If you have downloaded both setups for QUAL & RACE, you'll find a small 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 "conservative"
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 tracks. I've
compensated with a good amount of ARB, the ratio is for QUAL ; 2000 in Front and 150 in Rear = 13.33:1 & RACE ; 1500 in Front and 100 in Rear =15:1.
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 Jerez, is definitly not a high speed track ( long straight ).
I consistently ran in the mid 1 min 24 to mid-high 1 min 23 range all the time, I even made a 1 min 23 sec 249 after 3rd lap while Jacques Villeneuve
was pushing hard, (with good tires & fuel load).
Note: this was done in pratice starting with 24 FUEL LAP, the best i've done was 1 min 23 sec 249 during the race ( i don't have the replay )
If you go for a 3 pitstop strategy you should be able to beat that lap time!
You have to be "gentle" enough on your tires, go for 2 pitstop strategy during a full race. If you find your setup though on tires, go for 3 pitstop,
you will still be in 1st position after your last pit. The asphalt is abbrasive, and you can "burn" your tires if not carefull.
Also there's almost no difference in PRACTICE time compared to RACEDAY( 0.5 sec ).
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 38 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 2 pitstop strategy, my suggestion
is using 32% race distance for 1st pit, then 67 %, and at the last pitstop, 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 3 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 13.33:1 ( or close ). Eg: I've found
2000 in FRONT and 150 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 1500 in Front and 100 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 15:1 ratio ; 1500 in FRONT and 100 in REAR, when i say compromise i mean it!, it's unfortunate GP2 doesn't
give more ARB setting to choose from, i find "jumping" from 100 to 150 ( for rear ), is too great. Hope someday this could be corrected
Take a look at this graphic ( from PA telemetry) : ACCELERATOR POSITION at different portion of the track, you'll see how i managed to "cope" with the throttle
during all cornering entry and exit. You'll notice how the car setup is very neutral
by just seeing how i drove around the track, actually i could "put" the nose of my car anywhere without effort. Again since the setup is very neutral, throttle response
out of corners are important as well as corner entry speed, don't "overshoot" your entry speed, the rear will get loose very bad. PRACTICING IS THE KEYWORD HERE!
As you know, CAR BALANCE is important, in accordance with the ARB, my best compromise for WINGS is 4 deg difference between F/R. Exactly 17 deg in FRONT
and 13 deg in REAR. I've noticed that if you go for a higher differential, the car will start to loose traction in CORNER #5 & 8, 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 ; 1100lbs in FRONT and 800 in REAR, i've tried higher #, but the REAR end gets loose too easily. And
by going lower ( 1000 in Front and 700 in REAR ) ; chassis reaction gets "sluggish" and worst, at corner #5 & 8 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 even on those small 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 understeer occuring, if i was not carefull with the
brakes.
Now to finish this page, i have tried different dampers setting, and my best solution was what you see here. All cerbstones are very low, so don't be "shy" of going
over to go faster. 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 #1, #5, #6, and #9 are prone to this. At last, but not least, don't use the sand from all those gravel trap to "polish" the plank
under the car, you might find it frustrating., Jerez racetrack, is very unforgiving to errors, so be patient to pass slower cars, and 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.
Just look at the difference of setups, also the wing angles, brake ratio, gearing are the same. As you see the difference are not very high between both. Also you can see
the difference of packers between left & right, the reason is simple, with the PA telemetry, i've found the maximum amount to use without having packers to interfere
with the rest of mechanical setup. For more hints about this last important aspect of setup, please visit my Performance Data telemetry guide page. VOILA!
