Just spent about an hour testing at Laguna Seca in F1C. Aaaaaah, now this
is fun! Managed to take 3 sec. off my best lap compared to F1 2002. Still
"only" as fast as the CART guys (about 1:10) while the AI are about 3 sec.
quicker, but at least it's starting to feel comfortable now.
Since I had to start from scratch for a setup, I brought over an F1 2002
setup (just the values, not the actual file) and touched it up a bit.
Worked great, felt much better to me than the typical setups that come with
the game. I'm sure in steady, confident hands those default setups are real
fast, but in my hands the slow rear end response is a huge liability. I
think the comments people have made about the defaults being loose are not
quite correct. If you look at the springs and bars the basic balance of the
defaults is actually quite tight. But it is still easy to spin because the
front end settles into a turn long before the rear does, and consequently if
you are not right on top of it the rear just keeps going. It's the same
problem that some of the NR2003 setups have, but since everything is
happening much faster in an F1 car it is much more difficult to catch it.
To put it more simply, the rear just does not have any bite because it's
*too* soft. So I went against the grain and softened the front and
stiffened the rear a bit. Also jacked up the diff lock to 60%, which I have
heard is fairly realistic. Then turned on full traction control, because
after listening fairly carefully to all the races this year I am convinced
all the RL drivers are using it. Ended up with a very stable, very
controllable, but still fast setup. Finally could hear the traction control
stay on for a realistic amount of time on corner exit too. Anyway just some
things I wanted to share, YMMV. :o)
