Downshift Gearbox Failure

Hi everyone,
I am very new to the sim racing community and I am experiencing a problem when racing a Dallara F307. I am in 6th gear and I shift down to 2nd at the first corner (of Monza) then later in the lap with my normal driving style I end up with smoke at the back of my car. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong! Is there a setting I need to change or am I driving incorrectly?

Thanks,

Joe

 

I think that this car simulates real-life engine rpm range. To not damage the gearbox you should wait a bit between repeated downshifts so that the speed of the car is appropriated to the gear that you are about to engage. You can do that by ear, or reading the engine graph in the car's technical sheet (look at the RPM values) and looking at the rev meter.
Should you want, you can even set mechanical damages off (you find the option into the Realism settings, one of the tabs that you can find on the bottom part of the screen when you are about to start an offine session).

 

Thank you!!

 

First, from your description, it seems like you are not getting a gearbox failure but rather an engine failure.
If the gearbox fails there isn't smoke coming from the car, but rather you won't be able to select any gear anymore.

Regarding the engine it sounds like you're over-revving the engine, which you should actually also hear. If you look at the damage graph in that moment, the engine component should blink red.
If you rev too high, the engine will take damage and eventually fail, just like you have experienced.

To improve your driving, I'd advice you to take steps in between gear 6 and gear 2. It's ok to skip gears, but skipping 3 (3, 4 and 5) gears is too much. It's more work, but it also has the benifit of using the engine as a brake releasing burden of the disc brakes.
You might need to shift the brake bias a bit forward though to prevent the rears locking up, depending on your settings.
The second thing that might be a good idea is to use heel'n'toe to match the revs of the engine and the selected gear which will improve the lifetime of your gearbox and also make the engine braking better controllable.

Getting these things right requires practise, quite a bit actually. Especially in a fast car where all of that has to happen in 1-2s.
But this as part of the game to master these awesome classics. Remember that the real drivers did it like that.

 

Heel'n'toe. That's what you need to learn. Just youtube it. There are tons of videos for you.