For example that Suzuka slow laptime is a testament to ASR 1991 cars. I never dared to criticize them or adjust them as people consider them the "holy grail of classic F1 cars". I don't necessarily think so. Sure they're fun and challenging to drive for people who think "more difficult is more realistic".
When you're sim racing you miss the physical aspect of the car and you're purely driving with your vision. People probably think that ASR 1991 cars are realistic because they are difficult to drive. But the reason they're difficult is that they don't have that much grip and they spin easily when you hit the kerbs wrong. That's why they have slower lap times too... you have to drive them "on your tiptoes". Sure the slow Suzuka laptime might be a combination of slow fastlane too... and it's probably a bit faster now after the updates.
For me the "realism" with these ASR 1991 cars come from the ai relative speed compared to the user.. and the quality of the cars (so that they won't drive off the track and cause much traffic issues). All Lotus 98T based cars have the tendency of staying "crawling" on the tracks when they hit the wall. They won't pit and create huge trains that ruin the races. Fortunately this happens only occasionally on tracks like Monaco and Oesterreichring. ASR 1991, 1992 and RSS 1990 never. I don't know what causes it.
Finding "perfect setups" for each track has never been in my interest. If you find perfect setup for your car and become faster that means decreased difficulty (in relation to AI). For me there is absolutely ZERO fun to get easy poles and cruise to easy victories. AI at 100 is not superfast. So becoming too fast and too good is not what the user should aim for in these AC F1 championships. It'd be almost like playing FIFA with amateur difficulty and score 3 goals in every match with your star player. Fun? Nope.
I understand the attraction of tweaking the setup and trying to achieve those last milliseconds... but ACC and LMU are much better suited for that kind of stuff as the hardcode is designed for each track to have realistic laptimes. AC F1 not so much as the season is supposed to be challenging against AI and the mods create a lot of "sloppiness" (track ai's vary so much). On LMU you can set the AI to be inhumanly fast (like achieving 2:18 laptimes on Spa with GT3). That is not possible on AC. You can, however, tweak the specific cars faster if the season is bult on individual base cars (like ASR). But it's kinda individual as all simracers' skill vary so much.
I adjusted the SD 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1988 cars very carefully and achieved very realistic AI qualifying lap times on Jacarepagua, Spa, Monza, etc. but when I did that my Monaco QF times became way too slow (due to decreased grip). You can't get the realism of say, F1 2020 on AC because you can't make track specific individual data adjustments to the cars. Setups will not make that dramatic difference.
I also removed the cockpit adjustable turbo from those cars. Why? Because you can use it like a DRS in the races and win every single race with ease (as AI is way too stupid and limited on AC to use the cockpit turbo wisely).
I also experimented with AI engine failures and created them (in order to try and make the 1982 season more realistic). Yes I got the engine failures but those created a lot of traffic issues again and ruined the races. So I had to remove them too. You have to make a lot of compromises with AC and accept its quirks and limitations... as it's not designed to be very intelligent (see my previous posts).
I don't use track specific setups. I basically just do some quick changes like decreased toe on Monaco, decreased rear wing on Monza, increased wing on Interlagos, etc.
I could easily adjust the ASR 1991 cars so that the lap times become quicker by increasing their grip. But then people would say that "now they're too easy to drive". That's the dilemma of sim racing, really.
I think the realism in AC F1 go up when you hit the mid-2000's. VRC 2005 and 2007 cars get reasonably close to realistic lap times because of increased grip. They're a bit easier to drive too... the kerb behaviour is way more realistic... but the best ai drivers at 100 are even faster. The difficulty comes from AI speed, not from hard driving. Of course it's individual in each track as there's a lot of variation how the fastlanes have been done. But I think my 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008 championships are the most realistic in every aspect. That's probably the "sweet spot" of AC F1. 80's and 90's F1 seasons are just as fun but there are more compromises.
1998 season, however, is probably the best of them all as all circuits have Thockard ai, 100% correct ads and after I increased the grip of Schumi's Ferrari a little, the season is extremely challenging and fun to drive (against Mika at AI 100). I think that the default VS 1998 Ferrari was absolutely BONKERS to drive and way too oversteery/sloppy. Now it's a bit easier... sure... but enjoyable. AI is pretty much flawless in those circuits so you make one mistake and your chances to win are almost gone.
The season is way too easy if you drive McLaren though... but the difficulty with Schumi/Ferrari is perfect (for me at least). Are the lap times spot on everywhere? Probably not but who really cares as long as you're having fun and a proper challenge.
What a wonderful discussion, also with KPCart's opinions. I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier.
My own opinion is that I agree with most of your post and disagree with some of it.
I completely agree with you in that the immersion is racing with AI and really feeling your improvements through what you gain in passing Nakajima vs passing Alesi as you improve your skills. That is the immersion. Coupled with a beautiful realistic track like the indescribably good EKO Phoenix track it is sublime. You really feel like you were there. Those blurry, undersaturated terribly compressed race footage of Phoenix 1991 suddenly becomes real. You are (were) there all of a sudden. In those cars. On that track. On that day.
What I disagree with is the driving difficulty aspect and the setups. I am chasing 1:1 reality. Absolute reality. I want the car to behave as close as humanly possible to how the real car behaved. I will never sit in an MP4/6 and push it to the limit. I want the closest experience to that (which is ASR cars) to be as close as can be. The ASR cars right now are actually a little bit easier to drive than reality. In 1991 the Goodyears had a slip angle of 3-4 degrees. In the sim it's more like 8-10 degrees, similar to the safe Avon tires used today in historic racing. You can catch insane slides in the sim. I want the laptime that Mansell did in Phoenix 1991 to be possible (we are sitting at home, not all the bumps are modelled and we feel no G-Forces at home.)
I want the actual time to be possible with a very very good sim lap, but not easy. At all. The track is good enough, almost laser scanned. The car has to be as close as the track. That is the pleasure for me. I want it to be as difficult as in real life. I want to create a sim where in a parallel reality F1 in 1991 used simulators like we do today and I want to create that sim that the parallel dimension Mansell and Senna would have used to train.
Setups are a huge part of that. Every track had completely different setups, most notably gear ratios, how long you stayed in each gear for each corner, where you shortshifted, etc. Also aero, the use of a Gurney flap or not. The setups are the key to getting within 2 seconds of the actual time, the rest is talent. And we should never forget, we are sitting at home, and feel no G-forces, and the tracks are ALWAYS less bumpy in sim than in reality.
My ultimate dream is to be able to use actual setup sheets used in the late 80's and early 90's by people like Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost IN Assetto Corsa, and really FEEL the type of setup Ayrton preferred, and how it was different from the setup Prost preferred, or Mansell, etc. You are then really feeling that driver's driving style. Imagine being able to push the car in a way Ayrton wanted and getting a result. Then push it in the way Alain wanted and train until you get a similar result. That way you BECOME or LEARN exactly what made these drivers so different and so legendary.
And we can only get there if the car is as close to reality as possible.
