Pit stops in 50/100 race distance

[roland ratzenberger]

Hi mates. Despite the fact that these days i am sort on time i am thinking of starting a new championship in gp2 but in 50/100 race distance. All these years of playing gp2 i play only on 100 /100 race distance or small sprint like races.

So i wonder , if i choose 50/100 race distance would i have some sort of pit strategy in cc cars or all would go to the end with no pit at all. Of course i dont wait to have two pit stops or even one from all the cc cars but even if some or half of the have then it would add a little bit of unpredictability and immersion.

[samsepi0l]

Do you mean running half distance races? I've never tried it- I've always done 100% length... but won't the opponents strategies still be the same- just shorter stints?

[eky78]

I´d suggest you to download this pitstop utility from Brett Knuchel
https://grandprix2.de/Util/pitstop5.zip

With that program you can decide the probability of a pit-stop strategy (for both player and computer). For example you can set 70% probability of a non-stop strategy and 30% for a one stop strategy.
You have to run in on DosBox. Make sure you have all the tracks installed otherwise it will give you an error.

There is also the Ale's Pit&Lap Editor which is easier to use and gives you more possibilities, but I think you can´t have 0 stops.
https://grandprix2.de/Util/ape3213.zip

Also the last version of Rremedio´s editor allows you to see and change the pit-stop strategy of each driver in a race. But you have to change it for every single driver instead of having a random strategy like in the other two editors.
https://grandprix2.racing/file/tool/vie ... yre-editor

If you can manage the first editor to work, it should give you the result you want.

[ismael]

I have good experience of 50% race distance Grand Prix. I made my first two "official" seasons in 50% before "upgrading" for 100%. In my second "stint" of playing, this last decade, I've returned to do some 50%.

Basically what will happen is that the CC-cars will either choose to do 1 stop or not to stop. This will be calculated (as I found this last decade, through this community, and unaware of that in the Nineties) as per the random strategies attributed by the game and that can be edited in the Editors already mentioned.

I quickly felt that I had some unfair advantage in disputing a fight with a CC Schumacher because he would randomly choose, in some races, a crappy strategy. In the vanilla circuits, to stop was almost always better than not to stop. Drivers (bots or humans) have to cope with a heavy car early in the race and with worn tyres in the final stages. Never having a proper advantage of light weight or fresh tyres. The single exceptions might eventually by Hockenheim and Monza, for obvious reasons (less tyre wear leading to an eventual advantage of not stopping).

No matter if you're CC-car or human; almost always the no-stopper would lose position to a rival, equivalent stopper in the second half of the race. (Of course, Hakkinen on a no-stopper would still beat Brundle on a stopper, unless it was one of those races, 1 out of 16, when Brundle could match Hakkinen's pace).

It's cool not to know, in the first laps, if your rival is on a stopper or not; however, with some experience and if you're sure about your speed throughout the weekend (qualify results and a good race setup, which for experienced players is usually not a problem), you quickly find out if your rival is keeping up with you or if he's too slow, which means he's likely on a no-stopper.

A Ferrari on a no-stopper in Hungaroring 50% race distance could be truly embarrassing.

In my second "official" season in the Nineties, I tried to do Magny-Cours on a no-stopper to see what would happen. Somewhat surprisingly, I reached the final lap on P1 - but I ran out of fuel. Never before I had checked for the fuel nor did I worry about it because I always stopped. So I was like Nigel Mansell in Silverstone 1987, according to Piquet, just ignoring the warning for low fuel. I was able to drag myself without fuel and I finished P5

[samsepi0l]

Wait - I've always changed the CC's pitstop strategy via the Paul Hoad track editor.... is this not a good way to do this? With the track editor it has an option that you can set likelyhood of 1, stop, 2 stop or 3 stop....

[eky78]

Oh...you are right, I´ve forgot it! It is even a better idea especially if you are using Gp2lap.

Track Editor has actually the same functions of Ale´s editor - exactly the same screen.
I´ve also checked again the program and noticed that you can also have a 0-stops strategy with that editor (and with track editor too): you just need to put the lap of the first stop of the strategy after the end of the race.

In any case the main thing I forgot to say is that you need to calculate every time the amount of laps you want to do. Otherwise just follow what ismael said. In that case you probably don´t need to change anything. I haven´t done any 50% race in recent years so I don´t know how it works.

[Antonio Pessoa]

Yes, I also made several shorter (33% or 25%) distance races on GP2 several years ago. And in order to make the cc-cars follow a due strategy, I changed the Pit Strategy on Track Editor, inserting data for the proper strategy for a given distance.

For example, I shortened the distance for the Brazilian GP in original Interlagos. 71 laps is equal to the 100% distance, but I was wishing to race a 25% distance race, so I changed on Track Editor the total number of laps for 18 (and in Pit Strategy also). The cc-cars strategy I remember to change for 2 pit stops, and some cars for 1 pit stop.

Around 70% of cc-cars was set for 2 pit stops. So, the 1st pit should began on lap 5 (near the one-third race mark), and the 2nd pit on lap 11 (near the two-thirds race mark), and those cars should have 3 laps to go to the pits for each stop. The remaining 30% of cc-cars was set for 1 pit stop, beginning on lap 8 (near the mid-distance), and they also would have 3 laps for the pit.

The disadvantage of this strategy tells about the cc-cars whom chose the 1-pit strategy, placing themselves in front of the majority of the 2-pit-strategy cars, consedering the very short total race distance (25%). Maybe with more time on the track, the 2-pit-strategy cc-cars, lighter on fuel, could reach the 1-pit-strategy cc-cars, slower with heavier amount of fuel and wear tires.

But on those years, I had no much patience even for playing a 50% race distance. So, I chose a 25% or 33% distance to get more dynamic races, and with less total time playing in each track of a given championship.

[roland ratzenberger]

Guys thank you all for the resposnes. To my mind the most aprrorpiate tool is paul hoads track editor. I will give it a go this days. Thanks a lot guys , because pit stops for me are something quite important because it mixes up the whole thing.

Thanks again guys

[roland ratzenberger]

Wait - I've always changed the CC's pitstop strategy via the Paul Hoad track editor.... is this not a good way to do this? With the track editor it has an option that you can set likelyhood of 1, stop, 2 stop or 3 stop....

Hi mate . I have also found the paul hoads track editor for gp3 . Does it also alter the pit stop strategy in gp3 as in gp2. Do you know anything about that ?

[samsepi0l]

Hi mate . I have also found the paul hoads track editor for gp3 . Does it also alter the pit stop strategy in gp3 as in gp2. Do you know anything about that ?

I know nothing about gp3... I bought it and played it only a handful of times, but nothing like gp2.

[Antonio Pessoa]

I remember when, several years ago, I made the same for GP3 as I did for GP2: changing the number of laps and the Pit Strategy on a given GP3 track. If I'm not missing any memory, it worked well

[rremedio]

The way I would do it would be edit the pitstop strategies in the track file as usual. Edit the number of laps in the track file to half distance and run the race as a 100% race.