RRE Season 8 (2021) Formula 90 - Spa - Apr 1

[Jos Ogos]

Hi guys,
Sorry for my start in the race. It was slow and then I spun on the hairpin. Good nobody was directly affected.
This was due to a problem I have with R3E... I'm having problems with my RaceRoom races as the car body (shell) is not loading... Had a problem with the Scirocco in a previous race and with the DTMs... This time nothing loaded with the FR90 in the race so I have only the video for the Qualy session... This problem doesn't happen in practice or qualy!

Video of qualy: https://youtu.be/6ijLyZ0oYtY

Why am I having this problem when moving to the race is puzzling me. Any ideas, anyone? Thanks.

I had a fantastic pace. My setup was a slight variation of the Silverstone setup I used a few weeks back. Here: https://mega.nz/file/wKgA2RLS#l1QqWrmDVufaoSuDqIkl6SIw8gfE8c7MU6syLwLnMvY

I'm not sure what's going on with the open-wheel races. No that I'm struggling hugely on the DTMs and Scirocco races, but there, a few of you have better pace than I (especially Geoff!). However, with the FR90, and especially in Spa the other day, it was very awkward. I think my car was too intimidating at times, saw a few of you getting to the side and letting me pass without a fight. I would have done the same with a car 3secs faster of course but I'm not sure why this difference!?

I'm sure it is not because I'm the reincarnation of Ayrton Senna. That's for sure. The DTM and Scirocco races with Geoff at least 1 sec faster than me clearly shows that this dominance on the FR90 is not down to my 'alien' skills. It's not that. Then, what!? Have I got a sweet spot on the configuration of my system for this car on this sim?
This bothers me a lot because it makes me think that those simracers that I consider absolute aliens (and they are skill fast, don't get me wrong) might also have, somehow, sweet spots on their systems and that is helping them (in addition to their great skills) to be generally faster than us simply humans...

I don't know. What do you think guys?
Jos

[frex]

The problem you are having with the car body not loading is very odd, and I've not heard of anything like it before. The only thing that I can suggest is that transitioning to the race is more taxing on your graphics system (especially at the start) than driving around on your own in practice or qually, so if your system is a bit marginal it might be enough to cause problems. What system/graphics card do you have? If that's not it though I can only suggest you post about the problem on the official forums (with video or pics if possible).

As to the second point, I can't answer for anyone else, but I would say that the F90 is one of the trickier cars in the game and probably rewards prolonged practice and setup time more than the other cars. If you are happy putting in hours of practice I suspect it will pay dividends with this car more than the others. If on the other hand you just turn up and drive with the default setup and no practice and are still seconds quicker than everyone else, then yeah, you are Ayrton Senna..!

[azaris]

I have zero throttle confidence in these cars. They just fly off the track in 3rd or 4th gear (like when going through the Campus esses) when you apply a little bit too much throttle. No chance of catching any slides whatsoever. It's like the downforce can vanish instantly at any point. No other sim I have tried has such behaviour in 90's Formula cars, unless you count things like broken rFactor 1 mods. Not much fun to drive, although the racing this time was pretty good because others were struggling similarly.

[Geoffers]

Sorry I can't help with your graphical problem Jos, I'm not too good with PC technicals.

As to why you are so quick in these cars (and AC F3s). It is something I often ponder when I am faster than others in the same car, what am I doing that is making me quick. Like you I'm no alien, there are plenty of sim racers that would run rings around me, but over many years of sim racing I have developed a certain amount of skill at it. So certainly experience accounts for a fair proportion of speed. On top of that having a moderate idea of what setup changes do what to the car is a help as probably is controller setup.

With these cars, like Frex said, setup is quite a large part of making these tricky cars fast. I started well with them & was on the pace at the first two races, but just made too many mistakes, something Jos is much better at avoiding. At Silverstone I was quick in the first two sections of the track (the fast curves) but lost heaps of time in the last section (the tighter turns). Watching Jos's videos, he is able to get on the power far earlier & harder out of the tight turns than I can & is able to make steering corrections much quicker to catch slides. With the DTM cars, the handling is much more old skool & the tyres lose grip more progressively making it easier to catch oversteer moments. After many years of racing GT Legends this sort of handling is much more what I am used to. Similarly with the FWD Scirocco, having raced Mini's in GTL more than any other car I have become rather adept at driving FWD cars in sims.

So really it is no one thing, but a combination of things which can add up to make quite a big difference to lap times.

[Jos Ogos]

Thanks a lot for your helpful comments. Very relevant and good food for thought.
I'll continue investigating the graphic issue starting with the graphic settings. It makes sense that the higher requirements of the race might trigger that awkward behavior.
As per the performance,  also very useful all your comments. I can certainly see my style being quite at odd with FWD cars... Pushing too hard and losing grip by aggressive throttle inputs which are a killer for the FWD, and also similar issues influencing the DTM driving although to a lesser extent...
I'll keep practicing...
Thanks all!
Jos

[spanner]

Have you gone through and turned off any unneeded graphics settings? There is one to load everyones cockpit views which is of little benefit.