Well being a relative GPL noob myself it's going to be difficult to prove my
point, but let me explain myself. I have what I feel are fairly realistic
setups for Monza. I say fairly realistic because inevitably you have to do
things to deal with GPL's tire model, but in terms of diff settings,
understeer, overall stiffness, etc. I think my setups are reasonably
realistic. I am also using what I feel are realistic driving techniques.
By that I mean for example I am using only small amounts of trail braking
and only where it makes sense, but I do not trail brake all the way in to
the apex; and while I am definitely trying to get a good four wheel drift
going I am not using opposite lock power slides to exit the corners. I pull
the brake bias back as far as I can get away with but I do not use the
throttle while braking unless I am trying to correct a mistake. Using these
setups and driving techniques my best laps at Monza are in the 1:28's. Okay
that's still 2 seconds slower than the world record, but when I look at an
assortment of my best laps in GPLRA and compare them to world record laps,
the differences are very small and very subtle. The world record lap
holders are not pulling significantly more g's than I am or getting hugely
different straightaway speeds. They are simply more precise about nailing
their markers and better at extracting the most out of the friction circle.
I can even find laps of mine where I did the Lesmos or the Curva Grande or
whatever as well as a world record lap but then blew it somewhere else. So
based on this it is my feeling that neither my driving technique nor my
setups are holding me back, it is only my inadequate precision, track
knowledge, and consistency that is preventing me from duplicating those
times. That's why I feel that the alien setups and driving techniques are
unnecessary.