How do you practice?

Old tips says: set default setup and do laps. If you will do 20-30 laps one by one with no more difference than 0.2s from each other - then go for custom setup.

What is your advice to looking for the best times you can do? When will I know that I have reached the point where I just can't go faster, casue I have no skill / ability / hardware to do that?

What I personally do is just pick a "hot stint" mode and look for with which one setup I am doing the best time. The same approach I did for looking the best fitted car for me - with which one I was able to do best time just on aggresive default setup.

I feel this is never ending story - for instance I was 99,9% sure that I can't go under 1:49:000 on Monza. Then I have noticed one thing from faster drivers - while I had 60% brake balance on Ferrari, they had about 55%. When I switched to similar balance... I did 1:48:6...

There are so many tracks - I love Barcelona, Nurburbring, SPA... but I would like be at least "competetive" on Monza and Silverstone for instance. I would spent rest of my life just for practice to find my limit... How to do it faster and definitely?

How do you do it? And do you practice many of tracks during the week or you have different idea?

 

Practice for yourself to get comfy, to get faster...

 

Pump time into it. Laps. Laps.
And when you've done a lot of laps - do some laps.
Sounds stupid - but thats the way.
Most important - have fun!

 

For pure pace I stick to one track I want to practice on, let's say Nürburgring, and I lap this track with all the cars I feel comfortable with and see which one comes out on top (most of the time it's the Ferrari, the Aston or the Audi for me).

When I'm done I take the slowest car and try to improve, until it's not the slowest any more, and I take the next slowest car and start again, rinse, repeat. Then I choose my next weakest track and do the same, again, and again.

I noticed that I'm much faster than a few months ago, starting to regularly beat some of my personal track records that I deemed absolutely i m p o s s i b l e to improve, and by quite a margin! Practice, practice, and practice even more, there's no way out of practice

For racing I set 30-minute races and when I feel really comfortable I go to MP. That's my routine basically

 

I personnally think switching cars is a bad way to become a faster driver, knowing your car is paramount to be fast and consistent, it will take you longer to know your car than knowing the track.

Find a car that you enjoy driving and stick to it to learn the tracks, some tracks you will be not too far off pace and some tracks you will be 5 seconds off, spend time until you're not too far off pace on every track.

Once you're 2 or 3 sec off pace on every track, it should mean you pretty much know your car and the aggressive setup, so you can focus on learning the track itself to imrpove your laptime.
The track will feel and drive different depending on your car and its setup, that's why i think sticking to the same car will help your improve to drive faster and to setup it faster beacuse something in the setup that worked on Misano will probably work at paul Ricard too, and knowing your car is key for setup and setupping your car is key to do better lap times espically with non competitive cars.

And dont just pick a car that is strong on one track because it's fast, pick a car that you enjoy driving, no matter how slow it is

 

Agree aelleden. Learning one car is key to consistency, learn the car, then the track. So you can predict how the car will respond to your inputs and at certain corners.

To learn a track I may normally watch a drivers unleashed track guide a couple of times. Over to FP, do some slow laps building up familiarity. Pick out references for braking points, where to get on power, see how the car deals with curbs etc. Then pick up the pace, when at race pace, try to match the video from earlier. Then after that, see what your limits are.

So Monza turn 1 for example, the basic braking point it 150m. In your chosen car you need find out can you brake as late as the white line across the track. Do you need to brake earlier? Which gear to exit the first chicane in?

 

I get your point but I disagree. I'm convinced that knowing different cars and understanding their similarities and differences, why this particular one works for you and why this one doesn't improves your overall skill and ultimately makes you a more capable driver. I personnally don't feel like driving the Aston once in a while makes me slower in the Ferrari. Hell, everytime I come back to it I remember why it's my go-to car.

I also think it's important to drive different, maybe changing conditions to learn about your car, rather than the eternal, mid-day optimal setting.

 

Im in the same boat and try to get a more constant practice routine and i already found one and i can see how my ratibgs and laptimes improve. Heres how i do it:

First i decided which cars i like the most, now i stick to them. Right now i only drive the Aston Martin (R-Motorsport as its the local team in my city) and thePorsche 911 II).

Then i bought the setips from "Coach Dave Academy" for all the tracks for both of the cars. So i have not to deal with setups too much and i know that the cars are setup correctly for each track.

Then i select a track i want to practice.
I do a few laps on training sessions till i drive constant times.

After that i do a 20min Race against AI (including Qualify) set on 90%.

If i am fastest in Quali and can win the race i up the AI till i dont win anymore and have to fight for top positions.

Usually i can gain a bit of time to my best lap time just by following the top AI drivers. They kind if "Pull" me to better lap times. So i can improve the racing line and see where i loose time against them and see in which corners im already doing great and can gain on them.

My goal right now is NOT to get the best hotlap times but to learn the tracks, improve my Ratings, be faster and more consistent, gain Racecraft and be more competitive.

I dont do much multiplayer right now. I will do that later when i feel confident enough with every track and know that i can compete.

 

My routine for practice is as follow:

- do laps


more seriously..
Let’s say it’s dry. I start with aggressive setup. Around 60-70L of fuel. I do 5 laps to get the pressures right for the session conditions.
Then, I lap the track for quite some time, until I’m able to consistently do fast laps. Usually it is between 10 and 50 laps depending on my familiarity with the track.
Next step... go in replay mode. Watch a couple of your fastest laps and take some notes. Did you reach the apex in all corners? If not, why? Is it your driving (inputs), is it the line (braking/turn in points)? Or is the car preventing you from doing that (setup)? Some stuff is easier to spot than others. Let’s say for now, it is the driving and not the setup. When I’m done with my notes, I go watch some track tutorials or onboards (real life and/or in game) on YouTube. Note the braking, turn in points. When to pick up the throttle, how hard, all that stuff.
Now when you got a good grasp of how the track should be driven, go back to the replay mode and rate all your corners. Maybe Turn 3, you notice you’re down on apex speed. Analyse and rate that corner, maybe entry is 6/10, apex 7/10, exit 7/10. When you’re done with all the corners, look at where your ranking are lowest and work towards those corners first, as well as the most important ones.
It is important to go step by step and not do a perfect lap straightaway. Because it will be too much info to process. When you get a corner right, move to the next. Rate again the corners.
When you are satisfied, you can move to setup work.

Depending on your experience, you can skip some of these steps. The whole process take me hours, I would say from 5 to 20.
This method yields the best results for me, but you have to be dedicated and focused. Hence, I don’t do it often. Doing practice that way however, allows me to separate the driving from the setup. It’s easy to say "oh i got understeer in turn 8" but is that due to driving error, or setup? Sometimes on track you think it’s setup, but it’s not.

It’s no use practicing and doing laps aimlessly if you repeat the same mistakes over and over. Bad practice, is not practice.

Looking forward to see others chip in.

 

I make a few changes to aggressive that I know I need to make for my driving style or I do the same to a build my friend might provide (if he has one) and then bang out 10 clean laps if I can. If I can't I go back to the drawing board and try and solve what I am experiencing by watching the replay and thinking of what the conditions of my issues are. Am I oversteering? Am I understeering? Is it on or off throttle/brake?

Once I am confident with the build I reduce my fuel load and see if I can "qualify" with it sensibly. If not I work on the build depending on if I lose stability when there's less weight or if it feels slow. If I am not fast enough for my liking, which at this time is within 2 seconds of sub alien speeds. Bathurst for example I was happy with a steady and comfortable 2:06.1 to 2:06.9. I shoot for doing that 10 times consecutively. By this point, I'm around an hour and a bit into my practice regimen.

After I get the speed I am comfortable with I then look for where I am losing out by changing my lines. Technical sections such as the S section in Suzuka or a chicane I look at where I need to sacrifice to have a better/safer experience through the remaining part of the section. Sometimes you need to think slow in, fast out, or fast in, slow out for single corners. For sections of corners that you're going to chain together (S sections, multiple turns in a row without a straight) you need to figure out where you need to make a compromise. I usually compromise entry for a more powerful exit because I usually drive the AMG. Once I have worked out how I like to get in and out of corners I work on how to put those pieces together in a way I feel is comfortable and does not feel unstable. I try to bang out 10 consecutive laps like this. Usually, by this point I shave another second off my race pace and up to 2 seconds off qualifying time.

 

I don't really do practice outside of learning tracks. Pace for me is secondary to finishing the race, pace is gained by experience, which you gain either way.
Hotlapping alone leaves you unprepared to face traffic and also makes you shy away from less than optimal conditions.

So what I suggest is to practice alone to get comfortable with the track, experiment with lines and find a comfortable pace. You don't have to be on pace with the masters to be competitive in a regular lobby or CP. Once you can reliably make clean laps you can drive with traffic on track, be it AI or MP drivers. Your lines and thus pace will improve either way, might as well get some traffic experience while at it, besides, traffic can teach you better lines.
You will have more use for being able to adapt to situations than from just being plain fast. A good battle in the mid-pack is more rewarding than an easy win.

Setups don't make or break your pace, skill and conditions does. Setups are good for giving you the last few tenths you have in you. Stuff like TC/ABS and Brake Balance are all dynamic and needs to be adjusted for the conditions, same with tire pressures.
What I always do is pick the baseline aggro setup, add about 1psi to the tires and then go testing a few laps. I rarely actively practice before every race. Just a warmup.
Some cars simply don't vibe with your driving style. ACC does a good job at making the cars distinct in the way they handle and you're better off finding a car you are more stable with, it doesn't help how fast the car is in someone elses hands if you can't take advantage of it with your driving style.

Note that this is my approach, I don't need to be the very best, but rather better than my former selv. Thus, my advice is aimed at stressing less over laptimes and focusing on safe and close racing within reach.
Survival proves to win me more positions in a race than anything else.

 

This is an interesting thread, here are my 50cents...

First step, go and watch empty box´s video on ineffective practice:

Now, after that is out of the way and lets just assume, that you already have your base line as a reference. There will be a point when you think, jebus, i just cant get any faster, no one can, just impossible. How the heck does this guy do the lap 1s faster than me? He must be cheating....

There is no easy way unfortunately. There is no magic setup, no steering device. Just work. Its not always fun either. If you wanna get faster, at a certain level, there is only one way, and thats analyzing. You need to start using motec, and start analyzing replays. Just no way around it. The best way to do it is aquire a motec file of a nice guy who is already faster than you and willing to help you out. There are other ways, but this is in my view the best.

So, lets say you just done your 48.6 at Monza, but your buddy drives 47.8. Now the work starts, get his motec files, and start comparing. There are a couple of tools in Motec, that make this easier, especially the track report and channel report tabs. There you can see, how he is 0,8 of a second faster than you( of course this makes most sense when using same car and fuel load.... ). Look for corner speeds and acceleration and breaking points, dont go into the fine details like steering input etc just yet. You will start noticing things, like through this corner his speed is 10kmh higher, there he brakes 15m later than me, etc. Take notes.

Lets take Monza as an example:

At start/finish straight speeds are almost equal of you both, but in t1( which in Motec is the right hand turn just before first chicane!!) speed diff is 10kmh, in t2( which in Motec-Monza is the first chicane!) there is a 13kmh diff. Rinse and repeat. This way you work all the course. Now when returning to the track i recommend trying to focus on single corners. So you found out you can go 10kmh faster through first chicane: try that. Its not as easy as it sounds, because usually you think you have already reached the limit. So focus on the speedmeter and aim for higher speeds. Listen to the revs! so you get an idea how your engine should sound while going through the corner. Try a couple of times, then check Motec again if you reached the speeds you wanted. Rinse and repeat. Start analyzing your own replays, looking for hitting the apex more consistently, positioning of the car, breaking and accelerating points. Same procedure for the rest of the track. Now this all does not really sound like fun, and it isnt.

Having buddies that share their motec makes things easier, by a lot. If you dont have access, there are a couple of other ways. First, you could start comparing your own laps. Usually, when you are not driving on the absolute limit, you will find, that there are quite large speed differences between laps. So in one lap you drove t1 with 100kmh, next time with 92. Take notes of your fastest corner speeds and try to reach them similar to like you would if you had the motec files. Hopefully you did log your laps, if not start right now ^^. Motec also has a neat feature called "section times". You can take a look at the section times and you will get a so called eclectic time, which just adds all the best sector times, which can serve as a reference to how much time still lies there. Oh, and did i mention you should analyze your replays? Maybe you can get someone faster to take a look at your driving? Again, positioning of the car, hitting the apex, brake points etc, usually even when you think oh lord, this was one hell of lap you will find parts where you were off by a quite a bit. This is where the tenths and hundreds lie between ok and perfect.

Hotlaps on YT etc are also a way to get faster, though i advise against hotlapping, because after all we are here to drive races, arent we? Similar take notes of their cornering speeds, brake points etc and try to reach them by yourself.

Thats about it. Its a ton of work, and its not fun. But it can be done. Hope it helps!

 

I will do some hotlaps and dive into motec and see if the car is doing what I feel.
The time will come naturally once you find your preferred car for a certain track to suit your style.

One thing I will say though, to all the guys that feel they need to practise for weeks before joining online......absolute rubbish.
Nothing prepares you for racing other humans. Its a pressure like no other. People are capable of some great moves, some stupid moves, and you need to learn how to race in a pack.
AI races don't come close (as good as ACC ai is), it's a whole different ball game online. There are also drivers of all skill levels, so you will find great racing at all skill levels.

Normally you can spot a hotlap queen on a lobby. Fast over a lap, cracks under pressure in a race, and can't pass cleanly for ****. Is likely to pull a stupid move and cause a wreck because in their little heads they think, oh I'm faster so I can squeeze a move past and all will be ok. THIS IS NOT AI, HUMANS WILL DEFEND HARDER AND YOU WILL CAUSE A CRASH.
Tonight I was stuck behind and finished behind another car for 5th spot. I was quicker but couldn't get a way past. Even half moves up the inside were cut off. The other guy defended superbly even though I had him on pace. We crossed the line 3 tenths apart. If this was an ai car, they will yield a lot easier in a corner.
Please listen, race online. No matter what level you are, online racing will make you better and get you used to actual racing.
Pace and speed will develop. Even if you spin out, just do the online race as a practise session. Get online laps under your belt.

 

Completely agree. AI are a great way to practice. They are predictable and won't make crazy moves. In one way that's great, in another it just doesn't prepare you for racing against humans that are unpredictable. You don't need to be the fastest online, if your consistent you will do better than a fast guys that are inconstant. I've been handed at least one place in every race I've taken part in just because the guy in front had an incident.

 

AI are an OK way to practise. They have 2 or 3 moves they will make and that's it. They yield quite easily and won't fight back for a few corners the way a human will.
Too much AI racing is setting yourself up for failure, if your goal is to become a better racer online while using AI as the means of practise.
You can spot the hotlappers and AI racers a mile off. Hotlappers are fast but likely to bin the car, and are very aggressive overtaking, impatient and normally cause a wreck.
AI guys are the ones who won't yield when you have won the corner. They expect you (just like the AI) to yield and give them back the corner. They will often turn in no matter what "defending their line", even though your car is now there and it is now your line, not theirs.
In online, other racers, and I'm talking experienced Pro rated drivers who are "proper racers" , typically are aware of their surroundings and will yield when appropriate and immediately be on the attack to get the position back. They won't risk a crash as they will see opportunity on the next few corners or laps to try force a mistake or gain the place back.
These are by far the toughest opponents online. Hotlappers will end up at the front and taking themselves out.
AI drivers will cave under pressure and are a liability.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't practise offline.
But to gain experience RACING other humans.....you must race other humans.
Even if you wreck....watch the ramainder of the race from the pits. You can learn a lot, I still see moves being made from other drivers that I can add to my arsenal.

 

What is practice ?