ERS greyed out - can't change when racing

[JREP]

I have ERS assists off and on my controller settings shortcuts for ERS increase and decrease but it won't change, the setting is greyed out, i can't even use the d pad to go down and change it.

[Drovek]

They removed the ability to do that (with the exception of Free Practice, I think?), and instead you have now the Overtake button which is an instant switch to max power.

[Eddy1991]

they kinda removed that.. you have the overtake button on Free Prac and Race Sessions. but ya thats it

[JREP]

Yeahi think you're rigt, weird that you get control in practice but not the race, whats the point haha? So you just run in medum deployment all race, weird it doesn't let you do 0 for example

[Maya-Neko]

The point is, that the game doesn't know, what kind of practice you want to do. If you're going for some long runs, then it's the medium mode and overtake you want to use, while you want to use 0 and hot lap for qualifying tests.

And there's no reason to switch it off mid race. The battery charges quite fast in medium mode, so none isn't really needed there

[ScouseSeattle]

In theory, you would not be in "medium deployment all race", the car computer would be changing it as programmed. I do not know if the game simulates that or not (I would guess not)

[cwattyeso]

ERS in F1 2020 simulates how real Formula 1 cars use and deploy the Energy Recovery System. In Real F1 all the harvesting and deployment is pre-mapped by team that handles the ICE system using GPS data from the circuit. Software then onboard the Car automatically deploys the stored energy at the parts of the track where the team feels it beneficial to have the extra power and then automatically switches to harvesting/recovery in the sections where the extra power is not needed. The only manual input then that the drivers and teams have is the "Overtake" or Boost button depending on what the drivers or teams call it, where a driver can temporarily override the software in the car and manually deploy the store energy, however once this energy store is depleted then the software takes over again and until the energy store reaches a certain capacity the Overtake Button gets temporarily disabled, which is why drivers must be disciplined with it and only use it in short bursts.

So in F1 2020 the game your cars in Free Practice and Race will run in the "Mode 1" or software controlled Harvesting and Deployment setting. You will however have the option to manually push the Overtake Button to manually deploy the charge.

In Qualifying you will have access to the "Zero Mode" & "Hot Lap" (Commonly referred to by some teams as the Party Mode Engine Setting teams like Mercedes and Ferrari have to explain why they in Qualifying and especially Q3 can go so much faster then any other time in the weekend.) You use the Zero Mode on your out lap to charge the ERS capacity to full, then use Hot Lap to get maximum deployment once again automatically mapped by the ICE Team over the course of the lap (This is why the Overtake Button does not work in Qualifying) and then you use the Zero Mode again on your in lap/cool down lap to charge the battery again.

So the game is definitely working more accurately this time around, rather then last years game and before where you had to manual adjust ERS 1 million times a lap. Even the real F1 Drivers called that out for being BS this year in all those Virtual Races we had.