This race is really difficult - more of a challenge than any other race in the game, in my opinion. It makes the SF Fuji race seem like a walk in the park as at least with that one, if you do it enough times, you’ll get the right combination of weather and fair AI drivers to effect a win, even if your lap times are not perfect every time. But this GR3 Lake Maggiore race is something else entirely! …and I’m not even close to winning it yet …a top six finish would be nice!
Any of many cars could win this race, I get that. It all comes down to how a car's default balance and default gearing suits one’s driving style. One has to be able to achieve laptimes in the 1:58s - I get that - and the balance and gearing of the McLaren is the one that lets me hit these times, sometimes! The problem is that the better the balance of the car for getting extra rotation round the hairpins, the more skill is needed on fast exits to avoid oversteer, and the more prone to spin-offs one is if one gets nudged by the competition. The BMW M3, for example, is mighty quick, but so prone to being nudged that mixing it with the pack through bends nearly always results in facing rearwards as you watch the rest of the cars wiz past you!
This race has changed dramatically following the various 2023 updates, in my humble opinion. I’ve read posts and watched videos of the mission from 2022 and it’s like a different race. The selected cars go quicker and the AI cars go slower, making for a race that better fits the profile of the typical GT7 'hard' race. But now, in the later half of 2023, this race is easily the most difficult in the game, and I think I’ve now won just about every other race/test/challenge/mission in the game that doesn’t involve cones or drifting (🤬).
The best strategy is three stints on RM tyres, I get that, pitting on or around laps 10 and 20 in order to even out the tyre wear …I get that. The best fuel strategy is only to carry enough fuel for the laps that you plan to drive in that stint …I get that. You need to use all the kerbs but if you cross the track limits the penalty is so harsh that by the time you have recovered at 'the' hairpin, you might have lost three or four places. I get that. And if you spin-out anywhere, at any time, you might as well hit the retry button because there’s no way you’ll win if you spin! I get that too.
So with all this in mind, I have come to the conclusion that the only way to win this race is to practice with all the available cars until you find the one that suits you best (which means buying lots of cars), and then to practice until you can get into the 1:58s without exceeding track limits, and then to practice and practice and practice until you can hit those 1:58s so consistently and perfectly that the only deviations are when you hit traffic and/or when your tyres are worn past one-third red.
I’m currently at the stage where I’m trying to be consistent. Some of my laps are 1:58x, some are 1:59x; more are in the 2:00s than are not. I haven’t managed to achieve a clean race yet with regards to track limits, and about half my attempts have to be abandoned because I spin off through contact or lack of reaction skill, which sadly comes from being in my 60s!
In many respects, this race, more than any other in the game, is most like real racing. In real life one buys a car/kart/bike/whatever, and then spends countless days off work adjusting and tuning it to get the best out of it on a range of practice days at a range of circuits (these days are only affordable mid-week, which is why one needs to take time off work). One can’t tune the GT7 cars for this race, but one can pick the best car for one’s skills and style. Then one practices and practices at the circuit or circuits that one intends to race at, until one’s laptimes are the best they can be given how much spare time one can spare! Then one races with hope and anticipation that the podium will be big enough for one's ego now that one is fully prepared for glory. Yes I know that’s a lot of 'one's …one has started this way, so one has to finish this way! 🤪
But for all one’s expectations, the rest of the grid have done the same thing, and their laptimes are within thousandths of your laptimes, consistently, and if you’re in a high-end race series for elite drivers, all you can do is try your best to stick with the car in front, without being overtaken by the car behind, waiting for the driver in front to make the tiniest mistake, without making any errors oneself. I’ve spent two hours like this before, in the same race order as the grid order, totally 100% focussed on maintaining perfect laptimes, waiting for others to make mistakes. This is the reality of real high-end racing, and this particular GT7 race is the closest I have yet come to it in the game. Curses and buggeration to GT7 for being a little too 'real' this time. Clearly I have a lot more practice to do before I am ever likely to see the win for the GT3 Lake Maggoire race 🙄 🥺
