My thoughts about the forum and the community

[BhZ]

Lately i've been particularly active on this forum and i took part to many discussions. One in particular got my attention. It was about the fact that fast drivers don't help rookies during practice. I think it's true, but at the same time i think many rookies don't even ask. I raced a lot recently on RD and i think i remember just one question in something like 8 races: "what wings are you guys running?". That was the only question that someone asked during practice. This got me thinking about the community and the forum and i noticed that the majority of the posts here on RD are about peripheral issues, graphical issues, news, random stuff. Now, in a simracing forum i'd expect more questions about cars, tracks, driving tecnique...Asking question in a 30 minutes practice just before the race won't make you a better driver for the simple reason that if you are not already a great driver, 30 minutes are barely enough to stay on track and possibly find good braking points. What will make you a better driver is to ask question on the forum, get an answer to it and apply in an offline session what you just learned until it becomes natural.
Everyone is free to do whatever he wants and race every night with a different car in a different track, but my advice is to take at least half of the days you'd race to just choose a car and a track and practice. Push the car, be curious about where is the limit of it. That is the only way to actually improve. Racing every day doesn't give you the time to get confidence with a car or a track, so you will improve, but at a much slower speed and you won't have time to work on the setup, because it's useless to work on the setup if you still have to find the limit of the car.
So my request is as follows: Ask about anything related to a car or track here on the forum, even if it's a stupid question, there are people here ready to help.
I also have a suggestion for the RD staff: In order to improve the quality of racing on RD, it would be cool in my opinion to have nights where instead of racing, you guys set up a server with a car and a track (possibly a combo that will be used in the next RD event) where people can sign up (like in a normal race) and practice for a couple of hours. So you have some sort of "practice event" where people willing to improve can learn more and where hopefully some of the fast guys (which usually practice a lot) will come as well and help.
Just to be sure, since english is not my first language, i want to specify that this is just my opinion and advice to try to improve the quality of driving. Let me know what are your thoughts about it and if you have other ideas that could make this forum a better place.

 

[Brandon Wright]

Asking question in a 30 minutes practice just before the race won't make you a better driver for the simple reason that if you are not already a great driver, 30 minutes are barely enough to stay on track and possibly find good braking points.

That's one of the main reasons I preferred the longer 45 minute practice sessions, followed by a 15 minute qualifying session. More time to get practice in, more time to ask questions, more time to tinker, more time to give advice. With the new 30 minute session by the time you get logged on, get a few warm up laps, get your tire pressures adjusted, it's almost time for qualifying already and there's not always enough time to ask questions or tinker around with settings. And then with the shorter qualifying it adds some excitement because you only have a few laps to get it right and no real time to tinker around, just get out there and get it done.

 

[BhZ]

That's one of the main reasons I preferred the longer 45 minute practice sessions, followed by a 15 minute qualifying session. More time to get practice in, more time to ask questions, more time to tinker, more time to give advice. With the new 30 minute session by the time you get logged on, get a few warm up laps, get your tire pressures adjusted, it's almost time for qualifying already and there's not always enough time to ask questions or tinker around with settings. And then with the shorter qualifying it adds some excitement because you only have a few laps to get it right and no real time to tinker around, just get out there and get it done.

The 30 mins qualifying is necessary for the faster drivers...I find myself 8 seconds faster than some of the guys in the server and getting a clean lap is almost impossible. That means that is just a matter of luck whether i get the pole or geoffroy does (to make an example). 45 minutes wouldn't make any difference in terms of preparation. In the end, before the race you have 1 hour anyway.

 

[Brandon Wright]

The 30 mins qualifying is necessary for the faster drivers...I find myself 8 seconds faster than some of the guys in the server and getting a clean lap is almost impossible. That means that is just a matter of luck whether i get the pole or geoffroy does (to make an example). 45 minutes wouldn't make any difference in terms of preparation. In the end, before the race you have 1 hour anyway.

Why would it be necessary for faster drivers? I'd argue the opposite. The fast guys go out and set their lap in the first 10-15 minutes and then sit in the pits the rest of the session, at least in my experience. 15 minutes for qualifying always worked great when we did it before, it made it into an event instead of another long session where you take your time, and if you managed to screw up you may not have time to get another quality lap in so there was the potential for variety, just like in real racing (F1 and IndyCar don't get anywhere near 30 minutes to qualify, for example). And with the longer practice session there was more time to ask questions, test things out, offer advice, it worked out great. An extra 15 minutes may not seem like a lot but that's 50% of the session and we always had great results with it in the past, plenty of time to practice and ask questions.

BTW, I was trying to support your point, not argue with you.

 

[BhZ]

Why would it be necessary for faster drivers? I'd argue the opposite. The fast guys go out and set their lap in the first 10-15 minutes and then sit in the pits the rest of the session, at least in my experience. 15 minutes for qualifying always worked great when we did it before, it made it into an event instead of another long session where you take your time, and if you managed to screw up you may not have time to get another quality lap in so there was the potential for variety, just like in real racing (F1 and IndyCar don't get anywhere near 30 minutes to qualify, for example). And with the longer practice session there was more time to ask questions, test things out, offer advice, it worked out great. An extra 15 minutes may not seem like a lot but that's 50% of the session and we always had great results with it in the past, plenty of time to practice and ask questions.

BTW, I was trying to support your point, not argue with you.

Np, it's a simple discussion and i think it helps to consider other's point of view. I found myself looking for a 20 seconds gap between me and the one in front of me because i would gain around 8 seconds per lap. If you consider the outlap and the hotlap, you gain 16 seconds and in a track with 24 people, it's hard to find.

 

[Brandon Wright]

Np, it's a simple discussion and i think it helps to consider other's point of view. I found myself looking for a 20 seconds gap between me and the one in front of me because i would gain around 8 seconds per lap. If you consider the outlap and the hotlap, you gain 16 seconds and in a track with 24 people, it's hard to find.

Oh, ok, I see. IMO that's just part of racing, you gotta pick your spot and do the best with what you get, and I like that element of it. Gotta be on your game, can't just lollygag around until you get your ideal lap. Just my opinion of course, not saying that's the best or correct way, just what I like. On this side of the pond we rarely get 24 people or have an 8 second gap in the field so it's never an issue for us.

 

[BhZ]

Oh, ok, I see. IMO that's just part of racing, you gotta pick your spot and do the best with what you get, and I like that element of it. Gotta be on your game, can't just lollygag around until you get your ideal lap. Just my opinion of course, not saying that's the best or correct way, just what I like. On this side of the pond we rarely get 24 people or have an 8 second gap in the field so it's never an issue for us.

Yeah i know. I race in some us events as well. I'd agree with you if we had the slowest guys just 2-3 seconds slower than the fastest. But with people 8 seconds slower it's just an issue, no realism in that.

 

[Brandon Wright]

But with people 8 seconds slower it's just an issue, no realism in that.

You must not have watched F1 during the Virgin/HRT/Campos/Caterham/Manor/Marussia years.

 

[Zoltan76]

This is really a good post. I'm usually 3-5s behind the fast guys in a random online session. I started watching those guys just trying to learn the tricks. I think a good setup will give U minus 1-2s on a mid-long track so this is only one part of the story. I experienced that the pole-guys can brake appr. 20-40m!!! later than me. Two days ago I complained under a session in Spa about the fact that the really good setups are rarely shared, the ones on setup market are merely usable. Shame on me not remembering the guy's name, but he explained me some tricks in setup, so I think it worths asking questions.

 

[Zoltan76]

An idea. That would be a good thing to start a server or even a championship for the not-so-fast guys. I don't know if this is feasible or not. Maybe based on some kinda online timing rank like RSR.

 

[Andy_J]

Yeah i know. I race in some us events as well. I'd agree with you if we had the slowest guys just 2-3 seconds slower than the fastest. But with people 8 seconds slower it's just an issue, no realism in that.

Mod Edit: lets not spoil a thread, either add to it or stay out of it please.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

Question can be asked on teamspeak right up to the race race start, (obviously asking when racing is to late,)
all we ask is no typing in qually or race.
but teamspeak is there and open to all to ask questions, nobody has ever said you cant ask questions in there in qually, you may not get a answer as guys at trying to focus but we have no rule that says you cant... so whether is 45 mins practice and 15 mins qually or 30 , 30 its still a whole hour to ask, relevant questions
The reason behind the 30, 30 mins for practice and qually is that some drivers only may get 1 hour of freedom away from the wife or family, on race night, so having a break right in the middle of the of this is not good.
so we want to allow the full 30 mins in one session before a race.
if you just want to test yourself, just go out for the last 15 mins of qually even though its set for 30 mins.
the choice is yours.

Any premium member can join a league, your speed is not important, all we ask is that you follow the rules. and turn up for said event.
We used to have a rule that you could not race in a league until you have raced at club level.
but that was to see if you attended the events you signed up for mainly..

 

[BhZ]

I really feel for you BhZ. Those PITA back markers and slow noobs. They really spoil it for you.

I really tried to be the most polite and politically correct possible, but i see it's hard to not offend anyone in 2017.

 

[BhZ]

I feel like this post is going on another topic.

 

[RasmusP]

@BhZ thank you for starting a good discussion and being actively helping! I can learn a lot from your driving!
I would love to have a RD trackday server. Track rotation, many different cars (that are driven in the events) and just a meeting spot for us.
Driving casually, learning, helping, trying and finding setups together
If that's not possible the idea with "practice events" is very good too! @Bram is doing a tremendous job with his academy events and I think events open for all skill levels casually driving together would be a good addition to improve further

 

[BrianUK]

Just a simple statement from me, I've said what I needed to say enough times: there is nothing stopping anyone from using quali as an extra practice session. It's what I do, then go for my quickest lap the end of quali.

 

[Andy_J]

Mod Edit: Be more respectful to other members of the forums, please.

 

[BhZ]

The point of my post was the fact that to improve you need time and you need to ask questions. I see people got distracted by things like the duration of qualy, how fast guys are annoyed by slow ones... I can only say one thing. If you ask on the forum, you might get a full answer with details about what you want to know; if you ask during practice, you'll get barely the information you need, because people are preparing for a race and they have to prepare as much as you. At this point i'll just ask one thing: don't accuse us of not sharing with you our knowledge, because at the moment, it looks like most of the drivers don't want it.

 

[Brandon Wright]

if you ask during practice, you'll get barely the information you need, because people are preparing for a race and they have to prepare as much as you.

Really depends on the group. With our group it's not at all uncommon for the faster guys to hop onboard with the slower guys and give them tips, or even read off their setup so the entire group can give it a try.

 

[BhZ]

Really depends on the group. With our group it's not at all uncommon for the faster guys to hop onboard with the slower guys and give them tips, or even read off their setup so the entire group can give it a try.

Sharing setups is not that helpfull. I started learning about setups the moment i stopped using others setup and started looking for info on how to do it on my own. Many people need tips on braking, using the track to your advantage, using the whole width of the track, setups in general, use of the pedals and the wheel. That's not the kind of knowledge you can share in 1 hour. That's why i think that people should start worry about their driving before the actually get on track (obviously if they have time, but then again, who doesn't have time to ask for some tips on a forum?).