I have problems with setups. I, like others, don't have the hours available to both learn a track in a car, and develop a working setup. Even then not knowing the science of setting up a car to be fast means it's sunk time for naught. Which means come race night there's absolutely no hope for me to get anywhere near the front of the pack and am effectively relegated to midfield in perpituity. It feels like Toro Rosso competing against Mercedes. Given a good setup is worth a second or so on most tracks it feels futile to log in and 'race', especially when I do know a track pretty well. But, I don't bring up this problem without a solution: The Setup Championship Secondary to racing is points for engineering, kind of like a constructors title. Whomever makes the most adopted and favourited setup, voted on or used by the race goers, gets extra points. This should promote sharing of setups which: 1) will help less experienced drivers learn what a good setup is. 2) give incentive for people to share. 3) Minimise the F1 vs F1.5 divide. 4) Encourage sharing, community, and all the good things which openness brings; hell, there's already a webiste with publicly available setups on it (just not for the Tatuus). 5) Add an extra layer to a championship season. Yes, people have different driving styles which can be helped/hindered by different setups, but afaict there's not generally too much change required to make a setup flip from under to oversteer; if that's your thang. Thoughts?
In many past season we've run teams to foster setup sharing and development. We have also run a fixed setup season or two. Funny thing is none of it really changes the results! While this is a nice idea I think practically speaking it would take a similar time investment in testing multiple setups then voting on the best one. In any case, from fixed setup, to adopt a setup, to developing your own, it all comes down running laps with consistency then some trial and error on inputs and/or setup to find what gives you the most confidence in the car. There's plenty of guys here who I am sure would be only too happy to give some tips on what to tweak if you have an idea of what type of response change your looking for.
this season is a bit out of the norm, previously with teams we had team sharing and setup discussion... I usually shared my setup and replay of my PB lap in the hope it helps one of the team. Since I've really missed most of the season and not really in the champ points to win I have no issues with putting my setups on stracker.. unless someone really objects... mine aren't super fast but do me well and hopefully give hints/tips to others on what might work, or not work. I've shared this a few times too.. great setup flowchart that has helped me quite a bit. https://www.dropbox.com/s/vtm9iwvccbnsq2r/Roadracing.pdf?dl=0 also suggest you get camber-extravaganza app and protyers as these also help a bit too lastly check out http://thesetupmarket.com/ for setups... been a bit hit and miss for me...
I'm always more than happy to help with setups. I normally share my own when I've had practice and have some extra knowledge that may help to get it suited to others if they can tell me what it is doing and what they want
Interesting...but like Koastr said I don't think it would level out the whole field. The top guys might get closer together. When I don't have time to make my own I've used Rolz, andy, krunch, koastr setups and I'm never close to pole (even when I've done heeeeaps of laps too). For instance I'm currently team mates with andy in a v8 supercar league. He gives me his setups and (unless he's been having a laugh) his setups are pretty much default, and I'm still stoked if I can qual within a second of him. Same thing has been happening here with Rolz. Think for us mortals you can't expect to get close to pole even when you know the track and have the same setup but haven't done much prac. I generally find the setups fast guys use too hard and twitchy for my paws and hoofs anyway. Starting with a good setup to tailor for yourself would speed things up but then you got to do laps to figure out what to change anyway. I like your thinking though!
Very interesting concept @pb1 - nice lateral thinking. In a way the Teams Championship does have a some of that in it as others have mentioned. Shame it's not running this season (due to low numbers I guess) I understand where you are coming from and I am all for sharing setups to help others whether or not there are points attached but the reality is there is no substitute for practice. Setups are no magic bullet and they often keep evolving right up till we drop onto the grid. A good baseline setup is always helpful though, like Rolz provided yesterday. Maybe peeps who've done some laps and got a good baseline setup could drop them on the forum each week. I'm no expert but I can usually make a setup feel more comfortable for my driving style. Over the years I just Googled car setup info and started applying it. Sure it took time and so does prac but it's my hobby so finding more time for it wasn't a chore. It makes you a more 'complete' driver if you understand the basics of car setup, and I reckon it's more fun too .
Ta for the flow chart, @Rolz. After racing last Monday at Spa, I definitely did much better because I had a proper set up. Even though I finished last (I actually finished without crashing, w00t (had a couple of "moments" though..)), I raced better and learned more for how I had to drive the setup. I'm pretty sure people qualified better than my fastest race lap, but having a compliant car which other people were reasonably quick with made driving it much easier. I've not raced at spa before, other than turning laps, and never in the tatuus, so I had a bit to learn from the get go. I would definitely like to learn more about set up as I'm pretty mechanically minded and enjoy geeking out on facts, but trying to find someone who can contextually explain certain things is hard. I know there's a lot of maths/physics behind it all, and there is no panacea, but surely there are things you do to the tatuus before others. The thought for an engineers championship seems to have a couple of flaws I hadn't thought though, but maybe in a full season where teams are full and people are in to throwing a bit more than casual time at it it could be a bit more of a thing. Life has been a bit heckers for myself this season, but hopefully next full season I'll be able to dedicate some decent time. Ta all for the feedback
I just HAD to go to Google translator when I saw this Tez. It came up as "Race trim" . but that doesn't mean you're wrong - I haven't checked Facebook yet
