Driving Etiquette - Honest Answers Only!

sim etiquette.jpg
What type of sim racer are you online?

Here’s the scenario…..

You’re racing around in your favorite sim, battling for position at Spa. So far racing has been clean and out of the corner with no name the driver in front nearly clips the wall and momentarily releases the throttle. This provides you with an opportunity to overtake into Pouhon, you have more momentum and manage to get partially alongside. You both go into Pouhon, door to door, the other driver giving you ample space, but in your haste to get to Campus first to get on the throttle too early and rear of your car kicks out.

You slam into your fellow sim racer and they hurtle off track and spin out.

Do you A - Pull over and wait for them to re-join the track and take up your position behind them. Even though you will both lose many places. (This is the golden rule standard in our own Racing Club)

Do you B - Shrug your shoulders, feel bad for a moment but carry on and mutter something to yourself like “it wasn't on purpose, and this has happened to me many times”.

This accident wasn’t deliberate, but it was 100% your fault.

Also notice that I haven’t stated if this is an open lobby, ranked race, or league race. Would your decision on what to do differ depending on what type of race?

Let us know what you would do and what factors might tip you in a different direction, but PLEASE NOTE this is a discussion piece and so keep comments nice and friendly.
  • Like
Reactions: Dzul, Mike_Dreis, Paul Harwood and 2 others
About author
Damian Reed
Damian Reed
PC geek, gamer, content creator, and passionate sim racer.
I live life a 1/4 mile at a time, it takes me ages to get anywhere!

More in Misc

Comments

B
What would Max or Hamilton do ... Is racing, accidents happens by your fault or by others...
In any case of the stakes are low and we were having fun fighting I'll wait else a sincere sorry and keep racing
 
Shannon Flynn
In theory I like A
In practice, I've seen doing this cause another incident with cars approaching the crash.
So, B, it is for me. And apologies for hours in the forum afterwards
 
Jason Chamberlain
Premium
Slapped said:
Just because it is your corner according to the rules, doesn't mean to say you'll survive the corner if you adopt the attitude that it is your corner come hell or high water.
Click to expand...
This reminds me of the Verstappen/Ocon incident several years ago, except there was even more reason for Max to just let Ocon by and pass him later. It's akin to a traffic light turning green and noticing that cross-traffic isn't stopping. Sure, it may be their fault, but we still have wrecked cars.

I like to think I would be A. Racing exclusively in leagues helps with this too.
 
nepal roade
I agree with Han, and see it as a simple matter that takes intent out of the equation. If you mess up someone else's race, then in order to keep things properly in balance you should pay at least as much as the driver affected. This is what has attracted me to race here at RD (apart from good AMS2 events).
 
Paul Harwood
In series, for-points and championship etc. I don't think you wait up for the poor victim you may have bumped into. The race officials handle these situations. But for all other casual online racing I would indeed stop and wait for my victim to get back running. Sometimes damage settings won't make that possible.

If I bump into a car that is already spinning, I may not wait. If the incident was not my fault, I will probably not wait.

I came across some strange public servers recently with Assetto Corsa, who were running very strange rules concerning passing and lapping slower cars. That made me look up the FIA sporting code but I am still waiting to hear back from them concerning all the actual FIA passing and lapping rules. Someone on that server bleeted out: "We're following FIA rules ..." But somehow I have my doubts about that. If its a public server that's casual racing so I don't see how actual or previously used FIA serious competition rules relate to this.

One rule or principle I see that is being used by some online leagues is: 'The safety of a pass is the responsibility of the passing driver'. I mostly agree.

The other 2 concepts I think about are 1- Having the cars about to be passed hold their line, as in IMSA multi-class racing and 2- having them move off the racing line as in many open wheel series.

Leagues and servers need to be clear on which they want drivers to use.

PH
 
M
Premium
Redress in a league race and not in other races, eg iracing where there is no specific rule.

I do remember a league race where the guy was a bit rubbish in his braking and I got him. I could have considered it his error but I hit him and waited for him..

I remember waiting, and waiting, he was just sitting there while cars were going and I was thinking this is stupid, how long to you wait to redress if hes not going.. Then he escapes to pits and I have gone from top 5 to 20th..
 
eg01st
Have done both. For simracing, scenario here is too limited. If it's an equal driver that has been defending cleanly, A.
If it's clearly a bad driver that has been weaving, blocking and being clearly slower than me for the last lap or more, B.
 
MJQT
Not an online racer, but here's my hypothetical take.

I feel like B is actually what you should be able to do. In real life competitive racing, you do whatever you can to win, and you only don't do something if you'd get penalized by stewards for doing so. For example, check out the F1 drivers this year driving others off the road and initiating contact... because they clearly weren't going to be penalized by Masi and company for doing so. If the stewards don't penalize you, that's on them, not you. And even if you do something bad, IRL, you would drive on (if you can) and wait for the penalty to be handed down. In online racing, you'd ideally be waiting for the live steward, automatic penalty system, or post-race penalties by a league admin.

Also, contact often hurts you (in terms of damage and time loss) as well as the other drivers, so it's still generally in your interest to avoid it.

BUT... given the reality of poor automatic penalty systems and lack of live stewarding – especially in public lobbies – A is the better option. It's more respectful, and after all, everyone's just there to have some fun. :)
 
Last edited:
BrunoBæ
A short story from my former iRacing days.:)
In a Mazda MX-5 race on Okayama a Finnish guy was leading the race.
I had been following him closely for about 3-4 laps without being able to overtake him.:whistling:

And because I didnt want to slow us both down by repeatedly threadening him we slowly left all the others behind.
He was very good defending himself the few places I tried to overtake him while not wanting to take both of us out.

On the last lap I had more or less given up - telling myself that this fu* guy was too good for me.
Then about 500m from the finish line he slowed completely down.:confused:
Nearly parking the car.
So I couldnt do anything else than overtake and win the race.:ninja:

Afterwards I asked him on the post race messages wtf happened.
His answer was that he did feel that I deserved to win - because he felt that he had defended himself slightly unfair.

This is many years ago.
But there is probably a reason I still remember it.:thumbsup:
 
H
I only race public servers and always do A unless the other driver was way slower and driving in a way that forced me to pass him in a dangerous way by defending too much and too aggressively.
 
D
B, in a close door to door situation like that where two drivers enter a corner side by side it's just a racing incident to me no ill intent, stuff happens. Now if I out braked myself by a mile and slammed in to the other driver that's my own dumb fault and I'd do my best to give the place back if possible. Also I would apologize profusely for my mistake. Sorry goes a long way sometimes! I would pull over and do the "A" option only if it was absolutely safe which isn't always the case and let the crashed driver gather it back up if they can and pass. Stopping on track, even on the side could potentially cause more issues for others battling and possibly end up wrecking someone else or at very least confuse them as to what's going on.
 
Last edited:
BP
In that specific scenario, definitely Option A, plus I'll apologise either on voice chat, text chat or, if they leave early, I'll PM them my apology. Doesn't matter if it's a RD fun race or an official race in iRacing.

If there's any possibility it's a racing incident where we both share the blame then probably Option B in an official race...then I'll review the replay and we can talk it out after the race.
 
Metla
Premium
Honest answer?

Nose to rear quarter panel on corner entry, Nudge them into a spin, Blast past in a wave of glory.
 
BabyGotBackmarker
Always go with A. I'd want the same courtesy. If I were a 17-year old e-sports competitor racing in serious leagues, maybe I'd be a bit more ruthless. But I'm a 41-year old dabbler with wildly inconsistent lap times and a developing beer gut. Know thyself.
 

Latest News

Article information

Author
Damian Reed
Article read time
2 min read
Views
8,111
Comments
68
Last update

Share this article

What is the reason for your passion for sim racing?

  • Watching real motorsport

    Votes: 396 69.4%

  • Physics and mechanics

    Votes: 251 44.0%

  • Competition and adrenaline

    Votes: 267 46.8%

  • Practice for real racing

    Votes: 120 21.0%

  • Community and simracers

    Votes: 158 27.7%
See comments…
Back
Top