- 840
- United Kingdom
- Philtaylor17
Thanks for the race. GG to the top three.
I think the hilliness of the track also might've led to issues with the restarts, with the s/f straight being after a downhill turn and gravity causing everyone to speed up before having to slow down to 75 mph again.I think chaotic is the only way to summarise the race last night. Congrats to the preliminary top 3.
Personally I had found a lot of pace following @Philtaylor17 onboard lap but I torpedoed my race with a bad strategy call and not taking an easy pit stop under one of the late safety cars which left me very short on fuel and having to limp the car home. I had some fantastic racing on the way with a lot of you @GT5Apex @tyoungbl @GOTMAXPOWER @The_Tullster @AfraidRacer @MaxAttack to name a few.
Looking back I think there was a culmination of things which led to the spiral of safety cars. The track design heavily influenced crashes and subsequent damage with cars hitting the walls. As the race progressed it was becoming clear that because of the risk of safety cars track position was becoming more and more important leading to more desperation from drivers to get ahead creating a mini sprint race after each restart. I think there was a mixture of some complacency from regulars and lack of practice from the reserves for restarts which led to issues at the rear of the grid with large concertina effects. Then obviously the disconnects right at the end and lag thrown in for good measure.
Thanks for everyone’s best efforts even in frustrating circumstances, there sounded to be a lot of good racing in the party so I look forward to viewing some of that in the replay. As usual I will confirm the final result next weekend. I have recieved a few self reports of incidents already so thanks for the honesty from those people and any further reports can be sent to me by Thursday please. I will be looking over the restarts to see if any improvements can be made to the procedure going forward.
Cheers all and enjoy the rest of your weekend
I'll try and make sure any speed corrections next time are done much smoother and more gradually. And start restarts with more of a gap to T1.Round 2 results have been finalised, Congratulations to our podium @tyoungbl @AfraidRacer @GT5Apex great racing under trying conditions.
I have reviewed the race and can confirm we had 7 Safety Cars (must be a record) and the majority were caused by single car accidents through the fast esses with cars hitting the walls. Because of this I am considering changing Round 4 at Kyoto to a track with more run off.
A quick update on findings from viewing the safety car restarts and improvements we can try and make:
- The final sector at Maggiore and the downhill final corner made queuing and speed control more difficult than usual.
- We had a few reserves filling in this week who would’ve been unfamiliar compared to everyone else.
- SC's led by @Philtaylor17 were overall very good and Phil was the most consistent at sticking to the 75mph target. One thing I noticed was that when Phil went too fast he would brake to slow down and this braking would concertina the field.
- SC's led by me were generally a little too fast which tended to stretch the field. I would roll off the throttle to slow down which reduced the concertina affect compared to Phil and I would also restart the race a lot earlier meaning the field was less bunched into t1.
- SC's led by GMP the general speed was good other than the mistake of over slowing at t13. Playing chicken with the pit wall caused confusion both times which led to collisions and then cars being really bunched up into t1.
- The mid & rear of the pack would sometimes drop off and then massively speed up exaggerating the concertina affect.
Improvements we can try and make:
- SC leaders to prioritise being smooth when adjusting speeds, less use of brakes etc.
- SC leaders when restarting, have a plan for when you’re going to restart, hopefully this will help you be less reactive and deliver a smooth restart. (No more games of chicken please)
- Everyone else to do their best to minimise the concertina affect, if you find yourself dropping off the car ahead catch them up gently and be prepared for them to slow down unexpectedly.
Overall our restarts are very good and I think its easy to be over critical of ourselves in hindsight. The SC is always going to be a little bit on the wing it side of things and is not going to be perfect every time. Smooth and clean is all they need to be.
I will be confirming people’s availability for Spa next weekend. For anyone practicing over the holidays, Rain settings R05 & R06 are likely to be used.
Cheers all