[edited]
| >Secondly has *anybody* out there actually won a race at "Hard"
| >setting? I've only tried doing it with Shumacher's car, and the best I
| >can qualify at Brazil is 14th. I won all but two races in a
| >championship season easily at "Medium" setting, but "Hard" is a whole
| >new and seemingly impossible ballgame.
| Got a couple of second and third positions. I use Shumacher's partners car.
|If I had of used Shumacher's car instead he could not have come
|ahead of me and then maybe I would have come first come first.
| I have also managed to drive faster laps than any of the other qualifying drivers
|on certain tracks. So it can be done. In fact on Imola I can dirve 1.5
|seconds faster then Schmacher or Hill on hard mode.
| >BTW, I;ve taken to lowering my downforce to "Minimum" and racing
| >"Medium" strength in Irvine's- that is a nice alternative to racing
| >"Hard" and always finishing out of the points.
| To get better times in hard mode you need to practise certain qualties :
| tightness of cornering
| smoothness of gear change (especially while cornering)
| cornering at correct speeds (to fast will slow down your lap time)
| approaching corners on the right line
| Everything is to do with cornering. Approach the corner on the correct line
|at the correct speed and maintain the correct speed during the corner
|and then only accelerate at the correct point out of the corner and
|you can take many seconds off your time.
| Certain corners require drift. Especially shicanes. The car will
|appear to turn sluggishly when doing 280+ kms so you need to,
|almost, pre-program the car to turn before getting to the corner.
| The easiest way to do this is find the rythym of the track.
|There will be a certain feel to the way the car responds and
|handles when you find the correct rythym. Its not just a
|case of lead footing it around everywhere.
| The easiest way to find the correct rythym for a track is ...
|Well lets just say that there a three possible methods you can try :
| 1. Try the correct speed first. Even if you dont know it ???
| 2. Try driving flat out and upon failing drive a little slower the next time.
| 3. Try driving slowly so you make it and then increasing the speed ever so slowly with each time.
| The last method is the best way to learn a track. Start with a
|comfortable pace, say about 20-30 seconds off the pace then
|keep fine tuning. If you start going to fast for yourself and keep
|coming off then you have slipped into method 2. from above and
|need to slow down again. You will need heaps of practice on
|method 3 before finding yourself at method 1.
| Lastly because your lap times are not as quick as the
|others does not necessaryly mean you are driving slowly.
| It also helps if you use an analogue controller like a NegCon or Mad Catz.
| hope this helps.
| Walter
Thanks!