Are multiplayer equal cars actually equal?

[jarmin0123 17]

Hello I have not played this game enough online to figure this out but I know on previous games certakn teams were actually better or worse than others in equal cars. I was wondering if that was still the case or if they are all actually equal now.

[sloppysmusic 1,650]

Supposed to be equal. Watching the esports virtual grand prix for example that are being run currently you can clearly see all cars are equal and only driver skill makes the difference.

[BarryBL 4,314]

Hi @jarmin0123,

Yes, they are equal.

[CarlosSantos87 162]

15 hours ago, jarmin0123 said:

Hello I have not played this game enough online to figure this out but I know on previous games certakn teams were actually better or worse than others in equal cars. I was wondering if that was still the case or if they are all actually equal now.

They are equal mate.. What can make the difference sometimes are only 2 things :

1 the setup you are using 

2 your Internet connection 

Its only these differences that could occur 

[sirio994 270]

They are equal. But they can't be literally equal. There's always a car that you prefer graphically or for the engine sound. That's the reason why for league racing is important to train with the car you'll use...

The difference is even more pronounced with cockpit view...

[jarmin0123 17]

Thank you so much that clears it up perfectly for me

[Flash224 20]

1 hour ago, sirio994 said:

There's always a car that you prefer graphically or for the engine sound.

You can change the audio of the engines in the files though.

[TomAAA 447]

They are not actually equal, as all cars have different lengths and wheelbases, e.g Mercedes vs Red Bull

Even confirmed by Lando Norris and his engineer last week 

Edited May 4 by TomAAA

[Bicarda 465]

22 hours ago, BarryBL said:

Hi @jarmin0123,

Yes, they are equal.

I Don't know when and where but I do remember seeing it confirmed by a Codemasters employee that the wheelbase does indeed affect the handling a bit and those individual quirks remain even with performance set to equal. 

Might have been in the forum for f1 2018 though. But i've read nowhere they changed that for this game.

Edited May 5 by Bicarda

[BarryBL 4,314]

17 hours ago, TomAAA said:

They are not actually equal, as all cars have different lengths and wheelbases, e.g Mercedes vs Red Bull

Even confirmed by Lando Norris and his engineer last week 

Hi everyone,

I've spoken to the developers on comments on this one. 

To confirm, for the equal cars, the performance is all based off the standard, multiplayer car. The only differences are the visuals of the cars, not the physics themselves.

[CactusEverdeen 61]

56 minutes ago, BarryBL said:

Hi everyone,

I've spoken to the developers on comments on this one. 

To confirm, for the equal cars, the performance is all based off the standard, multiplayer car. The only differences are the visuals of the cars, not the physics themselves.

well i came here looking for this exact answer its amazing what a simple search can do haha thank you for this one barry

[sloppysmusic 1,650]

55 minutes ago, BarryBL said:

Hi everyone,

I've spoken to the developers on comments on this one. 

To confirm, for the equal cars, the performance is all based off the standard, multiplayer car. The only differences are the visuals of the cars, not the physics themselves.

That's interesting and cool for mp, but thanks for sharing! It means what you see is not what you actually get as the cars are using an invisible virtual handling model vs one based on individual physical differences between cars. I was wondering if this is the same in single player? Do the cars use the same equal hidden profile or do they now use the actual physical car models?

[BarryBL 4,314]

In terms of car profiles, they are created using a variety of different attributes and characteristics to makes cars feel, profile and handle differently. For example, driving a Season 1, Race 1 Williams vs Mercedes of the same time feel like two different beasts and have 2 very different profiles.

At this time, I wouldn't want to delve into too much analytical detail on this, with the new release of the 2020 coming soon where measures and parameters can change year on year.  

[steviejay69 1,100]

17 hours ago, Bicarda said:

I Don't know when and where but I do remember seeing it confirmed by a Codemasters employee that the wheelbase does indeed affect the handling a bit and those individual quirks remain even with performance set to equal. 

Might have been in the forum for f1 2018 though. But i've read nowhere they changed that for this game.

The multiplayer car was what the community was asking for as in previous games the equal cars were the multiplayer cars "balanced" to give very similar performance. In community testing, discrepancies were found (like top speed variances of a few kph) and it was probably fair to say that some cars suited particular driving styles and that setups that worked on one car were not as effective on some others.

But the best players were only able to find 0.2-0.4s a lap difference at most (enough for an advantage for them over a race distance, but this assumes you can perfect every lap and make no errors or different strategy calls, have no damage etc.) Yes, I know. 0.2-0.4s in qualifying is forever - when you're 11th and 0.3s off pole....

Duly, the multiplayer car arrived (I'm gonna call it 'Me Julie' like Seb calls a car by a girl's name!) It was always resisted, alledgedly due to licensing restrictions, but these do appear to have been relaxed. Over the past few games, damage levels increased as these were also part of the rights discussions and age rating, AFAIK. Unfortunately they affect the car so much even at light levels and the amount of retirements for (SIM) damage increased so the mode was quickly forgotten for MP. 

[KTPtheKing 0]

How about split screen multiplayer? Is it possible to run against all equal cars there?