Solved

Higher Ratings, Still Losing?

So I’m a little confused on the ratings, both the car and the driver.

I keep finishing 2nd and 3rd to a driver who has a talent rating of 1 (to my 5 and 6) and all of the other attributes are 1-4 points lower than my 2 drivers’, and when it comes to the car rating we fluctuate between even (the triangles for me and “best car” are the same) or one of us (usually me) has the tiniest sliver of an advantage in 1 or 2 categories that race, and a few times I’ve had a decent advantage in acceleration and braking.

So if my equipment is the same, or better, and both of my drivers are “better” (going by attributes) and using the car setups they feel are perfect, and we run the same tyres, how can this driver outperform my drivers? I have fastest practice lap, but somehow this driver always qualifies EVER so slightly ahead (like 0:02) so starts in first and then I seem to lose ground from the getgo, despite quicker lap times as well...

It’s very odd...

Maybe he can just manage in the race better, like push levels, boost and how long he goes on each tyre. Try starting on ss for one race so you can be 1-2 on the grid and try move forward in the race from there.

Do u repair ur car?
Do u replace engine each race on both cars?
Which suppliers do u have?
How much fuel left at end of stints/race?
Try more equal length of stint. 11-11-6 is not optimal. 10-10-8 would be better.

@James: SS in summertime (northern hemisphere)? Bad choice.

I can still go well on ss on European tracks 

Excluding the tire section, this is an old but still relevant guide addressing some of the basic technical aspects of the game; iGP Basic overview.  

Thanks everyone!

I too thought maybe he’s a better live race manager but he’s never at the live races so it’s just his AI! And we put the same laps (or I pit one before or one after, but it’s usually the same). And I also thought maybe he has better DRS but that doesn’t even come into play when he starts ahead of me and starts building up a lead right away, he’s never behind me for his DRS to kick in.

Tire strategy I’ve gone back and forth on, mostly between SS and M, depending on track, but even with my tire wear rating being higher than his cars’, and using the same compound as him, somehow he is still beating me. JUST that driver though, as his other driver is consistently WAY behind, like gaps of anywhere from 9 seconds to a lap down, which is even more confusing, because that driver isn’t far off in atteibutes from his #1 driver, and obviously they use the same equipment...

And I do repair after every race, engines I usually do every 2-3 races, because there aren’t enough to replace after every race, and I don’t spend real $ to buy in-game extras to have extra parts/engines. I DO watch the free parts videos, and just realized there’s a “daily reward” that gives a chance at earning engines, so I’ve been doing that each day now.  I never realized it, then I think I assumed it was some video or coin offer so didn’t pay attention to the little banner for it until a few days ago!

*EDIT* I just checked the guide Hamlet posted. Didn’t gonin depth yet but what I noticed right away was in the driver training, he is saying to work on maxing stamina first and getting weight to a certain kg, then focusing on training driver ability...have updates changed the training system since this guide or am I completely missing something obvious here, because when I train my drivers it seems to be random which category is being leveled up? I just see the progress bar rising but I never know what category it’s actually improving until it fill and then says “+1 (whatever just improved)”, or sometimes “no change”, which I’ve never seen before until very recently.  

So is there a way to choose the category the training is focusing on that I’ve totally missed, or is that an old system/misleading wording?

This helps a lot! I’m playing on the iPhone app (didn’t even know it existed for browser!) and I never knew you could focus their training!

Thanks everyone so much for all the help!

Marketing isn't iGP's strength that's for sure... but sure glad you're on your way to making things work for you Jason. 

Happy gaming!