Simulated F1 car setup

[Jersey Tom]

But again, remember that a lot of these values are probably pure guesses or severely fudged. Don't think it's in any current F1 team's best interest to be giving away suspension parameters for consumption by the public (other than some obvious things).

Why on earth dont ISI hire someone like Steve Matchett as a temporary consultant or anyone with F1 tech experience to find out all the neccesary details. He can still tell them everything they need to know without being team specific.

Eh, yes and no. Some things, ballpark wheel rates and kinematic rates shouldn't be too hard. Damper curves are going to be track dependent, and probably kept internal. Compliance rates are a big deal and those are going to be proprietary.

Really the biggest performance modifier is the tire data, which I doubt ISI would be able to get their hands on. Plus, their current tire model is not very good.

I think the problems I'm having finding a good setup are more down to the tire model and physics, the car just doesn't quite turn in the right way.

I use FSONE and they have edited the vehicle and tire model. So I've experimented with using the 2008bridgestonetire from ISI/MMG BMWF12008 and it seems a bit better.

Better, according to what metric? It is hard to say exactly what the car should and shouldn't do unless you have driven it

There is more longitudinal grip than lateral grip in the ISI tire model and I read that this should be about the same, but that may not have been F1 specific.

Read, where? It is very easy, depending on the tire, on the load, etc, to have more drive/brake than cornering grip.

I use weight distribution to even temperatures from front to rear.

I'd still be wary of using tire temps to tune setups in rFactor or other games. Typically they don't really capture dynamic temps well.

[modbaraban]

This is a bit offtopic, but just a bit so...

I'm do GT endurance racing in rFactor. It's 2-3 hours without driver changes. Next weekend we have '400km di Monza' and so far I really suck with my Corvette C6.R. I already have 13 competitors of my class on the entry list I struggle with oversteer, understeer and all kinds of random steer and every lap it's different. I guess I should practice more.

However one of the issues causing this might be the tyre temperatures. The optimum is 86 deg C. The difference between left and right tyre temps seems too big. Sometimes I get over 90 on the left front and about 75 on the right front at the same time.
The horizontal tyre temperatures on each tyre is ok. So the camber and tyre pressures seem to be right. I guess there are simply not enough tight high speed right-hand corners to keep the right side warmed (only the exit of Ascari actually).
So I was thinking about non-symmetric suspension setup, maybe... I'm not good at suspension fine tunning. What would you suggest?

PS: all driver aids except auto clutch are disallowed.

[Jersey Tom]

Nothin wrong with having different temps RS vs LS. That's normal. I wouldn't bother with an asymmetric setup unless you get the car behaving like you want.

Have you played with the diff at all?

The first step, regardless, is to identify what the car is doing, and when. For example, what is the balance...

..in a long sweeping turn at high speed with the throttle floored?
..in a turn with the throttle neutral (NOT zero, NOT wide open)?
..entering a turn under the brakes?

And straight line braking stability.. does the front or rear lock up first?

[Scotracer]

On most rFactor mods I find the default diff settings are too loose for my liking. I like a tight LSD as they keep the rear in check, if giving a little understeer on throttle. I mainly do this for consistency... after all, we're playing with a game pad and not the real thing.

[modbaraban]

Most of the times I manage to set the diff to do the right jub. Here in Monza though... I can't really feel the difference it's doing.

I got wings 2 (out of 2) front; and 8 (out of 12) rear.

..in a long sweeping turn at high speed with the throttle floored?

630 hp, 800 Nm, 1205 kg... you can guess what happens . There are only 2 fast corners: Ascari (fast exit) and Parabolica so of course I have to play with the throttle to keep facing the right way on the exit That's not a problem though as the rear end goes quite gradually at speed so it's very controllable. It's the slower corners that I struggle with.

More detail.
- Retifilo: My usual trailbraking manner doesn't work. Sometimes the rear end snaps out and I end up taking the right-left sequence in the way a pro drifter would do (which isn't fast of course). Sometimes it's the opposite. The car dives into the corner and then sudennly starts to understeer late, just before the apex. That means crashing at the small tyre barrier (it's the turismo version with small tyre walls to prevent cutting over the green stuff).
Apparently the best way is to brake slightly earlier.... and theeeeeen just take that stupid chicane with 'neutral' car.
- della Roggia: moving brake balance from 56:44 to 58:42 fixed the oversteering issue on the entry, but on the exit the car oversteers very suddenly after the rear right goes over the curb. If I'm more gentle it may understeer a bit and I get the left wheels on the gravel (in the accel. zone).
- Lesmos: 1st - understeer all the way. Safe at least .
2nd - understeer all the way, but sometimes changes to sudden oversteer on the exit.
- Ascari: understeer-in (quite hard to get the entery right); along the long right curb that bends right (neutral throttle) it's quite oversteery if I touch the curb, but if I don't the front end often slides. On the exit there's some controlable oversteer as I said earlier.
- Parabolica: Quite good, some controlable oversteer when I'm back on throttle.

PS: also here's a good question

Engine Brake Mapping will affect how much the engine helps slow down the car - lower numbers result in MORE engine braking, which also uses less fuel. The downside is that the engine only slows down the driven wheels, which can cause a braking imbalance between high and low speed.

From the rFactor ReadMe

I know that the engine lifetime is affected by the temperature and the amount of fuel burned, and the temperature itself is affected the amount of fuel burned. How does Engine Brake Mapping affect engine lifetime apart from the fuel consumption factor?

[Jersey Tom]

Car bottoming at all?

Sounds too stiff in general.

If you have any packers, get rid of em. Especially on the rear.

I'd run zero preload on the rear, and maybe a bit on the front, to make the car a little more settled on-center.

Keep lots of front brake bias. Could even try 60:40. Even if you get the brake bias perfect for your decel rate, if you then shift and don't do it absolutely perfectly you'll overdrive the rears and it will come around. Putting a generous amount of front bias gives more fudge room on downshifts (if downshifts are one thing that help break the rear end loose). I'd add front bias until the vehicle friction ellipse feels "pointy" rather than "round" while trailbraking, and then back off 1-2%.

I like running a healthy amount of coast lock on the diff to settle the car on entry. Sounds like about the right amount on exit. Maybe less preload?

Definitely run softer springs and bars, and/or heaps less compression damping all around. If the car is getting twitchy over curbs and all, one and/or the other is too high. Contrary to popular belief, running stiff springs does NOT make steering response better (or it doesnt on a real car, shouldn't in a sim).. and IMO I'd only run stiff springs if the chassis feels lazy OVER the tires, or there's an aero issue.

[Scuderia_Russ]

Why on earth dont ISI hire someone like Steve Matchett as a temporary consultant or anyone with F1 tech experience to find out all the neccesary details. He can still tell them everything they need to know without being team specific.

Probably because Matchett was a mechanic, not a race engineer.