Power unit wear and practice

[cloister56]

So I am enjoying the engine wear this year, it gives an extra layer of strategy to the game.
I have realised that in practice once I have done all the trials it is best to do just one lap in each of the remaining sessions.
Last year I ran for at least 10 laps in each session to get the full bonus but the engine wear makes it not worth it this year.

I have read that 25% drivers are suffering as the engine wear scales possibly too much in practice but I was wondering what 50% drivers thought of it. Do you think it is right or too much?

Driving for McLaren I'm at about 60% for the ICE after 2 races. So I'm investing in it's reliability.

Looking at the real usage I think it's fairly accurate.
McLaren (after 3 rounds)
Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), Turbocharger (TC), Motor Generator Unit - Heat (MGU-H), Motor Generator Unit - Kinetic (MGU-K), Energy Store (ES), Control Electronics (CE)

Alonso
ICE: 2, TC: 2, MGU-H: 2, MGU-K: 2, ES: 1, CE: 1

Vandoorne
ICE: 2, TC: 3, MGU-H: 3, MGU-K: 2, ES: 1, CE: 2

So pretty accurate as I will likely be pushing my ICE for this race and then it's gone.

Out of interest looking at the up to date usage I guess I'm in for some grid penalties ahead.

McLaren (after 11 rounds)

Alonso
ICE - 6, TC - 8, MGU-H - 8, MGU-K - 6, ES - 5, CE - 4

Vandoorne
ICE - 4, TC - 7, MGU-H - 7, MGU-K - 4, ES - 5, CE -5

If you wanted to check out your team this is the link I went to:
http://www.crash.net/f1/feature/872732/1/power-unit-component-use-after-11-rounds-of-20

[GrimmReeper]

I feel like it's a little high on 50% distance for me but I also don't know how bad wear is on front runners vs top of the grid. I am also doing the minimal amount of laps to complete practice programs because my engine wear is worrying me. I picked the first wear option in the tree and kind of want to work on other engine wear sections but also may just work on performance because I will be near the back of grid regardless so I might just take the engine penalties.

In a Sauber I'm done with all but 1 practice programs after FP2 in China and my wear is as follows. Seeing the gearbox at only 22% leads me to believe that the lower teams just have ♥♥♥♥ engine wear rates compared to top teams.

ICE : 38
MGU-K : 23
MGU-H : 38
ES : 23
TC : 34
CE : 16
Gearbox : 22

[cloister56]

I guess you could save the ICE by running in lean in practice when you are not doing the challenges. The game says that impacts on the ES but it seems to be less hurt in the race.

One thing that Aarava was planning to do which seems like a good idea is using a worn engine for practice. That way unless it fails before you get the tests done it's not as bad impact.

[{DDB} Ghostface and chill]

on 25% the wear is insane!! Im playing as Haas and I feel like redbull in 2015 with an engine problem every other race. Im ony to Austria and im on my 4th power unit... i'll be taking a penalty for sure. I'm thinking next season im going to use different power units for practice and race/qualifying.

[cloister56]

I was thinking about car development. Each team seems to have the same number of upgrades possible for the car.
Last year I had the concern that meant by season 4-5 every team would probably have reached their max development and that would mean the cars would be right back to the start.
Mercedes would be the best and Sauber would be relatively the same distance away as in season 1.
This year there seems to be a lot of upgrades and I think it will take many seasons to max out a car perhaps even the full 10, unless you get a load of points between seasons.
However the same problem as above would be reached, Max Mercede would still be the same distance away from Max McLaren as at the beginning.
Now I have to admit I only did about 2.5 seasons in F1 2016 so I didn't come anywhere near to this scenario and as it is likely I will get F1 2018 next year I doubt I will reach it this time.

I guess a solution to this would be to have a regulation change after say 3 seasons which mixes up the teams a bit. You could have modifiers like big teams have a greater chance to come out of the new regs ahead. Perhaps this could be in turn modified by the last 3 seasons success.

I'm just musing on things, this years game has really taken a big step forward and like I say I probably will never hit this situation. Just wondered what others thought.

[Zen]

Sauber uses 1 year old unsupported Ferrari engines while Honda engines are... well, honda engines. Those two teams have a really hard time with engine and gearbox penalties but since they're a tthe back of the grid it isnt a huge deal.

[Le John]

Originally posted by cloister56:

I was thinking about car development. Each team seems to have the same number of upgrades possible for the car.
Last year I had the concern that meant by season 4-5 every team would probably have reached their max development and that would mean the cars would be right back to the start.
Mercedes would be the best and Sauber would be relatively the same distance away as in season 1.
This year there seems to be a lot of upgrades and I think it will take many seasons to max out a car perhaps even the full 10, unless you get a load of points between seasons.
However the same problem as above would be reached, Max Mercede would still be the same distance away from Max McLaren as at the beginning.

I thought of this as well, that after some time, what use are upgrades if the difference will just be the same. However, I assume this has to do with licensing issues and that not even in a virtual enviroment Mercedes or Ferrari would accept to be equal to Sauber or McLaren just because of upgrades.