Hi there! I'm writing here to see if anyone can help me out. Lately, I’ve been testing classic F1 cars on classic circuits, and this weekend I’ve been doing continuous laps at Monza with the F-Classic G3, F-Classic G4, and F-Edge. In all the practice sessions I've done, I always end up with 2, 3, or 4% engine damage in about 10–12 laps. I’ve tried everything: opening the radiators (it made no difference, as temperatures stay around 106°C), doing laps without forcing downshifts, not over-revving the engine, staying off the curbs... and yet, whatever I do, I still get engine damage. I thought it was a car-specific issue, so I picked a Formula V10 Gen. 2 and suffered damage as well. I then headed to Jerez with the F-Classic G2, which is slightly less aggressive on the engine, but I still ended up with damage. I even thought it might be due to bad gear shifts damaging the gearbox or clutch, but I see those damage stats are listed separately and usually stay at 0% unless I mess up big time. What could I be doing wrong? I read something about turbo boost pressure and similar settings, but I can't adjust those in these cars. I can record a few laps if needed or share telemetry data. I assume these cars can be driven without causing damage, but right now I just can't figure out how to do it. Thanks!
I get the same thing racing classic F-USA, I just assume it's to simulate the wear on those old engines. They didn't last more than a single race from what I read.
Hello, The engine wear is completely normal. Back in those days, engines barely lasted a single race, or if you were lucky, maybe two. However, if you believe the wear is unrealistic or excessive, you can submit a bug report in the bug reporting topic. Thank you, Marius
To be honest, I didn't know that. I knew the reliability back in the day was low, but I wasn't expecting that. Thanks! Nah, I can't really say if it's a bug or not because I don't know much about 80s-90s racing. It was more out of curiosity to see if I was doing something wrong or not. Thanks!
@DeLaFuente Hi. Everything is normal, as our friends have already mentioned. Here is an example of how the FClassic Gen1 race at Jacarepaguá (Brazil) ended after 30 laps.
It wasn't about reliability it was about squeezing out the maximum performance that could be achieved which meant running them beyond safe margins for high mileage. Engines back then were simpler affairs than we see in modern F1 and while not cheap were cheaper relative to the overall car price than they are today. There were no limits on spend, no limits on the number of engines you could run, and there was no parc ferme. You could run qual with a fresh engine, aggressive fuel/air ratios, turbos maxed (if you have them), not really caring about excessive heat and damage because you only had a few laps to do and for the race you'll be throwing a new (or at least freshly rebuilt) engine from your truck in the back. In Race you'd want to dial things back some to last the distance but you still don't need the engine to last any longer than the race distance. You don't want enough damage that performance is very negatively impacted but some output loss is inevitable if you are pushing things to the ragged edge. Even once parc ferme arrived in 2003, I'm pretty sure I recall top teams were still routinely running different engines in practice. They couldn't change between Q and race but that season also saw the introduction of shootout qualy so the race engine still only had to survive one complete race distance + in lap + 3 qual laps. 2004 saw the introduction of them having to last the whole weekend on a single engine. It's not until the big reform in 2009 then when cost cutting and regulation streamlining was high on the agenda that the season engine limit comes in and in-season testing is banned. The limit was quite high though at 8 units for the season, so reliability became a core issue in the design and running of the engines, but that's still long jump from the reliability required today by the 4 unit limit for what was proposed originally to be a 24 race season.
In qualy were used special engines with more power. Especially during the turbo-era this was common practice. Beside qualy-engines also qualy-tires were used. AFAIK quali-tires were used till 1996 or 1997. They last about 3..6laps. A crazy but very interesting time
Thanks to everyone for all the information you've given me. It's incredible to see how they were burning money in previous years. It never fails to surprise me how well-made this game is, its attention to detail, and what an amazing community it has. Thanks!
and beautiful car liveries....with snakes, hornets, camels, gitanos, crowns,.... real things. Today, just imaginary money....
