[Donnchadh MacGarry]

Edit: The settings for this series have been changed to use 100% fuel usage and 100% tyre wear, so please keep that in mind when reading what I have written below as that is now out of date. Perhaps lap times will be closer to the standings from the 2018 series than the 2019 series if doing a strategy on softs that involve more than one pitstop. Races could involve more laps than the 2019 results if these new strategies are much better, perhaps one and possibly two more laps but I'm not really sure on that. Fuel usage in a lap/stint will definitely need to be recalculated (just divide my values by 2) but I think the refuelling rate will be the same.



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The upcoming Mazda 787b 1-hour daily race series is one that I want to give a go this season, as long as I can make time for it. I know this car has been used in previous seasons, so I did some research and found some information which I think will be very useful in preparing for this upcoming one. Here is what I found.

 
2019 1-hour Daily Series
A similar 1-hour daily series for the Mazda 787B was run from 8th April to 19th May 2019.         https://www.simracingsystem.com/showthread.php?tid=5607
It used the same rules as this 2020 Mazda 787b 1-hour daily series, meaning the race length, pit window, fuel usage and tyre wear are all the same.
Just as reminder these rules are:

• 20-minute qualifying
  
• 1-hour race
  
• Pit window 00:10 - 00:50
  
• Fuel consumption = 200%
  
• Tyre wear = 170%
  

              
I had a look through the historic standings from that 2019 series to get an idea on what to expect regarding best lap times, total times/laps and pit strategy.

Euro      https://www.simracingsystem.com/myracess...d=m7Svr8qh

• Watkins Glen International Boot    1:42.7      34 laps (1:00:10)
  
• MoSport                                         1:13.3      48 laps (1:00:45)
  
• Nordschleife Endurance-Cup         7:36.3      8 laps  (1:02:36)  (Best driver here was over 10s quicker than others and some of those others are very quick, but 8 laps still expected anyway)
  
• Monza                                            1:42.9      34 laps (1:00:39)
  
• Le Grand Circuit 1967                    3:00.6      19 laps (1:00:01)  (Most races are 19, but in the one case here it could easily have been 20 laps as winner did last lap 20 seconds slower than usual)
  
• Spa                                                 2:13.4      17 laps (1:02:02)
  

America      https://www.simracingsystem.com/myracess...d=k73AtMyq

• Road Atlanta
  
• Spa
  
• Le Grand Circuit 1967
  
• Road America                              2:02.3          28 laps (1:00:03)  (Could have done 29 laps as winner did last lap over 25s slower than usual. Maybe 30 possible, but there is a large lack of data due to low attendence so its hard to tell)
  
• Nordschleife Endurance-Cup
  
• Laguna Seca
  

Asia        https://www.simracingsystem.com/myracess...d=mrezuMui

• Nordschleife Endurance-Cup     7:52.2       8 laps  (1:04:46)
  
• Laguna Seca                              1:21.9       43 laps (1:00:52)
  
• Okayama GP                             1:28.7       39 laps (1:00:04)    (Winner lost 3 seconds in one lap, so 40 laps might be possible with a pretty flawless run)
  
• Road Atlanta                              1:17.5       45 laps (1:00:54)
  
• MoSport                                     1:14.2       47 laps (1:00:32)
  
• Imola                                          1:39.9       35 laps (1:00:21)    
  

The best lap time, total laps and total time that I have included are the best ones from the handful of races that I looked up. Note that this isn't necessarily the best time for the track that season, I didn't extensively go through every single race result to find the best overall one. However, I think it’s still a decent rough estimate of what the best times should be and also how many laps to expect when calculating fuel. Maybe for some races where the final time is close to the hour mark, add an extra lap of fuel to what is in the list just in case an alien makes the race a lap longer.
Races at Nordschleife have much more variation in lap time over the stint due to the long lap length. Even at the top of the race standings there are noticeably more slow laps and large time losses due to crashes, so I would recommend driving extra safe rather than pushing to stay within some delta of you time. Incident points can be very high there with possible disqualification, as pointed out in many threads for other series that used that track. I haven't done an SRS race there yet, so hopefully I'll listen to my own advice when I do that race.
The America series races were pretty empty with only a handful of drivers in a race and in some events no one finished the race. I only included the time from Road America as that wasn't used in Euro or Asia, and the time I took was from a stint that had a relatively consistent pace so it should be a useful estimate.
 
It seemed for all the tracks the vast majority did 1 stop at the halfway point in the race, so that's probably the best strategy. For one of the races in Imola (Asia series) the winner did 2 stops, but only had to do 34 laps not 35 like in other races. I'm not sure which tyre compound was used, as I didn't participate in that series and haven't yet done a whole load of testing myself. In my little testing it seemed to be hard for both stints as I think the mediums won't last, but I can't say for definite. 
Update: I just read the comments on the News page for this season before sending this post and James Leeder said for 200% fuel, 170% tyre wear it’s a one stop race with hards on both stints, so that's useful to know.
 
 
2018 20-minute Daily Series
There was also a daily race series that used these cars from 30th July to 9th September in 2018. https://www.simracingsystem.com/showthread.php?tid=3894
Just note that these races were only 20 minutes long.
Spa, Monza, Mugello, Laguna Seca, Imola and Silverstone GP were used.

Historic standings are here:    https://www.simracingsystem.com/myracess...=krC3p86k#

Lap times here are quicker than the 2019 series (and thus quicker than what I would expect for the 2020 series). Less fuel was needed because the stint length was shorter and fuel usage wasn't at 200%, and as I'm sure you know less fuel means a lighter and faster car. It's also possibly different tyre compounds were used since tyre wear was less (only 100% not 170%) and so they most likely could use softer tyres, which would also account for better lap times, but I don't know for certain if this was the case.
 
 
Setups:
Here's an old thread with some setups for the races in 2018.             https://www.simracingsystem.com/showthre...light=787b
It includes ones by Patrick Brown who was the overall series leader in the final standings, so those are definitely ones to try. I had a quick test of his one for Imola and it is very stable, which is important since the race is an hour.

At the very minimum, changes will need to be made for fuel and pit strategy. Most likely the tyre compound needs to be changed to hards and thus possible tweeks need to be made to pressures as well (I tend to increase the psi by 1-2 when going from softs to mediums or hards for most cars).
I don't think anyone put up setups for the 2019 series in a different thread, I couldn't find anything in the forums. I reckon some people would have used setups from the 2018 thread, made some tweeks and adjusted the fuel and strategy. It’s certainly my initial plan for this series.

[Edit 30/11/20: Just in case some people are reading this months or years later if this car is used again, Tadej Župevc put up a setup that he and Matic Bezjak used and both won with at the Nordschleife for this 2020 Euro series, so I thought that I should add a link to it here. I haven't tried it yet myself, but others seem to like it so it should be good. Link is: https://www.simracingsystem.com/showthread.php?tid=9890]

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One thing I didn't mention in my post is on something I noticed when testing fuel and refueling. I don't have time to go into full details of my calculations, but basically the refueling rate of this car is very slow especially compared to the tyre change rate. It takes 0.6s to add 1L. Since it takes 10s to change tyres, you can only add 16.67L of fuel in that time. For Imola my quick estimate for fuel was somewhere in the region of 165L (I need to double check that), which can do 35 laps. Because of the slow refuel rate, if hard tyres only last half the race meaning the ideal pitstop time is definitely on the 30 minute mark, then I think you are much better off starting on 100L and then adding the 65L, rather than splitting the fuel evenly 83L/82L for each stint. You would have to average 0.44s/lap - 0.64s/lap quicker over the first stint if using roughly 83L compared to someone on a 100L in order to make up the time loss from the longer pitstop as you need to add more fuel (adding roughly 83L is about 8-11s longer than adding 65L). I don't think 15L-20L less fuel in this car would make that difference in lap pace, but this is just me thinking out loud, I haven't tested that scenario.

There are other scenarios to consider which I would like to test, but I'm not sure if I have the time. Suppose the hards are still good after 30 minutes and can go longer to 40 minutes with no drop off. My quick test on Imola said 100L of fuel could last 37:21 (or 21.1 laps), which means if the hard tyres can last roughly 40 minutes then you can extend a stint to 21 laps at latest (21 is really risky, perhaps lap 20). This is useful if you want to extend the stint if running in free air.
This could also mean that you can pit a small bit early, maybe just after 25:00 and do an undercut. I wouldn't risk going earlier as a race isn't an hour exactly and you need to finish the last lap and 25:00 + 37:21 = 1:02:21. It depends on the track, I wouldn't do this for Nordschleife as that could be in the 1:04:00 and above. In 25 minutes (on Imola) you'll have used roughly 70L of the 100L of fuel, which means you have room to add 65L and go to the end of the race.

I wrote this a bit quickly, so if I made a glaring mistake feel free to correct me.

[Martin Smith]

The upcoming Mazda 787b 1-hour daily race series...


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...I wrote this a bit quickly, so if I made a glaring mistake feel free to correct me.

Or you could just +1 this post: https://www.simracingsystem.com/showthre...2#pid43362

[Simon Meisinger]

Nice work Donnchadh, I'd say you should sum it up a bit though

Fuel and tire consumption are now set to 100%

[Donnchadh MacGarry]

Nice work Donnchadh, I'd say you should sum it up a bit though

Fuel and tire consumption are now set to 100%

Yeah I'm not the greatest at summarising things, I tend to overwrite too much when I get going. I'm like Pringles, once I pop I can't stop.

[Donnchadh MacGarry]

I did a lot of practice Sunday evening at Imola as I had free time and wanted to get an idea of the tyres now that the wear is set to 100%, which will hopefully roughly apply to the other tracks. I did 17-18 laps (roughly 30 minutes) on soft, medium and hard tyres using a 50L load for each stint. Here is what I found:

• Soft:          Average time = 1:40.672,     Tyre wear was at yellow after 5 laps, and red after 15 laps.
  
• Medium:   Average time  = 1:41.178,    Tyre wear was at yellow after 8 laps and red after 15 laps.
  
• Hard:        Average time = 1:41.104,     Tyre wear never got to yellow, the app says they'll go 40 laps before turning yellow which seemed right from how my stint was going.
  

I also noted a pitstop with a tyre change altogether loses roughly 33 seconds, where the tyre change alone takes 10 seconds (and you can add up to 17L fuel in this time).
[Edit: I used to have 60 seconds written here instead of 33 seconds, as I got mixed up when reading the pitstop times from my practice laps. If you add 50L of fuel then the pitstop loses 60s. Apologies for that major blunder and to anyone who got misinformed by this before the edit.]

Since the 2019 season, with its 170% tyre wear that required hards for both stints, had races that went 35 laps where in one race the leader finished at 1:00:21, I do think 36 laps is certainly possible for the races this season (maybe 37 laps too, I'm bad at estimating the potential time improvement as I don't know what the fastest people can do compared to me). 

Looking at the data, assuming I had the correct settings on and that my driving was consistent enough to give reliable data, it seems to me that the medium tyres are a really bad choice for any strategy. They don't really last longer than the softs and very early in the stint were lapping slower than the hards. 

My understanding is that one pitstop is mandatory that involves either at least 1L of fuel to be added but tyres don't have to be changed, or any amount of fuel can be added with a tyre change. Please correct me if I'm wrong on that. Since the refueling rate is so slow as I mentioned in a previous post, I'm trying to minimise the fuel added in a pitstop (which is easier on 100% fuel usage compared to 200%) so I'm thinking these might be plausible strategies.
[Major Edit: I've renamed/renumbered the strategies and grouped them slightly differently before and have given them a better explanation.]
[Edit (again ffs): Pretty much all of what I wrote next was when I incorrectly thought the pitstop with a tyre change and adding up to 17L fuel took 60 seconds and not 33 seconds, so I wasn't considering a two stopper. Perhaps with that correct information then maybe a two stop strategy with softs used in all three stints might be a possibility, but I'm still leaning on saying no for Imola at least. I might have an update on that later this week.]


I have two main strategies that determine what you start the race on. Both of these strategies have two sub-options that you can choose between in the middle of the race depending on how it is going, which is really nice as it allows for some flexibility. 

1. Start on hard tyres with fuel to last the race, 93L for Imola is about 38 laps which allows some comfort room for fuel miscalculation. Pit at about 40:00-45:00, so lap 23-25 for Imola, and choose option either 1a or 1b below.
   
   a.  Don't change tyres and add 1L of fuel.
   This is the fastest possible pitstop you can make as you will be stationary for just under 1 second, which is good for gaining track position for a circuit that's hard to overtake on. You might be vulnerable in the second stint initially to someone who followed option 1b and switched to softs, but you will have a head start and if you can hold off their initial push then they should loose that extra grip before the last few laps of the race. Technically for this sub-option you can pit anytime in the 00:10 to 00:50 window as it shouldn't matter, but then you don't have the option to change your mind and switch to 1b if you pit very early. This option is also good if you got major damage that immediately needs repair from 00:10 to 00:35 as making the softs last in the second stint would lose too much time, although I would also put on fresh hards in this case as repairs will surely take over 10 seconds.
   
   b.  Switch to soft tyres and don't add fuel.
   The stationary period is 9 seconds longer than 1a, but you might be able to make up the lost time as you drive flat out on softs in the second stint. Nailing the lap to pit on is essential for this one. Too early and you'll be on very worn softs for the last few laps, which will lose a lot of time and you might make mistakes with the lower grip that lead to spins/crashes. Too late and you won't have maximised your time on the softs meaning you won't make up for the extra 9 seconds and the track position that you lost. Theoretically I calculated 1b to be quicker than 1a by roughly 3 seconds at Imola, but that is for a scenario where there is no other cars in the way. If there is a lot of traffic, you could lose a lot of time trying to make overtakes which could then make 1a quicker than 1b so you need to take that into account. Technically for this option you could start the race with 76L of fuel and add 17L in the pitstop, but if you do this then you are locked to this option and won't be able to change your mind and switch to option 1a mid-race, so I wouldn't recommend it.
   
   
   
2. Start with soft tyres and 17L less fuel required to last the race, so 76L for Imola to have the comfort room. Depending on how you feel with grip, lap times and track position, choose either option 2a or 2b below
   
   a. If you feel comfortable and aren't losing too much time, go until 30:00 and pit. Switch to soft tyres and add 17L of fuel.
   For Imola, this will involve driving the last three laps of each stint on tyres in the red zone of grip, so you need to be very careful on those laps. Being gentle on the tyres is essential for this sub-option and it is probably the most difficult one to drive. Theoretically, from my laptimes above, this is the fastest option out of the four by a few seconds, but that's for a hotstint scenario with no one on track. There can be other more important factors that make this strategy worse when facing opponents, like getting slowed down by opposition when the tyres are fresh and the increased chance of making mistakes when low on grip and under pressure from a driver behind. For tracks that have more tyre wear than Imola, I would expect this strategy to perform much worse as there will be more time spend on low grip tyres.
   
   b. If you don't feel comfortable at all as the car has lost too much grip and you have a while to go before the 30:00 mark, then pit at anytime after the 10:00 mark. Switch to hard tyres and add 17L of fuel.
   This is the reverse of strategy 1b. It is faster than 1b for the first 15 to 20 minutes of the race and slower than it for the last 15-20 minutes.
   

When comparing strategies 1 and 2, personally I think starting on strategy 1 is a really good choice, especially if you aren't as confident with the car. It allows you to take the start of the race a bit more safely, as losing places is not as critical since you will be running longer. What's more if you don't get overtaken in the early stages of the race then you will have a huge advantage in the latter part. It avoids the scenario of running of low grip tyres like in strategy 2b, so you will be less likely to make mistakes. It allows for the most flexibility on when you want to decide to make the mandatory pitstop. Finally it allows for the chance to use the quickest possible pitstop (1a) which is great when trying to undercut or overcut. These benefits are why drivers in a real life series like F1 will try and start the race on harder compound if they are able/allowed to (there are other rules that also influence the choice of starting tyre compound).

Strategy 2 will be much quicker than strategy 1 for the opening 15-20 minutes of the race due to starting on soft tyres rather than hards and also due to the smaller benefit of starting with a lighter fuel load. This will make it easier to make early overtakes if qualifying doesn't go well, or create an early lead for those starting from pole. However it is important to maximise this extra grip on the softs in this opening period. Getting held up in traffic on fresh softs early on will really take away any benefit from starting on them. Getting the good start will mean you need to be a bit more aggresive, which is really risky when cars are bunched up. Picking strategy 2 also means you are locked into making a pitstop that involves a tyre change, since one set of softs will definitely not last the race. You can't make an ultra fast pitstop like in strategy 1a to gain track poistion.



While I focused on Imola where I used Patrick's setup, I think there is a good chance that these strategies could apply to a lot of the other tracks and setups too, depending on how abusive they are to the tyres of course. The lap number of when to pit will change, but the time on the clock in the race shouldn't change by too much. Fuel should be recalculated for each track, especially if using a different aero setup. Another thing to note is that Imola has quite a large timeloss for a pitstop, due to the track's very long main straight. I seem to remember Sky's broadcast said it had the longest pitstop time loss out of all the tracks this season in F1. Perhaps a track that has less of a time loss in the pitstop could accommodate a 2 stopper with 3 sets of soft tyres? Let me know what you think of these strategies, if there was anything I overlooked or made a mistake on, and if there are any alternate strategies to mine that might also be good.

[Thierry Roldan]

Hi Donnchadh, awesome work. Thanks for sharing as well. Its super appreciated. Cheers

[Donnchadh MacGarry]

TLDR: The total times from the strategies in my previous post are all within a few seconds of each other at Imola. Taking the uncertainty of my driving while collecting the data into account, I think they all perform as well as each other in a hotstint scenario with no one else on track. I wouldn't be able to confidently rank them in order of best to worst at all. Theoretically, I suppose strategy 1a (start on hards and don't change tyres in the pitstop) is the fastest by at most 5s in the hotstint scenario. 

However, there are other more important factors to consider when in a race. Starting on hards will leave you more vulnerable to the other drivers who are on softer tyres for the opening laps of the race, making it much more likely you will be battling to hold position. These battles could cause you to lose some time or worse make mistakes that lose significantly more time, and these time losses could easily add up to be more than the theoretical gain you get for starting on hards. So it might be best to decide the starting strategy based on qualifying results and how aggressive you want to be at the start of the race when it comes to overtakes or holding position.

Results for the strategies on tracks similar to Imola will proabably be very similar, as long as the tyre wear is about the same, but I haven't tested this out and probably won't as I've spent far too long at this. My attitude was to get the testing done in the first few days and hope it applies to all the tracks over the next few weeks, as luckily I had a lot of spare time over the last few days. For an extreme track like Norschleife, I proabably won't risk a strategy like 2a (soft for both stints for 30 minutes each), as driving there on very worn tyres at the end of a stint with a car like this is more than likely going to end in disaster for me, especially as I haven't raced there before. The length of my posts here should shorten after this (hopefully), so we can all breath a sigh of relief at that.

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I want to put up some times for the strategies in my previous posts, using fuel loads that match those required for the stints since that will have an impact on times over the hour. I also had got more practice and race time done, so my lap times and consistency have improved a bit again so the data should hopefully be better again. There is a pinch of salt that needs to be taken with these times. I didn't do each strategy individually for time constraint reasons (I had plenty of free time but not as much as that). I pieced them together from pratice stints I did with the tyres on various fuel loads. I made sure the tyre life and fuel loads were roughly where they should be when piecing together each strategy, so I don't think they will be too far off the true theoretical values (theoretical for me that is).

For the stints in each strategy I'll have the following three values in square brackets   [tyre used, fuel load, length of stint].
Please note for the 2nd stint, the fuel load is not how much fuel I added, rather the amount of fuel left when I start the stint. So in the case of strategy 1a, where I start the race with 93L fuel, drive 24 laps in the first stint averaging 2.4L per lap and add 1L of fuel in the pitstop, then I'll have 93 - (2.4 * 24) + 1 = 36L of fuel at the start of the second stint.
Strategy 1a is the only one with no tyre change, so I specify in the square brackets that old tyres were use in the 2nd stint. For all other strategies/stints, fresh tyres were used at the start of each stint.
Times are written in the format mm : ss . 000    (I can't write : s beside each other with no space without making an emoji?   mms.000  lol).
For calculating my averages, I left out the times for the 1st lap which is a standing start, as well as the inlap and outlap for the pistop. I then add those time losses back into the totals. I found a standing start on lap 1 was slighlty slower on hards than softs, so I took the opening lap on hards to be 1 second longer than the opening laps for softs (a bit crude but I will later talk about how the choice in starting tyre can have even more of an impact at the start of a race scenario).

Again my focus was Imola, so I'm taking  20 minutes = 12 laps,   30 minutes = 18 laps,   40 minutes = 24 laps,    60+ minutes = 36 laps.

• Strategy 1a: Start on hards with 93L of fuel, these tyres will be used for the whole race. Pit anywhere between 00:10 and 00:50 marks and add 1L fuel with no tyre change.   (I pitted after 24 laps as that's when I pitted in strategy 1b.)
      1st stint  [hard, 93L fuel, 40 minutes]:         average = 1:41.180,      average x24 = 40:28.328,
      2nd stint [old hards, 36L fuel, 20 minutes]:   average = 1:40.784,     average x12 = 20:09.407,
      Time lost in pit =  00:25.000
      Time lost off line = 00:07.000
      Total = 61:09.735
  
  
• Strategy 1b: Start on hards with 93L of fuel. Pit at at 00:40 mark and swap to softs with no fuel added.
      1st stint  [hard, 93L fuel, 40 minutes]:  average = 1:41.180,      average x24 = 40:28.328,
      2nd stint [soft, 35L fuel, 20 minutes]:   average = 1:40.451,     average x12 = 20:05.416,
      Time lost in pit =  00:34.000
      Time lost off line = 00:07.000
      Total = 61:14.744
  
  
• Strategy 2a: Start on softs with 76L of fuel. Pit at at 00:30 mark and swap to softs with 17L of fuel added.
      1st stint  [soft, 93L fuel, 30 minutes]:  average = 1:41.319,      average x18 = 30:23.739,
      2nd stint [soft, 50L fuel, 30 minutes]:   average = 1:40.451,     average x18 = 30:12.118,
      Time lost in pit =  00:34.000
      Time lost off line = 00:06.000
      Total = 61:15.857
  
  
• Strategy 2b: Start on softs with 76L of fuel. Pit at at 00:30 mark and swap to softs with 17L of fuel added.
      1st stint  [soft, 93L fuel, 20 minutes]:  average = 1:41.319,      average x12 = 20:20.890,
      2nd stint [hard, 64L fuel, 40 minutes]:   average = 1:40.451,     average x2 = 40:20.305,
      Time lost in pit = 00:34.000
      Time lost off line = 00:06.000
      Total = 61:15.195
  

I also tried strategy 1b where I started with 76L of fuel and added 17L during the pitstop when changing from hards to softs. This meant I averaged roughly 0.15 seconds faster in the 24 laps of the 1st stint which saves around 3.5 seconds in that stint and in the overall time (so the total time was 61:11:205). While an improvement, it is theoretically 1.5s slower then strategy 1a. What's more, if I start with 76L of fuel on hards I can't switch to strategy 1a midrace and I don't like this loss of flexibility which I feel is more important.
I'm also starting to think strategies 1b and 2b (that use both hard and soft tyres) should shorten the stint on softs a bit more and spend longer time on hards, such as 10 - 15 minutes on softs and the rest on hards. However that might only theoretically save a second or two. It would be much better to make the decision on when to pit in either of those strategies based on any opponents close by where you want to either make/defend an undercut/overcut. You would lose less time in gaining/keeping track position from a well timed pitstop, compared to sticking with a very specific time/lap to pit on and getting stuck in a battle on track as a result of that.

Overall it seems that strategies 1b, 2a and 2b are going to give the nearly the same total times if done in a hotstint scenario, and strategy 1a will be only just a tiny bit quicker. However in reality I think they are all pretty much at the same pace for me when taking the human element into account. Its very possible the times on hards I used for strategy 1a was when I was really in form while driving and the times I used for softs in other strategies was when my form wasn't as good and was going slightly slower. I really don't think I am consistent enough to do multiple race length practices and have an average lap pace for each practice that is within 0.2 seconds of all the other ones. Since 0.2 * 36 = 7.2 seconds, this completely covers the range of the total times for the four strategies and so considering this uncertainty element, I couldn't rank the strategies from best to worst in a hotstint scenario, so in that case they are all plausible to me.

There is a more important factor to consider and that's having other drivers on the track during the race, compared to the empty track I had when collecting the times for the calculations above. Battling against other drivers, for multiple laps in row especially, will cause much more significant time losses. In particular this is true for the start of the race where everyone is bunched up and you can gain/lose places easily or possibly carve out a large early lead if running at the front. I have found from my practice and races that on the large fuel loads (76L-93L) at the start of the race, I can be roughly 0.6 - 1.2 seconds quicker per lap on softs compared to hards for the opening four laps where the softs are really fresh. This means that at the start of the race, a person starting on hards is going to be under a lot of pressure from those on softs.
In my first race I qualified 2nd and started the race on hards with 93L of fuel, so I could go with strategy 1a or 1b. Despite having a decent/good launch, I was immediately under huge pressure going into the first chicane (Variante Tamburello) from those behind me as they had more grip and speed. It caused he to make a mistake at the second chicane (Variante Villeneuve) that dropped me two positions from my memory. Because I got flustered by this, I ended up accidently cutting the final chicane (Variante Alta) which gave me a 5 second slowdown penalty and lost another few places. I managed to recover some positions (losing bits of time in those battles) but a few laps later I cut the same chicane again and got another slowdown penalty. After this I settled down and drove much more consistently with no major mistakes. When I pitted I swapped to softs (so I went with 1b) as I wanted to have fun pushing hard to make up for the earlier frustration. I was able to win in the end, the softs helped me make the overtake for the lead more easily. But because of all the problems I had at the start when being under pressure on the hards, I had lost so much time that the race was only 35 laps long.
In my second race, I qualified in first and I started the race on softs, so I could use strategy 2a or 2b. I had an okay/decent launch, but thanks to the soft tyres I was under less pressure going into the first chicane where I was still ahead with no one side by side. I made it cleanly through the chicane and the next few corners, so this time I began to carve out a lead rather than getting into a battle, making a mistake and losing positions. I continued to create a lead over the next few laps that was large enough to more than make up for the time I would lose on the laps at the end of the stint when tyres were worn. I ended up going with strategy 2a in that race and winning, but more importantly I made the race 36 laps long as I didn't lose the time at the start. 
In other words I was far quicker in the second race compared to the first. I feel that using softs when starting on the front in a race helps immensely, and made a bigger difference to improving my total race time despite them being (according to my above data) theoretically slower than starting on hards in the hotstint scenario. Like I said in the tldr, it might be best to decide the starting strategy based on qualifying results and how aggressive you want to be at the start of the race when it comes to overtakes or holding position. I kind of want to try a race starting on hards again, to see if I can have a better opening to the race as those things can change depending on the day. If I do, maybe I can set an even better time than my second race, who knows?

[Donnchadh MacGarry]

Just to give another example of one strategy beating another, this time the hards wins out. On Thursday's race I started on pole so decided to go with softs to begin with and planned to go softs again for the 2nd stint. Matteo Venuti started 2nd and I knew he was starting on hards and planning on switching to softs at the 40:00-45:00 mark, we had been talking about tyre choice while watching James Tumilty's livestream just before the race (James was also streaming that race and makes some cool videos, I would recommend checking his channel out, link is   https://www.youtube.com/user/jtumilty).  I got a good start and got a few second lead in the first three laps, whereas Matteo dropped down to 8th on the first lap as he struggled off the line on hards and thus was forced off track at the first chicane. I went off at Acque Minerali after 5 minutes, and got a slow down penalty so I dropped back to third (or fourth can't remember which) and came out still ahead of Matteo by roughly 2 seconds. I began increasing my lead over Matteo by a few seconds again, partially due to traffic partially due to faster tyres. However from about the 15:00 to 30:00 mark, as my softs lost their performance Matteo had completely closed up on me and was on my gearbox, by this stage I was running 1st again and he was 2nd. I pitted at 30:00 and swapped to softs, Matteo stayed out so was now he was in 1st. I thought I had a chance to put in some quick laps and get another lead over Matteo when he came out of his pits on softs at the 40:00-45:00 mark. On my outlap I saw Matteo had a lap that was 15 seconds slower than normal, so I knew pitted on his next lap and was confused, it was too early for softs when starting on hards. Then it immediately clicked with me, he changed his pitstop plan where he only added 1L of fuel and kept the same tyres, meaning he had a 9 second pitstop quicker than me giving him a nice lead and track position. Sure enough when I saw his lead over me at the end of the next lap, the time differences matched up. I pushed like mad, but I knew I couldn't catch up unless he made a big mistake. At the 55:00 mark I reduced the lead to 4 seconds before going off at Acque Minerali again getting the same penalty, but by that stage it didn't matter, my tyres had just gone into the red zone of low grip so I wasn't going to catch up anymore. 

Looking at the standings afterwards, I lost about 14 seconds due to those two mistakes, and lost to Matteo by 12 seconds. However I still don't think I would have beaten him without those mistakes. He would have gotten track position and a lead with his faster pitstop anyways. While I would have caught up with him, I'm not sure if I would have the tyre life to pass him and then hold him off for the last few laps as my tyre grip went. Congrats again Matteo, it was an awesome race.

[Donnchadh MacGarry]

The Euro series is at the Nordschleife Endurance Cup circuit this week. This is a daunting race for me, I've never raced at the track before. For anyone who needs help learning certain sections of the track that they struggle to remember, this video playlist by Brad Philpot is very good (Brad has won real world VLN races there and is also currently a BTCC racer this season).
Link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVJPnTWv...VWF2MEezPU 
In part 4 of the playlist he explains the 3 trees method for learning the corner flow after the Karussell, which used to be a section I struggled to remember until I applied that method.

While I knew the track to an okay degree, I have never pushed myself on it before. My practice so far has been feeling my way around the track, finding out what are the corners where I shouldn't push at all etc. For that reason I haven't tried anything new with my setup, I'm still on the one I said I used for Imola since I'm comfortable with it (see my first post in the thread). It might me exposed on the long straights, but that's better than crashing. So far I have managed to string 4 laps together without incident, so I need to be careful as the race goes on and not relax, lose focus or get too carried away with pushing for pace. I've managed to hit a few laps just under the 8 minute mark, best is 7:57 so far. 


I expect the race to be 8 laps, even if there are people racing who are Nordschleife experts who can lap around here 15 seconds quicker than me. There some much quicker times than mine in the 2019 series, but all races where 8 laps from what I read. A person would need to average 7:30, including time lost in pits to add an extra lap.
Fuel for me seemed to be 11.25-11.35 litres per lap, so the total fuel load I used for Imola (93L) should be good here, but I might increase that by a few litres just in case.
Tyre life seems to be similar as for Imola, so the times at which the remaining tyre life  goes into the different colour zones of the tyre apps are about the same.

•  Softs:   Yellow medium grip zone at the start of lap 2,   Red low grip zone at the end of lap 3 (on the long straight)
  
• Hards:  Yellow medium grip zone somewhere on lap 7.  (I didn't get the full 7 laps done to test the hards, but I did get 4 and the app seemed to be telling the truth.)
  

I'm not sure how good softs are compared to hards on fresh tyres. When I did my laps on softs, I always crashed and had to repair (I didn't change tyres) so I don't know the time difference between them and hards. I didn't test mediums due to time and since my experience with them in my tests for Imola said they were not a good choice I thought my time would be better spent elsewhere.


I'd probably recommend that if you want to use softs only do 2 laps on them, maybe 3 if you feel confident although I feel the 3rd lap might actually lose time to the hards. I certainly wouldn't do strategy 2a from my previous post, where its soft for half the race and a new set of softs for the 2ns half, that would mean 2 laps on soft tyres with low grip which would lose a lot of time and make a crash very likely. Note if you start on softs, you will have to do 2 laps, since the pit window opens after 10:00 so you can't pit after the first lap (unless a disaster occured and you lost so much time that you could of course). However this also goes for if you want to finish on softs, you would need to pit on lap and not lap 7 as the end of lap 7 will be after the 50:00 mark.
I'm pretty much thinking for my first race I will follow the strategy 1 in my earlier post and start on hards with a fuel load that will last the race. Then on either lap 5 or lap 6, I will pit and either
    a. keep my tyres
    b. swap to softs
    c . swap to new hards
depending on my comfort level with the car on this track in the race and also my position on the field.

One thing I didn't test is the overall time lost for a pit, so I don't know if a two stop strategy is viable here. I suppose it would be 2 laps soft, 3 laps soft, 3 laps soft in any order. It would probably require aggressive driving to even be have any chance of being worth it, so if that's the case I don't feel comfortable doing that at all.

[Simon Meisinger]

Lucky me, I'll get my wheel back from repair tomorrow. I was really looking forward to race a proper car over a proper distance on this track