(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)
This is what your practice lap/Q1 screen will look like.
You have a maximum of 8 practice laps to setup your car. That means that you need to achieve a suitable setup within those 8 laps, or else take a wild guess. With only 8 laps, you can't afford to waste time changing one part's setting at a time. To help enable you to change all settings at once, your driver is able to make rough comments on each part's setting.
Ok, you're a complete newbie with zero idea on how to do setups. What do you do? There's several different ways to do this, but we've chosen the divide to conquer method (as it's a similar style to a setup method you'll learn later on).
Getting A General Satisfactory Car Setting
It's a very simple task. Start of with all settings at 500. Then depending on what your driver says, go up or down 50% of the possible remaining numbers.Example :
GearLap 1 :
Setting at 500 = The gear ratio is too high = Needs lower number
That means that the number you want is between 1 & 499Lap 2 :
Setting at 250 = I am very often in the red. Put the gear ratio a bit higher = Needs higher number
That means that the number you want is between 251 & 499Lap 3 :
Setting at 375 = I cannot take advantage of the power of the engine. Put the gear ratio a bit lower = Needs lower number
That means that the number you want is between 251 & 374Lap 4 :
Setting at 312 = I am Satisfied
(Note : During these practice laps, you should be using the same value for both wings (eg Lap1 500:500; Lap2 250:250) as driver will take the combined value of the wings in his analysis)
Ok, you have your driver saying that he is satisfied with all car settings. But there's one thing your driver can't comment on, each wing individually. Front and rear wings at 500 : 500 will be rated the same as wings at 570 : 430, despite them behaving very much different.
A correct wing split can gain you a lot of time on some tracks, but an incorrect split will cost you time. There's only one way to find out.
To find a decent wing split, you have to keep all other car settings the same and just change your front/rear wing differential, otherwise known as a wing split.Example :Lap 4 :
Front Wing = 500; Rear Wing = 500Lap 5 :
Front Wing = 450; Rear Wing = 550Lap 6 :
Front Wing = 570; Rear Wing = 430
What you should notice is that although we've changed both the front & rear wing settings, the sum total of the wings hasn't changed. You take whichever setting offers the best time.
Ok, you have the basics of doing your practice laps. Btw if you have 1 or 2 laps spare, why not experiment a little.(Disclaimer : There are much more efficient ways to do this. The following guide is only to get those who haven't raced before onto the grid)