rec.autos.simulators

1) Concerning setups for qualifying- Downforce is primary importance.
   Gearing is the next concern, and he points out that the typical F1
   car NEVER uses 1st gear for anything other than starting out from
   a stop.

2) Concerning post-qualifying setups- The downforce on the back wing should
   be reduced, since the straights (less DF needed) are where you do the
   passing. Almost no passing occurs in turns, with obvious exceptions.

3) Brake balance- The front tyres should LOCK FIRST for the setup. This
   is probably known by everybody, but since World Circuit has no way of
   showing this (or making front/rear lockup sounds), why have it in
   the first place?

Now one from me- concerning rain setups....

A previous post suggested that the brake balance be set forward for rain.
I question this (I haven't tried it out, so I'm skating on thin ice) but
since the tyres adhere MUCH worse, setting up so the fronts lock even
sooner would be nothing short of disaster- hydroplaning anyone?
It would make sense if the balance should be neutral.
Any F1 crew chiefs care to comment??

Prost's book on rain lines- the wise choice is to stay off the driven line
since that has the highest tendency to slide (fresh ***, etc). The wise
choice is off to the side of the line. This allows the best coverage into the
corners.

Any comments??

Jeff

To your second point, the rear wing of a modern F1 car is not adjustable to
the extent the word would imply. The adjustable part is the billet or
"Gurney flap" that is mounted at the top of its trailing edge. This addition
is held in place by four or five screws and can be raised or lowered
slightly to provide minor changes in downforce.  Big changes in downforce
are made by replacing the complete wing assembly. You may have noticed
that in the latter days of the Mclaren/Honda partnership the "park bench"
rear wing that was used on the MP4/7A even at faster tracks such as Monza
and Silverstone. The horsepower advantage provided by the Honda engine
allowed them to run much more downforce than most of the other teams. It
helped to compensate for some flaws in the car's basic handling.

In wet conditions the thing to avoid at all costs is understeer so the
car's setup will be changed completely from a "dry setup" for the same
track. You will put a lot of wing on in the front to increase downforce on
the front axle, you will strenghten the rear anti-roll bar and weaken the
front one. Brake bias will be set towards the rear. There are also some
camber and caster changes that will have to made at the front to
compensate for the roll-bar and wing changes that you have made, but we'll
leave that out for now. In some cases you may also choose slightly softer
springs all around to give the driver more "feel" for the behavior of the
whole car, but that is really personal preference. Start with fairly big
changes and work your way back towards a dry type setup during practice.

If you have chosen the wrong "wet" setup for a race,  you'll know you have
a problem when the driver goes off and takes about a furlong of catch
fence with him in the process.

Happy Motoring,

Pat Miner

"He started poorly and then executed a brilliant charge to the rear of the
field"

Everything that I can remember hearing about brake bias in the rain was that
it should be set so there are more rear brakes.  When Andretti went off in
the rain while chasing one of the Saubers he was trying to reach the brake
bias control to give more rear brakes (he couldn't reach it, but that is
another problem).  Sorry I can't remember which race, but it was raining,
and they were approaching a right hand turn (I think the first turn in a
chicane).  I'll try to find the race and see if there are any comments
about the incident.  I also have Ayrton Senna's Principles of Race Driving,
so I'll check in it about wet weather brake set up.
By the way, I could be wrong about all of this...

Brian
--

Just passing through.

Brian,
        I remember the race you're referring to...the most amount of laps
poor Mikey drove up to that point in the season...it was San Marino.
He was chasing Wendlinger in the Sauber, and the track was drying. He
was trying to adjust the brake bias to the front (adjusting for dry
conditions) but he couldn't...so under heavy breaking for the chicane,
he locked the rear breaks, causing the car to swap ends.
So I guess this answers our question of brake bias in the rain.
I'm sure there are people out there that can or already have shed more light
on the subject.
See ya,
Scott
p.s. this is soooo sad, I read this group and I don't even have a
racing sim....hell, I don't even have my own computer.
p.p.s. my family does own a Powerbook (Mac.), any good driving sims.
for the Mac. I know this question has been asked so if anyone got any
info via e-mail or something, could you let me know....Thanks.

You should put more braking on the rear of the car in the wet.
In the dry, you have a lot of grip and the weight transference
to the front of the car is significant.  If you put equal braking
force on both the front and rear tyres, the rears would always
lock first, as they have less load on them.  In the wet, the
lower grip gives less weight transference.  Besides, locked
back wheels help reduce turn-in understeer :)

                        Andrew  Henry

For the learners, I found it helpful (back when I was learning the tracks)
to check how fast the other cars were going down the straights (using the
replay option), and then set my wings up so that I was doing roughly the
same speed as well.
Remembering of course, that the gears then have to be set up to match the
wing configuration, not the other way around.

As for 1st gear, I may be contradicting Prost, but I always set up 1st gear
so it is used in the slowest corner of the race.    Even if it is a fast
corner, 1st gear is used simply to keep the revs near optimum at all times.
(less distance between gear ratios)
oh...  I dont worry about it giving me a slow start, because I always start
deliberatly from the back of the grid and fight my way to the front.  
More challenging.

Glenn