F1 2017...How is your career going?

[jasontoddwhitt]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

I posted this in the beginner tips thread, but this question has been asked in here as well, so I figured I would post it here as well.

Here's a good method to figure out what your AI level should be at to give you a competitive race.

- On the main menu, go into Grand Prix mode. Pick your favorite track. Preferably one your good at it (because we all have our good tracks and our bad tracks, just like real F1 drivers).

- Pick classic cars and pick your car. I personally go with the 2010 Red Bull.

- In the race settings, for class, pick spec. That way, you are going up against an entire field of the same car so that you can truly gauge how you as a driver (and not the car) stack up against the AI.

- Go into qualifying. You can pick one-shot, you can do a whole session. Whatever. I do a whole session because one-shot puts a lot of pressure on me and I tend to always make a mistake on my lap.

- And basically, see where your time is. If the AI blows you away, drop the AI level. If you blow the AI away, then raise the AI level. Ideally, you want to barely take the poll (within a tenth).

This should help you find out what AI level you need to be set at. That way once you get into career mode, then you can get a realistic representation of where you are as a driver (for instance, not blowing the field away season one in a Sauber).

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Suzuka. One of the very few tracks that really does not like me.

So I got to race it in a downpour starting from the back row.

No stops in this one, full wets throughout.

I labored to get to 12th, but I left the track one too many times and bumped Alonso so finished a crappy 16th.

Ugh. I'm eager to move on to Austin!

Oh, currently 6th in points.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T377A using Operation Sports mobile app

[sethisthegoat]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Guess I will update here...

F1 newbie. (both to the game, and really to the sport in general, though the game is dragging me into the sport). Had the game about a week now. Doing difficulty 25 to start out with, with the hope/plan of increasing it as I go along.

I started a career as the 2nd Haas driver. Did all my practice, and was on pace for about P9 in practice. Then qualifying came and I just put in a couple really bad laps, finished in P20. Still was optimistic for the race, until it was raining -- and I hadn't driven in the rain yet. Did all right for about a lap and a half until I ran into someone and had to pit to repair the front wing. Finished P19 because someone else retired from the race.

Onto week 2, and the entire practice and Qualifying sessions went far better. I took someone's advice and ran some laps in Time Trial mode before diving into practice. I think that set me up far better for the Grand Prix. I was able to do all of my practice programmes except for the fuel saving (couldn't figure out how to save fuel while still flooring it on the straightaways and making the required time).

In Q1, I set the fastest time. Same in Q2. Ended Q3 in 3rd place, then I had to stop to head to work. I'm looking forward to running the race tonight! Won't lie - I am a little bit nervous about being in the thick of things at the front, and am really just hoping for a clean race. I suppose I'll see how things go here, then set about adjusting difficulty if needed.

[sethisthegoat]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Finally able to run my race in China this morning. Started in P3, with the goal from the team to finish in P11 or better and ahead of my teammate (Grosjean). My personal goal was to stay clean and finish the race.

So, of course, during the 1st lap, I lose my front right wing. Lap started all right, but I was back in P7 by the end of that lap. Tangled a bit with Vettel. He bumped me, then passed and I ran into him at the hairpin. My race strategy called for a pit/tire change in lap 5, and Jeff wanted me to change and pit right away. Instead, I held off until lap 5, when I swapped my Super Softs for a set of Softs, which I finished the race on. (14 laps...doing 25% race).

Came out of the pit in 19/19 place. By lap 9, I was up in 13th thanks to a couple of overtakes and people pitting after me. Passed a couple more by lap 11, plus 2 more retirements put me in P9 at that time. I had 4 people right behind me in lap 11, closest being Verstappen. We traded spots a few times until he had an engine failure in lap 13. I was able to put 3 seconds between myself in P9 and the P10 car by the end of the race. (I was about 7 seconds behind P8).

All-in-all...pretty happy with the race. Scored my first points of the season! (And of my F1 Career...)

[sethisthegoat]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Now in week 5 of the season. After finishing 19th in Week 1, I've placed 9, 8 and 9 the last 3 weeks. I upped my difficulty from 25 (easy) to 40 (medium) before Sochi in week 4. I made a couple of pole positions actually, but didn't realize the gearbox change would lead to a penalty. (My strategy has been to use my 1st engine parts for practice, then use a fresher part for qualifying and the actual race. I did that with my gearbox and didn't catch the penalty. So when I went to the next race, I moved the gearbox back to my original one and incurred another penalty. So, instead of starting in 1st, I started in 6th. Also by doing all of this, my 1st gearbox is in woeful condition as I prepare for the 5th race. I'm at 88% on the gearbox and qualified in 4th in Spain. I'd hate to take the position penalty by punting on the gearbox...but I'd also hate for it to malfunction during the race.

Again, I'm playing difficulty 40, with all assists on, and in the Haas car. It's my 1st F1 game, and really my 1st true sim racer in a long, long time. (I did play GT Sport for a while...but F1 is different.)

Question for anyone reading as I look to increase the difficulty to try to get more realistic results — I am clearly qualifying a lot higher than I should be, though I fall back during the race due to mistakes. Should I look to increase my difficulty more, or turn off assists one at a time?

[Finn]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Question for anyone reading as I look to increase the difficulty to try to get more realistic results — I am clearly qualifying a lot higher than I should be, though I fall back during the race due to mistakes. Should I look to increase my difficulty more, or turn off assists one at a time?

As another suggestion you can change difficulty between the sessions. So for example you can increase your difficulty for qualifying. Then once complete back out to the main menu. Then load up your career and while still in the loading screen in race options you can lower the difficulty back down.





Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[sethisthegoat]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Good suggestion. Hmmmm.

I messed up my Spain race. Was in 3rd to start the race. For some reason, the race strategy just gave be Softs and Mediums. I decided to start with Mediums and end with Softs, to see if I could go strong at the end. I was doing fine, pushing for 9 laps on the Mediums and pitting while in 3rd. I came out in the 10th lap in 13th place, on Softs and primed to advance with everyone else already on Mediums.

I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong, but I took a turn too fast and spun out in the 12th lap (of 17, when I was sitting in P8). Got back on the track in P14, just in time for my teammate Grosjean to bump into me, which made him have to pit. Next lap, I smacked my bumper up against Hulkenburg. I was going to try to just drive on without pitting, but I was just losing time so I had to pit. Came out of the pit in lap 15 in 19th place. With my fresh Softs and pushing the pace, I was able to get back up to P14 but just ran out of time. (My team goal was P11).

Monaco is next. Ran some time trials...it's my first time ever racing on the track. I, honestly, don't think I'll be a finisher...but I'm going to try. I'm going to turn up my downforce and just try to focus on finishing the race.

As another suggestion you can change difficulty between the sessions. So for example you can increase your difficulty for qualifying. Then once complete back out to the main menu. Then load up your career and while still in the loading screen in race options you can lower the difficulty back down.





Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Good suggestion. Hmmmm.

I messed up my Spain race. Was in 3rd to start the race. For some reason, the race strategy just gave be Softs and Mediums. I decided to start with Mediums and end with Softs, to see if I could go strong at the end. I was doing fine, pushing for 9 laps on the Mediums and pitting while in 3rd. I came out in the 10th lap in 13th place, on Softs and primed to advance with everyone else already on Mediums.

I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong, but I took a turn too fast and spun out in the 12th lap (of 17, when I was sitting in P8). Got back on the track in P14, just in time for my teammate Grosjean to bump into me, which made him have to pit. Next lap, I smacked my bumper up against Hulkenburg. I was going to try to just drive on without pitting, but I was just losing time so I had to pit. Came out of the pit in lap 15 in 19th place. With my fresh Softs and pushing the pace, I was able to get back up to P14 but just ran out of time. (My team goal was P11).

Monaco is next. Ran some time trials...it's my first time ever racing on the track. I, honestly, don't think I'll be a finisher...but I'm going to try. I'm going to turn up my downforce and just try to focus on finishing the race.

Good reports!

And just try to drive Monaco as best you can. It's unfortunately a track that doesn't accommodate the bigger cars this year too well and passing is just awful. I try to podium everywhere else; Monaco I just aim to finish.

[Bullit]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Good reports!

And just try to drive Monaco as best you can. It's unfortunately a track that doesn't accommodate the bigger cars this year too well and passing is just awful. I try to podium everywhere else; Monaco I just aim to finish.

I have never understood the hate Monaco gets. I love racing this track and it is one I look forward to every season. I will try to get some video up in a week or so showing laps of Monaco, but I thought maybe a few pointers that I use to get this beast under control. Believe me once you get this track done there is nothing like the feeling of turning fast laps here. It is truly, in my opinion, a really exhilarating place.

My first tip for people struggling with this track? Believe it or not ......slow down. Stop trying to be fast right off the bat. Worry more about pacing. Get into the flow of the place first. Once you can get around the track smoothly, speed and faster times will come. Start off kind of like a big tire wear, fuel saving test. Just lift off the throttle ease into turns, figuring the apex that works for you, then ease back onto the throttle and roll on to the next turn. Once you build up the consistency of getting around the track you will learn and see where you can start breaking and throttling up and down to pick up time. Remember you really can steer with the throttle, ease off at the right time and you slam thru a chicane without dropping a gear or even tapping the breaks.

My other tip. Even if you don't like tinkering with set ups. Go in to the setup menu and put the wings at 10 and 9. Trust me on this. Do it and run some laps and see what I am talking about. This years cars are, beast mode. I have found that my biggest challenge this year has been re learning every track. I struggled for a long time because I was driving these cars and tracks like I have driven them in every F1 game. But these cars, with practice are magnificent beasts on the road. The moment I started to figure the ability of these cars to hold the line I really started to get some speed.

Well that was probably more than you all wanted to hear from me. Just thought I would share some tips I use. Good luck folks. Hope you all can learn to love Monaco like I do.

[sethisthegoat]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Thanks for the tips! I love the Monaco setting and think it's a really cool track...just unable to get around it. I hadn't messed with my downforce previously, and I'm definitely going to turn that up a lot and focus on getting through the race in one piece. I've watched a lot of video of others driving it.

Well that was probably more than you all wanted to hear from me. Just thought I would share some tips I use. Good luck folks. Hope you all can learn to love Monaco like I do.

[timmg]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Any of you guys playin on the X??? How does it look

Edit: sorry i c theres a free trial..ill DL it

[sethisthegoat]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Monaco was predictably rough. Did some rewinds, but eventually retired in lap 7. Terrible practice and qualifying. Used the chance to swap out engine parts and take grid penalties, so it wasn't completely counterproductive...onto Canada!

[jasontoddwhitt]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Suzuka....oh Suzuka. I've sucked on this track in the Gran Turismo series. I've sucked on this track in iRacing. That suckiness carried over into the F1 series. And although my previous bogey tracks like Monaco and Baku have gone fairly well in this year's version of the game...I'm just not confident. Drivers in real life will tell you the key to a good lap at Suzuka is getting through the S Curves smoothly.

After 13 years of video game racing (coinciding with Suzuka showing up in Gran Turismo 4)....I STILL haven't figured out how to go smoothly through the S Curves consistently. It's like me trying to throw a curveball. My coach would say "Hey, that was a good curveball. Do it again." and my response would be "I have no clue what I just did, I'm just playing catch."

Qualifying would see me qualify 16th for the race. And since we had to drop our 7th internal combustion engine into this McLaren, that grid penalty would drop us to dead last on the grid. I can just forsee losing my front wing going into turn one as turn one at Suzuka is just weird. I can't see us making a one-stop work, so the tire strategy today will be SS -> SS-> S.

Luckily for us, other than getting a warning for sideswiping Pascal Wehrlein (and likewise for him on us), we got through the first lap relatively unscathed and we worked our way up to about 14th place.



Where it pretty much turned into a fairly uneventful grand prix. At least for me. For the AI drivers, on the other hand, it was pretty spectacular. Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez tried to go through 130R side by side.



Which didn't turn out well for Sergio.



Strangely enough, this didn't even bring out a virtual safety car. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo and Perez's teammate Esteban Ocon were not getting along very well either. They got together, in turn one, raced side-by-side through the S curves, and Ocon shoved Ricciardo off track in the Denger curve.





We ended up finishing 13th behind Lance Stroll, who managed to make a one-stop work at Suzuka. I was able to close up on him on the final lap at the hairpin, but I could not keep up with that Mercedes engine on the straight going into 130R and I was too far back to make a move on him in the Casio Triangle.



Ultimately, Lewis Hamilton, who started sixth because of a grid penalty, worked his way up and won the race. Point leader Valtteri Bottas finished second, which trimmed his lead on Lewis down to nine points with four to go. Pole sitter Sebastian Vettel rounded out the podium. On to my home grand prix next. The United States Grand Prix at COTA.

[sethisthegoat]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Great pics! I haven't fooled around with the photo mode yet.

[jasontoddwhitt]

Re: F1 2017...How is your career going?

Great pics! I haven't fooled around with the photo mode yet.

It's pretty in-depth. You can get some amazing shots, and I touch them up a bit in photoshop.