Suggested

We need to talk about HARDS

All this talk of 1 stop races, how long are your races? Like, 20 laps or something?

In my league I believe we run 100% race distance and you'll never catch anyone doing 1 stop. We're usually 3 or 4 stops, often all hards right enough but often managers will go a short stint on SS or soft and then hards the rest of the way.

For me, its too easy to pass in this game. In my 2nd or 3rd season I tried a 1-stop at Monaco, SS/H, thinking 'ho ho I'll have track position after everyone else pits'. Nope, I was a good 10 seconds a lap slower than everyone and finished many many many laps down. Whilst it can be marginally harder to pass at some tracks than others, basically you can still pass anywhere with a few blips of Kers at the right moment.

idk what the 10 seconds slower comment has to do with it being easy to pass. If you're ten seconds slower on any track, whether it be in real life or a game, you're going to be overtaken.

And in my opinion the difficulty to overtake is fine if not a little too difficult. In iGP we tend to get trains of cars just waiting for drs to get overtakes done and I think this is terrible. Push levels are only used for tyre temps and better pace in clear air, but wouldn't it be good if they could also be more influential in overtakes too? It should be made a little easier to overtake in addition to the power of kers and drs (the drs' effect in Brazil in elite is pretty much perfect, it just brings you close and usually not enough to pass) being reduced. I think this would also contribute to the backmarker issue but anyway, this has nothing to do with the main suggestion about the "hards" issue so let's stick to the subject

I used M & H in monaco last night expecting to get lapped. Last lap of the race the cars crawled around the track because I fuelled them one lap short

The 10 seconds thing is related to asking how long your races are - as I say, in my league it's 100% distance and we stop 3 or 4 times. Why? Because fueling for a 1 stop over that distance will make you 10 seconds a lap slower so many short stints are quicker, over that race distance. Now when I did that experiment in Monaco I obviously didn't know I would be THAT much slower, maybe a couple of seconds slower, but as Monaco is supposed to be so hard to pass I took the risk. As demonstrated at Monaco this year - you know, the real F1 this game is based on - cars were running several seconds off ultimate pace because they didn't want to stop BECAUSE YOU CAN'T PASS.


So please answer my actual first question, how long are your races if you're only stopping once? Cos in my experience, at 100% distance races, only an idiot would stop once when a 3 or 4 stop strategy is miles quicker.

The more comments I read, the more I realise that we need a bigger off-set between the tyres. It doesn't make sense that SS and H are roughly the same pace with the same fuel load and temp (which is what happened in Brazil last night when temps were 14*C). There needs to be at least a good chunk of laps where the Hards simply can't compete with the SS.

Another thing that has occurred to me, is why not bin the Mediums? Or bin the Hards, so Mediums are the hardest?
Medium tyres never get used, so they're just a drain on data. This might make it easier to have different wear rates across different race lengths as it's one less tyre to deal with.


P.S. Please note that I used HH last night and won, so it's not sour grapes ;)

In our league we have banned the use of hard tires and it's very very funny now

I assume the Mediums exist so that players that don't set up their race strategy beforehand are automatically disadvantaged. 

That's a very good point Ron.




Funny in a good way? Are you getting some crazy strategies?

yes, good way....
funny because there are more stint and players use differents strategies. Before it was S-H-H every race....now some player use S-S-S-S, other SS-S-S-S-SS...other SS-M-M and also S-S-M....so before it was very annoing...all player gone to pit at the same lap, with same strategy...now there are some driver with SS, some that have already done first pit, some no, etc etc....

I am in a league with 2 compulsory tires and hard are always so cheat

Simply slow the H tyre down the same amount that you slowed the M tyre. (if you can remember what you done to M)
That will put things back to the way they once where. S wins here, M wins there & H wins that. 

Last nights opening round in Australia was 10*C.
Hard tyres were faster than the softs and super softs when on the same fuel load etc...
It makes sense that the Hards would be faster when the track temperatures are very hot 20*C+, but 10*C is supposed to be the optimum temperature for the softer tyres right?

Surely this isn't what the creators intended?

How about this rule: No same compound for each stint. That will diverse strategy greatly too.

This may have already been suggested before: Is there any way or plans to change the cooling stat to have an impact on tyre temperatures(artificial I know, but it will essentially make it a top 5 group of stats and influence development and make more staff worthwhile in the long run) instead of the engine which everyone replaces every 2 races anyway, some even replace every race if they have the tokens or saved engines?

In my league we have agreed upon banning Hards for the time being and a minimum of two compounds per race. Obviously requires everyone to behave themselves but it has certainly made for some more interesting racing and allows slight less developed cars to occasionally steal an advantage on better strategy.

One option is, I think the operating window of all tyres should be changed, also matching the track tyre wear characteristics of course.
Running a race at 10C and putting the hard on, means u shouldn't be able to get that tyre upto any sort of temperature for a good few laps. And while those tyres are cold, you should be losing plenty of time to boot.
Another idea is, bring out more compounds, and the teams need to choose 2/3 compounds before lockout during practice, and then have to use both a prime and option in the race. Taking the idea from MM (Motorsport Manager), is making practice lap data more meaningful, so it should be giving u both Quali and Race % boost data depending on what program u choose to run, as well as % boost on the compound you using. So u might see someone focusing on doing qualifying runs on the softest compound for a race to improve their grid position, that kind of thing. It will shake the grids up alot more as well, instead of seeing 6 guys within the same tenth on the same compound kind of thing...
Edit:
I like Kevin’s idea of separate push levels per stint, to accommodate variable strats, and if prime and option compounds are brought in. Also, we need that advanced strat setting fixed for changeable conditions with better parameters and fix the bug where the game decides on its own to pit u in a live race, disregarding your settings.  All this to accommodate a player that cannot make a live race.
Some new ideas:
Keep push level bar for tyres, but tyres only.
Introduce another bar level for engine modes:Lean, Normal (Neutral), Rich.
This can help to keep tyres in temp range but u trying to save fuel for an underfuelled car etc.
Practice lap data should be more meaningful. Show the weather icon and temp next to the the lap that was done to show in what conditions the lap was done on. Also, even a temp gauge of the tyre feedback based on that run, since runs are done on neutral push. This should all be linked to the ‘knowledge’ stat of the driver. The higher, the more accurate the Tyre gauge feedback. If tyres are going to be reworked, then this can give a general idea of tyre and heat data heading into the race.

Hey Mike..that would make some very interesting race from varying strategies..And it will be good opportunity for the others to try and stop the Phoenix Sport domination..LOL

Is there any graph or any evidence (due to experience) of how much the gap is between tyres with the same amount of fuel and tyre wear in a clean lap? In a race, not practice.

Like, starting the lap with 70% or 50% tyre wear and 15L.
How much is that between SS, S, M, H?

I tried yesterday a race using two differents strategies, and I was really impressed by the pace of one of my drivers with the hards, as someone said before in the thread "because Hards can keep up with FRESH Softs.", and I would add "even increase their speed vs them" as many of you said.

How it's going with the issue Jack? No pressure, just want a mini update from you, we already know you're on it and we appreciate that.