PS4 To Pit...How and When!

Excuse my ignorance in advance.
But I'm a bit confused regarding Pit strategy!
Since owning the game I have really only been mostly driving in practice. With the odd quick race now and again, only short.
I was doing a short 6 lap race today in the 917 at Spa. And the fuel light came on, also I can feel the tyres going off even after 4 laps.
Anyway. I pitted to see what happened. Managed to change tyres and refuel!
What I want to know is, when you select distance of race and tyre wear etc. Then set the fuel low to say 20 litres. Does this affect the other cars in the race also?
I'm probably missing something. Or I'm extremely dim. But could someone please shine a bit of light on this!!?!

 

The other A.I. cars have a different setup from yours. Generally your opponents have enough fuel to finish the race.
I noticed in some races of career mode, some cars have different pit-stop strategies: once in a 40 lap race, I saw a Mercedes SLS GT3 that stopped on lap 11 and a Ferrari 458 GT2 that stopped on lap 28.
However the A.I. doesn't stop on "quick short races": a 6 lap race on Spa is considered as "quick short race".

 

does the ai only pit for refuel or for tyres as well ?

 

Thanks Viper.
Last night I did a 20 lap race at Spa in the 917. (Was exhausted at end) started with 40 litres of fuel. Was in lead by some distance when fuel light came on. Pitted put 60 litres in as wasn't at half distance. Eventually came third!
Had tyre wear to off. As I have read that the AI only pit for fuel!
Last lap fuel light came on. Just pure luck I guess.
Very confusing though. As you really have no idea how to calculate usage!

Btw. I did see the other cars pitting as I passed!

 

When I was racing on career mode I noticed the tyres wear has an influece on lap times of the A.I. as well.
EX. my observations on a 35 lap race at Vallelunga:
First laps, race pace: 1:36:00 (full fuel tank - NEW tyres)
Laps 7-8-9-10, race pace: 1:35:000 (half fuel tank - tyres status: ok)
Laps 20-21-22, race pace: 1:35:500 (low fuel - tyres status: critical)
Lap 23 pit stop
Laps: 24-25, race pace: 1:35:500 (3/4 fuel tank - NEW tyres)
Laps: 28-29, race pace: 1:34:800 (half fuel tank - tyres status: almost new)
end: 34-35, race pace: 1:35:000 (low fuel tank - weared tyres)

So yes: when they pit, logically they should change their tyres too (considering also their pitstops last a lot of time: you need just few seconds just to refuel, but a lot of time to change your tyres), but I think the A.I. pits mostly when it needs to refuel, not to change the tyres.

NOTE: If you put the "spectator mode" you can see the fuel level of your opponents, but you can't see the tyres status. So my opinion about tyres status is just a hypothesis based on my observations.

 

I'm curious what will be done about mandatory pit stops. For example, ADAC GT Masters, the races last roughly 60 minutes with a pit window at around 25-35 minutes. This stop is mandatory. Same in Lamborghini Super Trofeo series. It would be nice to be able to do a shorter race, perhaps 15 minutes with a mandatory pit stop. This adds to the challenge etc. BTW: For those complaining about the 'silly' door closing animation at the beginning of a race have clearly not watched either of these championships. On the grid, all cars sit with driver door open, pit crew kneels alongside conferring with driver, last minute metrics, chat etc. Then the grid is cleared AND.... The crew member closes the driver door! That's what this animation is all about.

 

The worst part about stops in this game is that you can only decide the work the crew will do once you are stopped. That´s really stupid.

 

i remember you talked about it in your vids and i agree with your suggestion. managing the pit strategy before entering the pit lane would be nice

@Viperconcept_ thank you for sharing these infos, useful and appreciated !

 

About pit-stops and strategy, the last update on PC brought a new pit-stop app. @Aristotelis explains how It works:
"You can adjust fuel, repairs, tyre change, tyre pressures and it will do them automatically once in pits.
You can also create presets from the setup and then choose which preset you want to use (from 3 available)"
Hopefully Kunos will implement a similar system on PS4 and Xbox.