Guide for actually racing with other cars?

Just to chime in here, AI is bloody fantastic now!! I even liked them before the big update, but that was more of a glass half full approach of making the best of what there was.
The only thing missing now is for them to obey flag rules. But that would really only be the cherry on the cake.

 

The iRacing Youtube channel has a series of videos for this



Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqZLBOpI5JFKebBA_i-SCkGRRypXovWv6

The latest AI in Assetto is definitely good for getting used to racing closely with other cars - but they don't really know their racecraft well, so while it makes them appear more human on higher aggression settings they ironically often act like less experienced drivers in 'pro' race cars that need higher aggression. Not totally unrealistic but not good examples to learn from how to race necessarily. Great for learning to deal with frustration in races. lol

 

• The Lost Art of High-Performance Driving, Ross Bentley (2017)
• Ultimate Speed Secrets: The Racer's Bible, Ross Bentley (2011)
• Speed Secrets 7: Winning Autocross Techniques, Ross Bentley (2009)
• Speed Secrets 6: The Perfect Driver, Ross Bentley (2007)
• Speed Secrets 5: The Complete Driver, Ross Bentley and Bruce Cleland (2006)
• Speed Secrets 4: Engineering the Driver, Ross Bentley (2005)
• Speed Secrets 3: More Professional Driving Techniques, Ross Bentley (2003)
• Bob Bondurant on Race Kart Driving, Bob Bondurant and Ross Bentley (2002)
• Speed Secrets 2: Inner Speed Secrets: Strategies to Maximize Your Racing Performance, Ross Bentley and Ronn Langford (2000)
• Speed Secrets: Professional Race Driving Techniques, Ross Bentley (1998)

And as everyone else says; practice

 

I find (on public servers), overtaking on corner entry will often end badly, even you brake later and have the corner, there's a good chance you won't be seen....so my 4 tips for racing on line are:

1) Try to be faster out of the corner, carry more speed out and passing that way is much safer than coming up the inside on corner entry

2) If 1) is not possible, just heap the pressure on, lots of people will buckle if you keep hard on their tail

3) if 1 and 2 fail, enjoy the close racing and say GR to you opponent at then end, finishing 2nd in a close battle is way more fun than bumping your opponent and winning.

4) everyone makes mistakes, so accept other peoples in good grace

 

It's actually quite satisfying when the driver in front makes a mistake because of the pressure that has been applied from behind

 

When playing online, check other players ping & highlight those who have a large disparity of ping versus the server or your own. If you have or them have 100ms+, it's better not to drive to close of other players. Leave at least 50cm of margin. If the player have packets loss... cross your finger.

When you see a blue flag, let the car pass before the braking point(stay out of the racing line) & avoid to interfere the leads race.

 

Unfortunately the absolute vast majority of people online don't know how to 'race'. Learning to race takes a lot of practice, but ultimately it takes a lot of patience and don't forget that it takes two to tango.

If you are the leading car with someone on your tail you have to maintain your racing line, or stick to a line of your choosing. If I am being pressed hard by someone what I try to do is compromise his line for upcoming corners by forcing him to take outside (longer distance traveled) line, but never am I swerving or unexpectedly closing doors on guys.

Also if you know a track well enough, often letting a guy pass just to catch him on corner exit, or letting a guy pass on left or right only to get the inside line into the next corner and forcing him to give outside and regaining position.......there are so many options. But the approach should be that this is real life, DONT make contact.

The man behind is always at fault. If I brake early and you run into me, that is your fault.

Being overtaken is as much hard work as it is to make the move, as in, you need to put in the effort to keep distance and respect the fact that your opponent has gained on you.

And also, dont try to race people who are way faster than you....that was my frustration with the last of my organized races...I qualify 4 tenths ahead of someone, it so happens that for whatever reason field gets shuffled and you have someone significantly slower trying to race someone who is up to a second a lap faster, if you know you cant race that person just move out of the way, sorry that is the way I see it, its a blue flag like situation.

The race is long so be patient...if someone is hard on you and all over your rear bumper consider your own driving and how much you are working the tire and consider your opponent. If you know you are pressing hard and driving cleanly the other guy might just be killing his tires, let him pass just to see him loose all grip 6 laps later.

But in conclusion, stick to a line and GIVE people room to pass if they pulled a move on you. When cars are side by side you must keep going straight or turn in tandem.

 

This is the only part of your post that I don't agree with. If the guy ahead is driving properly (in other words, not deliberately blocking or weaving around), then it's up to the driver behind to find a way past him.

 

Agreed, I didn't express my self correctly. I often had slower guys deliberately block me and see them do the same to others when they are not even in the same category you could say.

When two guys or a group or are on similiar pace it's expected for them to block here and there and battle it out, but when a slow guy is trying to do the same....but agreed at the end of they day its on the guy behind to make the pass.


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Another point, there are times when you loose it but make the hardest of saves yet someone takes you out as you save it. I have tried to force myself to slow down when a guy in front of me looses it rather than try to stay flat on the throttle trying to dodge him.

 

If its for position people should never move over as in a blue flag situation, anyone blocking is usually easier to pass then those that don't assuming they don't also drive you off the track and do the old zig zag block. If someone defends one side then that means they heave left the car behind the other one and if there is overlap you cant again move across to defend or cut of the other guy on the side you gave them.

I do like to test people by seeing how they handle the pressure, if there is time in the race I may sit back and not really try and make a move just to test them a bit. Its good practice to learn brake points when following closely and its also good practice for the guy ahead to learn to deal with a car putting some solid pressure on them. If your going to be a bit of a nuisance following closely then the most important thing is to never rear end the guy ahead and being able to sit as close as possible without contact is a good skill to learn too as its needed to get past others that will be a very similar pace to you.

In terms of racing others by putting pressure on many simply driving close and making some fake looks pretending to make a move when its not really a plan. The guy ahead quite often will be forced into a defensive move to cover and give up exit speed by using less track on entry. Many others will simply try and brake at the absolute limit which in defence without a car alongside is fairly pointless which often means they miss the apex and either give you a huge gap to move into the inside or simply sit back get a better run and pass them easily on the straight.

The hardest people to pass are those that are able to hit all apexes and avoid errors on entry maximising the exit speeds never really giving the car a chance to get a run unless it draft assisted. Guys that may be 1 to 2 seconds per lap slower running a clean line will be more challenging to pass then someone running a similar pace that defends too much and too early.

This is all assuming people are trying to give racing room anyone that doesn't and simply drives others off the track most times I don't really consider, those that do this usually are also slow as they know only dirty tactics give them any hope. A good driver/racer will play fair and know how to give room, pass clean and be able to be passed clean. They wont make it easy to pass and likely make you work for it hanging on alongside as long as they can but wont resort to dirty tactics. If they also make contact or an error gaining a spot will often give the spot back as they just like to race. If you cant race clean and fair nobody will want to race you and will also more likely want to punt you off the track, if you can pass even the dirtier guys cleanly then most times they just accept this and can use it to learn how better to drive in traffic following a good example.

If your dive bombing, and running people off the road then when someone does the same to you it shouldn't cause any concern, if you don't want others to do this to you then don't do it to them.

 

I sat behind another driver for three full laps a couple of weeks ago trying to find a way past him. I gave him all the respect required, and never bumped him once. Then I managed to overtake him on the final lap. As I slowed down after crossing the finishing line, he accelerated to ramming speed, smashed into the back of me, and left the server