Practice Trim lap option

[Romeo]

Hey managers,

My strategy in practice is first to send my drivers out and call them back immediately. (no run laps). When I am happy with the settings, I then just send them out for the rest of the practice session to get knowledge perks on whatever tire type I plan to use during the race and some race or quali bonus. Sometimes I set a driver on quali trim and the other on race trim. Sometimes they're both on the same trim.

In the first part of that strategy I set their driving style in the blue for tires (saving tires for second part) and red for engine (trying to make up for the blue tires). That way, when the second part of practice starts (when I am happy with the settings) I can go for a flying lap with tires at about 95%. This gets me a rough idea of what's quali gonna be like.

Now, when you pick a trim you get the option to chose how many laps you plan to run: say "race trim, 8 laps". You can of course call the drivers back whenever you want though.

What does this option do? (aside from filling your fuel tank). Is there any benefits or drawbacks for picking, say, an 8 lap trim when you'll only be able to run 3 laps before the practice ends? Or picking a 3 laps quali trim when I know I am gonna call the drivers right after they left the paddock?

I am well aware that running practice quali trim gets me bonus knowledge for quali. Same goes for race trim and the actual race. I am also well aware that running practice on a certain type of tire gives me bonus knowledge for said tires. I plan those bonuses depending on sponsors objectives, expected performances during the race, tire wear on the track etc. I am also well aware that switching trim type (quali/race) costs seconds. I usually don't do that.


TL;DR: The question is: what does the trim lap option you pick in practice do? Does it help gaining knowledge bonuses faster if you run the precise number of laps you picked?

[Inardesco]

The amount of feedback you get is dependant on the feedback level and the amount of laps the driver has run on that tire and trim.

Two high feedback drivers (15-20) can get tier 3 race and tire trim from a 4-lap racetrim (if they both run it at the same time) and they need to run 4 laps of quali-trim as well to get the tier 3 knowledge in quali.

[shortshifted78]

If you dig into the files and code, there are comments about the driver not being able to get the feel of the car on short runs. What we all do is cheese the mechanics of the game. I think the intent was to allow the drivers to really get an idea of what they want out of the car if the go for longer runs. It would also allow a low feed back driver to act more like a high feedback driver on short runs. If you had 1 high and 1 low feedback driver, you would need to perform 2 different practice strategies to get the cars dialed in. With the little time that is given for practice it would be partial choas and you would almost always sacrifice your qual trim or race trim and maybe just get 1 tire compound figured out

In reality, the way the game is coded, it doesn't make a difference.

[Romeo]

@shortshifted78: Alright, so it doesn't do anything aside from filling the fuel tank but it was meant to pair/complement the feedback mechanics of the game that we all cheese. Got it.

@Inardesco: Oh, so the drivers' feedback stat not only influence the rate at which the green bars of the settings shrink but it also speeds up the knowledge bonus gains? I see..

Thank you both