GT-Sport Supercars Next Generation Series

Having the heaviest car on the grid last night hurt. I was getting gapped by around 3 tenths down the main straigjt even with tow.

Feels.
The heaviness made fuel consumption higher and made the tyres eat 5hit too

I am finding it impossible to compete with the lighter cars, if I'm behind one of them on the straights in their slipstream I barely make any time on them and some of them are even able to pull away from me, if they're behind me then they just sail past with no effort required.

Two races in a row now I've been hit from behind taking damage. I can mess up my own race well enough, when it's messed up by someone else, well it really takes the fun out of it. Does the series really gain anything by having heavy damage?

Before last night I hadn't done a lot of laps on the track and was lucky to get a low 32. Did some laps with the fast guys before racing and found some good gains. Surprised myslef with a PB (by miles) in qually to get Q1. Had an ordinary start but soon got into some good lap times. Was going great til the brake started sticking on lap 25 adding heaps to each lap, really took the wind out of the sails. Was good to get home for a third. Congrats to @LUUROX_22 for the win, wouldn't have caught you even without my brake issues and @Max Gassit for the 2nd. Would have loved to have held you out but it wasn't to be

Pretty happy with 6th given the 1326kg I was carrying. I quite like the weight penalty concept, the lighters guys should get heavier as the season progresses, but of course nothing will be perfect and will differ depending upon the car/track combo etc. Heavy damage is an acquired taste though, especially given the higher chance of incidents with the varying closing speeds. I only received rear wing damage from a light tap from behind, but luckily this was on my planned in lap so didn't hurt too much. I also touched a pixel of grass on T1 during the race, but thankfully didn't spin it around , but did lose a few seconds. Still thoroughly enjoying the series, great work @THE_UNDER_STUDY

(iv) Collisions are to be avoided at all costs

(vi) Drivers must avoid running into the cars in front of them, if a driver brakes too late and will run into the car behind them the options of bailing out into the grass, gravel or wall must be taken if available to them

Drivers need to follow these Rooz rules if we persist with heavy damage. Bumping the person in front is enough to ruin their race. Both times I have been bumped the drivers had these options available, in race 2 I had to bail onto the grass and into a wall myself to avoid hitting the back of someone else

You might think differently if you were the one driving laps by yourself at the back of the field every week. I do agree that the system is a great idea, I just think it needs some adjusting to make it more fair on the div 1 and 2 drivers. I am not surprised that I can't compete with the current weight settings but when you have even the best drivers unable to I think that says it's not quite right

Agreed. If anything it makes the div 1 guys try more aggressive moves in the corners because we have to to make up any ground. The divisional ballasts themselves, if reworked a little bit, would probably work better imo

I enjoy the strategy on the fly aspect. I didn't even have a strategy going into Sunday night. I never expected to start on the front row for one. During the first stint I realised I wasn't going to be able to make softs last for a tank so I split the first tank with rs and rm giving me low fuel for the rm. The first stint showed me how loose the car is after 7 laps so it was a matter of equally dividing the rest of the race into sections as close to 7 laps as possible

So with the feedback after 3 rounds the question becomes whether to tweak the settings now or let the championship ride out as it stands and see if the field does become more even as intended, take the learnings and adjust for the next season. Your call @THE_UNDER_STUDY

i reckon ride it out but I've benefitted from low weight this round. might be at the back again next round. there is the BOP aspect as well but i like seeing the different models on the grid

As their has been a bit of chat on here and messages PM'd to me, I would like to make a few points. Hopefully this will answer your questions.

1: First off, I am a little disappointed to hear that some drivers last round were close to quitting mid race (rage quitting) as the race wasn't going the way they hoped. I personnally have raced in series (on GTS and others) where things have not gone my way or am in an underpowered car and sometimes coming dead last, I still will finish the race. I know (now first hand) how much time and effort goes in to organising these types of things so I want to support the person doing it, even if it means I have to just fill the places sometimes. I would hope that you guys would forward me the same decency.

2: As stated in the OP when starting this series, it is a team/car based championship, not and individual championship. The success ballast will be placed on the car, NOT the individual. Whilst for single car teams this can become a disadvantage sometimes, team owners that run multiple cars can use this to their advantange. You can swap drivers around to get the best weights for each car.

3: Following on, since the beginning, the ballast set up has been changed 3 times before the beginning of the series, and again during the season. The latest change (at the request of some drivers) is only one round old. Please give it time to actually work first before asking for more changes. If you actually look at the results, barring accidents that throw a spanner in the works, it is starting to even out. We had a couple of teams finish in the top 5 last round, who this round due to success ballast, fell back into the field a bit. This is a strategic championship, not a win at all costs one. The points are set up to favour consistency. I know of a couple of teams that went into the last round knowing that they were not in a position to win due to weight (and ability), so the strategy was to aim for as clean a race as possible and try to finish mid pack (worked for one, not the other). So again I ask, please let the latest lot of chages take effect first as they are only one round old.

4: "Does the series really gain anything by having heavy damage?" It is a fair question, but one I have answered already. I personally believe it does as it gives you a bit more of a real world feel to it and it makes you (hopefully) drive with a bit more care and not so much of a gung ho dive bomb attitude. To be honest, the quality of the racing has been impecible, minus the odd incident here and there, which again is common in the real world also. Some have been on the recieving end of some unfortunate incidents, (myself included) but if you feel any contact is unwarranted, put a protest in and the stewards will look at it.

The above should hopefully clear up the questions raised and should give you an idea of where I am intending of placing the series within the ROOZ group of races.

Below I will put up the points after round 3 and the Round 4 Team weights for the Redbull Ring.

Regards, Under.

Well put sir

Let me summarise: let's leave things as they are and give the settings time to work as intended.