[Russell Sobie]

To me the notification is required from a user experience point of view. If we were in actual cars it would probably be similar, but in a video game when you push a button and do not get some sort of feedback (whether or not what you wanted to do actually occurs) is a requirement from a design standpoint. Doubley so for sims where quite a few of us have cobbled together a mish-mash of gear for a control setup where fiddling with it and having things stop working is a rule, not an exception. How am I supposed to know when my paddle switch has shit the bed on my new Thrustmaster T300RS if whenever I hear the click, nothing happens?

As far as switching cars a lot, I typically don't. Right now I'm only racing in two series this season: the Audi and the Simpit DTM90s (where I'm in the Alfa Romeo). Not a whole lot of gearbox setup in either.

@James Blint: Yeah, gearbox setup on cars that allow it I always tune it based on corner entry/exit as a higher priority than making sure the power bands are optimal for the longest straight or the slowest corner. There's just nothing to do in the Audi with a locked gearbox. I just have to do 2x as many practice laps on a new track to know where I need to avoid the downshift protection.