QUAL: 1 min 22 sec 990 Qual standard menu Qual advanced menu

RACE: 1 min 24 sec 921 Race standard menu Race advanced menu

Note

If you have downloaded both setup for QUAL & RACE, you'll find a huge difference in the setups, mainly anti-roll bar reduced and same for spring rate in the rear, even worked the dampers (both fast & slow). Although i find the race setup has a good car balance, the reason for this big change, is to preserve tires easily up to 25 FUEL LAP (under 2.5 wear-out) The QUAL setup runs very well, at ACE level the competition will run in mid-high 1 m 24 seconds, i managed with good concentration, but not "efforts" to in the high 1 m 22 range, so even with mistakes you'll go around in the 1 m 23 seconds.

Introduction

Silverstone circuit is one of my favorite, it's a good mixture of sweep bends, and slower corner, I love Copse corner it's my favorite, it takes a "big heart" to go as fast as possible. Also some corners takes a "brave man" to go around like Becketts corner at 200 + kph. The track surface is very abbrasive, and some small bumps can upset a little bit the chassis.

This track has big challenges, Copse, Beckets, Club corners are good for your nervous system, the last portion of the track are slow (before entering Woodcote & start finish lines), I really took attention here on my setup to gain time, the car feels neutral in this slow section. Also i found new way of dealing with car setup, specially my new knowledge on ANTI-ROLL BAR and the interaction on spring rates. Also by adding PACKERS correctly, i could manage to lower car height and the benefits from this is higher cornering downforce, if you've not already seen my view on car setup please take a look.

I consistently ran in the mid 1 min 25 to low 1 min 26 range all the time, I even made a 1 min 24 sec 921 after my last stop, (with good tires & fuel load). If your "gentle" enough on your tires and choose to go for 2 pitstop during a full race. Even a 3 pitstop is not bad if you can constantly run in the mid 1 min 25 range, At that pace you will outclass the field by 1.5-2.0 seconds a lap at ACE LEVEL. ( At one point i had a 45 sec margins to Jacques Villeneuve, before making a mistake at Beckets, up i go in the gravel trap and lost some precious time "nobody's perfect") The track surface is very abbrasive and bumpy in some slow section, logical choice would be a 3 stop strategy.

Track Guide

Lets begin on how to go around the track as smooth & fast as possible. Passing starting line you'll reach around 302kph before entering corner #1(Copse) brake hard while downshifting to 4th gear, try to be close to the apex then accelerate, depending on your tires you can go thru Copse around 210-225 kph, then accelerate up to 6th gear. You'll negociate a 1st sweeper corner #2) while accelerating up to around 302kph then lift the throttle to enter Becketts (#3) downshift as speed derease to 4th, if your entry is correct, then you gradually accelerate then you go to fastest straight up to 306 kph. Here's a slow corner #4, brake hard & downshift to 1st gear then before you touch the cerbstone you're already in 3rd gear then accelerate to 5-6th gear before entering the Club corner (#5), brake hard ,downshift to second entering the corner, "flip" to first gear, accelerate fast, upshift to 2nd then gently accelerate around this "opening wide" corner, be carefull, it's bumpy here, so you can force it a little bit with fresh rubbers. All the competition are slow around here, it's a good place to pass (the same is true with the exit of Becketts and then the fast straight). After exiting corner #5 you put the throttle down, upshifting up to 6th gear, then comes corner 8 (Abbey), here's the entrance of the corner is of primary importance, don't overbrake here, you'll loose momentum and will have to go down to 1st gear instead of staying in 2nd gear.

Here the entry is important "clip" the apex (don't go too much on cerbstone) accelerate smootly to exit this sweeper (corner 8a), you should be in 4th gear at the exit, then accelerate to 5th gear entering corner #9 continue to accelerate up to 6th gear entering the slowest portion of the track and the tough corner 10, here i'm braking hard very quickly,then uses the engine torque and downshift slowly to 2nd then 1st gear (The car is pretty much stable this way). Briefly accelerate to redline in 1st gear, then just "coast" for a brief moment entering corner 11, i don't touch the brake here, if your entry is correct and at the same time the exit (in corner #12) you'll accelerate to 2nd gear then comes corner 13, again "coast" in 2nd gear briefly, then accelerate, upshifting to 3rd gear at the exit (cerbstone). Then comes the long fast bends (#14) and the start/finish line up to 6th gear. Voila! Note: I used to hate this slowest portion before, because of too much understeer, and with a small mistake in ENTRY/EXIT of those corners, i was loosing precious time, now i've worked a more neutral car in this section, but a big mistake (specially the entry of Priory (10th corner)), there you're spinning off the track, MY ADVISE is adapt your driving style and very soon, you'll have the tendency to find this section "friendly" and make big progress in your time.

Race Setup

What's important here to get good grip is reducing the SPRINGS, both rear and front to very low level, i keep a good ratio of ARB REAR at 100 and ARB FRONT at 1000, to get good grip at other portion of the track (and less wear), also no needs of high # here since their's no real chicane . If you want to change wing angle (not shown here), keep a differencial of 4 to 5 deg between front and rear, then adjust car height to prevent plank wear. Important note: While working my setup here in this portion of the track, the big task here is to prevent car upset, which lead to spin-off, IT'S NOT OVERSTEER, so i found that by actually reducing spring load in front, the car reaction to bump is less, then the car can go around smoothly.

NOTE: this setup and the qualification setup are not symetrical. The reason is on the left side of the car it's evenly match, but on right side tire wear shows good amount of oversteer. It' a trade-off!