Knowing when to pit?

[Agathorn (SH)]

Ok let me preface this post by saying that I am absolutely loving this game to death, but I really know nothing about motorsports and absolutely *nothing* about F1 style racing. Pretty much all my experience with racing at all comes from Days of Thunder and a trip or two to a NASCAR race as a kid.

Right now I am really struggling with my race strategy. Often I get my drivers near the front of the pack early on and they are doing well, but then first pit I make they end up at the back of the pack never to be heard from again. Since it is impossible to make it through a whole race without multiple pits for tires and fuel, this is a big problem for me.

Can anyone help me understand how to time my pits and my overall race strategy so I can do better?

[Silverangel]

Racing is Tactical, not a 1 on1 Headsup each time u see a driver in front of you.
Dont try to get them on all needs.
Before Race starts, u should already have a Plan how long your Turns will last. Some pushing rounds included. You can vary a bit in Race (for sure u must when it starts or stops raining ;))

Dont Race them directly. You Race them with your Tactic.
Your 1on1 and hunting them, is something for the last few Rounds.

Pitting depends on your Tactic, and unexpected needs.

[Bobbyaxe]

Originally posted by Mighty Twix:

Racing is Tactical, not a 1 on1 Headsup each time u see a driver in front of you.
Dont try to get them on all needs.
Before Race starts, u should already have a Plan how long your Turns will last. Some pushing rounds included. You can vary a bit in Race (for sure u must when it starts or stops raining ;))

Dont Race them directly. You Race them with your Tactic.
Your 1on1 and hunting them, is something for the last few Rounds.

Pitting depends on your Tactic, and unexpected needs.

You just said nothing substantial at all.

[Acethiest]

Its hard to give advice without knowing specifics of what you are doing. Ideally from my experience you want to nearly exhaust fuel and get down to 30% tires at the same time. You can push harder or slower to keep both together. You also want to push as far as you can without making repairs from my experience.

[Starshipper]

Lap 23.

[Silverangel]

Originally posted by Rollin:

You just said nothing substantial at all.

Cause you should play and learn a bit yourself too?
Wheres the Fun of a Game when u get all in some Guides, so u just follow the Guides and win cause of that?
Game lives from Trial and Error.

Sure i can tell you how often i go for Pit and which Tyres i use. But what helps that the Threadstarter? Nothing, cause he didnt tell which Team and wich Championship he is Playin and how good his Overall performance is.

So he gets best answer i can give at that moment. And that is planning ahead and dont race 1on1 at start of Race. When to pit depends on your Tactic, your Team and Overall performance.

[Myrvold]

Originally posted by Northstar57:

Its hard to give advice without knowing specifics of what you are doing. Ideally from my experience you want to nearly exhaust fuel and get down to 30% tires at the same time. You can push harder or slower to keep both together. You also want to push as far as you can without making repairs from my experience.

Hmm, if my tire wear is substantial (I usually go for the "Ferrari not following the established way to do it" and not save my tires at all) I find that there is no issues running them to 15%, however, going under that leaves you very vulnerable.

[Dr. Dingo]

This is something that really bothered me in the beginning too. Trust me, we all hit this learning curve.

To put it the best I can; Go for endurance. Use durable tires in the beginning and watch your gasoline, once you are about half way through give them softs or supers (depending on track) and about half a tank. Run the tires hard and pit when you need gasoline. Put another round of softs/supers and one more lap of gas than you need to finish. It is crucial to have an extra lap's worth of gasoline to work with as on the last one or two laps instruct your drivers to max their cars. You'll bring up the back of the pack at the beginning but you should be doing fine by the end.

Of course every car, driver, staffer, and team is different so it may or may not work for you at all. Good luck.

[2Steps]

Race strategy is just one of those things that's going to be very difficult to really get better at by just reading forum posts, it takes a bit of experimenting.

Good place to start is really just trying to dial in what kind of stint lengths work for the tyres and keeping your fuel low. Getting stint lengths connected will allow you to see what's working for your tyres and times and where other cars are getting an advantage or causing you an issue, from there you can start figuring when it's best to try pitting a lap later to get a better tyre life towards the end of the next stint, or try pitting a lap earlier to try and overtake other cars while they're pitting and you're on a faster lap.

I'd say it's almost always best to start a race on the softest tyre to try and get a position advantage early, from there staying soft or going hard is really down to the circuit, the conditions and the car...just trying to get a bit of mental arithmetic over how much time will be lost overall on slower tyres Vs. having to pit more often on faster tyres.

At the end of the day you'll find a rythm that works for you after a little while of playing around.

[Ghostpro71]

I usually pit at lap 5 in the beginning because that's when I'll burn through my gas and Softs. I push hard on that lap 5. Then usually will use more durable tires for the long mid range laps and will start yellow-yellow while watching weather, track wear, and POSITION.

The gap you have is almost everything regarding pit decisions. If you have a strong enough gap between you and the bottom half of the crowd and you have a part that isn't in trouble yet but is mediocre, repair it then and you'll be happy you did. It's just judgement on the gaps.

I've seen the AI in the 1 and 2 spots have such a big that it didn't matter when they pitted or what they did, the remained in 1st or 2nd.

Gauge your final 5 laps. Go nuts on the last 2 laps.

[ＫＩＮＥ]

Hi, here's how I do my pitstops:

1. In general I will aim for a 2-stop strategy as default for all circuits. 3-stops being the exception (more on this later)

2. 2-stops have 3 stints. The short starting stint followed by 2 longer stints that may or may not be of equal length. By default stint 2 and 3 should be the same number of laps unless my competitors do something unusual.

3. Starting stints is almost always Red Tires + Red Engines strategy. That's why they are the shortest. The other reason is because you want to carry less fuel to go faster. And unless if it's raining, starting stint will always see me using my softest compound. Basically everything will run out fast, tires and fuel.

4. How many laps do my short stints have depends on how long my long stints are. Which in turn depends on how many laps can be done with max fuel. (GMA regulation is max fuel = 40% of race length to make it impossible for 1 stop strategy)

example:

if Number of laps = 25 laps
then Max fuel is 10 laps

5. Using this example, max length my long stints can be is 10 laps. This means my short starting stint should be 5 laps.

pitstop 1 = before 6th lap starts
pitstop 2 = before 16th lap starts

ie. My cars will go 5 laps --> 10 laps --> 10 laps

6. Because I run Red+Red strategy on starting stint, I am forced to carry atleast 1 extra lap's worth of fuel since my car will guzzle more during that 5 laps. So eventhough I'm doing only 5 laps, my cars start the race with 6 maybe 7 laps worth of fuel.

7. 2-stop strategy is considered an endurance strat. Meaning your latter 2 stints have no extra fuel to burn and you must run Yellow engines for the entire time or risk running out of gas on the last lap. Remember, you have 10 laps of fuel to run 10 laps. Engine modes above Yellow will drain more fuel than estimated.

8. Until you understand more and confident about Driving Styles and Engine Modes, tire wear and fuel efficiency - stick with 2-stops. Stay Red+Red as long as you can on starting stint, then stay on Yellow Engine mode for the rest of the race. Cycling Driving Style how you see fit on the longer stints.

Driving Style determines:
how late you allow your cars to brake
how fast you want your drivers to enter a corner
how early to start accelerating out of a corner
... late braking, drifting through a turn, pedal to the metal exiting burns more rubber.

Engine Mode determines how long your driver stays on a lower gear ie. how much he is hitting the red line on his RPM. This helps for getting higher top speed on long straights and higher average speed on long easy corners. Maybe raises acceleration rates too out of a turn (not sure).

9. Depending on track characteristics, qualifying position, relative car performance, driver, chassis stats, pre race tire knowledge, mechanic's pitstop stat and (to some extent) weather ... 3-stops might be the faster option.

High or Very Low tire wear, High fuel consumption, slow third sector or slow pit straight + multiple speed straights after pit are the first factors I consider when thinking about doing 3-stops.

I don't think I am able to write out a short explanation on when to go for 3-stops here. But general idea is, can a more aggressive Drive:Engine modes on 4 stints beat my own Red:Red then Yellow:Yellow on 3 stints ?

If i feel it can, I will opt for a 3-stop on one of my cars. If I have a good history on a particular circuit with 3-stops, I run both cars on 3-stops.

3-stops beat 2-stops when time saved running harder on fresher tires with less fuel weight is greater than the time difference from the extra stop added.


*** side notes ***

On circuits where overtaking is mostly done at slow turns: Driving Style is the dominant overtaking order

On circuits where overtaking is mostly done at high speed straights: Engine Mode is the dominant overtaking order

Hovering your mouse over Current Standings button on top left of screen during race will display the AI competitor's Tire and Engine modes. This is what I look at when deciding on when to execute an undercut during long stints. If AI ahead of me is prolonging his stint on worn out tires using less aggressive modes, pitting one lap earlier than planned might score me faster overall times relatively.

[Vanya]

I play on World Championship, long sessions, Kitano team. Strategy may change for other teams. Pit strategy depends on number of laps: if race has more than 60 laps, 3 stops; if less than 60, two stops. Some races have about 45 laps and a one stop strategy could be considered, but I still haven't tried, mainly due changing weather conditions.

Length of stints is 15 laps with soft tyres and 20 with medium ones. Being so, if I go for 3 stops then I go for 3 stints of 15 laps each with soft tyres, one longer with medium ones. Soft tyres are prefered at the start since they get temperature earlier, and so it balances the lack of grip on the ground.

If I make 2 stops, then all 3 stints are made with soft tyres, although I could make one with medium if one of those stints is longer than 15 laps. Soft tyres don't last more than that with Kitano's car, because of chassis limitations Other cars may change that.

In both cases, 3 and 2 stops, if ultra soft are available, I use them always in the first stint, though I might change that.

On driving style, I start always with attack and full engine, change that after first lap. From then, I try to keep tyres on their optimum temperature, so I change driving style accordingly. I also change engine mode depending on the par of track: straight and long fast curves, full engine. Otherwise, medium. I could increase it above medium if driver is way behind and the car has fuel and realiability to take that effort. This also means I play on normal speed to keep track of each driver. So far we've got one pole, one victory and a third place with Kitano in 4 races. Not bad I guess consireding we start with worst engine in the championship.