QUAL: 1 min 40 sec 669 Qual standard menu Qual advanced menu

RACE: 1 min 46 sec 001 Race standard menu Race advanced menu

Note

If you have downloaded both setups for QUAL & RACE, you'll find a fair difference in the setups, mainly anti-roll bar changed, and to prevent tire wear, i had to remove packers to get the chassis to work in my favour, and getting decent lap times. Take a look at my qual & race advance setups menu (bottom pages), and you'll see these setups are pretty "special" in terms of my personal way to prepare a race car. You'll find the Springs setting surprisingly low, compared to most of the other high speed tracks. I've compensated with a high amount of ARB, the ratio is for QUAL ; 5500 in Front and 1000 in Rear = 5.55:1 & RACE ; 4000 in Front and 750 in Rear =5.333:1. You'll see more and more of my comparison on the Anti-Roll Bar RATIO for a good reason, it gives us a good way to see how the car will tend to over/understeer with a similar car setup. I will use this (for some track) to help me reducing tire wear for raceday event. So by knowing the ratio, i can see how the chassis will either under or oversteer. For the purpose of reducing tire wear for a setup like this (low SPRING RATE), i have to go for lower ARB numbers, if track layout permits it of course. One good reason to go for low SPRING RATE, is to help me extracting the maximum of acceleration out of low speed corners (without oversteer), the negative side is lower speed in faster corners, so i've compensate with higher ARB. Also my choice of WING angle is determined by the track layout, which here at Hockenheim, is definitly a high speed track ( long straight ).

Introduction

I consistently ran in the mid to mid-high 1 min 47's and mid 1 min 46 range all the time, I even made a 1 min 46 sec 001 after 10th lap while Heinz-Harald Frentzen struggling behind at 11 secs. You have to be "gentle" enough on your tires, go for 1 pitstop strategy during a full race. If you find your setup though on tires, go for 2 pitstop, although, you might not be in 1st position after your last pit. The asphalt is abbrasive, and you can "burn" your tires if not carefull. Also there's a HUGE difference in PRACTICE time compared to RACEDAY( 3.5 sec ), I ran in the 1 min 42's during pre-race warm-up!

Back to race times, if your consistent, without mistakes, you'll pace at around 1.5 to 2.0 sec a lap faster than the top teams.And at that pace you'll have over 23 secs at your first pit, so even if the 2nd position car is on a 2 stop strategy, you're in control of the situation. I've notice the winning combination is 1 pitstop strategy, my suggestion is using 49% race distance for 1st pit, the sim will give you 27 fuel lap, just remove some amount to finish the race with the minimum. ALSO I'VE NOTICED SOME TOP TEAMS USE 2 PITSTOP, so you're way ahead of the pack!

So let's go for a better undertanding of my setup and WHY and WHERE it's important to keep some "parameter rock solid". 1st I'll start with the major difference in the car setup (between qual & race) : Anti-Roll Bars. For qualification the best "RATIO" is 5.55:1 (or close). Eg: I've found 5500 in FRONT and 1000 in REAR, very good in mid speed corners and transition, but the car is almost "too neutral", you'll have to pay attention to your driving. What i mean is, since there's no tendency of understeer, you have to be carefull with your accelerator. If you find it too neutral, go for 5500 in Front and 750 in REAR. Or try removing 1 DEGREE FONT WINGS, it gives you a little bit of understeer, but the exit are "safer". Now for race setup, my best compromise was going for 5.33:1 ratio ; 4000 in FRONT and 750 in REAR.

I guess some of you, are asking why such high # for ARB, two reasons: I want to increase mechanical grip from the lack of aerodynamical grip, and most important, those 3 chicanes needs low chassis roll-out to negociate these chicanes as fast as possible.

As you know, CAR BALANCE is important, in accordance with the ARB, my best compromise for WINGS is 6 deg difference between F/R. Exactly 7 deg in FRONT and 1 deg in REAR. I've noticed that if you go for a higher differential, the car will start to loose traction in CORNER #1 & 11, and if you change the RATIO of ARB ( F/R ) to correct the problem, then you'll have understeer at other portion of the track. Now, HOW i removed the chassis reaction to understeer at low speed corners entry, and at the same time oversteer at the exit, by having the right amount of SPRING LOAD ; 1300lbs in FRONT and 800 in REAR, i've tried higher #, but the REAR end gets loose too easily in slow portion.

A BIG NOTE: I've found that if your using 900 lbs in the rear, in the fast corners (#1 and #11), the car will UNDERSTEER, theorically it should be the contrary, but what's going on is, the REAR is "too rock solid" and chassis load is transmited to the front, by having 800 lbs, at those corners, the rear slides a little bit, making the OVERALL sensation more NEUTRAL, this tendency is always occuring at high speed. Also it's preferable having some sliding at high speed than low speed (tires spins too easily on exit, wearing the tires much faster)

If by going lower ( 1200 in Front and 700 in REAR ) ; chassis reaction gets "sluggish" and worst, at all the fast corners my car is sliding too much, and that translate in more tire wear. The only way i've found to keep tire wear at reasonable level is having less ARB F/R for race events. The other way is having more wings, but you'll loose that precious speed on those long straight. THE BEST WAY TO KEEP TIRE WEAR LOW, is adjusting your driving style. When my tires were at the edge of getting loose ( 4-6 lap before pitting ), the chassis reaction was still predictable, with a slight oversteer occuring, if i was not carefull with the brakes.

The overall sensation of this race setup ( between pitstop), At the start of the race, the overall chassis
reaction is understeer, mid-course it's neutral, and at the end a slight oversteer.

Qualifying Setup

Now to finish this page, i have tried different dampers setting, and my best solution was what you see here. Most cerbstones are very high, be very carefull going over those. My last advise is, if you find these setup too close of oversteering, just lower packers in rear, and adjust the ride height to prevent plank wear. Also you can decrease the front wing angle by 1 degrees, it's going to understeer a little in all portion of the track. Conclusion, with analysis from tire wear, i've got a pretty even car, tire wear are equal all the time, don't try to brake too hard at some corner entry to prevent FRONT TIRE WEAR. Corner #11, the first 2 chicanes are prone to this. At last, but not least with these setups, i'm confident to see you on POLE POSITION, DON'T MISS YOUR START!

NOTE: this setup and the qualification setup are not symetrical.

Race Setup

Just look at the difference of setups, also the wing angles, brake ratio, gearing are the same. As you see the difference are important, the ARB has gone lower ( to prevent tire wear, i've increase FRONT SPRING to 1300 lbs ; to prevent too much sliding and what it means is less tire wear, (the contrary was the norm isn't it? NOT HERE!). Also minor changes has been done to dampers. The reason why i kept the REAR Anti-Roll Bar at high levels, is to keep good traction in the fastest corners. I have tried different settings, and it was the most conclusive. Also in one section (3rd chicanes) the best REAR SPRING setting would have been 900 lbs, but i was suffering from too much oversteer in the slowest section after 10 laps (rear getting too loose). This setup is good in the way that, as fuel loads goes down (even when tire wears out) my LAP TIME got better. (That's the way it should be, like real F1)