2021 FIA Series Race Discussion

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Spa with the TS050 is a combo which usually works well for me, but the 15:00 EMEA slot turned out to be the most difficult run of the three attempts I've had in Nations so far.

15:00 Nations
Matched with 8 other TS050s, 6 R18s (including 'wifi password') 4 908s and even a 2011-spec R18. Early alarm bells were raised when I noticed several cars lagging like crazy in the warm-up stage; my connection wasn't too stellar either, going down to as low as three bars on several occasions. Qualifying was again consistent with what I had managed in test lobbies, but I'm convinced I would've shaved a couple of tenths off my 1:56.522 with a little less understeer in certain places. Still a good enough time for a 10th-place start.

Got a surprisingly good getaway off the line, passing one of the Peugeots around the outside on my way into La Source. Lost a lot of places thanks to congestion up ahead, but started fighting back as a lot happened in the mid-field scramble. Penalties, Hard runners struggling for grip, last-gasp dives and a German TS050 with extremely severe lag which spooked the yellow R18 I was following through Stavelot. These, along with more penalties, allowed me to recover to 9th and start challenging an '11 R18 along with another 908 (both on Hards). Overcooked it under braking for the bus stop so briefly fell back to 10th.

With his straight-line speed and lack of hybrid boost, the '11 R18 proved very tricky to pass, On Lap 3, I attempted to sweep around the outside of him through Turn 2, but ended up running into the back of him as he didn't seem to anticipate me making the move. Survived a divebomb from the German TS050 at Les Combes to blitz the '11 R18 down the start-finish straight, and began what turned out to be a decent scrap with the 908. Had problems at first trying to pass for the same reasons as the '11 R18, but eventually began to pull away through my mix of boost and Soft treads.

By that point I was up to 8th and began putting in consistent low-to-mid 1:57s. 8th became 7th when a Toyota-liveried R18 spun at Pouhon. By Lap 12 I had dipped under the 1:57 mark. Re-joined the track in 11th once I served my compulsory stop, which I'll admit was a little disheartening considering the delays I had in the first third of the race.

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It was never my intention to do a full season of the current Nations Cup, and the mess at the start kind of reminded me of the problems I had in the races I participated in last year. Will wait and see whether I go again in the 19:40 20:20 slot...
 
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Managed to put in a relatively clean quali lap which put me P2. Didn't have the best start off the line and got hit by someone but luckily got away with it and only dropped to P3. I managed to get the position back within a couple laps. After that I tried to chase down P1 but they just had the edge over me, but obviously still had to put the laps in to cover the field behind and thankfully it was enough and I managed to bring home the P2. Was quite a lonely race on my end but I guess all the laps I've done this week made a difference.

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So 2 races at Spa, 1 each on main and alt accounts, both in Toyota TS050 '16, always car of choice because I just can't drive an Audi in the game or real life at in real life here most Audi drivers are A++++++S and I just hate them even if they make some nice cars.

First race on Alt-acc Door 20, qualified 4th and finished 3rd. I started on Hard tyres and intended to pit on 1st lap, start was good until I got most of the way through the 1st corner and someone spun me and ended up last, check the replay and the guy I thought spun me was lagging and not really near me at all but we have all been there with someone who is lagging. Pitted and settled down to try close the gap to the leader to under 30sec so I would have a chance when he pitted to be somewhere close. Plan worked quite well and managed to pass most of the cars I caught without much trouble but I did lose about 6 sec on 1 laps with one guy.

I finished 3rd and without the delay would have been 2nd, places where gained when the leader messed up his stop and I guess changed to a 2nd set of softs for the last lap, he would have finished well ahead if he had picked the correct tyres but I have done this myself in a rush and hit the button too quickly without moving on to hard tyres and on the last lap you don't get a second chance to pit. Still it was a clean race for me but quite a few lost DR at the end.

Second race I was thinking of not qualifying and starting at the back on the Hard tyres but I was 3rd out of the pits for qualifying so kept going and Qualified 3rd but could have had pole if the 2 guys in front had behaved on my second lap, they were well down but started fighting and backed up to slow me where I just couldn't overtake. Clean start this time but there where track limit penalties all around and I was up to 2nd at the end of the straight but battling on the hard tyres, I was going to do a no stopper if I had a gap to break the slipstream at the end of the 1st lap but I had 2 cars within a second so pitted for soft tyres at the end of the first lap.

Re-joined in last and worked my way back to 26sec of the leader on lap 10 but then I caught a guy who at first I thought was going to play fair but he blocked me everywhere and we both lost time. He didn't pit before the last lap so I thought he was one stopping or I had missed his stop earlier, unfortunately I lost time with him but passed him starting the last lap and I had 2 cars still ahead of me with 2second 2.5 seconds ahead so I gave it everything to try catch him before the line and I guess I forced him into a track limit penalty and he missed his braking point at the bus-stop and I had him at the line for 2nd, annoyingly the guy who held me up got a 1 minute tyre penalty, but still I was happy with 2nd and if I had started on the soft tyres with the start I had could well have won by quite a bit as I had the fastest lap on lap 3 and kept getting purple sectors all the way to the line but still need to master the final sector as I'm losing there. fastest lap was taken from me on lap 12 by a guy who ran the hard tyres for 9 laps and then the softs so it pays to do your homework or listen to you guys here. I just love this combo but I will still only do the one slot but back to race C tomorrow.
 
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Managed to haul the old girl round for a respectable podium. The lack of hybrid didn’t seem as much of a problem in the race. It’s an decent handling car, easy to chuck into the corners and very stable. A proper race car.
L1 was your standard stuff, so I stayed out of it and tried to keep my nose clean. Overtook one person for P3 a couple laps in and circulated there until the end. Had one guy try to push me off down the Kemmel Straight for no reason, but the 908 is too fast for that!
Pitted on L12 for the mandatory hard tyres. They were like ice in comparison to my warm softs!
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Seth_Logan
Penalty Parade!

Counting eight within the panorama, the ninth would be administered seconds after P13 hit P12 and both P1 and P2 had penalties at this point.
And this was only R1.

Logan can be seen chilling at the back :lol:

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Best view in the house. How many did you pass when they all served.

barak181
I just had a @GOTMAXPOWER moment. Granted, it was against the AI in a custom race but still... Maybe it's a sign of things to come! :lol:

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Final slot in EMEA (the easing of lockdown means a social life is interfering with GTS time now:grumpy:) in the TS050 (the proletarian choice)

Short version - I'm an idiot!

Longer version- Q7 after a decent lap given the traffic.
Decided to go 1H 12S. Turn 1 was mental. Was in the middle of a 3 wide going into eau rouge and backed out in the hope of surviving. But then get punted at the end of Kemmel and hit the back of the car in front. 2 sec penalty and I'm 12th.

Serve that after pitting and have clean air down in 15th. All going well except a track limit 0.5 penalty going wide between Campus and Stavelot which seemed harsh as I had to slow to retain control. Was sitting consistently 42 secs off the lead and with the pit loss being about 36 seconds I felt things could come good at the end.

Then second last lap I'm up to 8th with plenty still to pit and I'm in dirty air behind two fighting. Go really wide out of Campus this time and spin it. Down to 12th
:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

End up back up to 9th by the end including a sketchy last lap move where I was distracted by a lapped ghost. Apologised afterwards to the Spanish victim and he was alright about it.

Seventy something points and a chunk of DR gained. Think it might have been a higher DR B lobby than I'm normally in. But yet another race that could have been!!

Actually started to enjoy lapping Spa in clean air but it's a pig to pass the wide Gr1 cars around there and I kept forgetting about the dirty air effect (considering @Mistah_MCA mentions it a lot in his video, which I watched, you'd think I would know better:irked:)

But again, the FIA races are way more enjoyable than the dailies.
 
Hummed and harred about going again in the final slot (having earlier misremembered the 19:00 as the 19:40), but bit the bullet and found the TS050 to be particularly electric on brake balance -1.

20:20 Nations
This time, I was matched with @NekoPufferPPP and two other TS050s (though one of those dropped out before the warm-up); the only other non-Audi runners were three 908s and a single 919 in Alpine colours which I will refer to from this point on as the 'Fauxpine'. Felt a major difference in qualifying and set a 1:56.181 on my first flier. NekoPuffer pipped that time by just over six-hundredths; together, we were the fastest non-Audis starting in 11th and 12th. Time to swap over on Hards and see how things turned out...

Right off the bat, the yellow and black R18 in front lights his rears and snakes into the side of NekoPuffer. I was lucky to avoid the R18 and hang around the outside as the 'Fauxpine' shot his way through the centre. Got a good enough drive out of La Source, but was swamped by the slipstreaming pack soon enough and had to brake early for Les Combes to avoid collecting a slow-moving Portuguese Audi. Somehow, I managed to pull through all of this and had maintained my position going into the Bus Stop. The problem was that I missed my braking going into the Bus Stop and had to give up a few places to try and make it into pit entry. To the French Peugeot driver I cut off in the process, I can only apologise if you are happening to read this.

A couple of penalties put me up to 16th and in pursuit of NekoPuffer. There was a point where NekoPuffer seemed to be really struggling for stability, but I hung back until he picked up two consecutive track limits penalties, fishtailing out of the Bus Stop as he did so. After that, I let it rip, setting a provisional fastest lap of 1:56.907. Next up were a pair of R18s, one on Hard tyres and getting tantalisingly close to slipstream range. Problem was it was an R18 which proved very difficult to pass as one might expect with its extra power on tap. This brought NekoPuffer back into the mix, and he swept around the outside of Fagnes as I chose to hug the apex out of wisdom. Lost three seconds as a result, but still couldn't pass the Audi until I dived up the inside of him under braking for Bruxelles on Lap 10. Not often do I dive up the inside of someone at the last minute, but it was needed and it worked!

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The next lap, I see NekoPuffer catch up to a group of cars running in 10th-13th; three of those were on the no-stop including the 'Fauxpine' whom NekoPuffer tried to pass around the outside of Blanchimont. Unfortunately, the 'Fauxpine' takes too much kerb in trying to give space and spears NekoPuffer onto the run-off. Next thing I know, both are fighting at the Bus Stop and NekoPuffer is left facing the wrong way across the tarmac. The 'Fauxpine' gave me a little nudge through La Source, but not enough to disrupt my rhythm as I next pressure the yellow Toyota on Hards. Having been forced to back out of the slipstream before Blanchimont, I notice the French Pug from earlier approaching at close to 200mph and completely missing his braking point for the Bus Stop. Last lap was hectic with an Italian Audi trying in vain to protect his position on cold Hards, but I survive a Hamilton vs Rosberg moment with the yellow Toyota at Les Combes and surge into 9th as the Audi runs wide at Speakers Corner. So it was that I eventually caught up with the same yellow and black R18 who nearly collected me at the start!

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Not going to lie, that was a fraught, frustrating yet somewhat fruitful race. There were some crazy moments and mistakes which I could've done without, but overall I felt that adjusting the brake balance made the TS050 handle more like it did in my earliest Spa Gr.1 runs. Had I not fluffed up braking at the Bus Stop, I'm sure I would've avoided some of the delays that prevented me from finishing higher, and I can only apologise again to any driver who was compromised by what I had done. Still, got some purple sectors and good, clean passes out of that.

To round the night off, here's one of the R18s finding a new approach to kerb hopping...

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JD_18
omg, im JD, nice to meet you!! Thanks for the race! Sorry if I touch you, was hard to know what was your real position, in mi screen looks diferent :(

This my view

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Good race JD! Yeah that lobby connection wasn't the best but still fun racing.
 
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Ashthebash
Looking forward to my first Nations race in an age tomorrow though, Gr.1 at Spa with a grid start... what could possibly go wrong??
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WELL...



I was worried about the braking point into T1 and despite a couple of practice attempts pre-race, missed the marker as I was more focused on the car ahead and that was undoubtedly my fault. Not sure it deserved having the whole race destroyed, but that was that. Mid race I had a bit of swapping of the FL with the guy who won, at least I won that 'battle' with a 1:55.9 on L11, not that it was much consolation as I came home 15th.

Went again

Started 6th this time in a higher split and just in case of a similar mess at the start, I began on hard tyres. This time I hit my brake marker, unlike the guy behind me who shoved me wide onto almost exactly the same piece of astro that I went on to in the first race. At the end of L1 I got completely cut across going into the pits, it worked for him - he exited the pits ahead - and four of us came out of the pits with me bringing up the rear. In all honesty I was faster than all of them, but with slipstreams for everyone and a Peugeot mixed in there, no real progress could be made, twice I got up to second in the group only to have the Peugeot blast back past me up Kemmel. Ended up finishing 9th

All in all a very frustrating evening, one that promised so much and delivered so little. I love Spa, Spa doesn't love me back
 
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Out of the car choices, the 908 was the one I felt most comfortable with. I didn't want to worry about hybrid systems and didn't want to be a sitting duck on the straights either. Qualified P14, so the obvious pit strategy was 1H/12S.

There was lap 1 mayhem as expected. The pole sitter immediately was pushed off the track and spun out trying to recover, falling all the way down to 19th. Ouch. I came out mostly unscathed, still in 14th by the time we reach the bus stop chicane. I go into the pits with a few others (which wasn't exactly orderly, there was one car that was sitting sideways at the pit entry :lol:) and switch to Softs, still in 14th when I come out.

With the Hards out the way, I could push the 908 now. I was alone for the majority of the race but passed a few stragglers. I caught up to and passed a R18 doing a no-stop on lap 4. My next pass was on an older model R18 that was also no-stopping, who I overtook on Kemmel on lap 9 thanks to the 908's speed. And finally, I passed another 908 that was doing a no-stop as well on the following lap.

The big pay off came on the final lap when the frontrunners had to pit. After T1, I found myself in 9th and made my last overtake of the race on a TS050 that was struggling with the fresh Hard tires.

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An average result for me, gained 300 DR despite being door #2, and got a CRB by some miracle. Can't complain. While a part of me wanted to go again, my wheel was behaving strangely earlier today, so I didn't want to take any chances. It worked fine during this race though. Hopefully it won't be a problem again in the future.
 
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1800 in the Americas. Group C drivers. Q8. Door 18. Went with the TS050.

Spent the past Day and a half trying to learn Spa. I love this track but darn if it doesnt hate me. Figured I would go with the opposite tire idea - one lap on hards, the rest on softs.
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That first lap on hards was a total disaster, like driving on ice. Dropped to 15th in the start, Climbed back to 12th by Malmedy. Missed almost every braking point it seemed whether it was from cold tires or the wheels locking up or braking late at Bruxelles, both in the curve and exiting it. Dropped to dead last by the end of lap one and ... well I gave myself PLENTY of clean air to race in. Darn thing wouldn't turn like it did in practice.

Switched tires and went vroom vroom. The Toyota TS050 is like a rocket ship going through Kemmel. May not have the best top end but man, it accelerates.



Was doing decent until i got caught watching the car in front of me. It drove off the track at Les Fagnes and I followed its line exactly. Kids? Don't do that. Follow your line, don't follow the person in front of you.



Pulled at 7th thanks to penalties on tire requirements. I'll take it and learn from my Wednesday debacle, take the points and move forward.

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Did the first slot in NA, and decided to call it one-and-done. Door #15 in a 224 point lobby, which I believe is 3rd split and a little higher than where i normally am. Had quite a few familiar faces in the race, including @sk1719 , but also some rather unsavory characters in the mix as well, including the most infamous dirty driver ever, from Portugal.

I only had 1 chance to qualify because I got too close to the person up front, despite trying to maintain space, and my lap was rather scruffy, only good enough for Q13. I could've easily been in Q9 with how I've been lapping in practice races. I started on Hards so I could decide by L1 if I wanted to do a no-stop which I originally planned for, or a one-stop, which everyone else seems to be doing and recommending.

T1 was chaos as expected. I brake in time, but a traffic jam happens up front and the car I'm behind hits the car in front, bringing them to a halt, which causes me to hit them. All of us get penalties for our troubles, with over half of the field picking up penalties from contact or track limits from T1 and Eau Rouge/Radillon, and of course our Portuguese friend smashing everyone out of the way. I have a very poor first lap, going wide at Pouhon and braking too late into Stavelot, which drops me down into P16 by the end of Lap 1. With the amount of cars ahead which would mean fighting, including our Portuguese friend, I decide to switch to the one stop and pitted at the end of Lap 1, as does several other drivers. Luckily, I come out in clean air, and am able to pass a 908 into Les Combes as they serve a penalty. After that, it's pretty much running in clean air for several laps, passing an R18 who ran out of hybrid, and then running in clean air again. It gets spicy on the final lap as the front runners pit, and I find myself back up into P8, which turns into P7 as the R18 ahead serves a penalty. But, I'm also right behind our Portuguese friend on Hards, so they're much slower. But, being the last lap, I decided I'll just stay behind them and avoid trouble. I have to say though, the idea of punting them was tempting... but I knew I'd get a penalty so I didn't. Being slowed down meant the person behind us caught up, and they tried to pass both of us into the Bus Stop chicane on the outside. Of course, our angry Portugese friend didn't take kindly to that and turned into them on the left part of the chicane, and this collision meant I could sneak by and steal 6th place.

It was a 177 point finish. Spa and Gr. 1 are a good pair for me, and I really feel like I could get a much better result. But, I honestly think I was rather lucky in this race. Without the mistakes, and even with the penalties, I could've gotten 5th, and maybe I should've no-stopped given that I would've only been fighting with one person, but given that our Portuguese friend still had a 99SR and that I gained 700 DR, I didn't want to risk either getting matched with him and the other dirty drivers in 3rd split or somehow get bumped into 2nd split and not stand a chance at a good finish.

I think I'll make a video of the race, since I can have a click-baity title...
 
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Image 1: The absolute state of D/S lobbies in America.

Right off the bat, I want to give a shoutout to the folks at Toyota Gazoo Racing for snapping when they made the TS050, my favorite car in the game. Almost impossible to spin out, and absolutely rapid out of corners.

I started the race at 1104 DR. I am not good at this game at all. I was putting up 2:01s in practice, which was well off the pace of the top 10. Granted, I was only using the TS050 for practice times, but my times were still pretty bad. I entered the 19:20 slot, and got hit from behind at the bus stop right before my first flying lap, forcing me to abort. I had to push on the outlap just to be able to put in a timed lap: a 2:03 proved to be sufficient for P3.

Started on softs behind a Canadian TS050 and a 919: the start was clean in front of me, though I don't know about behind me. The 919 caught some penalties and dropped off, and the sheer race pace of the TS050s allowed us to extend a massive gap to everyone else, who had gone for just about every car imaginable. People were out here using the Peugeot VGT and the Gr.1 Tomahawk. I understeered into a spin at Campus, which put the lead TS050 a solid 20 seconds ahead of me. Luckily, at this point I was far away enough that I only got overtaken once, and I managed to claw the position back after they cut the bus stop.

My stint on softs was very good — I was slowly clawing back the gap to the leader, but not enough to catch him — but my singular lap on the hards was a mess. I immediately cut Eau Rouge and got a 0.5s penalty, and exiting the bus stop, I oversteered and spun into the wall. I was overtaken by the Tomahawk and an R18 50m from the finish line...but they both got tyre penalties and dropped behind me.

It ended up being P2 for me, my highest position in a race thus far. Only four drivers in the top 10 managed to remember hards and therefore escape penalties...but we take those. Nearly had FL too, but another R18 stole it early on in the race.

I love Gr.1, and I wish it was more balanced, but I'm admittedly content with just driving the TS050 forever. What a vehicle it is.
 
VulcanSpirit
A couple of penalties put me up to 16th and in pursuit of NekoPuffer. There was a point where NekoPuffer seemed to be really struggling for stability, but I hung back until he picked up two consecutive track limits penalties, fishtailing out of the Bus Stop as he did so.
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Man, I was SO mad (hence the fishtailing) because I didn't understand why those were cuts...and then after trying to claw back up the list, that 'Fauxpine' just deleted me. I was screaming...

I had a better result in the previous race (P10) but felt like I was faster in the last one...at least at some points...I felt more in-tune with the car and track.

Thank you for the clean race. ;)
 

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