pacers101

Sparking as a visual thing, I don't really see it is a problem. The far more serious side of the car bottoming out is when it does so in a high speed corner such as Eau Rouge, Yas Marina T3 or Bahrain T12, leading to a total loss of control. I have noticed that there are minimum levels of rear ride height for avoiding such incidents, and these do increase a 1 or 2 points during the career (although certainly not to the point where you need it at max level). Personally I don't mind the car changing in this way, it keeps practice fresh and interesting as I tweak my setups from season to season. It is worth noting that having to use a higher ride height does slightly negate an advantage that the user has over the AI to run much lower ride heights.

This and the new HUD info showing tyres and penalties is very much appreciated.

I'm a big fan of the additional info on the HUD (tyre and penalty info)! Nice little additions.

Thanks Barry. I'll try and do some tests and let you know roughly what kind of swing we are looking at, vs my team mate, trying to keep as much constant as possible, but it may take a few days. As an initial stab I'd estimate a swing of approximately 1.5+ seconds per lap in favour of the AI when the cars are fully developed. It is quite a noticeable jump in a game that is all about consistency of lap time (say you have found a great level and would regularly qualify within +/-0.2secs of Leclerc in season 1, by season 6 or 7 you are qualifying 1.0-1.5sec down, that's a big difference). The OP talked about dropping the AI level from 98 all the way down to 85 by season 7, and others seem to be noting a similar scale of change. You raise a good point on driver ratings, although someone like Leclerc can't actually get much better because his initial ratings are very high, so he is maxing the ratings out early on in the career. Ps. I don't want to complain about the game too much, overall I consider it to be one of the best, if not the best, single player games I have ever played. But it would be even better if this was looked at, as it does affect the enjoyment of otherwise awesome game modes (myteam and career).

Sorry to bring this back up my career save (which I was very much enjoying) is being ruined by the AI becoming much, much faster as the cars develop, exactly as identified by the OP in this thread. The result is to completely unbalance the game mode. We have seen a few issues like this in previous games but nothing on this scale- the only option is to significantly reduce the AI level, but its almost impossible to then work out what level you should be at as it changes so much and your in the middle of a career. Very frustrating and very unsatisfying. @BarryBL, I did ask a while back if you could raise it with the developers, is this something that is being looked at? Its a bit of a gamebreaker for offline career and myteam for me, I'm seriously considering going back to just playing single championship seasons.

It is quite amusing that I have had to spend so much time learning the Hanoi track this year, with its horrible slow corners into long straights (T2-T5 and T8-T9), the technical high speed twists in the last sector (T14-T19), and not to mention that last corner, which has established itself as one of my all-time favourite spots for damaging my front wing. And now it looks like a one season wonder, at least as far as the game is concerned! I suppose I shouldn't complain, I really am terrible around that track.

I think you to do a video and and report this as a bug. As I said earlier, there is supposed to be a maximum amount of deployment per lap (which is separate from the totally OP replenishment which occurs when you upgrade the ERS). I think this thread explains it much better than I ever could:

Are you sure? If the bar turns red, it means you have used the FIA maximum allowance for that lap. If you could run it all lap then it is possibly a bug and may be worth reporting.

The ERS becomes OP very quickly whereby it can be virtually impossible to actually fully deplete the ERS to 0% over the course of a race. As @dshepsman points out, you can only use so much ERS overtake deployment per lap (i.e. until the ERS bar turns red, in which case ERS has totally run out and your car will be much slower). But you can use the maximum amount of ERS per lap and quite often start the next lap with 95-100% ERS. And yes, I agree that this has a poor impact on gameplay. Using the overtake button is far more fun when you have to weigh up exactly which parts of the race to use it, rather than just using the full quota available each lap.

Good to hear. Try and get the hang of trail braking as well if you haven't already. It really gives you control in corners and that bit of extra rotation when you need it. This is a decent guide video for controller users (old version of the game but same principles):

I'm also an XB1 controller user. I assume you are having issues with corners such as the hairpin at Monaco? Try the some or all of these setup adjustments: - reducing off-throttle differential (as a general rule I don't go any higher than 60%) - increasing front downforce - sliding front toe to the left - reducing front suspension stiffness Clipping a little bit of inside kerb can help on some corners with getting the rotation, but make sure you now the corner and have sufficient ride height. Also I know its obvious, but make sure you use all of the track and swing it in from as wide as possible.

As I have said before, there is definitely too much difference between 'normal' and 'strict'. For some tracks normal is fine, but for others you can get away with a warning (or nothing) for some massive corner cutting. Ideally we would have something in between (which would be closer to real F1).

Great work as always @svensenk86

The sign of a good racer! I wish I was more consistent over a race. I'm improving, slowly. I'm a pad user, which may or may not be relevant to one lap pace vs consistency. I have a wheel but I've always found it too frustrating to try and get up to the same standard as I am on the pad!

Qualifying. I can smash out some great lap times which can compete with 100 AI. But doing it consistently over a 25% race is a different story, 100 AI is just a little too tough for me in the race.

I agree with the OP. I think the racing in this game is sensational, such good fun. I'd definitely like to see a few more AI mistakes / crashes, but for pure racing fun, this is the most fun I've ever had in a racing game against AI.

You need to ditch assisted starts if you want to get away from the line quicker. Manual starts are easy to learn and make a huge difference.

The AI is generally pretty poor at starts in my experience. Possibly a silly question but are you using manual starts? Automatic starts are terrible. Manual starts are very easy to learn. I just get the revs into the right range and steadily press down the accelerator after releasing the clutch. Once I have enough traction, get the ERS into overtake mode. In terms of moves into the first corner, on most open tracks I like to take a punt around the far outside if my grid position allows. It tends to be a safer bet than up the inside. Gaining multiple places up the inside is often possible, just make sure that you leave enough time to slow down well before the apex.

@Erudain Thanks for sharing, interesting stuff. Ps. Your myteam livery is absolutely superb- nice work!

I absolutely love F1 2020 and I haven't enjoyed a game like this in a long time. But I really think that Codemasters need to look at the balancing of the AI in this game (or F1 2021). There are a number of key issues which keep getting raised again and again: - AI differences between tracks - AI differences between qualifying and race (seems to be a particular issue in myteam mode) - AI difficulty changing throughout career as cars develop There are numerous threads and articles discussing these issues: https://realsport101.com/f1/f1-2020-my-team-has-changed-the-game-but-it-needs-a-more-balanced-ai-trailer-gameplay-formula-1-ps4-xbox-one-hamilton-mercedes-british-gp-silverstone/ I appreciate that we all have tracks we are good and bad at, but the swings are very noticeable in a game/sport which is all about fine margins. There is general consensus in the community that the AI is significantly weaker at some tracks such as Austria, and stronger at others such as Silverstone. I also appreciate that we can change AI season to season, race to race, but there is something very unsatisfying about that when doing a career mode, especially when you get it wrong. I only find it frustrating because otherwise the game is incredible. Some small tweaks to AI pace would make it even better. @BarryBL, please could you raise this with the developers? Many thanks

The OP in this thread raises the issue again. It appears that the myteam / career AI as the cars develop is quite a severe balancing issue.

I think a lot to do with skill and what assists you have, rather than just equipment. I generally find as a pad user (automatic gears, medium TC, 100% AI) that I need: - 50% on throttle diff on every track, which covers for my relatively poor throttle control, and - more rear wing downforce than the youtubers who use wheels, especially on tracks with tricky high speed corners like Spain, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi

This has been discussed before and it's definitely a balancing issue, despite codemasters saying it's not present this year due to AI improvements. It's hard to criticise too much though because balancing the AI Vs the user for so many different eventualities in terms of car performance must be near impossible. In my experience engine upgrades tends to benefit the user the most, and downforce the least. It sounds like your Honda engine might be a big factor here.

I think what happens us that there is a team acclaim bar like there was in previous versions, but we can't see it in this game. The key to keeping that bar high is: - good consistent results - winning rivalries - always avoid DNFs (this gives a huge negative hit to the bar) - answer the questions strategically, remembering that showmanship and sportsmanship preferences appear to remain in play, and sometimes no answer is better than answering. Personally I have no interest in seeing the bar, but I do think it would help massively if we had some big hints that the team weren't happy. I have sympathy with the OP.

As marioho says, it depends upon how good you are at managing your tyres with whatever setup you are using. Personally I would be looking for a very forgiving setup to go for a 1 stop strategy (like marioho, I would also prefer to avoid the hards if that is possible). Do some runs in practice and see what your average tyre wear is coming out at race pace on the mediums, and take it from there. One thing to note is that you have potentially chosen the correct track to start from the back on. Not only are there some very good overtaking opportunities in Belgium (Kemmell straight, and to a lesser extent the long straight before the chicane), but you can kill the AI on the start at Spa, going around the outside or the inside of the first corner, if you don't mind taking a risk or two!