Must be my lack of skill, I just can't seem to win this race with anything below 800PP am I missing a trick? what is the best way to lower the PP and still have a chance of winning?
Thanks,
I don't think that you'll find "a trick" to winning with the F1 cars. There are two cars that you can use; most likely one of them will feel more comfortable to you.
With those two cars, unlike most cars in the game, there are only three things that you can do to lower the PP level. Those are Power Limiting, adding Ballast, and lowering the Aerodynamics. I'm pretty certain that this is correct, unless I'm forgetting something.
Most likely, you'll have to find that "just right" balance for your driving style. For some, with expert driving skills, lowering the Aero can work very well and actually make the car faster on the straights. For others, that would make the car spin too easily for their taste/skill.
Try experimenting and see what works well for you. There is most likely info in this sub-forum that will give more info or suggestions how to get more bonus from the PP difference. I would start in the one that names the Seasonal in the topic and work from there.
Also, you're going to want to get the most out of each lap, if you're PP limiting. Depending how much you're limiting, you'll have to drive very well. If you limit to, well, the limit, you almost have to drive Time Trial Leaderboard laps consistently. Little mistakes, or not getting the most out of every corner, adds up over the course of a lap and an entire race.
Probably the best thing to do is to limit by 10s at first. Take off 10 PP, if that works out, do another 10. If that's too much go up by 5. Once you get the hang of that, shave off 5 again and see if you can do it. You'll eventually get to the point where you shave off 1 PP, and then you'll find your limit.
If you think about the S. Vettel challenges in the Special Events, you'll understand how it can seem like you're doing well, but really not getting the most out of your laps. These cars go really fast and corner really well, so it's easy to think that you're driving your best, when you can be shaving a lot of time off of your laps.
It actually takes quite a bit of practice to really get the most out of these cars, but the more you drive them, the more it makes sense
how to get more out of them. It's also a lot of fun once you do get the hang of them.
I hope this helps.