Replying to
John Williamson and everyone else:
1. CrewChief
Should be a must, I will check with all drivers to make sure it gets installed and configured properly before we have our next race.
Richard Haynie already got the ball rolling on this.
2. Norms
This should be more common sense driving than anything else. Regardless of the venue, every track has turns with braking zone, apex, and exit phases. Usually, turns follow one racing line, with very few exceptions where different lines can be driven. To me, asking the lapped cars to move away from the racing line during the braking or exit phase is not too much to ask. Not to mention, moving away from the line on a straight is even more desirable. I've watched F1 for many years and I don't recall the last time a lead driver had to lap a car by performing an overtaking maneuver. Anyways, I don't want to make this post too long so I'll start putting bullet points here:
A. As a general rule, the slower car
must always move away from the racing line when there's a faster car about to lap him.
B. Moving away from the line should be performed either on a straight, the braking zone, or corner exit, never during the apex phase.
C. When moving away from the line, make sure to slow down slightly as to allow the faster car to go by as soon as possible.
I understand that there might be situations when lapped cars are fighting with others for position and moving away could affect the outcome of such fight. However, at the front, it's quite difficult to recover from a 1-second slowdown, especially when you go outside the DRS sweet spot. So the last thing we want to see is a race or even a championship be decided by a backmaker that made it too difficult or that caused an accident.
3. What not to do
A. Never brake on the racing line while going on a straight or exiting a corner, the faster driver never expects this.
B. Do not engage in a mini-race with the faster driver. I've seen on many occasions drivers that pull away from the line yet they race you to the apex of the turn forcing a dangerous maneuver.
C. Faster drivers shouldn't continue accelerating through the slower drivers and cause accidents. Caution must always be exercised regardless of the position of the driver.
All in all, these are just ideas. The root cause of this issue is the current performance gap there is on raw lap time and consistency during a race. For example, in Bahrain we had 5 drivers out of 20 that were +3 seconds slower on the race's fastest lap. 4 of the same 5 drivers were at the bottom of the consistency chart too. I'll name them so that we can all help them improve:
Cliff Vanleeuwaarde (+7.7s slower than the fastest lap, 3.09s deviation)
Cliff, you had 205 clean laps on Liveracers with a 99% completion rate, meaning that you were not hotlapping. Being almost 8 seconds a lap slower than the faster guy puts you in a position where you will be lapped quite frequently. My recommendation to you is to start practicing some hot laps, you can ask any of us for a setup on Discord and we'll gladly help. Your consistency also needs some work but it's not as bad as your raw pace.
Thomas Shepherd (+3.8s slower, 3.24s deviation)
Thomas, 142 clean laps with 82% completion rate. I'm not sure if you ESC a lot from accidents or you were hot lapping. In your case, your raw pace is not so far out from the rest, however when you are almost 4 seconds off the pace and you deviate from that another 3 seconds then it adds up quickly. I'd recommend sitting on board any of the faster guys so that you learn how fast the car can go and also ask for setup help from any of us on Discord.
Karl Strouhal (+3.2s slower, 4.90s deviation)
I know you are quite new to this, Karl. Like Thomas, your raw pace is not so far out but your consistency really needs work. You need to load up that car with heavy fuel, have a stable setup, and start racking up the laps with consistency.
Stephen Broderson (+3.1s slower, 7.92s deviation)
My man Stephen, the guy that's on the server almost every time hahaha. You had 362 clean laps with an 89% completion rate. Not so far off the pace but boy that consistency is terrible. Given the number of laps that you clock in, I wonder if the issue is more nerves during the race. If I'm right on this assumption, this only gets better while practicing with other cars around you. Maybe use the AI in offline mode, they can be quite competitive when you set them to the max. Your teammate
Jeff Oppenheim is one of the most veterans here and I'm sure the setup is not an issue.
Francis Hartstein (+5.5s slower, 1.41s deviation)
Lastly, Francis. Your consistency is quite good but your raw pace is the one that lacks a bit. I wonder if
Jean-Pierre Lalancette is sharing his setup with you hahaha. You should focus on improving your lap time. Reduce that gap and you'll be there fighting in the midfield at least.
Alright, this went much longer than expected haha. I hope it was constructive and we can start seeing some results soon.