Eric Côté's Setup Guide - Hungaroring
Setups
QUAL:
 1 min 15 sec 491
2 STOP RACE:
1 min 19 sec 643
3 STOP RACE:
 1 min 18 sec 840
Qual standard menu
Qual advanced menu
Race standard menu
Race advanced menu
Race standard menu
Race advanced menu
Note
Regarding 2 or 3 pitstop setups, there's only 8/10 of sec between my best lap, although some remarks about this: I have "tested" my 2 pitstop setups to see how fast it could go, but the very big difference in tire wear will be achieve by YOU! The good news about the 2 pitstop strategy setup is it's even more predictable, and better thru corner #5.You may want to race with this setup as a 3 pitstop strategy, it should be very good, although i havent't tried it this way. Tell me what you've found Those two setups are very different from each other, my goal was to seek for a more predictable handling & less tire wear and it worked very well. Once more , if you drive hard and it starts to slide, "lift" slightly your agressivity for a lap or so, and grip will return to normal. The two race i've just completed were quite conclusive, and my best preference is the second setup (2 pitstop) Hope you will enjoy the race as much as i've done, HAVE FUN & DRIVE FAST
Driving Style
I have discovered this during the testing, DEPENDANT of your choice of wing angle differential (per ex: 3 or 4 deg) Your choice of Ride Height differential will change to get aerodynamical car balance. From my setups between 24-31.5mm EXAMPLE of this: If you use 16 deg Front, 13 deg Rear WING (diff. : 3 deg), keep ride height diff. at 29mm to 31.5mm How to calculate the differential of ride height (for this example): 1st ADD ride height + packers height (for a given wheel) Do the same for the rear wheel (ride height + packers). Then SUBSTRACT the rear TOTAL to the front TOTAL. EX: Front ride height = 24mm + packers =10mm TOTAL= 34mm. Rear ride height = 44mm + packers = 20mm TOTAL = 64mm NOW SUBSTRACT rear TOTAL = 64mm from front TOTAL = 34 mm YOU GET = 30mm of differential For a 4 degrees of WING differential my TOTAL ride height differential is 24 to 25mm (try to see how it respond)

Now corner #5 (look at the image below on this page) I have found different way to prevent the REAR from sliding thru the corner. The first way to cure the problem is: Raise RIGHT FRONT spring load and lower LEFT REAR spring load. The reason for this was found when i reviewed the wheelspin value from PA telemetry (look at those 2 graphics below). The LEFT REAR was sliding (overspin), by raising the RF spring and lowering LR spring, the tire tends to stay on the asphalt. Accordingly adjust the Anti-Roll Bar (ARB) to prevent the chassis to "roll" from one side to the other. Again this will cause the same problem, if less chassis roll, less chance of any wheel to loose contact on the road. VERY HELPFULL for this corner. I have found that both FRONT & REAR ARB are effective at this corner. Now here comes the DAMPERS, i'll start with the FAST dampers, i've found that if you raise the LEFT FRONT REBOUND and raise RIGHT REAR BUMP, it works very well. The reason for this, even if it's not a bumpy corner, you'll find that the corner goes in elevation, then a sudden sharp change of direction and at the same time a sudden "DROP", is very bad for a very stiff chassis (overreaction). Curing the problem with FAST DAMPERS works. For the SLOW DAMPERS it's different, depending on how you negociate it, you'll have to find different PHASE type entry settings and see how it respond to the changes. From my experience this corner is of TYPE 2, to view the DAMPERS TABLE. Also if you choose too much FRONT WINGS you'll upset the chassis, and RIDE HEIGHT is effective by changing REAR (go lower to create understeer) and FRONT (go higher to do the same), experiment to see changes. So my settings varies from 1300 -1200 LBS for RF springs and 800 - 900 LBS for LR springs.The Anti-Roll Bar varies from 1500 to 2000 lbs for FRONT ARB & 200 to 300 lbs for REAR ARB. LF FAST REBOUND 7 - 8 and RR FAST BUMP 5 - 6.

All the slow corners needs mid-low REAR spring rates to be able to "extract" efficiently the exit. At the same time you don't want to have a car that understeer everywhere. Quite difficult to negociate all those series of corners while understeering. So my solution is having "tight" spring rate differential between rear & front, My starting point was 300 lbs, then tried 200 lbs. And the car started to feel "neutral" the way i like it. So if your looking at the advance setup menu (below) for for race & qual setups You'll notice the non-symmetrical adjustments of SPRINGS on both side of the car. The reason for this: I had to respect all the setting i've done for corner #5. It's a question of COMPROMISE and efficiency, also the Anti-Roll Bar plays a big part of this. Part of the series of corners are also those 2 chicanes, and a fair amount of ARB is advisable for this race track. Since these corners are not "totally" slow, you'll need high WING angles, if your trying to lower the rear wing to gain (so less) on the short straight, you'll loose the car balance at the rest of the track. (I have seen 7 deg in the rear, and you gain only 9 -10 kph on the straight). Compared to what i'm using (13 -14 deg), so the small gain is definitly not worth it.

To get maximum undercar grip (aerodynamical) for this particular track is using low packers value. Every time i was reducing the amount by 1-2mm front and rear (to keep same ride height differential), my lap time started going down dramatically. Since it is a very slow course with such a small straigth, there's no need to run on packers here at all. The best way to get maximum grip is from low ride height and high wing angles for the whole circuit, it translate in faster corners ability. Don't forget about plank wear for the duration of an entire race, in qualification it's not important (my own setup "scrub" 0.2mm in front & 0.3mm in rear)

I haven't spoke to you about Gear ratio for this type of racetrack, most "hotlappers" will use high ratio for the first 2 gear, then make short ratio differential for the rest of the gears. My own way of dealing with this is quite different, First i'll figure out the 6th gear depending of my rear wing settings, then will adjust the 5th gear to get short gear change, if one corner needs special attention about the ratio for 5th then i'll make a compromise, which here is not the case. Then I'll adjust the 1st gear only to be in the right revs zone for the first chicane. 2nd gear is very important, since lots of corners will use it (#6, #8, #9, 2nd chicane and corner #15). Adjust the 2nd gear to be always in "torque zone" of your engine. 3rd & 4th gear are for acceleration purpose, so you need to gain momentum with these gears.

For pitstop stategy the best i've found is a 3 stop, tire wear is big concern and if you drive rather roughly you'll "chunk" the tires quite easily If you make a driving error (per example sliding badly out of a corner) take it easy for that lap, tire temperature will settle down and you can regain grip very easily after that misfortune. Regarding lap time during pre-race warm-up and raceday, there's about 1.5 second of difference in favour of practice session (as usual). 

Back to race times, if your consistent, without mistakes, you'll pace at around 1.5 to 2.0 sec a lap faster than the top teams.And at that pace you'll have over 35 secs at your first pit, so even if the 2nd position car is on a 2 stop strategy, you're in control of the situation. I've notice the winning combination is 3 pitstop strategy, my suggestion is using 24% race distance for 1st pit, then 50 %, and at the last pitstop go for 76%, the sim will give you 21 fuel lap, just remove some amount to finish the race with the minimum. ALSO I'VE NOTICED SOME TOP TEAMS USE 2 PITSTOP. I have provided you a 2 stop strategy setups, choose what fits better your driving style, also if you don't start from pole, if you drive consistently, it may be good option for you.

So let's go for a lap and trying to know where to pickup time compared to competition. It's not the easiest circuit to pass, but there's some corners that are worth mentioning. After the start/finish straight, this is the most logical part of the circuit to do it. Corner (#1) entry can have different lines and gives lots of opportunities. Also if you got the correct line in this curve, the small straigth leading to corner #2, again, here's a good spot to overbrake competion. Then comes corner #3 & #4, i suggest you to concentrate to ideal lines, try to pass any cars during the exit of corner #4 going up the hill in the 2nd straight. If you have any hesitation, per example being at 3/4 distance (closer to 5th corner), i strongly suggest you to wait for your passing maneuver. Corner #5 is already difficult to master, it's out of question to try something here (unless your crazy like me). Corner #6, there's some possibility to do the "interior" of a slower car, but i prefer to maximize my exit speed to overbrake another car before the first chicane, all you have to do is place your "nose" at the interior of the upcoming chicane, unless the other driver is Eddie Irvine your safe. After this chicanes, you'll find a series of corners that are virtually impossible to pass until the next short straight leading to the 2nd chicane, again the same principles applies here (as the 1st chicane).The last portion of the track is quite difficult to pass anyone, but you can try at the entry of corner #13, being again out of ideal racing line (staying at the interior) is a possibility.

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