FGT Championship truly that hard?

[Lambob]

Suzuka is 100 times harder than Monaco, when it comes to concentration. Monaco has barriers for safety and rebound when you need them for added safetynet, Suzuka has only sand from the beach, that will ensure a loss in your race. Luckily for me, the suzuka was last in the championship, having secured the win. Excellent challenge nevertheless, but I only had SRF as my only driving aid.

 

[PapaGnr]

The FGT in GT5 is tough but not as tough as in GT4. There the races were like real F1, around 2 to 2 and a half hours each race, The only saving grace was the ability to pause during championship. I wish the FGT in GT5 were longer and tougher, making it a true test of patience ability & making pit stops at the right time.

 

[alonsof1fan91]

It's the most challenging event in A-Spec. There's always going to be players from the upper five percent that will post about how it wasn't that hard or even that it was pretty easy, but they don't represent the average or typical player.

Well, it depends on whether someone likes the FGT or not.

Im medicore, believe me. Im unable to do a lap under 7 min with a stock 458 on nordschleife with racing softs.
But I love F1 and never had a problem with racing a F1 car in any GT game so far, this includes the FGT on GTPSP too. (Yeah, im not joking. I have no problems with doing high 1:13 - low 1:14 times at Monaco with that car on PSP but I cant get decent lap times with normal sport cars)

Imo if someone really has problems with the FGT, he/she should open a online lobby and drive around Suzuka with that car, till he/she is able to complete several clean/fast laps without mistakes. Suzuka really improves your driving skills with the FGT, do not make the mistake to choose a track like the Nordschleife as your test track.

edit: oh, and I think a wheel helps alot with that car. Im about 2 seconds faster with the wheel using my FGT.

 

[eric1971]

The problem I had with the FGT Championship was driving in traffic. I had no problem driving the car (after some practice) with no aids, but while moving up in the filed, I was always bumped by another car, sending me into a spin. I finally gave in and enable some of the aids (don't remember which ones) and was then able to win the championship rather easily. The trick to the rain races is to just stay with slicks. Rain tires only hurt your traction.

Edit: This was using the DFP w/ Playseat.

 

[Cainius]

the fgt is less forgiving and harder to drive than the f-1's too much power too little mechanical grip and too little downforce

 

[Dogfatheralpha]

The problem I had with the FGT Championship was driving in traffic. I had no problem driving the car (after some practice) with no aids, but while moving up in the filed, I was always bumped by another car, sending me into a spin. I finally gave in and enable some of the aids (don't remember which ones) and was then able to win the championship rather easily. The trick to the rain races is to just stay with slicks. Rain tires only hurt your traction.

Edit: This was using the DFP w/ Playseat.

Wait what slicks???

I did Suzuka with rain tires and I won with a massive 20sec. Than again I had skid recovery on but no tc and abs set to 1 because lol dfgt.

 

[Cainius]

depends on how hard it's raining. light rain = racing slicks, heavy rain = rain tires, odd in the middle = intermediates

i don't really like how the game doesn't tell you current conditions very well

 

[Aka_Klm]

I loved this championship FGT and Vettel challenge were the really dificult things in GT5, the rest was pretty easy. Well ... the 1st event on grand tour was also quite hard.

 

[vfrmaverick]

I love driving this car especially in monaco. I have not done the championship due to lack of time but Ive dont the monaco race many times. Always impresses me how out of control it seems yet im still running very fast consistant laps.

 

[eric1971]

Wait what slicks???

I did Suzuka with rain tires and I won with a massive 20sec. Than again I had skid recovery on but no tc and abs set to 1 because lol dfgt.

It's possible this may have been fixed with an update as I did this during the first month the game was out, but it was absolutely pouring rain at Suzuka, and I lapped the field with racing softs. There was a lot of talk on here at the time about how rain tires only slowed you down and should not be used.

 

[alonsof1fan91]

I just beat the FGt championship again. Won every race except the last one (skipped it).
This are the lap times, a driver IMO atleast has to be capable of, to win this event without big troubles.
I played without any driver aids except ABS1. Didn`t changed anything on the setup (well, ok, a higher top speed at fuji would have been very nice...), but I think that maxing downforce at Nürburgring and Suzuka could shave 1-2 seconds of lap time.

- Fuji, 1:16-1:18.5, pretty easy track
- Indi, 1:12-13 should be enough I think
- Monaco, well here you only have to get into P1 actually, then you can do whatever you like (except crashin out of course), no AI will be able to overtake you here, aslong as you stay on the track... If that happens, you should play Hannah Montana or something like that I didn`t changed the setup and used the DS3, my lap times were about 1:15 to 1:16
- Nürburgring, on this track, there was a AI who was really fast. But somehow the AI always crashed at the chicane, this happened to them almost every lap. I think 1:34 to low 1:36 times should be enough to beat this without getting into problems. And yes, make sure you max out downforce before starting the race
- Monza, 1:20-1:22. If youre not good enough, you can still cut one chicane and try to block other cars
- Suzuka? No idea, its been a long time since I did this event. But I think 1:33-1:35 should be enough

(All races I started so far were dry, no Idea about rain)

 

[chuyler1]

This series is more challenging than others because it forces you to actually learn the tracks. You can get pretty far in A-spec running any driving line you want, but with this series, you need the extra few seconds per lap that you get from hitting the apexes properly. The A.I. will rubber band a little so if you make a mistake, it doesn't take long to catch up again.

These key tips will help you if you are struggling:

1) Run at least 3 laps on each course prior to starting the championship. Figure out ideal transmission settings. 249mph is good for most tracks but you will want 199mph for Monaco.

2) Look up tunes on this site. You can get quite an edge on the A.I. by running higher downforce settings as well as increased camber.

3) Perform an engine rebuild before you start the full championship. It will give you 935 hp. If you just do an oil change you might not even hit 900hp if your car just came from the UCD.

4) If you still have trouble, look up F1 videos of the tracks on Youtube. Watch the lines they take and try to adjust yours accordingly. This is very helpful with Fuji where the driving line often takes you to the middle of the track where there aren't many visual cues for braking.


Here are a few videos I made last week when I was working on this series. I was using a DFGT wheel so my settings may not apply to DS3 players.

Fuji on Racing Hards with 900hp


Monaco on Racing Hards with 935hp

 

[fguil1]

Be sure to use soft tyres & pit halfway across the race (except cote & indy). I skipped the last one (Suzuka). If it's raining in Suzuka, I suggest you use intermediate tyres.

 

[buggs1a]

I don't know how anyone can say this event is easy or that a track is easy. The first track is Fuji right? I HATE the Sharp turns at the end right before the straight. This is way too hard for me. My lap times are right around 1:30 and I have no idea how I can shave 15-20 seconds off that.

The corner performance is terrible on the fgt car in my opinion. F2007 glides around corners, love it.

I've tried maxing downforce and use soft tires. This helped, *i think* but barely.

I want to play and win this event but I don't know how.

 

[kj_mil]

I found this quite challenging, I consider myself to be a fairly average (or maybe slightly above) driver on the game, however I found that using a decent tune (from the tuning forum), and SRF made alot of difference in the handling. Make sure you max the HP before starting, use racing softs, and feel free to skip 1 or maybe 2 races if you prefer to come back to them later.

I had a practice of Monaco and Monza prior to attempting the championship, and definately struggled at Monaco, but was able to get the rhythm at Monza to win.

When I completed the championship (while PSN was down), I managed to win all races, for some reason it seemed harder when doing the single races, except for Suzuka which was in the wet. I skipped this but still won the championship.

Having read that racing soft tyres might work in the wet, I attempted this at Suzuka in a single race, and was eventually able to win in heavy rain, on racing softs, lapping the entire field. I really struggled on this track either in the dry (made too many mistakes), or in the wet on wet or internediate tyres.

N.B. There is no need to pit for any of the FGT races in GT5. I don't know why they got rid of this from previous versions of the game, but to me it takes something away, as I remember having to be a bit creative in the past with my pit strategy to win some races.

 

[chuyler1]

Be sure to use soft tyres & pit halfway across the race (except cote & indy). I skipped the last one (Suzuka). If it's raining in Suzuka, I suggest you use intermediate tyres.

There is no tire wear in A-spec for this series. Pitting is not necessary. The A.I. drivers will not pit.

I don't know how anyone can say this event is easy or that a track is easy. The first track is Fuji right? I HATE the Sharp turns at the end right before the straight. This is way too hard for me. My lap times are right around 1:30 and I have no idea how I can shave 15-20 seconds off that.

It's not easy...but once you learn the correct line, running consistent laps isn't that difficult. Watch my video above. The final corners at the end of Fuji are blind and you need to brake before you approach them. The final right, left, right on the track is the one place you cannot make up time. Take them slow on entry to save your tires and focus on hitting the apexes at a slower speed. It will be quicker than running wide at a faster speed because you'll have more tire and more track for the exit. You can actually see in my final lap where I went wide after passing the lead car and he just ducked right inside me. You are probably frustrated with the turns because you are braking too late and asking too much of your tires. The tires can only take so much heat before they turn red so you have to balance how much slip you use on entry and exit. It's one of those places where slow really is fast. Trying to chase someone down through that section of the track usually results in losing time. On most turns, I know i'm fast if I can hear the tires squealing at all times...but with decreasing radius turns, you simply can't do that.

My video of Fuji was on racing hard tires with 2.5 degrees of camber and only 900hp. With racing soft tires and the full 935hp you should be able to run faster laps. If you don't hit that final apex correctly though, the A.I. will take off down the straight and your extra power won't be enough to catch them.

Here's some more help from Lewis Hamilton...

 

[allanoff]

So I finally bought the FGT after reading about in this thread, and Christ it was such a blast I'll get at it again after uni tomorrow

At first I couldn't drive the thing for ****. But after practicing a bit and playing with the setup I could put in consistent laps. So far this was the most challenging championship in the game for me. I'm very new to racing games and even newer to steering wheels so I couldn't do it without TC and abs but nevertheless I'm very happy. Being a massive F1 fan and recently falling in love to my G25, these races I'll defo revisit! 👍

The Monaco race was so intense god dammit it felt like it was over in 5 minutes

 

[alonsof1fan91]

I don't know how anyone can say this event is easy or that a track is easy. The first track is Fuji right? I HATE the Sharp turns at the end right before the straight. This is way too hard for me. My lap times are right around 1:30 and I have no idea how I can shave 15-20 seconds off that.

The corner performance is terrible on the fgt car in my opinion. F2007 glides around corners, love it.

I've tried maxing downforce and use soft tires. This helped, *i think* but barely.

I want to play and win this event but I don't know how.

I think this has nothing to do with you not knowing the track or being not good enough, you just lack expierence with this car.

Have you unlocked the Grand Valley 300 already? Take the FGT and do this race. You will gain alot of expierence with this car, believe me... driving clean and smooth is the key to success. Try to lap achieve lap times of under 1:27 and make your tires survive more then 15 laps. This way you will learn the limits of that car and how it reacts to your imputs.

Or you could just do some practise at Suzuka, which will teach you cornering with the FGT.
You could try to do 10 fast and consistent laps without mistakes. As soon as your able to do this, you will dominate the championship.

 

[sunnygsm]

FGT is a lot more challenging than the Ferrari F1 cars to drive (without aids that is). Took me a while to get used to the car but after that I did it fine. Didn't do Monaco though, don't have enough experience on that track.

Throttle control is key, get that sorted and you're good to go.