Loosing time in corners, how to fix it?

[Tech Enthusiast]

I am not sure if this is an actual issue with my setup, or just the games funky way of handling target times, but anyways:

When looking at my target times I usually bet out the AI and am first place in practice sessions, by about 300-500ms. So I am fast enough I guess.
Yet, when doing a qualifying practice (china for example), I can't even remotely beat the needed time. THAT part is an error of the game, that's for sure,... but I am also loosing big in corners.

When I am ahead 600ms on a straight and get into a corner, I usually exit the corners with much less spare. And I am quite certain I am taking the corners correctly (veryfied in time trails vs ghosts).

So, what may I be doing wrong? What parts of the car Setup could improve my corner speeds (I tested a lot and nothing really seems to help the issue).

[Dreagon]

Probably a combination of not breaking late and hard enough and not acceleration early and fast enough.

[Tech Enthusiast]

In China I am loosing time on the very first corner for example. It just ticks down while turning.
According to the top time ghosts, I am spot on on my line,.... so Id guess it is a setup type of issue.

I just can not figure this one out tbh.
By now I am pretty confident with all my setups and can adjust for any situation that comes up, but the slow corners. :-(

[Dreagon]

Sure, you may take the right line but you can still be too slow. While I often lose time in the actual corner, I regain it and sometimes gain time while accelerating out of it.

[Maya-Neko]

First of all: Practice Sessions doesn't really tell you anything about how fast you are. The AI doesn't really push most of the time, if they're not doing some qualifying stints

Toe and Camber as well as the suspension stiffness are propably the first things that might change most here , but it's hard to guess, what you should change without seeing some laps of you trying these programs (that you're gaining so much time while accelerating is a hint, that your setup is made for turn exits, while being quite bad at turn entries though). It could also be your driving style, if you're not nailing the race line.

[Syrential]

I know some of the quali practice times are shown wrong, but I didn't experience lagging behind after a corner, unless I took them wrong.

It could be that you enter the corners too fast. Even if you manage to hold the line, you'll miss the perfect acceleration point and despite entering the corner quickly, you'll exit it slow. You can lose A LOT of time with that. I also find myself entering corners too fast by accident, especially if I try to chase a specific time.

With fast corners you can try adjusting the front spoiler. With a too low setting you will understeer quickly (you get pushed outside), so increasing the drag on the front wheels can improve corner speed. China has a few fast corners so that could help.

[Tech Enthusiast]

So, are there some Setup settings I can change in order to improve this possibly?

More wings lead to more grip, but that does not seem to improve my corner speed (after a certain value obviously). The moment I can do the turn correctly, more wing does not improve my corner speed further.

More / less camber is touted to improve corner performance, while putting the slider all the way to the left is supposed to help high speed corners and all the way to the right is supposed to help slow speed corners.
I don't seem to notice ANY difference with that setting tho.
My corner speed in china is the same, even when trying both extreme variants of this setting,...

What other settings may hinder my corner speed, if I am 100% certain to have the perfect line?

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by Syrential:

It could be that you enter the corners too fast. Even if you manage to hold the line, you'll miss the perfect acceleration point and despite entering the corner quickly, you'll exit it slow. You can lose A LOT of time with that. I also find myself entering corners too fast by accident, especially if I try to chase a specific time.

In that case the time normally get's better in the corner and drops hard on the following straight, as a fast entry means a slow exit. But here it's the other way around, hinting that the entry is too slow, leading to a faster exit.

[Tech Enthusiast]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

First of all: Practice Sessions doesn't really tell you anything about how fast you are. The AI doesn't really push most of the time, if they're not doing some qualifying stints

I realize that, yet I am getting pole position by the same margin usually, so I am sure I am not just bad for my difficulty setting. I just seem to be bad in understanding why I am loosing time in corners that look like I am taking them perfectly.

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

Toe and Camber as well as the suspension stiffness are propably the first things that might change most here

What kinda setting to you suggest for China, turn 1?
Talking about EVERY corner in the game, obviously won't help me to understand what I am missing, so I want to focus on Turn 1/2,.. the long right then left turns.

I am entering the corner at a pretty high speed (obviously, after the straight). By the end of the right turn, I am down to 90ish km/h and feel like a snail. Also AI cars catch up to me on this very turn and try to overtake me, or crash into me. Once I leave the left turn after that, I can easily stay ahead and pull away from the AI again.

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

It could also be your driving style, if you're not nailing the race line.

I am nailing the official driving line perfectly, but I did notice that the AI is taking a DIFFERENT line. Tested this on wet conditions. The dry(er) parts of the street are actually one car width to the left of the racing line at the middle of turn 1. This leads to a much better entrance to turn 2,...

Also: Thanks for your suggestions!

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by Tech Enthusiast:

So, are there some Setup settings I can change in order to improve this possibly?

More wings lead to more grip, but that does not seem to improve my corner speed (after a certain value obviously). The moment I can do the turn correctly, more wing does not improve my corner speed further.

More / less camber is touted to improve corner performance, while putting the slider all the way to the left is supposed to help high speed corners and all the way to the right is supposed to help slow speed corners.
I don't seem to notice ANY difference with that setting tho.
My corner speed in china is the same, even when trying both extreme variants of this setting,...

What other settings may hinder my corner speed, if I am 100% certain to have the perfect line?

Never use Aero settings for corner speed. They're not made to make you faster in there, but just to give you grip for it in medium and high speed corners. This will in the worst case even loose you grip and speed in dependence of your ride height.

- The Camber might help a littlebit on longer turns or on straight and is also important for tyre wear. But the impact isn't that big most of the time, if other things causing more problems.
- Toe might help you to steer in more aggressive for the cost of stability, which might help you to fine tune the point at which understeer kicks in.

- Front and rear suspension can also help to utilize the weight shift better. Stiffening the rear will give you more grip on the front while braking, while more front stiffness will give you more grip on the rear while accelerating. That's why you often see quite high rear suspension values.
- And the stabilizer might also help, if you're driving over uneven ground
--> but keep in mind, that those 4 values shouldn't be too high, as this might cause loss of grip, when the load on the tyre gets too high.

[Tech Enthusiast]

Originally posted by Syrential:

With fast corners you can try adjusting the front spoiler. With a too low setting you will understeer quickly (you get pushed outside), so increasing the drag on the front wheels can improve corner speed. China has a few fast corners so that could help.

If at all, I seem to have a little bit of oversteer, but that can easily be managed by not hitting the wheel as hard. ;-)

[Tech Enthusiast]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

Never use Aero settings for corner speed. They're not made to make you faster in there, but just to give you grip for it in medium and high speed corners. This will in the worst case even loose you grip and speed in dependence of your ride height.

- The Camber might help a littlebit on longer turns or on straight and is also important for tyre wear. But the impact isn't that big most of the time, if other things causing more problems.
- Toe might help you to steer in more aggressive for the cost of stability, which might help you to fine tune the point at which understeer kicks in.

- Front and rear suspension can also help to utilize the weight shift better. Stiffening the rear will give you more grip on the front while braking, while more front stiffness will give you more grip on the rear while accelerating. That's why you often see quite high rear suspension values.
- And the stabilizer might also help, if you're driving over uneven ground
--> but keep in mind, that those 4 values shouldn't be too high, as this might cause loss of grip, when the load on the tyre gets too high.

Thanks for that.
Ill give that a go once I get back home.
This one corner is driving me nuts. I can't seem to wrap my head around my poor performance there,... most other tracks are so much easier to fine tune settings for that I was about to increase difficulty by a fair amount, but China stopped that plan due to not being able to actually bet the target times lol

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by Tech Enthusiast:

What kinda setting to you suggest for China, turn 1?
Talking about EVERY corner in the game, obviously won't help me to understand what I am missing, so I want to focus on Turn 1/2,.. the long right then left turns.

I am entering the corner at a pretty high speed (obviously, after the straight). By the end of the right turn, I am down to 90ish km/h and feel like a snail. Also AI cars catch up to me on this very turn and try to overtake me, or crash into me. Once I leave the left turn after that, I can easily stay ahead and pull away from the AI again.

It's not a good idea to tailor your setup to just one corner. That will just loose you time everywhere else. But i can't really help you here. Setups are quite subjective. What works for my driving style might be bad for your driving style. (and i don't really look at speed most of the time^^ I'm more focused on the apex and doesn't have really the time to look at my dashboard)

And the first corners in China are one of the hardest in the entire race calender anyway. There's so much potential to loose time here, that it would be better to start with other, easier corners. It's sometimes better to loose time here and to get it back later in the track.

Originally posted by Tech Enthusiast:

I am nailing the official driving line perfectly, but I did notice that the AI is taking a DIFFERENT line. Tested this on wet conditions. The dry(er) parts of the street are actually one car width to the left of the racing line at the middle of turn 1. This leads to a much better entrance to turn 2,...

The racing line can change depending on how you're approaching corners. If you're more focused on corner exits, then Verstappens approach might suit your driving style better:
https://youtu.be/f1_UK2TmgdM