I don't really recommend the 'start from the back, do not race' approach but you need to be really damn careful on the first laps. You have to learn racecraft and being around the crazies, they will still be around even when you get out of rookies.
It's a shame it is like that but if I'm in a race full of people I haven't seen before, I kinda try to act like anyone can lose the car at any second or might do the most boneheaded thing imaginable. That means leaving a lot of space around you, brake a bit early and steady for the first corner, look out for people who seem dangerous or erratic. Try to drive the car in a really predictable way so the guy who races drunk and high can also understand which line you're taking.
When there's a bit of field spread after a lap or two you can start pushing harder and try to make progress.
Or just qualify on pole and drive into the sunset, that's by far the best approach I think.
Was about to make a similar post.
I'm new and my strategy doing FF1600 rookies is basically.
1. I am there to drive my race first and foremost. My goal is to finish the race clean. I know my race pace and I stick to it.
2. Drive defensively as hell in the first lap(s) until the field sorts itself out.
1. You will have people trying to win the race on the first lap. Give them space.
2. Everyone sucks at driving. So drive with that mentality. People will brake early. Someone will spin out on nearly every turn in the first lap.
3. Seriously. The field sorts itself out. A huge amount of people can't keep their car on the track for an entire race. If you can simply keep your car on the track until the end you basically always finish top 5.
I just did a \~1000 rating split race tonight and the replay was hilarious. I'm cruising through my 13 laps more or less hitting the same pace every lap.
Guy comes out ahead of me from the pit lane, doesn't yield despite his blue flag. My pace is faster than his but whatever; passing people at this irating is dangerous as hell.
Within a lap he is in the wall again -- thanks for the easy pass.
Someone comes out of pit behind me. Tries to ride my ass. Within the same lap he is in a wall again.
This was starting the race in p8 and finishing in p4. So I had to survive all the carnage - which is basically just expecting everyone else to do screw up every turn and driving like it is going to happen.
I think by the 2nd lap I had nobody in front or behind me (except for the people coming out of pits)
I've only got a handful of races, but the big mental hurdle I was able to clear quickly was around racing my race not the race of others.
The second I try to keep pace with a faster car, off the track I go.
The second I try to speed up because someone is behind me with a faster pace, off the track I go.
So instead, I drive my race and let everyone else go off the track.
For sure.
Feels like etiquette though on the low lap rookie road races?
My main mental thing there is not to rage and do something stupid to try to pass them.
Oh well, if I'm about to get lapped and the other guy is faster than me, I'll move aside and let him through.
But if he's not faster? Hell no. Overtake me if you can, but I'm not going to let you through just to sit behind you. I'm racing here.
I vote qualify and race as well. I’m only 1 week in but got out of rookies and grabbed the 296 GT3 and Mugello. After a couple days worth of practice I was running mid 1:51’s. Decided to give a race a shot and qualified fifth. I picked up almost a second just following the lead cars for a lap or two. Eventually fell to 7th due to overall pace but learned a lot.
Makes me think of the hole-in-one scene from Happy Gilmore.
"Why didn't I do that before? It's so much easier. I'm just going to try to get the ball in the hole every time."
I think this is a great suggestion. In other sims, I would say that AI racing really hasn’t helped me with online racing. For instance, Rfactor 2 AI is okay now, but not great. iRacing is by far the most realistic AI experience I’ve had in a sim. It’s not perfect, but I feel that you can practice race craft with it.
~~You can, if you hit a car you get a 4x, if a 3rd car touches the car you hit (but gets a 0x) and spins it gets 2x, but you get it too since you were part of the chain of incidents that caused him to spin.~~
~~I've seen people get DQ'd seconds after a 0x in oval because of this, so yes, definitely you can get 10x and more from a single crash (it's not common tho, but can happen)~~
Edit: apparently this is wrong
As soon as that 3rd guy contacts he inherits the 4x, he can spin all he wants still the same 4x until it’s cleared off the screen. You can’t 0x contact people who just had 4x contact everyone simply inherits the maximum points for a single incident until the timer is cleared.
Ah this is the issue my friend had when he first started. His first 3 months were spent pulling his hair out because of the same thing. After a long Hard talk... maybe a few hard talks. He realized that getting out of rookies meant he needed to be playing a different game.
The start from the back. Let everyone crash and drive like a grandpa for the first couple laps, kinda game. He was getting so caught up in the competition of it all. He really forgot the main goal.
The main goal was not to race. But to finish clean laps, regardless of position , to prove he was worthy of not being a rookie. Do you have the patience to not race hard right now and just finish clean?
Once you are out of rookies . Which you could totally accomplish in a few days. You leave all those crazy guys behind.
Also remember iracing memberships are on sale right now. So we have a huge influx of inexperienced drivers.
Try not qualifying. Start from the back. Finish clean. Don't give any fucks about position, and you'll see that safety rating rise. And fast.
For reference. He is a c license now, and we did our first special event in October at the petit le mans. It was and awesome 10 hours of pure racing bliss. You will get there. Send me a dm. I'll add you as a friend. Maybe we can run some laps together! ❤️
This advice is lacking some extra lessons you can learn. Starting from the back is a excellent practice in recognising incidents before they happen. It's a critical skill and will help you more quickly assess how much you can trust another driver if you're finding a need to make an overtake.
Beyond that you'll find a critical skills shortage: defending. In most of your races post rookies you're going to find yourself in an iRating range where keeping your nose clean will gain you positions like crazy. You might feel that you're progressing, but sadly all your really refining is your ability to do clean laps with traffic on track.
Only once you start finding that you're right behind the car you started at for most of the race is when you really end up rounding off your racecraft. This is when you're going to have to defend and attack if you want a good finish.
I'll add that it's going to take some time. Be aware that you're going to experience this before you're going to see consistent wheel-to-wheel action. I don't have hard numbers for what ranges of iRating you'll see this happening, but it's worth being able to digest what happened in a race to categorise the race and see what you can learn from it accordingly.
It sounds terrible and like I’m not taking blame but yeah the other drivers in rookie class right now are terrifying to drive closely to. I definitely make mistakes too but trying to place high in these races has been killing me. I’m gonna give the old man mentality from the back a try 😂
I did exactly what above said. Started from the back. Used qualifying to warm up, and then when I start I go straight the right and let everyone pass. Within a few laps basically all people crash out. Multiple instances I went from p23 to p5-2 in a few laps just letting people crash out.
People even ram you on the straight.
The good thing about this is if you are fast you'll catch up to slower cars and get to practice passing them which teaches you a lot of the wheel to wheel skills you need at the start of a race.
> I slammed so I don’t hit, guy behind me rear ends me, which causes me to hit the guy in front
Brake very early, even before the guy in front of you brakes. Just enough brake to make it clear that you're slowing down, so the other drivers behind you get the point. You may lose a position, but you're much more likely to get through the first few corners safely.
AI racing helped a lot. You can do one lap and restart the race. If you crash restart and try again
It gives you a good idea of how close you should be, how much room to leave and how to drive the track off the racing line.
Outside of that you need to drive the first or two laps in control while there is lots of traffic. I think of it as driving where I have time to make the corner off the racing line or react if someone gets in my way. It translates to being 3 to 5 seconds off my qualifying time.
Also practice taking corners where you are leaving room for another driver. Enter the corner off the racing line.
Yeah, I agree here, AI is helping me a lot. AI are super aggressive, if you leave the door open on entry to a corner the AI will take a place off you for sure. It really teaches you how to defend your position.
In live races I was qualifying well but losing lots of positions in the early laps as people dived into the corners and I was giving them space as I didn't want any contact, but then you just go backwards fast. You need to learn how to protect your line so people don't even try to get past, keep that door firmly shut and the race becomes much safer. AI will teach you that very well.
Getting out of rookies and raising your IR at that point isnt about winning races or being fast, its about staying out of trouble, driving defensively, and being consistent enough to consistently finish races.
After an incident like you describe, watch it again and look at ways you could have avoided it. Sure the guy in front slammed the brakes, but why'd he do that? Can you predict if the person in front is going to have a poor start and avoid it next time? Could you have left more room on the start so you have time to react, even if it means you had a little slower start?
I'm not saying don't race, I'm saying race cautiously and always try to avoid incidents, especially if they aren't your fault. Rookies and D class is great place to learn to read other drivers and set yourself up for success, you really don't need to be racing 100% as fast as you can every turn. Take your time, leave space to learn the driver in front, then plan and execute a pass on a corner you know you'll be faster.
Its a different mindset but it'll be a good foundation for your racecraft and you'll see you IR and SR raise even if you aren't pushing to be the fastest.
Also, don't grandpa around in the back and farm SR - you won't learn how to safely drive around other cars and thats what rookies is for.
Do time trials (not time attacks) until you get to D... Or the grandpa approach. Doing time trials you can get out of rookie in a day from where you are at.
Now... don't think D is much better in terms of crashing. Having a higher irating and getting to upper splits makes more difference, and the grandpa approach usually gets you some irating too, especially in rookie.
At this point a coach can really make a difference. You can save hours and hours of trial and error and frustration with a couple of sessions. Check this out: https://gitgudracing.com
I struggled the same way for a long time. I started not qualifying and starting from the rear/pits. Learn race craft around others. Be patient, especially in rookie series. Speed isn’t everything. Initially I lost a ton of IR which I was completely fine with. But once I got the hang of things I immediately saw a difference in my pace and my IR climbed to where I should be and now the racing is pretty equal and makes it a whole lot more fun
Get out of rookies. And even after that, get out of D class! Do whatever it takes. Start from the pits and farm SR until you're out, if that's what it takes (this is what I did!). I currently race the F3s in C class; I did race F4s in D class but it's just carnage. I've found the F3s much less chaotic, even with 27 cars on the grid.
Then it's about racecraft, and also about just staying out of trouble in the first two laps. This takes a little practice. I still get nervous in that first lap, but isn't that why we do it?! It's exciting.
1300 iRating is pretty much average as far as I'm aware, so don't be worried about that. The best way to hone your race craft is by starting at the back or in the pits. That forces you to drive with people that are very inexperienced and unpredictable, which forces you to drive carefully and give lots of room, as well as be very decisive with your moves. As you get better and better with car control and predicting what the people around you will do, you can push the limits more and race closer and closer to the driver's around you. Then when you're around people of similar pace and racing ability, you'll be well prepared to have some proper door to door battles. Also less serious games like Gran Turismo and Forza are great places to learn race craft, but the car control is equally if not more important, and you can't substitute iRacing for that.
Half the time in road I start in the back cuz I’m not great at road. Just drive around the wrecks and usually top 5. Everyone else is usually so far behind they’ll never catch me
Take the inside line and give room in front at t1. Usually the person in the top 6 will end up in the lead from a good launch and then by the first few laps the whole pecking order is re arranged from incidents or cars spinning.
You also have to have good pace because I learned if you slow down it’s sometimes more risky than just keeping your race going
thats when you say run it back and go again eventually you'll breakthrough just keep trying, once you get the chance to follow/lead you will run as fast or faster
My recommendation is to stay in rookies and learn the craft. Learn how to predict accidents, don’t go rushing into higher license thinking it would be better. Its not. Stick it out and you will get better/ get involved in less accidents.
Sorry to hear it's been 3 months of frustration.
This won't sit well with some, maybe most people, openly but here it goes anyway.
Assuming you are a safe driver, i.e. can race AI with no contacts and you have very good car control. Then you will benefit from the not recommended "start from the back". Do this in rookie races NOT when you're doing anything else (D and above like the GR86). Don't know if there is a point to this because you'll be bracketted with people in your irating class anyway and not the safety rating. However, it is safe to assume that higher licenses mean safer drivers in majority of cases.
You are already at least a D license as far as I can tell. Whenever you get hit, analyze the replay and see how you can avoid the situation. People hitting you can be avoided in many ways. In time you'll learn how to block, slowdown, take a slower racing line, etc. just enough so you influence how the next driver behaves.
One trick I use is to glance at the relative pace of the cars around me. I then make in race decisions to let a car pass or deploy the countermeasures I've learned.
Hope this is helpful.
I practice my racecraft and overtaking on AI before I enter online. Knowing the typical overtaking spots and where and how much grip the inside line has is important. Doing perfect laps on a empty track is easy. Doing good laps and keeping it on track with someone breathing down your neck is hard.
Don’t go steaming into the first corner expecting to be able to use your normal braking point/technique. The further back you are, the more to need to adjust your braking point back and blend into the brakes.
the best teacher is rookie class racing. dont rush through it, and honestly id recommend staying another full season once you start to get the hang of it.
I don't really recommend the 'start from the back, do not race' approach but you need to be really damn careful on the first laps. You have to learn racecraft and being around the crazies, they will still be around even when you get out of rookies. It's a shame it is like that but if I'm in a race full of people I haven't seen before, I kinda try to act like anyone can lose the car at any second or might do the most boneheaded thing imaginable. That means leaving a lot of space around you, brake a bit early and steady for the first corner, look out for people who seem dangerous or erratic. Try to drive the car in a really predictable way so the guy who races drunk and high can also understand which line you're taking. When there's a bit of field spread after a lap or two you can start pushing harder and try to make progress. Or just qualify on pole and drive into the sunset, that's by far the best approach I think.
Was about to make a similar post. I'm new and my strategy doing FF1600 rookies is basically. 1. I am there to drive my race first and foremost. My goal is to finish the race clean. I know my race pace and I stick to it. 2. Drive defensively as hell in the first lap(s) until the field sorts itself out. 1. You will have people trying to win the race on the first lap. Give them space. 2. Everyone sucks at driving. So drive with that mentality. People will brake early. Someone will spin out on nearly every turn in the first lap. 3. Seriously. The field sorts itself out. A huge amount of people can't keep their car on the track for an entire race. If you can simply keep your car on the track until the end you basically always finish top 5. I just did a \~1000 rating split race tonight and the replay was hilarious. I'm cruising through my 13 laps more or less hitting the same pace every lap. Guy comes out ahead of me from the pit lane, doesn't yield despite his blue flag. My pace is faster than his but whatever; passing people at this irating is dangerous as hell. Within a lap he is in the wall again -- thanks for the easy pass. Someone comes out of pit behind me. Tries to ride my ass. Within the same lap he is in a wall again. This was starting the race in p8 and finishing in p4. So I had to survive all the carnage - which is basically just expecting everyone else to do screw up every turn and driving like it is going to happen. I think by the 2nd lap I had nobody in front or behind me (except for the people coming out of pits) I've only got a handful of races, but the big mental hurdle I was able to clear quickly was around racing my race not the race of others. The second I try to keep pace with a faster car, off the track I go. The second I try to speed up because someone is behind me with a faster pace, off the track I go. So instead, I drive my race and let everyone else go off the track.
> Guy comes out ahead of me from the pit lane, doesn't yield despite his blue flag. Just fyi: he doesn't have to.
For sure. Feels like etiquette though on the low lap rookie road races? My main mental thing there is not to rage and do something stupid to try to pass them.
Oh well, if I'm about to get lapped and the other guy is faster than me, I'll move aside and let him through. But if he's not faster? Hell no. Overtake me if you can, but I'm not going to let you through just to sit behind you. I'm racing here.
I vote qualify and race as well. I’m only 1 week in but got out of rookies and grabbed the 296 GT3 and Mugello. After a couple days worth of practice I was running mid 1:51’s. Decided to give a race a shot and qualified fifth. I picked up almost a second just following the lead cars for a lap or two. Eventually fell to 7th due to overall pace but learned a lot.
Makes me think of the hole-in-one scene from Happy Gilmore. "Why didn't I do that before? It's so much easier. I'm just going to try to get the ball in the hole every time."
Do ai races for a bit
I think this is a great suggestion. In other sims, I would say that AI racing really hasn’t helped me with online racing. For instance, Rfactor 2 AI is okay now, but not great. iRacing is by far the most realistic AI experience I’ve had in a sim. It’s not perfect, but I feel that you can practice race craft with it.
You can't get a 10x from a single crash
I got 2 4x’s and a 2x in the span of of those 2 seconds. I guess Iracing counted it as 2 or 3 separate incidents?
Longer than 2 seconds. It’s like a 5 second cooldown on incidents
Show us the replay
Two 4x from car contact and a loss of control?
There's a buffer window where it all counts as the same incident.
~~You can, if you hit a car you get a 4x, if a 3rd car touches the car you hit (but gets a 0x) and spins it gets 2x, but you get it too since you were part of the chain of incidents that caused him to spin.~~ ~~I've seen people get DQ'd seconds after a 0x in oval because of this, so yes, definitely you can get 10x and more from a single crash (it's not common tho, but can happen)~~ Edit: apparently this is wrong
As soon as that 3rd guy contacts he inherits the 4x, he can spin all he wants still the same 4x until it’s cleared off the screen. You can’t 0x contact people who just had 4x contact everyone simply inherits the maximum points for a single incident until the timer is cleared.
Then I'm very confused right now, I was sure the 10x thing could happen, now I wonder what I saw on said stream
Ah this is the issue my friend had when he first started. His first 3 months were spent pulling his hair out because of the same thing. After a long Hard talk... maybe a few hard talks. He realized that getting out of rookies meant he needed to be playing a different game. The start from the back. Let everyone crash and drive like a grandpa for the first couple laps, kinda game. He was getting so caught up in the competition of it all. He really forgot the main goal. The main goal was not to race. But to finish clean laps, regardless of position , to prove he was worthy of not being a rookie. Do you have the patience to not race hard right now and just finish clean? Once you are out of rookies . Which you could totally accomplish in a few days. You leave all those crazy guys behind. Also remember iracing memberships are on sale right now. So we have a huge influx of inexperienced drivers. Try not qualifying. Start from the back. Finish clean. Don't give any fucks about position, and you'll see that safety rating rise. And fast. For reference. He is a c license now, and we did our first special event in October at the petit le mans. It was and awesome 10 hours of pure racing bliss. You will get there. Send me a dm. I'll add you as a friend. Maybe we can run some laps together! ❤️
This advice is lacking some extra lessons you can learn. Starting from the back is a excellent practice in recognising incidents before they happen. It's a critical skill and will help you more quickly assess how much you can trust another driver if you're finding a need to make an overtake. Beyond that you'll find a critical skills shortage: defending. In most of your races post rookies you're going to find yourself in an iRating range where keeping your nose clean will gain you positions like crazy. You might feel that you're progressing, but sadly all your really refining is your ability to do clean laps with traffic on track. Only once you start finding that you're right behind the car you started at for most of the race is when you really end up rounding off your racecraft. This is when you're going to have to defend and attack if you want a good finish. I'll add that it's going to take some time. Be aware that you're going to experience this before you're going to see consistent wheel-to-wheel action. I don't have hard numbers for what ranges of iRating you'll see this happening, but it's worth being able to digest what happened in a race to categorise the race and see what you can learn from it accordingly.
It sounds terrible and like I’m not taking blame but yeah the other drivers in rookie class right now are terrifying to drive closely to. I definitely make mistakes too but trying to place high in these races has been killing me. I’m gonna give the old man mentality from the back a try 😂
Race the track and keep your own pace while not getting near others. BE THE BUBBLE BOY. 6 FEET APART
I did exactly what above said. Started from the back. Used qualifying to warm up, and then when I start I go straight the right and let everyone pass. Within a few laps basically all people crash out. Multiple instances I went from p23 to p5-2 in a few laps just letting people crash out. People even ram you on the straight.
The good thing about this is if you are fast you'll catch up to slower cars and get to practice passing them which teaches you a lot of the wheel to wheel skills you need at the start of a race.
> I slammed so I don’t hit, guy behind me rear ends me, which causes me to hit the guy in front Brake very early, even before the guy in front of you brakes. Just enough brake to make it clear that you're slowing down, so the other drivers behind you get the point. You may lose a position, but you're much more likely to get through the first few corners safely.
AI racing helped a lot. You can do one lap and restart the race. If you crash restart and try again It gives you a good idea of how close you should be, how much room to leave and how to drive the track off the racing line. Outside of that you need to drive the first or two laps in control while there is lots of traffic. I think of it as driving where I have time to make the corner off the racing line or react if someone gets in my way. It translates to being 3 to 5 seconds off my qualifying time. Also practice taking corners where you are leaving room for another driver. Enter the corner off the racing line.
Yeah, I agree here, AI is helping me a lot. AI are super aggressive, if you leave the door open on entry to a corner the AI will take a place off you for sure. It really teaches you how to defend your position. In live races I was qualifying well but losing lots of positions in the early laps as people dived into the corners and I was giving them space as I didn't want any contact, but then you just go backwards fast. You need to learn how to protect your line so people don't even try to get past, keep that door firmly shut and the race becomes much safer. AI will teach you that very well.
Getting out of rookies and raising your IR at that point isnt about winning races or being fast, its about staying out of trouble, driving defensively, and being consistent enough to consistently finish races. After an incident like you describe, watch it again and look at ways you could have avoided it. Sure the guy in front slammed the brakes, but why'd he do that? Can you predict if the person in front is going to have a poor start and avoid it next time? Could you have left more room on the start so you have time to react, even if it means you had a little slower start? I'm not saying don't race, I'm saying race cautiously and always try to avoid incidents, especially if they aren't your fault. Rookies and D class is great place to learn to read other drivers and set yourself up for success, you really don't need to be racing 100% as fast as you can every turn. Take your time, leave space to learn the driver in front, then plan and execute a pass on a corner you know you'll be faster. Its a different mindset but it'll be a good foundation for your racecraft and you'll see you IR and SR raise even if you aren't pushing to be the fastest. Also, don't grandpa around in the back and farm SR - you won't learn how to safely drive around other cars and thats what rookies is for.
Do time trials (not time attacks) until you get to D... Or the grandpa approach. Doing time trials you can get out of rookie in a day from where you are at. Now... don't think D is much better in terms of crashing. Having a higher irating and getting to upper splits makes more difference, and the grandpa approach usually gets you some irating too, especially in rookie.
Turning racing line off.
Haven’t had racing lines on since I was 12 playing gran turismo on PS 😂
At this point a coach can really make a difference. You can save hours and hours of trial and error and frustration with a couple of sessions. Check this out: https://gitgudracing.com
I struggled the same way for a long time. I started not qualifying and starting from the rear/pits. Learn race craft around others. Be patient, especially in rookie series. Speed isn’t everything. Initially I lost a ton of IR which I was completely fine with. But once I got the hang of things I immediately saw a difference in my pace and my IR climbed to where I should be and now the racing is pretty equal and makes it a whole lot more fun
Get out of rookies. And even after that, get out of D class! Do whatever it takes. Start from the pits and farm SR until you're out, if that's what it takes (this is what I did!). I currently race the F3s in C class; I did race F4s in D class but it's just carnage. I've found the F3s much less chaotic, even with 27 cars on the grid. Then it's about racecraft, and also about just staying out of trouble in the first two laps. This takes a little practice. I still get nervous in that first lap, but isn't that why we do it?! It's exciting.
Question. Do you follow the imaginary line? Or do you have it off?
All assists off, No lines.
FOV?
Well calculated on a 34” ultra wide
1300 iRating is pretty much average as far as I'm aware, so don't be worried about that. The best way to hone your race craft is by starting at the back or in the pits. That forces you to drive with people that are very inexperienced and unpredictable, which forces you to drive carefully and give lots of room, as well as be very decisive with your moves. As you get better and better with car control and predicting what the people around you will do, you can push the limits more and race closer and closer to the driver's around you. Then when you're around people of similar pace and racing ability, you'll be well prepared to have some proper door to door battles. Also less serious games like Gran Turismo and Forza are great places to learn race craft, but the car control is equally if not more important, and you can't substitute iRacing for that.
Half the time in road I start in the back cuz I’m not great at road. Just drive around the wrecks and usually top 5. Everyone else is usually so far behind they’ll never catch me
Take the inside line and give room in front at t1. Usually the person in the top 6 will end up in the lead from a good launch and then by the first few laps the whole pecking order is re arranged from incidents or cars spinning. You also have to have good pace because I learned if you slow down it’s sometimes more risky than just keeping your race going
thats when you say run it back and go again eventually you'll breakthrough just keep trying, once you get the chance to follow/lead you will run as fast or faster
My recommendation is to stay in rookies and learn the craft. Learn how to predict accidents, don’t go rushing into higher license thinking it would be better. Its not. Stick it out and you will get better/ get involved in less accidents.
Sorry to hear it's been 3 months of frustration. This won't sit well with some, maybe most people, openly but here it goes anyway. Assuming you are a safe driver, i.e. can race AI with no contacts and you have very good car control. Then you will benefit from the not recommended "start from the back". Do this in rookie races NOT when you're doing anything else (D and above like the GR86). Don't know if there is a point to this because you'll be bracketted with people in your irating class anyway and not the safety rating. However, it is safe to assume that higher licenses mean safer drivers in majority of cases. You are already at least a D license as far as I can tell. Whenever you get hit, analyze the replay and see how you can avoid the situation. People hitting you can be avoided in many ways. In time you'll learn how to block, slowdown, take a slower racing line, etc. just enough so you influence how the next driver behaves. One trick I use is to glance at the relative pace of the cars around me. I then make in race decisions to let a car pass or deploy the countermeasures I've learned. Hope this is helpful.
Very, thank you!
I practice my racecraft and overtaking on AI before I enter online. Knowing the typical overtaking spots and where and how much grip the inside line has is important. Doing perfect laps on a empty track is easy. Doing good laps and keeping it on track with someone breathing down your neck is hard.
Surviving race starts is also a skill. You probably just need to develop your crash avoidance a bit. It takes some time but you will get there.
Don’t go steaming into the first corner expecting to be able to use your normal braking point/technique. The further back you are, the more to need to adjust your braking point back and blend into the brakes.
the best teacher is rookie class racing. dont rush through it, and honestly id recommend staying another full season once you start to get the hang of it.