I'm pretty sure the F-Hitechs have a lot more grip than they should have, they can break later than the modern F1 cars sometimes and some of them can even do Pouhon flatout, on the default setup. But I'm beggining to think almost, if not all of the classic F1 cars share the same issue, mainly because of Raidillon. Villeneuve and Zonta famously failed to do it flat in 1999, and there is onboard footage in Youtube of the 1993 cars massively lifting in the real race. Yet, in the game, even the MP4/1C from 1983 can do it flat. I drove it on the 1993 layout, not on the modern one. The oldest car that should come close to doing that in race conditions is the F-V10 Gen1, maybe the F-V12, and in qualifying maybe the F-Hitech Gen2. I don't mean to say that they feel too forgiving to drive (they do, but not more than all the other cars on the game), their behavior feels very believable to me, but their performance does not. Has anyone else noticed it or am I alone in this?
You can take it flat with the F-Classics with full fuel? The 92&93 cars which the Hitech are simulating were extremely fast with very advanced technology and qualy tires, so them taking it flat with low fuel is not surprising, if you can take it flat with race fuel then yes, I don't think they did in real life. You have given me an idea to test this in the beta and see which can take it flat with low fuel and how they manage with high fuel.
All of my testing was done on the 1993 layout. The F-Classic Gen1 cars require a small lift, but all the cars from Gen2 onwards can do it flat with full fuel. All of the F-Hitechs can easily do it flat even on a full tank of fuel, and there are multiple onboard videos on Youtube showing them lifting massively during the race. Some of them (At least the MP4/8 and the Gen2 Model 3, haven't tested the others) can do Pouhon flat on low fuel, I'm pretty sure the only F1 car to ever do that was the W11. Also, the qualy tires that the F-Hitechs and F-Classics used irl are not acessible in the game, so all my tests were done with soft race tires.
Did a bit of driving in the beta and you can indeed take Pouhon flat with the Model2 with low fuel, so that's a bit much indeed. Have to say though that I watched the 93 race highlights on F1TV and there's an onboard of Schumacher following Alesi through Eau Rouge and he doesn't seem to lift, and if he does (its difficult to listen due to commentary) its a very small lift on corner entry, its mostly the engine bogging down from the compression and elevation, not to mention the dirty air effect from being so close to the car in front. So they might have a bit too much front downforce, but them taking Eau Rouge flat with high fuel is not that far fetched specially with the active suspension plus TC those cars had, they were seriously quick and way ahead of their time.
Well, I've took a better look at the videos I found, and most of the 1993 cars could probably be able to do it. I've found a video of Schumacher on a qualy lap that year, where he just barely lifts; and also a video of highlights from the whole race, which has onboards from Senna and Schumacher, showing both lifting significantly when behind another car. No onboards when alone on track, but Schumacher lifts a lot less later in the race, with less fuel. I have also found a video of Mansell slightly lifting in 1992, and Alesi and Patrese lifting significantly more in 1991 and 1990 respectively, all driving by themselves. The difference between the real cars and the game seems much smaller than I initially thought it was.
