Tag: help

3.8: Practising efficiently: Setting targets & tracking performance

Posted on by David Williams

Welcome to the final segment in this four-part series on how to practice efficiently. In this article we will look at the benefits of setting targets for yourself and monitoring your performance.

We’ve already discussed the importance of self-analysis in detail, and it’s an excellent idea to make notes during your practice sessions, so you don’t forget things and can give yourself clearly defined targets to work towards. Ideally you should be keeping a log of your progress in various areas, be it braking, concentration, smoothness etc. Perhaps having a rating from 1-10 for how satisfied you are in each area with some optional comments would make sense. This way you could also track your daily / weekly / monthly progress. You could even make reference to specific telemetry session laps and replays you may have saved.

Beginners vs advanced drivers

The types of goals and targets you should be giving yourself will vary based on your current experience and skill level. For beginner and intermediate level drivers, your focus should be on more of a driving fundamentals, objective approach. This means choosing categories such as braking points, braking consistency, apex speed, exit speed, line, for which to evaluate your performance.

As your driving becomes more advanced through experience with self-evaluation and analysis, the aforementioned categories should no longer be something you have to consciously focus on in order to understand where you can reduce your laptime. Your focus should instead shift to more abstract goals and targets, such as your breathing, concentration level and vision. We will cover these specific topics in future articles.

Your first self-assessment

Let’s start from the beginning. Before you’ve carried out any kind of analysis on your driving, it is not sensible to give yourself any targets. It is, however, a good idea to have an evaluation form with a list of performance criteria for which you can rate yourself on after your session. We have provided a template for you:

Self-assessment

Here we have divided up the driving components for each of the top three auto-generated sectors from VRS, which usually represents a single corner per sector. They are ordered to match the display of opportunities vs target on VRS, where the first one presents the biggest time opportunity to make up and so on.

Each component has a score out of 10 which you give yourself, based on how the session felt. Next to that is the same score, but this time it’s based on what you’ve seen in your driving having carried out some analysis using the tools on VRS. Additionally, each criterion has a field for entering any comments you feel are worth mentioning.

From this information, you should be able to narrow down a few targets to give yourself to work on for your next session, as shown in the example. We recommend keeping this list fairly short so you’re not overloading your brain with thoughts the next time you drive. In the example provided I’ve actually chosen just one target to focus on, which is to have a better exit, and I’ve broken it down into some important and related points.

The immediate benefits of documenting your practice like this are that it provides you with a clearer understanding for where you’re performing badly, and what you should be concentrating your efforts on. Any time you feel like you’re getting lost, or driving without intention, you can just refer yourself back to the notes you’ve given yourself and get back on track.

This document is just an example and a recommendation. By all means feel free to come up with your own version. More advanced drivers may find more value in scoring themselves with different or additional criteria, such as breathing or concentration as touched upon earlier. You might perhaps wish to create a new document for evaluating your performance over a full week, or even a month if you feel like you’ll get better value from doing so.

Tracking progress

Another benefit from recording and logging your performance, especially over longer periods for which you’ve completed many sessions and carried out many self-evaluations, is the ability to track your long term progress in great detail.

A good way of achieving this is with an additional, separate log, or spreadsheet. Input your scores and time deltas from each session. By tracking your performance over time, you are able to see the exact rate of improvement in specific areas. You will easily be able to identify trends without having to make guesses. Perhaps your corner exit scores are still showing continuous improvement, but your braking scores have been stagnant and need some more work?

If you find that you’ve plateaued in a specific area and you’re still not happy with your performance, it is often a good idea to shift your focus away from that and onto something else. Relentlessly working on the same thing without seeing any further gains is sure to ruin your motivation and may even push you towards giving up altogether.

You can also log your race performances in the same way, but include additional variables which may influence your scoring, such as weather, time of day, strength of field. Races also provide many other stats on which to measure yourself including finishing position, incident count, iRating change, SR change. It may even be beneficial to have separate weekly, monthly and even yearly logs which may all identify different patterns.

Up to you

Not everyone will benefit from tracking their driving data in such detail. Some may have limited time available, with other priorities, while others simply want to have fun without expectations. This is perfectly OK! If, however, you are someone who is determined to improve and are willing to go the extra mile to succeed, closely monitoring your performance so you know how best to take the most productive action going forward is sure to help you!

5.1: To setup or not to setup?

Posted on by Martin Krönke

vrsAs you progress through your iRacing career, competition is fiercer and you’ll need to use all the tools in the box to find the edge over your rivals. One of these tools is car setup. And while most beginner series have friendly communities with lots of setups being shared on the forums, the willingness to share setups significantly drops off at more competitive series. Especially at the top level of sim racing, setups are seen as highly guarded intellectual property. Thus, having a basic understanding of car setups becomes a very useful asset in your sim racing career.

But before you start, here are few questions you should answer to ascertain whether diving into setups is the best use of your time:

  • Are you willing to study and learn how to create a setup from scratch?
    This is not an “if this, then that” kind of guide. Setting up a car is about trade-offs within the limits of physics. Gaining proficiency in car setup is a process that requires you to experiment and analyze a lot.
  • Are you able to consistently hit lap times within 0.2s of your fastest lap?
    If not, then your biggest gains might not come from setups. In road racing, if you’re 3 seconds off the pace on a road track, probably only 0.3s is down to the setup. In oval racing, it’s much easier to learn the tracks, so car setup is a quite significant factor in open setup series.
  • Can you tell whether time loss was due to car or driver?
    You should be able to distinguish driver errors causing understeer, from a car setup change causing understeer. This means you should already be a driver capable of in-the-moment driving analysis.
  • Have you fully developed your driving style?
    Especially in road racing, driving style is typically a much more significant factor in lap times than car setup. Unless you are within 0.2-0.5s of your fastest teammate, or a VRS datapack, you are probably better off working on your driving style. On the flip side, if you have deeply ingrained old bad driving habits, it may be more efficient for you to tune the setup to your driving style. But still, we’d recommend that you try fixing your driving style first.
  • Are you used to driving the car which you want to setup?
    If you hop in a new car, it usually takes a bit of time getting used to it first. Pick up a decent setup (from the forums or a VRS datapack) first and focus on driving style until you are able to turn competitive lap times in the chosen setup.  

If you can answer all these questions with a definitive yes, then this guide is for you.

We’ll get started with the basics that apply to any car and we’ll progress to more advanced setup topics, which are only applicable to high-end cars. We’ll start with the Skip Barber RT2000, as it is the first open-setup car for most road racers, and also a car that’s understandable and sensitive enough to observe setup differences with. Then we’ll move on to the Formula Renault 2.0 which offers a lot more setup options. Also, the trade-offs between different adjustments become quite interesting in the FR2.0. Finally, we’ll look at a high-end, high-downforce car in the HPD ARX-01c.

Ready to get started? Head on to 5.2 where we focus on tyres.

3.4: Fundamentals: Braking technique

Posted on by David Williams

Having learned about the traction circle, the optimal racing line, and car control, the next chapter in this series looks at braking technique. Your brakes serve two purposes. The first is pretty obvious: to slow the car down. The second is more subtle, which is that brakes offer a method of controlling weight transfer and balance from corner entry to apex.

Straight line threshold braking
To brake as late as possible, you want to reduce the time spent slowing the car to a minimum. Achieving this requires you to exploit nearly 100% of the available grip from the tires in a straight line. This is known as threshold braking. It’s the brake pressure required to reach the point at which the tires are just on the edge of locking up, and no more.

We’ll divide braking technique up into non-downforce cars, such as the Mazda MX-5, Skip Barber, Porsche/RUF and Lotus 49, and downforce cars, such as the Formula Renault 2.0, the HPD, and the McLaren MP4-30. Even if you drive a downforce car, read the non-downforce section first.

Non-downforce cars
Don’t be afraid to brake too hard when you first hit the pedal from high speed. This is when the wheels have the most energy and are least likely to lock up. From this moment on, reaching threshold braking is a case of delicate modulation, and very much a feel thing, requiring practice.

With the above in mind, there are a couple of sources for feedback which can help out in the “feel” department. Firstly it’s a matter of listening to the tires, or in the case of open wheelers, visually seeing them lock up. It’s also possible (but more difficult) to feel changes in load through force feedback and rpm changes in the case of rear locking. Learn how the tires sound just before they lock up, and avoid braking harder than that (to help, you can raise the tire volume in the options menu). The required pressure will be consistent and repeatable regardless of speed assuming tire wear is discounted and the circuit is flat. This is therefore something which can be trained into your muscle memory over repetition. It’ll be obvious in iRacing when you’ve locked up, the tires will screech, the car won’t turn in the case of a front lock up, and you may see visible smoke.

VRS app telemetry braking trace before T5 at Okayama in the MX-5:braking trace - T5 Okayama

Downforce cars
Fundamentally the same rules apply to downforce cars, but it’s key to understand that the level of grip is speed-dependent. At high speed the car will produce more downforce and therefore the tires will have more grip when compared to travelling at low speed. When you start braking therefore, your speed is obviously greater than when you finish, and the grip level in turn decreases as you continue to brake. This of course means the required threshold braking pressure will decrease in connection with your speed.

How this typically works in practice: Slam the brakes to reach threshold braking quickly, then “bleed” off the brakes at the same rate as the car slows down and the downforce comes off.

Turn 1 at COTA with Martin Krönke in the MP4-30:
braking trace - T1 at COTA

A common mistake in racing downforce cars is not braking hard enough initially. Drivers tend to brake with an initial force which causes the tyres lock up at the end of the braking zone, failing to take full advantage of the extra grip early on.

ABS
Many modern race cars such as the GT3 class now feature driver aids such as traction control and ABS. Whilst ABS prevents locking of the wheels under heavy braking – especially when turning at the same time – it shouldn’t be relied on. Correctly carried out threshold braking is still more efficient, as ABS tends to work in a pulsating manner meaning the tyres lock up very briefly, reducing the braking performance and causing additional tire wear and heat. However, threshold braking is much easier to achieve in ABS equipped cars, as you get additional feedback – when engaged the ABS causes significant vibration which can be felt through the wheel with force feedback. Reduce brake pressure so you only have a subtle hint of this.

Understanding threshold braking while steering
Braking is further complicated when turning into a corner, and if you refer back to article 3.1 “The traction circle” you will know that in order to stay within the limits of the available grip at the tyres, you must reduce brake pressure as you steer, and eventually come off them at the point at which 100% of available lateral grip is being exploited (typically the apex of a corner).

Trail braking
The earlier paragraph is often termed “trail braking”, and is why you’ll see a fast driver bleed off the brakes as they turn into a corner even in cars without downforce. Proper trail braking technique however takes this a step further, and involves continuing to hold onto the brake pedal very deep into corners, typically right up to the moment at which the driver starts to apply throttle. This form of trail braking isn’t so much used to slow the car down but instead as a control method to maintain load on the front tires and reduce understeer from corner entry to apex. You can see evidence of this in Martin’s telemetry from the trace earlier in this article in his reluctance to fully release the brake pedal.

Here we can see David trail braking into T1 at Zolder with the BMW Z4. We have divided the braking phases as shown:
braking trace - T1 at Zolder

A: Threshold braking – bleeding off with downforce level
B: Exploiting the traction circle – reducing brake pressure with increasing steering angle
C: Trail braking – continuing to hold the brakes at 5-10% until applying exit throttle

Up to you:
These techniques will take a lot of practice and repetition before they start to become natural, and initially you may be worse off. Focus on one technique at a time and refer back to the VRS app for telemetry to review your efforts.

3.3: Fundamentals: Car control

Posted on by David Williams

A fundamental skill required to drive around a race track as quickly as possible, along with following the optimal racing line, 3.2, is having the ability to carry the maximum speed on that line. This essentially boils down to one thing: car control.

To have good car control means you are comfortable driving a car on the limit of its grip (and sometimes a little bit over it), where the behaviour of the car is very different to that of driving below this limit.

Below the limit, a car will steer to follow exactly the cornering path and radius to which you demand. Yet driving on the limit presents a much bigger challenge, and is where a competent racing driver operates.

How do we know when we’ve reached the limit of grip?
Two behaviours can occur when we exceed the maximum speed for a particular cornering radius. One of these is known as understeer, the other is known as oversteer.

Understeer
Understeer occurs when the available grip at the front tyres is less than at the rear tyres, and as a result the front of the car begins to push wide of the desired cornering radius when the limit of grip is exceeded.

 

Oversteer
Oversteer is the opposite and occurs when the available grip at the rear tyres is less than at the front tyres, and as a result the rear of the car begins to slide wide and the whole car rotates in the steered direction more than desired. When left uncorrected, this typically results in a loss of control and a spin.

 

Typically a car will exhibit very mild understeer or oversteer just below the limit of grip and the maximum possible speed for a given cornering radius. This is usually accompanied with a slight scrubbing sound from the tyres. In a simulator it’s difficult to feel the onset of under or oversteer, but it’s definitely possible to hear how hard you are pushing the tyres, and therefore how close you are to the limit of grip.

If you avoid exceeding the speed which results in these subtle cues from the car and tyres, you will also avoid putting yourself in the situation where you are forced to make a correction for either pushing wide from understeer, or over rotation due to oversteer. However, achieving this without ever exceeding the grip limit is an unrealistic expectation, and as a result it is very important to learn how to make corrections to deal with excessive understeer or oversteer to regain control of the car and bring it back within the limit of grip.

Generally a car will have an inherently built in bias towards either understeer or oversteer, but even a perfectly setup and balanced car can exhibit either characteristic depending on how it is driven.

Correcting for understeer
Understeer is certainly the easiest over-the-limit behaviour to make a correction to. The most effective method is to simply reduce throttle input, and if understeer persists, gently press on the brakes until the car ceases to run wide of the desired cornering line. The most common mistake a driver makes when experiencing understeer is to steer further into the corner. This will never reduce understeer (since you’re already over the limit of grip) and most of the time further reduce the grip at the front tyres, which in turn worsens the understeer.

 

Correcting for oversteer
Oversteer is significantly more difficult to deal with. If it’s felt or observed early enough, it can be fully corrected by doing the opposite to that which created the oversteer in the first place. For example, oversteer can be caused by using too much throttle in rear wheel driven cars, overwhelming the rear tyres and robbing them of lateral grip. Clearly, reducing throttle input in this situation will help reduce the oversteer.

 

There are however, other ways in which oversteer can be induced. There’s so called “lift off oversteer” whereby a driver abruptly lifts off the throttle whilst the car is loaded up mid corner, which causes a sudden deceleration due to engine braking and the car experiences a forward weight transfer shift, which adds grip to the front tyres whilst simultaneously reducing it at the rears. This effect can be even more severe if the driver squeezes on the brake pedal. The best method to correct for this is to quickly reapply some maintenance throttle to shift the weight transfer back to its original balance.

 

Opposite lock or countersteer
Generally, when oversteer occurs, it very quickly escalates beyond the point at which the above methods offer an effective correction, and a further measure is required.

This is known as countersteering, but also goes by the name of opposite lock, or steering into the slide. It is the act of steering in the opposite direction to that which the car is rotating.

 

Common mistakes
One of the most typical situations experienced by drivers who attempt to countersteer when presented with oversteer is overcorrecting. This happens when the correct amount of steering input is applied to begin to reverse the rotation of the car, but the driver is too late at straightening the steering wheel and as a result the car continues to rotate beyond the desired direction and continues into a “spin”.

 

Snap oversteer is another problem inexperienced drivers tend to suffer with, and is characterised by a sudden transition from understeer to oversteer. Typically when the car is understeering, the driver makes the mistake of applying more steering lock, further reducing the front grip. In this situation if the car loses rear grip (which could be caused by an abrupt throttle change, braking or a change in track surface), the car may begin to transition to oversteer whilst the driver maintains steering input. At this stage, if the driver attempts to countersteer, he/she must first unwind the extra steering lock which momentarily results in even more front grip before they can countersteer. Unsurprisingly, this almost always results in a terminal spin before the driver can react properly.

Drifting – sustained oversteer
Oversteer can be deliberately sustained in many cars, and the act of doing so is known as drifting. Drifting involves intentionally provoking oversteer, and then modulating the throttle and steering corrections in a way which prevents the car from spinning out of control but doesn’t fully arrest the slide. It can be a very helpful technique to learn, as it forces you to very quickly learn excellent car control which can help balancing the car on the limit of grip and saving potential spins and / or crashes. Of course we don’t recommend intentional drifting as a means for driving fast!

 

Balance
The ultimate goal here is a word you hear often in top level motor racing circles such as Formula 1, and that is balance. When the car has good balance, it means that you’re equally likely to experience either under or oversteer above the limit, resulting in the most neutral cornering behaviour which is usually the most efficient – and the fastest.

Up to you

We recommend taking the MX-5 out to the centripetal circuit within iRacing and having a play with the car at and over the limit, much in the same way as the demo videos in this article. We’re sure it will help you handle the car better at the limit and improve your overall car control. Aim to sense early cues for under and oversteer, both visually and aurally through tyre noise to recognise when they are nearing their limit of grip. Then apply that to the racetrack!

 

3.2: Fundamentals: The optimal racing line

Posted on by David Williams

Let’s apply the traction circle from 3.1 to the racing line, and combine it what we learned in 2.4, Driving Basics. Simply put, we want the tyres as close to the limit of grip as possible, and we want to carry the largest possible radius through a corner. See the following illustration.

The maximum speed we can carry through a corner is dictated by the size of the radius of the line taken, and as such, in the above corner, the green line will allow for the highest cornering speed for a given grip level.

racing-line

Sequences
Corners vary greatly in shape and style, and often tracks contain closely connected sequences. A good example are turns five to eight at Summit Point Raceway, where the ideal exit of turn five isn’t at the edge of the circuit because you want a wide entry into turn six, where you tighten up before running wide and bringing the car back in again for turn seven and finally turn eight. Notice how when treated as an interconnected sequence, the ideal line still follows the largest radius possible at all times, whilst being a compromise at an individual corner scale.

summit-point

Chicanes are treated in the same way: a combination of two corners with the route of straightest line through both, as seen here at Donington Park National.

donington

Entry vs exit
The ideal line isn’t always symmetric. Driving around a track isn’t a corner-by-corner thing. With each one you should consider what comes before and after. It’s worth, for example, compromising the entrance of a corner for a faster exit if you have a long straight after, as more time can be gained since exit speed is carried for the duration of the straight.

To achieve this, your turn-in point will be later and from a wider position, and therefore the radius of curvature is going to be tighter before returning to a late apex, resulting in a straighter line on exit, allowing for earlier throttle application as a result.

The reverse is also true. If you have a slow corner immediately following the one you’re taking, you can sacrifice the exit for a faster, more direct entry. The slow exit of the corner doesn’t matter, because you’ll spend very little time before the next one which requires a slow apex anyway.

Each corner requires prioritisation between entrance and exit, based on what comes before and after.

Here’s an example. The first corner of the Nürburgring Grand Prix layout has an early apex, where you compromise the exit because a slow corner follows.

nurb-gp

A good example of a late apex is the last corner at Road America, where the straight follows. Keep the car wide on the brakes and have a late turn-in. Your minimum speed should be well before the apex. Once you’re there, the car is already accelerating hard, carrying more speed onto the straight.

rd-america

Other factors
A final thing to note about the optimum racing line is that there are often exceptions caused by track and corner specific characteristics, such as bumps, camber (positive or negative), and curbs. Consider the racing line F1 cars use at Monaco after “Casino”, where they jink to the right then left to avoid the bump which would otherwise unsettle the traction and balance of the car, costing time. The racing line as described above assumes a circuit where grip levels are uniform throughout the racing surface, but when these other factors come into play, it’s worth modifying your line to where the extra grip is provided and vice versa.

Up to you

Analyze your lines carefully, keeping the biggest radius in mind and the sequence of corners and straights. Combine it with the knowledge of the traction circle, for the fastest way through corners.

If you’re struggling, remember you can compare your lines at any time with telemetry from datapacks on the VRS app. Follow it up with reading 3.3, on car control.

2.2: Your first test session

Posted on by Jaap Grolleman

mazda

You can try any car, but for road you’ll need the Pontiac Solstice or Global Mazda MX-5 in order to progress from Rookie license to license class D. We recommend the Global Mazda MX-5 Cup car. The Mazda is light and low-powered, so maintaining cornering speed is key. This is perfect for learning.

Recommended practice tracks are Lime Rock Park, Summit Point Raceway and Okayama Short. The Mazda goes really well on these circuits, plus they’re short so you’ll learn them more quickly. Alternatively, you can check which weekly track the Global MX-5 Cup series races at, and load that for your private test session.
It’s important to join a private test session first, before joining a public session, let alone a race. A simulator isn’t something you can just jump into, plus there are some things you need to learn about iRacing. We recommend you spend a good portion of the week in a private session. (We’ll talk more about this in scheduling)

And make sure you select Default Weather.

Default Weather explained
iRacing sessions can be held in outside temperatures from 18 to 32 degrees Celsius (65 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit), which greatly affects the performance of your tires and thus your laptime. It’s best to use Default Weather to allow better comparison with future laptimes and to then compare with other telemetry data, or VRS data packs which are always driven in Default Weather also.

Three steps to get here: click the orange 'Test' button, click 'Adjust weather', and click the blue 'use iRacing Defaults'.

 

Load the sim, set your video settings to what your computer can handle and calibrate your wheel and pedals. Then, set the Field of View via the calculator in-sim in graphics options. YouTuber KrazyDan explains it in this video.

Field of View explained
The FOV is very important to get right, otherwise your screen won’t display accurate real-world proportions for your view of the cockpit, track and your perception of distance and speed. If your FOV is off, your judgement and reactions will likely be off as well. Avoid choosing a wider view because you want to see your mirrors or your wheels, it’ll likely hurt your performance.

In the graphics menu, you can find your FOV settings. Measure your monitor and your distance from it, and let iRacing calculate your FOV. Single monitor users may find it necessary to compromise with a slightly higher value than calculated, but you can reduce the need for this by having the monitor as close as possible.
Going around
Don’t worry about the actual setup of the car itself, there’s no need to ever change the setup of the car if you’re not racing at the limit (and we’re not expecting you to do so right off the bat!). Just drive the track, get a feel for the weight and responsiveness of the car and, if new to “hardcore” simulations, you’ll likely realise this is unlike any other game you’ve ever driven.

Focus on driving clean laps, not going off-track, not locking wheels or getting all out of shape. Focus on hitting your apexes, finding the ideal line through the corners. Treat it like the real thing and try not to crash, as that will only demotivate you. Drive within your limits and slowly up the ante as you get more comfortable.

Going faster
Try to lap consistently within a second of your best lap. Don’t worry if it takes you a few hours to get to that level, it’s normal. As we said: sim racing is hard.

But once you reach that level of consistency, you can head over to YouTube and search for some hotlaps in your car and track combination, or check out one of the Virtual Racing School Data Packs. Take note of braking, turn-in, and apex points and the line taken through entry and exit.

limerock

Up to you:

Avoid rushing into a public practice session just yet. Practice in a private session! Before going ‘public’, consider reading up on ergonomics.