Where are the remaining driver tokens posted? I can't seem to find them anywhere. I know I have 8 left plus 10 for starting the 2nd race, but would be nice to be able to check whenever.

I haven't looked at my replay, but I was trying to cut the exit of Madijk to some extent. I'm sure I went over it with 4 wheels on some laps, barely and not always on purpose. I don't really think cutting too much is the most optimal line anyway, as you get sudden wheelspin and the acceleration suffers, even if you carry a bit more speed. The ideal line seems to be with 2 wheels off and the other 2 wheels going over the white line or right next to it. That's where the track's groove goes too.

I don't think it makes much of a difference in lap time and it's more of a safety issue, as trying to go around it too much means you're shifting the weight an additional time as you're turning back left afterwards to line up the next kink going right.

Apart from that area, I've not cut with more than 2 wheels anywhere else. I don't mind being penalized for cutting if it's deemed necessary because of that corner, but it shouldn't be judged by GPL Analyser alone, obviously. I would be surprised if most others didn't cut there a few time too, deliberately or not.

I'm sorry Doni, but I don't really see what the big fuss is about. There's exactly just one corner on this track where cutting happens with all 4 wheels sometimes and that's simply because the previous corner is off camber and the natural line on the exit sends you across the next kink. Even the groove itself cuts through there. In all other corners you only cut with 2 wheels at best if you want to drive the optimal line, which is normal and they did it in real life too whenever possible, just like it's done in rallying too. There's nothing unfair about it, just the nature of the track. You gain what, maybe 2 tenths from doing it in that corner? It's safer to go across the grass than try to go around.

Do we even have a rule about cutting? I don't remember this  being an issue and there aren't really tracks where you can blatantly cut to gain an advantage.

Thanks, Bernie. Unfortunately I took Leo out so I'm expecting an appropriate penalty coming. Was OK otherwise, I enjoyed it!

I'm so sorry, Leo, for taking you out like that. I had no brakes in that moment and was just trying to stay as much to the inside as possible. It wasn't a bad contact but GPL reacted violently on your side...

Really disappointed as we were having a nice battle and Leo was quicker, deserving to win. That lap time in qualifying was impressive!

Had an interesting battle with Phil afterwards, as he was sometimes suddenly much quicker in some corners and it was difficult to be consistent so I can stay in front of him. Eventually managed to overtake and pull away at the end.

Congrats to Phil for an excellent 2nd and Clive for 3rd!

Thanks, Evil! I DO need the advice, especially judging from how much behind I am in lap times compared to what you guys did back in 2022 at Assen. Honestly I don't see how it's possible to achieve those times at the moment   

Hey Clive, good to see you too! I did some laps with the 250F and played with its setup too. Very tricky to be consistent! I expect to be really bad at this, as I just can't be sure at which moment the brakes are going to disappear, plus the rears tend to overheat a lot if I try to compensate too much with sliding around and using the throttle in a rally style kind of way. And that's at Assen, which seems to give plenty of time for the brakes to cool down. I suspect it's just going to get worse on other tracks...

Thank you, Phil! So I've been told about the brakes, ha!  Going to check the available cars for round 1 and try one of them to see what this is all about.

I'd like to register for this championship, if there's room. Not sure if I can make all races, but I've never driven the 55 mod before so curious to see how it feels. Going to install it now and give it a go.

I'm not sure, are you not reading what I write or do I have to write it for the 3rd time? They were obviously compensating the the lack of peripheral vision and because 4:3 monitors were the norm. It's the same approach with many onboard cameras - you have higher FOV, so you can get a more realistic feel of what it is to be in that car.

You're quite wrong about the feeling of speed. In reality you have peripheral vision, which makes things feel much quicker. I've tested it before in real life. I've driven our family car at speed in the late 90s on some country roads and recorded an onboard with a regular camcorder, which has a low FOV similar to what the calculator would suggest for a screen. Watching that footage from the camera afterwards made 100 km/h feel like 40... It's better to realize how fast you're going rather than think you're not going fast enough. It's also more exciting!

From looking at that calculator you linked, some sims use horizontal and some vertical FOV (which is lower). I'm guessing GPL falls to the former category, but even then, there's no way I'm ever going to use what is being suggested for my monitor. According that calculator I should use around 44 degrees of FOV, which is almost twice lower than the default.

The lack of feeling for the speed you get without peripheral vision and the lack of spatial awareness that gives you, make "realistic" FOVs unnecessary and unwanted on single non-ultrawide screens.

You have an ultrawide monitor for which suggested values work better, but on a regular 16:10/16:9/4:3/etc. monitor it's just ridiculously low. Even for an ultrawide I'd probably go just a bit higher though, unless I'm sitting very close to it.

Yes, then you can fine tune with clutches. I remember from experience with the BRM it required more clutches than other cars, so you can try something like 85/45 or 85/60, and 3-5 clutches.

Also about the FOV, I don't think anyone with a single monitor unless it's an ultrawide one should use the exact values from FOV calculators, as you basically lose too much of your peripheral view. It helps to got a bit higher than that. Personally I still continue to use the default 78. Normally in other sims I use something like 60-65, but not in GPL, as it just feels wrong. Not sure of the FOV in GPL is calculated differently.

As an example for RBR, the calculator suggests I should use 0.7 but I run with 1.27 which is much higher. Too low and not only do you not see much on the side, but you can't feel the speed so well (on asingle monitor setup).

I remember the struggles on this track! As others mentioned, increasing the ride height a bit, the wheel rates and the dampers, would help keep the car in control. Using softer anti-roll bars to keep the wheels more independent of one another also helps. Also perhaps a more conservative approach with the differential lock on coast and using more clutches, so the car maintains traction off throttle? It's never optimal though, so it's important to be mindful of where exactly those bumps (not really bumps, just crowning in the road from how the track is made) are and apply the necessary amount of throttle so you can shift the balance forward or backward, to avoid unsettling the car. Heavier cars would obviously struggle more with that.

Despite all its flaws, the track provides an interesting challenge as the races becomes a matter of who makes the fewest mistakes and who dares to risk more in those tricky places.

As for what phspok mentioned about GTL, yeah, the track is much better there. I'm not sure either if it's a conversion from GPL, but I think it's just the way the physics are in GTL and the way track surface is modelled, that makes it easier to drive. Haven't seen anyone able to do reverse conversions though, from GTL and other sims back into GPL. GPL's track model (I used to work on an Imola 94 back in the day) is very restrictive and unusual.

First of all, congrats to Dimi for another well deserved victory! Even though you weren't the quickest, you were certainly the most consistent and made the fewest mistakes out of all in the top half of the grid! Also congrats to Clive for being so quick in the BT7! I know too well how difficult it is to keep up in that car against faster ones, having spent most of my time in UKGPL's 1965 races in that same car.

Second, this was a really fun race, despite all the issues! I decided to jump into it in the very last moments and I lost additional time from having some problems with my wheel's calibration, so by the time I got on track there were just a few minutes left. I didn't remember the track well, so I just went out with race fuel and posted a mid-field time for the start, then spent the first few laps being careful not to crash or hit anyone, and figuring out the track, plus the car. I made a small change to the setup (the only 65 car I had a setup for from 2012!) before the start, but I think it didn't work well - too much understeer in the faster corners, too snappy in the slow ones!

I managed to progress through, because of some people's mistakes and also others weren't defending too hard. Phil was really quick in the first sector, sometimes closing in dangerously behind, but I managed to keep him back and pull away afterwards. After some laps I suddenly saw the whole group of leaders bunched up in front of me, which I later realized was because of a contact between Clive and Axel. Andreas however stood between me and them, and overtaking him was really difficult. He was defending very aggressively and we lost a lot of time for a whole lap, but I was finally able to go through.

After that I was just slightly quicker than Dimi, until he made a small mistake and I grabbed 3rd from him. It took me a while to close in on the leaders though, but Axel must've made a mistake or something because he was suddenly right in front, with Clive about 2-3 seconds ahead of us. We had a short battle and at the same time catching Clive, but it unfortunately ended when Axel spun at T1 and rolled down to the inside where I was trying to go. I took a bit of time to recover, but then in my annoyance and lack of focus I completely missed the dangerous right hand kink leading into the forest and slammed the brick wall head on! I continued, but engine was now low on power, so I decided to reset. That was on lap 7 or 8, so I had to drive with more fuel for the rest of the race, plus it took a while for the tyres to warm up again.

From there on I had a rather lonely race until the end when I finally caught up with Axel (who must've been having more trouble too), and we had a really good battle! He was positioning himself quite well defensively, so there was not much I could do, especially because of the dirt he was kicking up from touching the dirt on the inside of corners, like the fast left near the end of the lap where it was crucial that I get a good exit out of. This continued for a while as I had increasingly bad balance through the slower corners, so sometimes I would lose time to him, nearly going off as the car was sliding around on both entry and acceleration.

Finally at the end of the penultimate lap I caught his slipstream again and did a kind of a switcheroo at T1, going towards the most inside lane which he had just left unoccupied! It was a bit risky,  but I managed to pull it off and make the corner. As I wrote on Dimi's stream, I basically used Axel as my braking marker.  After that he was very quick though and with slipstream he managed to line up alongside me before the very fast right hander. In my effort to give him enough space I cut too much on the inside and lost the rear end. I think my rear tyres were overheating too at that point. Luckily I managed to continue and finish the race.

It was fun to do these after so many years and I was happy to see some familiar faces. Hope you guys have another great season coming soon! I'll be sure to watch some of it from Dimi's stream. 

You're always welcome, Clive! Just ask! I've been trying to help people through my Patreon with tips and setups, replays (if I have the sim and mod, plus the time to do some testing), so if anyone needs some help and wants to support, check it out and drop me a message there - https://www.patreon.com/HristoItchov