How Do I Know If It's Gonna Rain!?!?

[parker_125]

Hi all, i've been looking for a somewhat alive F1CE forum forever with no luck, then realized all this time there was one in the good ol' GTP

Anyways, I recently finally found a decently cheap copy of F1CE,(I lost mine to a fire almost two years ago)

Is there a way to know if the day of the race is going to be rainy or not? Friday practice might be raining, then sat practice might not, then race day is, ect.

Asking bc of tire choice.

And is there a way to switch tire type before taking a pit?


Any Info appreciated. Parker.

 

[waggles]

The game should automatically switch you to wet tires, or the most appropriate tyre.

 

[Ardius]

First of all, before the race starts, if you listen to the commentary (while they are doing an overview of the circuit, grid line up, etc) they will tell you if there is a chance of rain. If the race starts with rain, the team will already have put the appropriate wet tyres on (though the rest of your car setup is not changed!). Same goes for qualifying, etc, the team will always give you wets to start with if its already raining. Though you can always alter your setup in anything other than the race, so its not really an issue there.

During the race, again, the commentary team will make note of if rain is coming or starting (Martin Brundle for me, don't know if the US version still has Brundle & Allen as commentators), usually though, you can hold on for a couple of laps with dry tyres. When pitting, you cannot choose your tyres, so if it starts raining, you need to run at least 1 lap with rain before your pit crew will give you rain tyres (very stupid game mechanic I know).
Otherwise, if you come into the pits too early and its not been raining long, they will give you the wrong tyres.

Sometimes when you are practicing and qualifying, its worth taking into account the chance of rain in your setup, but most of the time its something you just hope doesn't happen as the AI is rediculously good in the wet, even at Medium difficulty.

There is no way to know before you start the race weekend whether its going to rain or not, its completely random. I think its quite unfair really, because in real life your team would have data on the Saturday that would at least give them an estimate of rain or not and allow them to tailor the setups for rain....which you can't do in F1:CE, you just have to luck into a dry race really.

 

[parker_125]

Exactly the answers I was looking for!
Thanks.

 

[Seismica]

Is there a way you can tell your pit crew you are pitting early because of rain?

I was just racing at Indianapolis. The rain started 8 laps from my second stop, and after a wet lap or two I decided I wanted to pit early. I remember an older F1 game having a function where you could request to pit by pressing select and the pit crew came out ready, is there anything like that in this game?

Just wondering, because i drove into the pits to get wet tyres, the pit crew didn't come out, I lost ~15 seconds from the drive through and a further 20+ from crashing over the next 3-4 laps, and eventually slid into the wall long before my scheduled pit stop. I'd much rather sacrifice the time lost by getting a heavier fuel load and the possibility of having to pit a 3rd time than lose all the time or possibly even the entire race from running dry tyres on a wet track.

To put it simply, dry tyres in the rain cost me the race. I was having an awesome battle with the leaders too, I was going to get my first podium for sure.

 

[DonkeyFuzz]

Seismica, if you want to pit early its siple, the lap you want to come in press the select button, and the indicator will turn orange, your pit guy will then sy something and then the indicator will turn green and you will be able to pit, hope this helps.

 

[Seismica]

Seismica, if you want to pit early its siple, the lap you want to come in press the select button, and the indicator will turn orange, your pit guy will then sy something and then the indicator will turn green and you will be able to pit, hope this helps.

Now that is very worrying, because I did press select :/ All controller configurations use the same button for it right?

I'm probably going to restart my career mode anyway; On hard difficulty rather than Medium. Two pole positions in 4 races; whilst challenging though it was, is just not what I was looking for. So far i've had Monaco and Indianapolis pole, Montreal 2nd (though clocked the fastest lap in testing by 1.5 seconds) and Silverstone I was 11th.

How big of a difference is there between medium and hard? By the way of AI lap times, 1-2 seconds?

 

[Ardius]

Now that is very worrying, because I did press select :/ All controller configurations use the same button for it right?

I'm probably going to restart my career mode anyway; On hard difficulty rather than Medium. Two pole positions in 4 races; whilst challenging though it was, is just not what I was looking for. So far i've had Monaco and Indianapolis pole, Montreal 2nd (though clocked the fastest lap in testing by 1.5 seconds) and Silverstone I was 11th.

How big of a difference is there between medium and hard? By the way of AI lap times, 1-2 seconds?

Make sure the pit icon has turned green before you have gone into the pit, when you press select, the pit crew needs time to react and the icon won't turn green till they are ready.
Also concerning the pits - generally ignore the team radio, they usually call you in a couple of laps too early and sometimes they say they are ready for you when they aren't . At best just use it as a heads up when fuel is low or tyres are wearing.

Yes, hard is about 2-3 seconds faster if not more at some tracks. The tests also become a lot harder naturally too .