[Donnchadh MacGarry]

After yesterday I am not sure if I am good enough for this, even considered it was the first open wheeler race after more than a year of gt and dtm cars I spun so many times I lost count... Is it me or is it the setup? I spent two days working on aero and diff but it always felt like the car wanted to kill me! I mean, the best I could do was a 16 with Q tyres in practice, so I am so far off the pace it's not even racing! I really am not sure what to do... does anyone have a decent base setup to share? Or at least some ballpark values for the Williams or the Ferrari... I really like this series but I don't like being a moving chicane 

Try the setup Simon Meisinger put up in the setups thread. I didn't use it in the race (even though its better then mine) but I tested the Ferrari one and found it was really stable and nice to drive. Its definitely a good one to lap consistently with for long periods of time without spinning out. Using it, I would only spin on the hairpins if I was way too aggressive on the throttle or steering input.

It was mentioned before, but be very careful when downshifting in a car with a sequential gear box (Ferrari, Williams) as whenever I did so while turning would cause me to spin. I had to do my downshifts on the straights before I would begin to turn in. Maybe try taking a corner in a higher gear then you normally would, as this would help prevent spinning out when getting back on the throttle. It would also requires less gears to shift down before a corner, reducing the probability of spinning out on turn in. I initially took some of the haipins in second, but would often switch to taking them in third as I felt more comfortable doing so. Looking at the replay I think quite a few people took them in third.

I tried making my own setup for the race and really struggled with it. I didn't think it was any good so I didn't put it up in the setups thread. It was very twitchy and a bit unstable, so I lost a lot of time being very cautious with the throttle and steering. I also need more practice with this car, as I think I would be way off the pace even if we had the same setup. I had never driven Okayama before which didn't help either, those hairpins in sector 3 where such a nightmare to navigate.

Having being on the pace finishing second in last weeks VRC FW31 race to being at least two if not three seconds a lap slower this week was a bit disappointing, although not unexpected as I never drove better in my life last week and had used a really good setup that was based off one Marco Monitto had previously posted. The one thing I decided to do before the race was to not get flustered if I was off the pace after qualifying. In fact my qualifying was better then in my practice, so while I was about 2.3s off pole (I think) I was still satisfied with my performance. I knew before the race I could lap consistently in the 1:18.XX (sometimes hitting a 1:17.XX) and said to myself just aim for that regardless of if I was going to get lapped by everyone else. Even though it was slower then where I wanted to be compared to those ahead of me, by not forcing myself to go faster then my current limit I did not make too many mistakes and I only spun out once due to a lapse in concentration. The only other major time loss I had was pulling over for blue flags, which I did pretty early on since I was lapping on my own and didn't mind that time loss. So while my pace and final result was much worse then last week, I wasn't disappointed in myself. In the first few days of practice I was often spinning out in the car, so only doing it once over an hour I felt was good progress. I must stress again that I only did this by not overly pushing myself even though I was driving slower then those ahead. On a similar note, I have never minded being in a race where there are cars much slower then me. As long as they drive safely then I am happy to race with them and they can only improve from there, which hopefully applies to me in the next race.

I'm going to pursue with my own setup for this season, as I really want to learn how to make a good one instead of just tweaking someone else's. If I think I have a decent one for the next race I'll be sure to post it in the setups thread.

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Do you feel it in your FFB when the rear starts to slide in those tight corners?

Nope, nothing through the FFB

Same here, absolutely nothing. I could only visually see it happen and that was always after the point of no return.