Am I the only person that cannot drive a 1960s era F1 car?

I remember many years ago trying Grand Prix Legends and giving up.. thinking that it must simply be my computer setup lol.. it can't possibly be me... now many years later.. in AMS2.. trying to drive the F1 cars of the 1960s... at Monaco..
I am horrible.. can't keep the car on the track.. can't seem to find the right speed/gear combination... these cars have so much power and really no downforce.. While I'm not a great sim racer by any means, I am not a throttle happy goofball thinking I can just slam the gas pedal to the floor.. I have some experience in racing simulators.. but.. boy.. I really don't think I can ever get good at driving these cars.. I love them to death and I enjoy driving them around.. just for the nostalgia.. but boy do I suck.. I may have to lower the AI strength more than I have ever done before lol..
Actually I'm not really sure why I posted this hear, but Reiza, you have the BEST racing sim around, thanks for humbling me

 

Weather in the good old GPL or AMS, when driving a car of the 60s, there is one important thing:
Start slowly, you can't sit down and then full throttle. You have to feel the car, the grip, the speed.
It is not like with more modern cars with a wider corner you can drive faster. These cars don't have aerodynamic which is working better with higher speeds.
These cars are working to natural physics, the faster you are, the more the car is taken to the outside of the corner or over the track limit into the wall .)

 

The thing with those old cars is that you need to steer them on throttle to some degree. That means you need to get the rear out a bit, so the car sits at a shallow angle through a corner and you more or less "drift" it through. You need to give it enough throttle to keep the angle gping but not too much or you'll spin out. If you try to drive it like a normal aero car you'll just understeer into the brushwork.

It's a practice thing and how much you need depends on what your preferred type of race car is to drive. If you're struggling mybe go back in time step by step, drive the F-Retros, then the F-Vintage G2s and finally the F-Vintage G1s. That way you gradually reduce aero and cen get used to driving on mechanical grip more and more.

 

It's almost impossible to drive these cars (or the FRetro gen 1) fast at modern Monaco. The diff is too tight to make the hairpins and chicane properly and the tyres lose grip too suddenly to get any kind of acceleration in 1st/2nd gear without flying sideways into a wall. I would focus driving on more period accurate tracks that have some flowing corners where the car can be properly driven on power, at least until some physics fixes arrive. The FVintage remain probably the least functional cars in AMS2.

 

Nah OP, I felt exactly the same for years and years in various games. I was so used to racing games having downforce. I'm not saying I'm good now, but I can hustle a wingless, lifty car around tracks at last - my breakthrough was the RWD 70s cars in the Dirt Rally games; they really 'ease'/force you into steering on throttle input.

I can't really speak for how these cars are in AMS, but there are lots of good low-powered '60s single seaters for AC, with scary period tracks to match, that are a far gentler trainer than the big 3 litre F1 cars, like the Lotus 25 and the excellent Russell Formula Ford car mod, and the AI in AC drives the same physics (or close to) as the player, so they are good to learn the correct speed for corners from.

 

Part of the problem with some cars in AMS2 is that their behavior can be a bit counter intuitive in regard to handling characteristics, specifically the transition from understeer to oversteer. Classic F1 cars are already a handful, so these added issues make them harder still, to control.

Current developments suggest such issues should be improved soon. . . .

 

My breakthrough was with the BMW 2002 in AMS2. But today I learned that the setting of the steering wheel is also important (to me). I need a setting of the rotation of 360 degrees. With 720 degrees I am too late countersteering (I use a Fanatec CSL Elite) and spun out a lot of times.

 

Thanks everyone for the great responses! I actually prefer RWD older cars, it's what I grew up driving lol.. but we're talking larger cars which I would expect to have massing understeer, for example, very poor suspension..etc..
I understand what you are all saying. When I think of F1 I think of fast high downforce.. My mind can't relate to something that looks so sleek ..to be difficult to keep on the track. I feel as if they have a lot of understeer, is this how they should be?

Currently I have limited playing time, and I want to run the F1 races from the 60s.. just watched an old movie "Grand Prix" lol.. so ..I want to play a full championship season.. For now, I guess I'm ok just slowing down.. I will keep the AI at reasonable values (90 ish) and I will just be that slow car in the back until (if) I can improve. After all, it's not like my owner can fire me lol

 

I’m so glad it’s not just me.

I’ve laughed, a lot, and nearly been in tears with sheer frustration driving these things. I struggled massively with all of the older/retro F1 cars, finding balancing the throttle a real problem swinging from being fine through one corner and way off the mark through the next leaving me clueless as to where the balance should be.

I gave up on them for a while, concentrating on cars I enjoyed and could move around a track. In the end it was the Caterham 620R that helped get me back into them. I have always enjoyed the various ‘softer’ Caterhams but found the 620R to just be too much of a monster, but as I knew the others I set out to try use that familiarity to work out how to avoid overdriving it. I won’t be getting anywhere near the TT leaders, not within pages and pages if truth be told, but I love hustling it around now and it’s definitely helped me when I’ve more recently tried the old F1 cars again.

Interested to hear about the upcoming diff changes too…maybe that will help me even more?