the top driver, I think I've figured out a way to get around the track reasonably quickly. I posted a 1:30.863, which felt like it was getting pretty close to my limits. It was ranked 33rd -- of less than 400 -- at the time. I know it won't last, but seeing my time in the top 50 was a nice little boost to my confidence, especially after last night's pokey run at Fuji in TGR.

Now I just have to figure out how to do that consistently. That first chicane is really hit-or-miss for me.

 

[GTWolverine]

This has happened before when the SF cars are used. I guess we'll have to wait until PD realize they messed up again and fix it.

I think this has happened LITERALLY every single time the SF23 has been used in Sport Mode this year...

 

[Moose78]

I've tried a few more tire wear tests at Monza, but I'm still so inconsistent on the track that I feel like the results aren't worth sharing.

One thing that I've found that seems worth sharing -- now that I've improved my pace a bit -- is that the RS tires only last me 14 laps now, versus the 15 I was getting on Sunday. I don't expect I'll be running them that long in the race, though. I looks like the crossover point, where the RSs become slower than RMs, is somewhere around 10-12 laps. It is hard to say with the data I have right now. I need to get more consistent on the track to get a clearer picture.

 

[Zorz]

I've tried a few more tire wear tests at Monza, but I'm still so inconsistent on the track that I feel like the results aren't worth sharing.

One thing that I've found that seems worth sharing -- now that I've improved my pace a bit -- is that the RS tires only last me 14 laps now, versus the 15 I was getting on Sunday. I don't expect I'll be running them that long in the race, though. I looks like the crossover point, where the RSs become slower than RMs, is somewhere around 10-12 laps. It is hard to say with the data I have right now. I need to get more consistent on the track to get a clearer picture.

I think you're likely right with 10-12 laps being the limit on the Softs. I just completed my first full distance test run going 8M-12S and what I experienced lined up with your findings. I did not like those Softs at the end.

Lap times on the Mediums were in the mid 1:32s, Softs with overtake mixed in pushed down to the low 1:31s (I think my best was a 1:31.1) but sharply rose back up to the mid 1:32s again at the end. Overall time was 30:57. I'm probably going to end up running 10-10 in the real race unless I really want to try to undercut someone.

 

[GTWolverine]

I must be doing something wrong, because I'm only getting 7 laps out of the Softs before they reach the crossover point with Mediums...

 

[Moose78]

I haven't gotten much more consistent on this combo, but I think I've figured out a way to filter out some of the noise from that inconsistency in my data. Similar to how the optimal lap time is built from the best times of each sector in a lap over several laps, I can build an optimal race by picking the best laps over several test races.

I've now run the 19RM-1RS test 3 times and 14RS-6RM one twice. When I synthesize optimal races from those races, the results look like this (raw data in this spreadsheet):

Strategy	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Avg dev	Total time
Optimal 19RM-1RS	1:29.878	1:32.724	1:33.908	0:01.402	31:18.158
Optimal 14RS-6RM	1:28.851	1:31.866	1:33.332	0:01.531	31:06.633

Tire tread levels at pit (in the order the tests were done):

Strategy	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right
19RM-1RS	55%	65%	40%	50%
14RS-6RM	15%	40%	5%	30%
19RM-1RS (2)	45%	60%	40%	50%
19RM-1RS (3)	45%	60%	40%	50%
14RS-6RM (2)	20%	40%	5%	30%

Tire tread levels at finish:

Strategy	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right
19RM-1RS	95%	95%	95%	95%
14RS-6RM	85%	90%	80%	85%
19RM-1RS (2)	95%	95%	95%	95%
19RM-1RS (3)	95%	95%	95%	95%
14RS-6RM (2)	85%	90%	80%	85%

A few comments/observations:

• There's no clear crossover for me where the RSs become slower than RMs. This is a bit of a surprise because the RSs get noticeably more difficult to drive on, especially in the later laps of the stint.
• Both of the 14RS-6RM tests were done right when I got up in the morning. I think that is why for the first few laps the difference between RS and RM tires is so small. It takes me a few laps to get warmed up. I feel like there is probably quite a lot of room for improvement in those first few laps.
• It's probably worth mentioning that when I do these tests, I do them with a rolling start so that I create the largest gap possible between myself and the one required AI car. This is why the first laps is so much faster than the rest, and probably why the opt times are so much less than any of the actual laps.

 

[Moose78]

I did one more 14RS-6RM test. It only moved the needle on one lap in my 'optimal' race.

It occurred to me that in addition to 'optimal' races, it is also possible to construct 'average' races and 'median' races from my tests. I won't bore you with the numbers here. If you are interested, you can check out the spreadsheet for details.

This chart shows just how noisy the data is -- and by extension, how erratic my driving has been.

Of the three types of races, I'm guessing that 'median' is the one that is closest to what I'll actually do in the race. I tried simulating all the possible strategies for the race by pasting together the first N laps of the 14RS-6RM median race and the first 20-N laps of the 19RM-1RS one.

The top 5 strategies for me were these:

Strategy	RS stint	RM stint	Total time
11RS-9RM	17:03.119	14:04.568	31:07.687
12RS-8RM	18:37.409	12:30.375	31:07.784
10RS-10RM	15:29.538	15:38.480	31:08.018
13RS-7RM	20:11.017	10:57.357	31:08.374
9RS-11RM	13:56.147	17:12.641	31:08.788

So it is looking like a longer 10-12 lap stint on RSs is the thing I'll be aiming for.

That said, I feel like all this analysis is largely academic. I fully expect to be damaged at turn 1 off the start and have to pit for repairs and RMs at the end of lap one for a 1RS-19RM strategy.

 

[Moose78]

So I've done a few races now -- both custom and lobby -- where I start on the RM tires and finish on the RS. I've been amazed at how much better the softs are as a second stint, once some of the fuel weight has burned off.

I had intended to start on softs for the race in case I get damage into turn 1 off the start. If I do, I can easily switch to RMs immediately for the rest of the race.

Now I'm wondering if it might be worth the risk to start on RMs.

But what is the best plan to avoid damage in the first couple of chicanes? The first thing that comes to mind is skipping qualifying: start from the back; stay out of the chaos for lap one; and pick up the pace once the field spreads out, passing the damaged cars on the long straights. The competitive side of me doesn't really like the idea of skipping qualifying. I like to see where I stand going into the race. Maybe this time it's worth it. I don't know. Any other ideas?

Anyways, races will be starting soon. If you are doing this round, best of luck!

 

[Pau1_13th]

Did the race, mid DR B driver, Door 5, qualified 3rd (1.31.0xx). Had a good start although first chicane was a bit bumpy as expected (was in a sandwich). But it was still fair, so would call it a racing incident between 3 or 4 cars, just received light damage in the rear... in the end Iwas the lucky one who got first out of the corner. From then it was managing to not making mistakes as I saw in the mirror the followers had some contacts. Already came in after lap 9 to swap from soft to medium, as I had two moments in the Ascari. Came back in 4th, took the 3rd place and then 1st and 2nd came in for new tires, So was 1st again.
Could manage the position better than expected until lap 19 when the 2nd place shaved off some time and I made a mistake looking in the rear mirror... finished 2nd which is more than I expected.
Was a lot of fun, especially with the open cockpit in VR.

 

[stpatty]

Did about 5 laps of practice. Qualified 2nd 0.51 off pole. Top 3 started on mediums, 3rd didn't have TCS on so he veered right and a concertina happened behind him. Stayed in 2nd the entire race. Finished 5 seconds off the lead and 15 seconds ahead of 3rd. If I'd practiced or wasn't pathologically afraid of the kerbs at Monza I might have had a better chance. Pretty boring, really.

 

[Zorz]

Standing starts and turn 1 at Monza, forever the most cursed of relationships. Even A+ lobbies aren't safe...

I qualified in P5 and in anticipation of the likely calamity to come, started on the Mediums. Somehow ended up P2 and in the middle of being three-wide on the run down to turn 1 because of people false starting, and then got shunted for damage. I exited the first chicane in P2, but the damage completely tanked my speed and I just got pushed about until I could get back to the pits and repair.

I came back out on Softs in P11 and just tried to push as hard as I can. The start of lap 3 moved me up to P8 going past the pits, then took P7 after an Italian outbroke himself on the entry to Ascari. From there I was chasing down a Spaniard and got the run on him into turn 1 on lap 6.

By the end of lap 8 I'd caught up with two more Spaniards and one peeled off into the pit lane, so up to P5. I then managed to get the run on the other down to Parabolica, so now P4.

Jumped into the pits again at the end of lap 10 for more Softs and to my surprise came back out in P6. I'm going to have to check the replay, something must have happened. The start of lap 12 gave me P5 as someone was in the pits. Nothing happened until lap 16 where I caught a Polish driver on the run to Parabolica and started fighting. He had a poor exit from the Rettifilo chicane at the start of the following lap, and I burned all my remaining overtake to get past him into the Roggia chicane and then get away into the Lesmos. P4.

I could see P3 off in the distance on the extended track map (can't see deltas as I'm in VR!) but I couldn't really tell if I was catching. Even if I was, there wasn't anywhere near enough time left to close that kind of gap. Turned out I didn't need to. As I was rounding Parabolica for the final time, I spotted him ghosted off to the side. P3! Definitely going to have to check the replay to see how he dropped that.

Going by end race times, P3 was the absolute best I could have hoped for even if things had gone perfectly, so I will not complain at all after that shambles of a race start. My personal best in practice was a 30:52 and the winner did a 30:45 with P2 nipping at his heels.

That result was worth 235 points, boosting my season score by 22. I'm calling that a very good day! Also kind of weird that I've had back-to-back-to-back P3 results this season with only one attempt on each round... That very likely will not continue into round 4, I'm AWFUL at Watkins Glen! 😅

​

 

[MIE1992]

I'm thinking that regardless of where I qualify, I might just start on the softs, just to see how far I can wear them out, and only then change to the mandated mediums.

 

[OJBrit]

Wasn't feeling the best going into this.
The car was stable but I couldn't balance the braking coming up a little short and slow on occasions.
Managed a P12 on the grid.
Got away well and went around the slow coach ahead. T1 wasn't chaos but everyone was trying to get any space. I was knocked wide but this left me vulnerable on exit and lost any places I gained by cutting over. Plus getting a 1 second pen to boot. Got someone around the outside into Della Roggia and then someone else was in the sand on exit so 2 places there. However the person I overtook took umbridge and sent it into Lesmo 1. But overshoot into Lesmo 2. 2 other cars were in the wars between the corners and I was P8 on exit. Back to 10th after the pen. Got one back on exit of Rettifilo thanks to Overtake. Some cars to avoid in Ascari and taking penalties. Suddenly I was 5th.
However my rear was swamped by several cars into the Rettifilo. The result was inevitable.

Back down to 13th. I retook 12th from a Hungarian into the Della Roggia as they ran wide. Again they didn't like that and divebombed into the Parabolica. I went wide but kept her straight. They got a 2 second penalty for it at least. They then battled another car allowing me to catch up and pass another victim of theirs. They took the pen and I went past though they tried to hit me with their ghost! Also passed another car serving a pen. Slowly caught a German who it turns out was the person who span me out. I was cautious as they were weaving all over the place so unless the chance was clear I would prefer to get them via the pits. This is how it turned out. Pitted lap 10 and came back out in 11th. Passed 2 in the pits over the next couple of laps to end up in 8th in the closing stages. I was the Brit filling in a Brit sandwich. Closing on ahead and loosing time to another car just out of the pits. The faster car got past thanks to a track limits pen and took on those ahead so I had great seats ready to watch. Last lap and I was P8 right behind P7 with P6 not far ahead. P5 was the fast guy so unlikely to get them. We three closed up through Curva Grande. I got alongside P7 and into the breaking zone they outbroke themselves and ran wide. P6 had touched the grass and wobbled. I took the racing line past both and came out P6 with a growing gap.

That was all she wrote and I got a good result and more points to boot.

 

[Zorz]

I'm thinking that regardless of where I qualify, I might just start on the softs, just to see how far I can wear them out, and only then change to the mandated mediums.

You'll probably want to go no further than 12 laps on the Softs. 10 laps on each is a good tradeoff because your pace on the Softs will likely start going off a cliff around that point, and then there's the risk of the car killing you if you try pushing it further.

I've just been watching the replay from my race to find out what happened to the guy that binned it on the final corner and gave me P3. He tried 6M/14S and his rear left was hanging on by a thread on the final lap. It hit 0% as soon as he turned in for Parabolica and the car immediately spun.

 

[MIE1992]

You'll probably want to go no further than 12 laps on the Softs. 10 laps on each is a good tradeoff because your pace on the Softs will likely start going off a cliff around that point, and then there's the risk of the car killing you if you try pushing it further.

I've just been watching the replay from my race to find out what happened to the guy that binned it on the final corner and gave me P3. He tried 6M/14S and his rear left was hanging on by a thread on the final lap. It hit 0% as soon as he turned in for Parabolica and the car immediately spun.

In that case, I'll pick between the two depending on my qualifying position. If I'm starting in the upper half of the field, I'll start on softs, and if I'm in the lower half, then mediums it is.

 

[IngRobNy]

Qualified 10th, started on Soft, pitted in the end of lap 9 at 5th place and ended the race on 8th place, top 10 was my goal, whish I would save my Overtake to the end of the race, could climb few places with a bit of Overtake, but happy with the result overall. got also a 6 star ticket and 500k for my effort.

 

[Zorz]

Well, I got damn lucky coming out of the pits earlier. I just found this on my race replay - do I thank the British pit crew for giving me the standard length pit stop so this could happen?



I knew someone was there on the run down to turn 1 but I didn't realise I'd come out in front of THAT.