F1 Fanatic

Just wondering. How would you folk describe your driving styles in playing driving/F1 games?

There is of course the obvious caveat that most games (even those who claim to have good vehicle dynamics) don’t have good vehicle dynamics simulations – though there are of course some exceptions.

How would you describe your gaming driving style? How do you approach corners, their apex, and your exits? How about chicanes? Where are you very strong, and where are you weakest, and what do you need to improve on? What sorts of lines do you take?

Would be interesting to see what peoples’ views of their own styles, techniques and lines are.

Same as JPH..with chicanes it’s very easy to go a lot quicker than the AI and jump the kerbs in most games.

I’m quite erratic. In some races I will hit every apex and make no mistakes, in other races I will be cutting corners, running wide and locking up frequently.

I like to think that I’m reasonably good at keeping to the racing line, hitting apices, etc. etc., but I am inherently slow, and quite often am found at the back of the field, doing my best not to be lapped. :P

I guess most people view themselves as somewhat aggressive, especially on turning and on the throttle. Myself, I drive the car from the exits and entries.

I have a great feeling for the front on corner entries, and I like to trail my braking all the way up to the apex. Having said that though, I dislike powering out with tight steering. So I always start my braking phase ever so slightly too early, and I end my braking slightly early correspondingly, and during that brief period of time, I roll to the corner on no power or brakes, and tighten my steering to take a tight apex, before then unwinding the steering and powering out on a straighter run. For long slow corners such as the last two turns in Hungary though, some patience is clearly necessary, and I do my best to hug the apex at constant speed.

In the rain, where braking and entry are laptime kings, this makes me very very good. Also, given that I’m excellent on braking – I outbrake others like a demon. Get me in your slipstream. And you’re a dead man. I’ve won races in a Williams on legend in F1 2011 just by virtue of outstarting the guy and defending through braking (without even covering the inside – even if they DRS past me, I pick up their slipstream and outbrake them back) – I did that outbraking past DRS routine for 40-odd laps on Alonso in Spain. It was a load of immense pressure, I tell you. But it makes victory that much sweeter

Of course that’s what I do in slow and medium speed corners, but in quicker ones I think most people pretty much everyone takes similar smooth lines. Having said that – while my style/techniques through sweepers are all sound, I have a rubbish feel, like @Kingshark, though thankfully I’m generally good enough through the slow bits to cover my hiney in the quick ones

As you notice I don’t like balancing the car speed against tyre scrub for long times at the apex of slow corners – i.e. maintaining a constant apex speed (I’m basically slowing down or gaining speed all through slow corners/hairpins) and I treat chicanes similarly. For a few chicanes on the F1 calendar it’s probably best to equalise the speed you take on both apexes – but I don’t. I slow down the first apex a bit, to tighten the line, before then going faster through the second half.

My style uses the front quite a bit as they suffer under compound loadings a lot – and I usually end up with equal wearing fronts and rears, especially in circuits with lots of medium speed corners where I trail the braking. While this is generally a good thing, it’s not always. Most evident is in Canada, as I seem to get the fronts and rears especially matched in wear and temps. I have supreme balance on worn and new tyres, primes and options, but I can never tell when my tyres are gone, unless I open up the mini screen thingamajig in F1 2011. In circuits with lots of slow corners with powering out under steering (eg Monaco, Singapore) I can tend to have some wheelspin as my right foot is heavier than it should be, which tends to kill the rears quick. In circuits with heavy braking and not-so-slow corners, such as Sepang and China (trail braking mid-corners, and into hairpins, such as China last, 8th and first corners, Sepang penultimate, last, 7th and first corners) I fry the fronts till kingdom come.

My style is fantastic through slow corners – in my first race in Monaco with Williams (F1 2011) I pulled away at 6 tenths a lap every lap after starting on pole

Speaking from an RFactor 2007 F1 mod point of view.

How would you describe your gaming driving style? – Very aggressive behind the wheel, like I want the car to do what I want it to do, not what IT wants to do. I don’t mind it if the back end steps out under braking but I do NOT like understeer!
How do you approach corners, their apex, and your exits? – Depends on what sort of corner I’m coming up to. In a slow corner, I may try and coax the back end into the corner. Coming out of the corner, I like a little oversteer under acceleration, when the slow corner is long, it often helps me. The apex is probably the least important thing for me.
How about chicanes? – Alright I think. I did a race at Imola and aside from the Variante Alta, my performance at the chicanes was quite respectable. Cut the last chicane a few times though.
Where are you very strong, and where are you weakest, and what do you need to improve on? – I’m quite proud about my aggressive style but aggression can sometimes equal not-very-consistent. Generally, it’s ok but there’s are a few rough edges. Backmarkers also seem to be a problem for me.
What sorts of lines do you take? – Hopefully the fastest one’s :P

I can’t really say on F1 games since it’s been a couple years since I touched GPL and I don’t really have any others (besides Pole Position 64 and that’s not worth trying to analyze). However, I know in iRacing it varies by car since I usually adapt my style to what I’m driving and how it’s set up. In the MX5 I’m much more aggressive, though I prefer to set up the car for the exit to be able to get on the gas sooner. Especially with how those things can understeer. I’m similar with the Skip Barber F2000, in that I tend to focus on how the car is prepped for the exit. Except with the lift-oversteer that the car has in spades, I’m typically a bit tail-happy mid-corner so I can rotate the car into position. However, I’ve often wondered what others might say my driving style is since I have a hard time looking at myself from an outside perspective. I feel like it’s difficult to give an opinion on myself. Mostly what I’ve heard is that I’m clean and consistent (though I don’t think I’m as consistent as I’d like to be) even though I’m not lightening quick. Hence why I idolize Button so much X). I just wish I could get FRAPS or some similar program to work so that I could post them on Youtube and get some thoughts.

I like to think that my driving style is very smooth when I play F1 2011, like Jenson Button. I admire how smooth he is with the wheel and have tried a lot to copy this.

In qualifying though I am much more agressive as it simply is faster I think. In a race however, I’m quite good at looking after the tyres and when I turn for a corner, I rarely have to correct my line. I’m also very, very consistent with lap times. I think I did 8-9 laps in a row in Abu Dhabi within a half a second of each other.

I have very good concentration when I’m racing and rarely make a mistake. However I do get caught up in first corner incidents sometimes. I have learned to be more patient and when I try to overtake someone, I try to do it as cleanly as possible without making contact. It doesnt always work out that way though :)