Practice

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This page has been updated to be version 3 compliant and may contain information that is incorrect for the current game. If in doubt, please ask on the game forums.

Once you’ve built your car for the race it is time to strap in the driver, fire up the engine, and head out of the pits for the practice sessions. Practice allows you run laps of the circuit while adjusting the DRP and car setup to find the optimal race settings. Practice is broken up into two separate sessions, each with their own weather. This may mean that you have rain in one session, but not in the other.

Take your time setting the DRP and car setup values one lap at a time. After each lap you should check the results and study the feedback from the driver. Also be sure to watch the lap times to make sure they are getting quicker. Every lap you drive in practice will incur some wear on the parts, including the engine and gearbox.

Contents 1 Laps 2 Car Status 3 Track 4 Weather 5 Driver orders 6 Car setup 7 Laps chart

Laps

There are two practice sessions, and for each there is a maximum number of practice laps for each class. Additionally, you can add up to 4 laps per practice session by hiring extra mechanics. The base number of laps for each class are as follows:

Class	Laps/session	Total for 2 Sessions with Mechanics
1	2	12
2	3	14
3	4	16
4	5	18
5	6	20
6	6	20

Car Status

It is important to keep a close eye on the condition of your car, engine, and gearbox. The more wear they have, the greater the chance they will fail during the race. The efficiency of the car gauges its overall pace, but the ratio between speed and handling for each track influences the effectiveness of the car’s efficiency.

Track

The track details give you an idea about the nature of the track you are racing on. This includes the average time to enter and leave the pits (not including the time for the pitstop) and the difficulty to pass other cars. There also very important track statistics represented by 0 to 5 stars, which are:

• Speed & handling- The speed and handling ratings give you an approximation of the balance between speed and handling for each track. These values are very helpful in determining setup and building your car.
• Tyre wear – Tyre wear represents the abrasive nature of the track on your tyres. A value of three is considered a normal amount of wear, with more stars showing you will incur additional tyre wear, while less stars means tyres will last slightly longer.

Weather

The weather section gives an overview of the current conditions for both practice sessions, qualifying, and warm up. These will not change during the race weekend.

Driver orders

The driver orders determine the DRP you will have for the race. Getting driver orders right is very important to doing well. Each lap the DRP percentage is displayed in the laps chart. Your reported DRP is an accurate percentage representation of the ideal perfect distribution. A DRP feedback of 0% indicates that 1 or more of the values is above the ideal setting.

Car setup

All of the setup values for the car can be changed each lap. The values used must be integers, no decimals values are allowed. Adjusting one setting on the car will effect other settings as well. If you change your gear settings, for example, your ideal wing settings may change.

• Front and rear wings – The wings affect the down force of the car. Running lower wing settings allows the car to go faster, but it will handle poorly in corners. Conversely, high wing values will help handling, but hurt your speed.
• Suspension – Softening the suspension will help with handling, while stiffening it will allow for more speed.
• Gears – Shorter gears are used for tracks that require acceleration, while longer gears are ideal for very fast tracks like Monza .
• Tyre pressure - The tyre pressure affects the balance of the car, allowing you to move it more towards handling (softer) or speed (harder). Moving the pressure away from the balanced 20 psi setting though will also cause some additional tyre wear.
• Tyre – The tyre compound you choose will effect the lap times. A softer tyre will be faster than a harder one, but will also wear out faster. Additionally, you must learn when to use intermediate or wet tyres to cope with rain.
• Fuel - The amount, in Litres, of fuel in the tank. Carrying too much fuel will slow you down, but pitting too early or too often can also ruin your race.

Laps chart

The laps chart is a visual display of the car setup, DRP, and other information for each lap you run. After each lap the driver may, or may not, offer feed back on each part of the car setup or DRP. The higher the driver and mechanic's combined reporting skill, the more likely you are to get useful feedback. Feedback is represented by a red down arrow and a green up arrow. These indicate the direction in which you should change your settings. A red arrow pointing down indicates your setting is too high and should be lowered. You may find that a setting that is initially good later is shown as needing adjustment. This can be caused by a change in weather or in other settings on the car which result in the need to fine-tune the setting further.

Fuel usage for each lap is displayed to help calculate the amount of fuel for the race. The fuel used will stay consistent to the speed of the car, but it is always risky to cut your fuel load too close in the race.

Tyre wear is displayed as percentage, but it is always rounded up higher than the true wear. From this though, managers can determine a good approximation of the number of laps their tyres will last in the race.