General race strategy

[komuya23]

First and foremost if there's a better or more appropiate place for this topic please mods move it.

My question comes off because I had a race when I had to make a pit stop, without actually knowing the time it takes for the pit stop to complete and such, so I went with it and hoped for the best.

My question is:

Is there a pit stop time calculation?

Like some kind of formula that tells you the time you're going to wait and such with fixed Liters and tire change?

Because if not, I feel that you actually have to spend hours testing whats the best strategy for a given race, for example going for inters or hards because you skip 1 pit stop could be the difference between 1st place or not even podium.

 

[Spirit]

Hello @komuya23, as for in-game readings, there is no way to know exactly how long a pit stop will take you. This is primarily because there are simply too many variables and things to account for. You're not out of luck though, there is a way to know (roughly) how long a pit stop will take you. To do this, it is recommended you do the testing in an online lobby with tire and fuel wear turned on.

Step One: Run an out lap and a couple hot laps to get warmed up.
Step Two: Make your pit stop on a solid in-lap and take as much fuel as you feel you'll need to. (You can take up to 45 liters of fuel without waiting extra time in the pits due to the length of the tire change.)
Step Three: Run a solid out-lap and another fast lap after that.

Basically what you're going to want to do is record the lap times for your fat laps (on average), your in-lap, and out-lap so you can mathematically work out the difference a pit stop makes. I'll work out an example for you below:

1'45.437 (example average fast lap) = 105.437 seconds
1'51.832 (example in-lap time) = 111.832 seconds
2'13.579 (example out-lap time) = 133.579 seconds

Difference between in-lap and fast lap (111.832-105.437) = 6.395 seconds
Difference between out-lap and fast lap (133.579-105.437) = 28.142 seconds

Now add the two differences together and you get 34.537 seconds for a pit stop. I recommend rounding up to 35 seconds while planning to be safe, accounting for other cars and obstacles you may encounter in the pits. Remember, what I listed above is just an example, each race is different with different lanes so you should always do the testing for yourself under race conditions.

I hope this helps!

 

[komuya23]

Hello @komuya23, as for in-game readings, there is no way to know exactly how long a pit stop will take you. This is primarily because there are simply too many variables and things to account for. You're not out of luck though, there is a way to know (roughly) how long a pit stop will take you. To do this, it is recommended you do the testing in an online lobby with tire and fuel wear turned on.

Step One: Run an out lap and a couple hot laps to get warmed up.
Step Two: Make your pit stop on a solid in-lap and take as much fuel as you feel you'll need to. (You can take up to 45 liters of fuel without waiting extra time in the pits due to the length of the tire change.)
Step Three: Run a solid out-lap and another fast lap after that.

Basically what you're going to want to do is record the lap times for your fat laps (on average), your in-lap, and out-lap so you can mathematically work out the difference a pit stop makes. I'll work out an example for you below:

1'45.437 (example average fast lap) = 105.437 seconds
1'51.832 (example in-lap time) = 111.832 seconds
2'13.579 (example out-lap time) = 133.579 seconds

Difference between in-lap and fast lap (111.832-105.437) = 6.395 seconds
Difference between out-lap and fast lap (133.579-105.437) = 28.142 seconds

Now add the two differences together and you get 34.537 seconds for a pit stop. I recommend rounding up to 35 seconds while planning to be safe, accounting for other cars and obstacles you may encounter in the pits. Remember, what I listed above is just an example, each race is different with different lanes so you should always do the testing for yourself under race conditions.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for the input.

I actually did it your way basically, with less math but I compared my in-lap, to my avg laps to my out-lap.

1.16's fasts and gradually getting to 1.19's after 17 laps, with tire wearing down to 5s.

What I DIDNT KNOW was that i can get 45 fREE liters of fuel, thats a BIG piece of info, thanks for that.

also something I noticed in GT5 all the time i played was that 90% of the time using the best tyre possible was better than using a lower grade one because of the time you lost in lap was not enough to compensate for the pit stops required, adn you ended up with SOFTS all the time. I should check when I have time if this changed in GT6 since im new to it (started this week).

thanks again.

 

[Spirit]

What I DIDNT KNOW was that i can get 45 fREE liters of fuel, thats a BIG piece of info, thanks for that.

Happy to help, apologies if the extra information was unnecessary. I didn't know how experienced you were so I went ahead and gave great detail so even new drivers could understand. Happy racing!

 

[komuya23]

Happy to help, apologies if the extra information was unnecessary. I didn't know how experienced you were so I went ahead and gave great detail so even new drivers could understand. Happy racing!

Even if it is innecesary for me, for other readers (I have the sense we got a lot of lurkers but not so many posters) it could be a good approach and it pretty easy to do with some spreadsheets and 1hr.

 

[SmileyOr]

Even with all those details, you can get lucky and pick a car that can go the distance without pitting, with the right setup, but slower lap times. Or pick a car that can pit twice running on race soft and win with just enough fuel.

Delta Wing vs Chaparral 2J.

 

[davidt33]

Another good way to gauge is from drivers who completed the race/s with a particular car hopefully one you intend to use or choose because of, or even perhaps similar, and get tips from their experience and success.
I've found there is a lot of camaraderie in this forum and fellow racers gladly share.