Abu Dhabi: 1:29.158

There's a 1.28 in there somewhere

There is....

1:28.365

I really had problems getting it all together at this track, but all of a sudden it worked.

Okay, you win

This one is Phil's one (with another gold for our dear Flying Dutchman, of course)

Robracer, stop thinking about F1 2010 and focus on this. You are all white.

Bahrain - 1:27.620
Spa - 1:41.476

Melbourne: 1:20.106

Oh no you didn't!



Great time!

I've got no blood, no sweat, no tears left now

(And Atletico de Madrid has passed to semifinals in the Europa League)

Due to it being my birthday today the misses has let me have full use of the TV for the day and here's the fruits of my labour

Hungary 1:14.888 for gold sorry A3 but I'm sure your get it back soon enough
Abu Dhabi 1:28.647 for silver although I was helped by a kind Mclaren that gave me a good slip stream on the longest straight otherwise probably would of been a low 1:29

Happy Birthday, Jay , What a better gift than getting a new gold!

Cheers Mig, although I'm still trying to get over the thought I'm only 2 years away from 40, but looking on the bright side your 99 years old and still got your reflexes

Yes. This is probably one thing I'm very proud of.
BTW, don't know what will happen in my profile on June 2nd, when I will be 100. If we are still around I'll probably be the youngest driver (0 years) who ever held a track record.

About you age, you are 3 years, 3 months and 6 days younger than an active 7x WDC, and as far as I know, that will never change.

Don't worry much about your age. It's a relative thing. I remember my wife's grandfather, when he was 92 he said "How I wish I could be 20 years younger now". And even me, I could say now, I wish I was 38.

So what your saying is, is that it's not to late for me to get an F1 drive

In England on your 100th birthday you get a birthday card signed from the Queen, almost worth living to a 100 for

Well, as you claimed once, you are already 4x WDC. Pedro de la Rosa is older than you and he hasn't even won a race. This F1 world is very, very unfair.

About the Queen's card, its very kind from her. You can fancy before your nursing home ninetysomething mates.

I am 29 so how old are you guys then? Confused about some posts, what is your real age?

Happy birthday Jay, I hope you may keep the birthday record 4 ever!!!

Also nice to see MiG getting another Gold! You are improving very much in the last weeks didn't you? So you no longer use a Force India for your records?

When will Brandz come back, I think he is the fastest of all of us, but he just don't play this game a lot?

I can play 2 hrs now so I hope to improve a bit on a few and filling my empty trackfields.

MiG & Jay, which griplevel, cambers, wings settings did you used on Melbourne & Hungary? I need to get some secs off my fastest Melbourne and Hungary times, because I look like a foul for a while on those.

Just got back from a nice meal at the chinese

Right then, always use max grip Lewis on all tracks now, and I tend to use camber set on -5 for almost all tracks including Melbourne & Hungary but that maybe because it suits my driving style.

Chinese is always good! Talking about Chinese, I am hungry... But you will focus on the Chinese track too soon? I used downforce on 80/90 like on Turkey so do you think it will go faster there too with max downforce?>

Thx, I used max downforce on Oz, but still only a 1:23.1 or something, Silverstone was better with 1:14.7
Are there any cheat corners there>? Just like the first Brazil corner where you can take -0.300 if you go a bit on the grass.

Yep, always use max downforce now because you don't lose much top speed for extra grip.
At Oz there's a bit of a cheat at the fast left then right at the end of the second sector and start of the third sector. You can take the left flat out by turning in early and running left of the curb which is normally taken on the right and still keep full throttle round the following right hander.

Sorry if that doesn't make much sense, I don't know how to explain it better.

Thx Jay! I think I know which point you mean. Will try that soon. Now I need to redo China and Turkey too, which is a shame cause my Turkey lap was a perfect drive, will never get it like that anymore. Lol.

Edit: Do you also use Ride: 100 and Brake bias: on whch level???

Ride is 80 for Oz, not sure about brakes, find out tomorrow for you but I usually use brakes between 35 and 45 on most tracks but that really does depend on driving style, I often brake only when steering into a corner specially on Abu Dhabi but on other tracks too.

The 100/100 wings work slower for me on Istanbul. I compared it 4 times with changing between 85/85 and 100/100 wings setup and everytime I was quicker with the 85/85 wings setup. Think this depends on the track?

Bon jour.

About Oz, I'm using 83 for wings, and not very much camber (-1.60). Ride is 85 and springs 35/25. I always tend to put rears softer to get a little more traction. Brake bias is about 80
About the track, chicanes are decisive. The first one, after main straight, I brake very late and cut a little on the left, not much because grass slows you down (don't cut on the right). The first right turn must be taken very fast, which means you cannot brake very late nor hard. When you get to the first split time you must be a low 27 s (my record is 26.850). The next chicane, the slowest, is the most important for me. You need to do it very smooth and cutting very little on the right (or you get a red) and trying to step not much on the left curb, or you won't get enough speed to do the fast sector before the fast chicane (some kers now). There, I don't step on the left curb, as Jay was saying, but probably it doesn't penalise your time if you do it (my 2nd partial is 49.3). The most important is to go out very fast and push a little kers on the straight. After the straight, i brake well after the last orange post, but trying to keep high speed to do the righty, but without going wide (like Vettel). The penultimate, a lefthander, has ruined me a lot of good laps. You need to brake very hard there, just before the 50m post.
Did you understand a single word of my English?

EDIT: I've passed the 2nd sector once in 49.1, so 1.19 is theoretically possible for me

PS. Oz is a word that I've learnt here (though I've been in Sydney, back in 1998). So, besides my virtual driving skills, I'm improving my English thanks to Codemasters and you all

Hi Lewis

Just checked Oz settings, I have brakes at 75 it's one of few tracks that I don't tend to do much braking while turning into corners so no understeer probs. I've also tried various wing settings for all tracks but I always end up posting better lap times with 100/100 wing but of course it could just be driving styles again, I do tend to through the car around a lot so need as much downforce as possible to keep all four tyres firmly pressed down

Thank you you MiG and Jay!

Hey MiG, your English is better than mine MiG, your Aussie lap tips are really helpfull! I am struggeling with the middlepart of Oz yesterday.

Hi Jay, I think wings 85/85 is really the best for Turkey, I think it is a combination of other settings which make it work there. I use high stint and oversteer on 70/80.

Yesterday night I was on roll for my fastest Interlagos lap, but I run into my digital hero before the final corner and off course he didn't move in time away (like they all do ) so I thought I will overtake him on his left side and yes he moved away to the left, right on the same moment when I passed him and a nice collision and 2 x into the left barrier and still finished in a 1:08.4 I think I could have a 1:07.2 at least if I stayed behind him in slipstream. Great learning from this stupid lap.

So do you guys think slipstream (saving time) really works in the game???

Yes. Quite simply yes

To be honest, I'm getting to the point where I can't beat my own records without a slipstream from one of our digital friends. Getting desperate.

Cool. Very interesting how much time that should save. For instance, 300 meters slipstream should save 0,...? sec.

How do you know for sure this works???

Some of your times are incredible so I can understand why they cannot be beaten.

I am gonna drive off now for a half hour.

Some tracks I've done so many laps on I have a good idea what time I should post for a given sector depending on how well I drove it. If I get a good slipstream on a long straight on a track like Abu Dhabi suddenly my reasonably well driven sector can be up to 6 tenths quicker than it should of been.
The trouble is weather the car you intend slipstreaming is in the right place, to far away and by the time your ready to pull out you have to brake for the corner and that screws up the lap, to close and you don't benefit from a slipstream before you have to overtake.

The other deciding factor is your gear ratio for 7th gear, if you set it so that you reach the rev limiter just at the end of the fastest straight then of course a good slipstream will only get you to that rev limiter sooner along the straight (a small benefit). But if you set 7th gear up so that you never reach it's rev limit then a good slipstream will give you more top speed than your wing settings allow you to have, but the disadvantage of that is that without that slipstream you wouldn't get quite so much speed up the straight as you would if 7th gear was set up to hit the rev limit.

Holy cr.p! So much time advantage! Really interesting... so which gear ratio can you advise me? I need a mechanic.

I set my 7th gear ratio so that when I'm at the fastest point of any track just before I brake for the following corner my rev counter is one light away from red lining. That's probably the best compromise between max performance without a slipstream but still give a good enough advantage if the chance comes up to slipstream.
You can set 7th gear up to give even more speed when slipstreaming but your compromise a lot of top end speed when there is no opportunity to slipstream and at the end of the day those opportunities don't come up very often at the right time.

It's my bithday tomorrow and I got myself an early present....

Melbourne
s1 26.979
s2 22.428
s3 30.448

1:19.855

How I hate to see this f*cking dancing girl, knowing that she always means a new record for you!

Happy birthday, however!

Take it you just lost a gold then.

A gold that I will never take back

Thanks!




Never say never.

Mine, for 1:20.106 are:

26.949
22.515
30.643

So it seems that those couple and a half of tenths are basically in the 3rd sector (fast chicane?).
As sometimes I've passed the second in 49.1/49.3, maybe my record lap wasn't as perfect as I thought

Nurburgring - 1:26.565.

Just another 0.15s to go

Time for a new table Mig?

I don't know if it's the fast chicane, I can't take it flat out by cutting the first left like you said, I either screw up the next right or I get DQ-ed by cutting it too much. I have to lift off there.

I can take the fast chicane flat out quite easily, but you have to be SO precise. Wait like 0.1s too late and you clout the right kerb too hard and fly into the wall. My bogey turn on Melbourne is that sodding last corner, i never get enough traction out of it.

Stay away from Nürburgring and work a little in Turkey and China (clearly you need it more)

Excuse me, I have a silver and a bronze at those tracks.

You carry on at Nurburgring Phil your nearly there mate

I am close to a bronze in China actually, about a tenth off. I maybe improved around my special track ;)

Barcelona 1:17.373 1:16.705

You know what if I was a member of facebook I would start the "Lets all hate A3 petition" I reckon Mig might join it.

Don't you think you got enough golds already, isn't there any other games you would like to play for Christ sake.

In all seriousness A3 have you got a 360 and if so are you going to get F1 2010 and play online because I'd love to ram I mean race against you

Lol.

I will buy the game right away when it is out and you all may add me on Xbox Live as a friend. PM me for my nickname. Still need to wait a long time for F1 2010. Hope we all can race against eachother when the game is out! That would be so cool! Maybe we start our own Live group where we can plan races, just imagine that we can race the game online, save replays, see eachother live racing, compare our driving styles and much more....

Too long, and I reckon September is wishful thinking