*** Help : How do I Set Up My Car To Race? ****

(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)

Practice Laps

This is what your practice lap/Q1 screen will look like.

You have a maximum of 8 practice laps to setup your car. That means that you need to achieve a suitable setup within those 8 laps, or else take a wild guess. With only 8 laps, you can't afford to waste time changing one part's setting at a time. To help enable you to change all settings at once, your driver is able to make rough comments on each part's setting.

Ok, you're a complete newbie with zero idea on how to do setups. What do you do? There's several different ways to do this, but we've chosen the divide to conquer method (as it's a similar style to a setup method you'll learn later on).

Getting A General Satisfactory Car Setting

It's a very simple task. Start of with all settings at 500. Then depending on what your driver says, go up or down 50% of the possible remaining numbers.

Example : Gear
Lap 1 : Setting at 500 = The gear ratio is too high = Needs lower number
That means that the number you want is between 1 & 499
Lap 2 : Setting at 250 = I am very often in the red. Put the gear ratio a bit higher = Needs higher number
That means that the number you want is between 251 & 499
Lap 3 : Setting at 375 = I cannot take advantage of the power of the engine. Put the gear ratio a bit lower = Needs lower number
That means that the number you want is between 251 & 374
Lap 4 : Setting at 312 = I am Satisfied

(Note : During these practice laps, you should be using the same value for both wings (eg Lap1 500:500; Lap2 250:250) as driver will take the combined value of the wings in his analysis)

Wing Split

Ok, you have your driver saying that he is satisfied with all car settings. But there's one thing your driver can't comment on, each wing individually. Front and rear wings at 500 : 500 will be rated the same as wings at 570 : 430, despite them behaving very much different.

A correct wing split can gain you a lot of time on some tracks, but an incorrect split will cost you time. There's only one way to find out.
To find a decent wing split, you have to keep all other car settings the same and just change your front/rear wing differential, otherwise known as a wing split.

Example :
Lap 4 : Front Wing = 500; Rear Wing = 500
Lap 5 : Front Wing = 450; Rear Wing = 550
Lap 6 : Front Wing = 570; Rear Wing = 430

What you should notice is that although we've changed both the front & rear wing settings, the sum total of the wings hasn't changed. You take whichever setting offers the best time.


Ok, you have the basics of doing your practice laps. Btw if you have 1 or 2 laps spare, why not experiment a little.

(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)

(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)

Qualify 1

For qualify 1, you have two additional choices to make. 1 Dry tyre choice & 2 Q1 risk

Dry Tire Choice
Ok, we're going to be simplistic here, essentially because we can't list every track & all temperatures.

Low Tire Wear Track
XSoft <10c
Soft 10c to 20c
Medium 20c to 40c
Hard >40c

Medium Tire Wear Track
Soft <15c
Medium 15c to 35c
Hard >35c

High Tire Wear Track
Medium <25c
Hard >25c

(note : Very rough conservative guide. Individual tracks & other factor vary results)


Q1 Risk
Push a little in dry & Keep the car on the track in wet is the only setting you should use if you're new to the game. Losing 5 or 10 seconds in a attempt to gain 0.5 sec isn't worth it.


(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)

(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)

Qualify 2

For qualify 2, you have one additional choice, starting fuel

Fuel
For a new player, we're just going to suggest a 2 stop strategy regardless. Later on you should learn different situations where 3 or 1 stop strategies can work better & how you might use different fuel amounts in each stint to your advantage, but that's for later.

We're going to be conservative for you. Depending on the type of track

Very High = 100 litres start & 95 litres each stop = 290 litres
High = 95 litres start & 90 litres each stop = 275 litres
Medium = 90 litres start & 85 litres each stop = 260 litres
Low = 85 litres start & 80 litres each stop = 245 litres
Very Low = 80 litres start & 75 litres each stop = 230 litres

(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)

(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)

Race Setup

Car setup should be same as qualify, fuel & tyres are as previously decided.
For race setup, you have several extra options. For a new player, there's only one real option for each.

Tyre Strategy
At Start = Dry if Q2 dry, Wet if Q2 wet
When it rains = Wet
When Track is Dry = Dry

Laps To Wait For Rain
For a new player, this should be 0 & 0.

Race Risk
For a new player, this should be 5 across the board

Pit if Problem?
Yes & at least 8 laps remaining

Refuel With Pitting For Technical?
Yes

Driver Strategy At Start
Maintain position.


So there's nothing much to decide. When you've learnt a bit more about the game then you can play with these things, but keep it basic for now.

(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)

(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)

Additional Notes

* Wet tires when it's wet, dry tires for when it's dry. That includes practice
* This is a beginners guide. If I see my teammates not using a more efficient method, they can expect a less than pleasant message in their inbox.

(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)