pacers101

This is key, if you get the entry line correct you can take it with minimal movement. The other thing is setup. As suggested by PJTierney, ride height (in particular for the rear) cannot be too low or risk bottoming out over the kerbs and total loss of control. Also critical is having enough rear downforce as this plants the car through high speed corners. I would recommend an absolute minimum rear downforce level for 7 on this track just because of this corner.

This is awesome

I think a great point is being raised here which is that there is far too much difference between the corner cutting rules. Strict is virtually unplayable for the average player (I play AI level of 95-100 and there's no way I'm completing 25% race without multiple penalties... I've even seen guys like TRL Limitless struggle with strict rules). But then normal is just way too lax. On some tracks (Canada probably being a prime example) you can cut multiple corners with 4 wheels off the track, and not even get a warning. And as you rightly say, this massively distorts the AI difficulty in some tracks.

I think this is excellent, nice work.

The AI is slow at Singapore. Like you I just play one AI level, but I don't agree with your overall conclusion that the AI consistency is the best it's ever been, I'd say it's probably worse than previous iterations. The difference between the fastest AI robably Silverstone) and slowest (Singapore) is huge, at least a 10 point swing. I do note that you've only just bought the game though. However, I do think you're approach of looking at the 10% figure is more robust than looking at the world records. Your figures seem to align more closely with what I find between the tracks.

I used to swap parts between sessions, but then I realised that the AI drivers don't do this. Instead the AI appears to use the same part for all sessions until it decides it needs replacing. It is noticeable over the course of the season that if you keep swapping your engine parts you can get a nice performance advantage over the AI. Sobecause I'm a bit crazy and I don't like to give myself any advantage of over the AI, except where I earn it on the track, I do the same as the AI. Also if I need a new part and have to take a grid penalty, I'll make that call before the Grand Prix weekend, rather than basing it on where I've qualified on a certain track and replacing a whole engine between qualifying and the race(60 place grid penalty). Again because the AI doesn't do that. Ps. If anyone has worked out how or why the AI comes to take grid penalties as early as Australia, Bahrain and Vietnam, I'd love to know. That one has always confused me.

I haven't noticed it too much yet in 2020, but it is something that I have noticed in previous versions, including 2019. Upgrading the car can disrupt the previous balance you have achieved in finding your AI level. So to take an example, an aero upgrade may make the AI 0.2 seconds per lap quicker. But that same upgrade might only make the car 0.15 seconds per lap quicker for you. But likewise you might get a bit more out of a chassis upgrade than the AI. In my experience it can vary from team to team, but we are of course talking small margins. My understanding is that it is a balancing issue and its very hard for the developers to get perfect, especially as we all drive the cars at different paces, with different assists, setups etc. In previous versions the developers have referred to the difficulty of adapting the AI pace to different car upgrades- I recall that this was mentioned during controversy over a previous edition of the game whereby the AI didn't get any faster with engine upgrades (I think it was particularly noticeable in the McLaren in F1 2017), which was actually an AI issue rather than your teammate not getting the upgrade... that was a severe example but I'm sure that the developers revealed the overall difficulty in changing the AI pace to go along with a developing car. The unfortunate answer is to change the AI level to what you are happy with for that particular season.

I think everything affects everything if that makes sense. So if you are running different camber/toe, differential and tyre pressures, then you probably need your own suspension setups too. But yes, I always need to make some small adjustments (see the start of this thread), mainly to account for my skill level being well below that of tom97. So for example my throttle control is nowhere near as good.

Is getting dumped by your team in driver career something that happens often? Sounds good. My concern with the driver career I have experienced so far is that you can just drive for whichever team you want. I might need to change my career house rules!!!

Having now had the opportunity to go through most of the calendar, I don't think any track justifies +10 swings (let alone +17). The majority are reasonably well balanced once you find your optimum level. If you want perfection for your ability on every track then changing by couple of points, up to a limit of say +/- 5, seems reasonable, and I enjoyed using svensenk86's in 2019 which did something along those line. But based on my experience I just cannot see that (to take PJTierney's example) playing Bahrain at 63 and then Monaco at 87 is going to yield good results. In fact, after multiple races on both of those tracks I have found these tracks fairly similar in terms of how I tend to perform vs the AI. I make the point because I wouldn't really want Codemasters to start changing / patching the difficulty based on these kinds of swings. I think there is room for improvement but its not as drastic as this.

Yep, it does this on short qualifying too and its quite annoying. And sometimes it doesn't correct itself until you see the detailed results. That amazing feeling when you do a fantastic lap on the edge, and then it pops up: 19th... thankfully the mistake isn't the other way around otherwise it really would be depressing.

If you have not raced Canada in 2020 yet then I would definitely drop it down to your base of 90 and adjust from there. I am used to the AI being very slow around Canada, so it shocked me how quick I needed to be to perform to my base level average.

I don't know about anyone else but I have been very disappointed by the transfer system in the driver career mode this year. I was expecting my acclaim level to really mean something, and to get offers from teams based on my standing in F1. Instead it looks like I can negotiate with pretty much anyone again. Midway through my first season with Williams and apparently Red Bull and Ferrari are happy to sign me up, and probably by the end of the season Mercedes will be happy to sign me too... So this year I have created some house rules for who I will sign with. These are set out below. It is far from perfect and I'm not suggesting that anyone else should use them, but I looked around the internet and couldn't find any other examples, so maybe someone will find them useful as a base which you can adjust to suit. You may decide that the team acclaim minimums may be way off for example- I have used a hybrid of real life team resources and the starting acclaim of their current no. 1 driver. I am also not far enough into my career to see how my own acclaim rating fully develops. If it is really easy to get it up to level 13+ then Ferrari and Red Bull in particular might require a lot of adjustment. Anyway, here goes with my current set of house rules: Team – Minimum acclaim Mercedes – 18 Ferrari – 13 Red Bull – 12 McLaren – 11 Renault – 11 Racing Point – 10 Alfa Romeo - 10 Haas – 9 AlphaTauri – 9 Williams – 8 Transfer rules - Can only negotiate with a team when you reach the minimum acclaim listed above. - Can negotiate with up to 3 teams at the end of each season. - Any negotiation with a new team must be at the ‘high risk’ contract level, to determine whether that team is interested in signing you. - If the team agrees to sign you, use a random number generator to create a contract length (1, 2 or 3 years). You can reject a contract with that team if not happy with the contract length. However if signed, the contract must be fulfilled. - If 2 teams have already been approached in negotiations (and either rejected by the team or rejected by you because not happy with the contract length), then you must accept the next team that offers a contract. - AlphaTauri / Red Bull exception – If level 12 is reached whilst driving with AlphaTauri, negotiation with Red Bull can be undertaken mid-contract, and any negotiation with Red Bull will be at the ‘medium risk’ contract amount. - If in final year of your contract, you must leave current team if you are beaten by your teammate in the standings that year. - No mid-season transfers.

Thanks svensenk86! Bizzarely this year my base level is 100 for short races and 95 for longer races. I am not sure whether I have improved or whether the game is slightly easier this year. Possibly a combination of both! In terms of feedback on some of the tracks I have raced on quite a bit: - Canada would be lower difficulty for me, I have found the AI quite strong. - Vietnam is insanely difficult for me, although I think that is more a reflection of my inability to be consistent / avoid the walls. Its difficult to comment on the AI pace when you cannot string 2 laps together! - Agree with the large increase at Austria. As always the AI is attracious at that track!

As an update, for F1 2020 I have been using the setups from tom97 (can be found via youtube). I have found them to be very good, and importantly he sets them up for racing and managing tyres, not just one lap pace- although he manages to smash some great times from them. Even though I drive very differently from him (I am much less skilled, and use assists and a pad) he tends not to push the boundaries too far, so it suits me. My adjustment options from his base are usually limited to a little extra wing, extra off-throttle diff and rear toe if more stability is needed. For wet races, I have been using the setups from realsport101. They are very nice this year. They have found some good settings with the combination of rear downforce, off-throttle diff and high rake.

Your skill level is important, and what assists you use. For example if you use ABS you can get away with higher brake pressure. Whether you use a controller or a wheel with pedals is also a factor. I use a controller, and I prefer to run a low differential as my throttle control isn't good enough. This is part my equipment and part my skill level. This is why playing around and learning to adjust to suit you, rather than picking up a setup 'off the shelf', is the best way. But I would agree that you will only benefit from setups once you can control the car and run consistent times. In relation to the point about compromises to look after tyres, one simple adjustment is often running lower on-throttle differential (less wheel spin under acceleration) and lower tyre pressures, particularly the tyres that overheat.

This is an absolutely superb post. Just to re-iterate what is said at the end, F1carsetup is a great site, but you need to be careful as some of the suggested setups on there can vary wildly. So as suggested, choose reputable members, and try and look for ones where there is some commentary around what they are trying to achieve (for example where someone is talking about managing tyre wear over a 100% distance race vs a high AI level, it tends to indicate that they have given the setup some real thought and properly tested it). I really liked most of the 2019 setups posted on Realsport101. They are generally fairly stable and built for career races rather than unstable setups built for one lap pace. They also established some fairly important start points for me on aspects of the setup, such as using soft suspension and low differential on most circuits (both of which suited my driving style). But what I really like is that they give you a detailed explanation as to what they have done and why. This teaches you about what each aspect of the setup changes in performance, and also helps you adjust things yourself if you think they have not got something quite right. When you have cracked it is when you can take a decent base setup, and then start to adjust it for your driving style or if you feel that it doesn't work for you. So for example, I didn't like Realsport101's Monza setup last year as I felt it was very unstable through the high speed corners. But I was able to work out what I needed to do to get it to where I wanted it by increasing roll-bar stiffness, and then making some other compromises to adjust for the consequent increase in tyre wear caused by the stiffer roll-bars. Eventually I started editing all of the setups to suit my driving style / preferences, which is immensely satisfying when you get it correct!

Just about to start my career mode. I am wondering from anyone who has already been playing career: how does the AI manage its engine parts in the career mode on 2020? In previous versions it appeared that the AI stick with a single engine part for all sessions until it needs changing, and then move on to the next one until that needs changing. You could tell this when you switched teams mid-season and see what the engine wear situation was looking like. The AI did not appear to switch parts about for different sessions as the human controlled player can (so for example you can use part 1 of the turbo for practice, part 2 for qualifying, part 3 for the race etc to manage the wear). The reason for asking is that I like to replicate the AI's actions off the track so as not to gain too much of a performance advantage. Cheers in advance

Is this coming back into 2020 or not? Please can Codemasters confirm?!!!

I play career mode, currently with the AI difficulty at 90. In qualifying I find that level is generally absolutely perfect for my ability in terms of a realistic position based on my car and my performance in qualifying. However, to stay competitive in the race I generally have to push myself far too hard to keep up with the AI (basically, as if I am putting down a qualifying lap), leading to big mistakes and much frustration. This is only doing 5 lap races. I am thinking about going to 25% races, and I don't know how I would manage if the AI maintained that kind of speed & consistency over more laps. I have searched the forums and I note one person said recently that the decrease the AI by 1 point between qualifying and the race. I know that it is all down to personal ability- higher skilled users are probably much more consistent overall. But has anyone else noticed this? And if you also change the AI difficulty between qualifying and the race, how much do you reduce it by? Many thanks in advance

That would be awesome, thank you. I actually tend to be OK on Suzuka, just about, even though it is a very difficult track. I have spent a lot of time practicing there. I struggle on Singapore. But the track that really destroys me every time is Baku! It is the one track where I cannot even qualify in a decent position.

Thanks. What race length do you run? I am wondering whether there is a difference between 5 lap blasts where no-one needs to worry too much about tyres etc, and 25% races.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. I didn't think my setups were too aggressive but they are certainly more aggressive than the default setup- this is something that I will look at. It is possibly also reflective of my ability- I am maybe quick over one lap but not good enough to be consistent. Still interested to hear any other views on this. Does anyone know if there is a difference in the AIs race pace between say a 5 lap race and a 25% or 50% race?

Thanks for the feedback. That is very interesting. I agree the difficulty varies on different tracks, especially Baku which is an absolute nightmare! Does anyone else find keeping up with the race too fast after qualifying, or is it just me then?!