manuals don't even acknowledge the existence of pit boards let alone
explain them.
I know that P5 means you're in 5th place and that L9 means there's 9
laps to go. I'm not a complete dill - or so I like to believe. Its the
two listed drivers at the bottom of the board with their respective +
& - numbers that often leaves me wondering.
Sometimes the first listed driver has a + sign, other times a - sign.
Likewise with the second driver listed. If a +5 means that a first
listed driver is in front of you by 5secs then what does a first
listed driver with a -5 mean ? - that the driver in front of you is so
many seconds behind you ? You'd have to lap them for this to be true
but these messages seem to come up on non-lapped cars as well. If
they're first listed then that would seem to imply they're in front,
but coupled with a - sign it seem to imply they're behind. Also ... If
a - sign on a second listed driver means they are so many seconds
behind you then what does a second listed driver with a + sign mean,
which I've seen on the board ? Pit board info seems rather hard to
fathom and as I said there is no explanation in the manuals.
I've also had first listed drivers as +1 but on a long straight
they're nowhere to be seen. Not what you'd expect if this means
they're 1 second in front of you. Likewise with 2nd listed drivers as
-1 but nowhere in your mirrors. I've ever slowed right down just to
see exactly where behind me a -1 second listed driver was, and had to
wait quite a long time, many seconds, before anyone showed up,
implying the pit board was wrong, or my attempts at interpreting it
are.
One of the more confusing boards I've seen was at the end of the 2nd
lap at Mosport, where the pit board info should have been relating to
the status when the line was crossed at the end of the first lap. It
had the second listed driver as -2L. Now how could it be possible for
anyone to be 2 laps down after only one lap of the race ? In this case
I actually retired from the race to check the standings status ( I
wish you could do this without retiring ) and the driver listed on my
pit board as -2L was actually leading the race ???
So ... if I accept that I have the wit of a carrot and can't see the
obvious then perhaps someone can enlighten me how to interpret the
somewhat confusing pit board messages I see from time to time.
While on the subject, in the configuration screens there's a command '
View Pit Board ' which I assume is to allow one to view ones' pit
board whenever one desires. ( Again - no explanation in the manual ).
Its' set to the keystroke 'C' by default but can be reassigned. I have
never been able to get any response with this. I've tried with 'Auto
View Pit Board ' turned on and off but made no difference. Is this a
common dysfunction or can others get the ' View Pit Board ' facility
to work?
As always, a great sim. I'd would have liked to see more user
configureability for my liking - and others also from what I read.
Cheers
Phillip McNelley