hi mate, i dont realy know an answer for this as i dont have a specific plan for practice, but in general i qill go on track in practice, quickly change fuel and tyre settings then go and do 10 laps to learn the circuit, then only once i have a good idea of the track, i will begin to slightly change my settings to adjust. Usually i will end up with a very stable setup so i can finish the race, as personally im not to bothered about outright speed as i am trying to tactically beat my oponents lol. Hope this helped mate. Btw, to quickly answer your question with no long story lol, i do about 4 hours of practice, over a period of about 1 week, although i am very inconsistent with the amount of time i play games os it can vary alot.

It depends on what type of race it is. If I have raced somewhere before I usually don't practice that much for it. If it's a new track I usually do a full stint.

Before every session I check the laptimes from a previous race so I have something to aim for. I found that when I get within 0.05 of a second of the fastest lap for about 5 laps in a row I usually can't go faster anymore unless some improvement is made to the setup. After that it all starts over again. Change the setup and get some close to perfect laps.

Really hard to say how long I practice for something actually. It depends upon a lot of factors I guess.

Since I am taking my F1 races pretty stinking seriously, I am doing a lot of practice for each race. For the Silverstone race I practice for 2 weeks almost daily. Each day would be no less then 1 hour, and usually about 2 hours up to 4 hours. Of course, this is all late night stuff after family duties and R2P duties are out of the way. I hadnt counted the number of laps or total hours, but I would guess at least 30 hours and 1000+ laps (over two weeks) preparing for a 60 lap race.

I do have to schedule myself to stop working on the setup at some point though. I usually put my deadline a few days before the race then refuse to make another tweak to the setup unless it benefits the car on longer stints. I then move onto running full race-type stints one after another, and even full race lengths. Then practicing pit entry and exit, race starts, etc.

This doesnt include the time I spend doing the math to determine my pit strategy and fuel loads. That can add another few hours.

My case is an extreme right now. I use to be just fine with 2 or more hours, but now the competition has picked up to the point I needed more and I enjoy that.

I just began testing at China for the race in 2 weeks. I ran 70+ laps last night alone, over a 2.5 hour test session.

I'm in two boats. For "drop-in" races (events in a series I don't plan to enter more than one or two events, such as Nippon), I will only practice one or two days (1 or 2 hours or so). Like Tim, however, I am also competing in Formula 1 this season and am taking it seriously. As such, I am running no other events from now on and putting all my driving time into learning the tracks (most are new to me) and just getting the feel of the car. I put in 2 weeks of practice for both Silverstone and Barcelona, with laps/hours probably close to what Tim has been doing and it paid off in that when race day came, I was driving very smoothly and steadily. Now that I am back at work, I will have less time to do lots of hardcore practice like that, but now I am a lot more comfortable with the cars, so it's more of a matter of memorizing the tracks and how the cars behave there, etc.

So, the practice I put in is directly related to how much I care about the event/series.

Tim's a bit crazy. ;)

I load up setup from previous race in that car and usually practice 10-20 laps for an event, rarely over 50 laps. In cases like F1 race on Sunday, where I didn't know the mod nor track almost at all I did put in some 50 or so laps.

My advice would be to always start with a setup from previous race and work on from there. In cases where you don't know the track any setup tweaks prior to knowing all the lines and braking points are useless.

I also started practice for China GP, did 7 laps today. :D

I think my biggest time killer is starting a fresh setup for each track (even if it's the same mod).

Wow Tim, I thought I was putting in a lot of time!

I guess I am looking at this from the angle of more productive practice, even if that still means 100's of laps. Free time is precious and since my business is not sim racing it's hard to put in that much time and not feel someone guilty about it. That's why I am trying to become as efficient as I can with practice and setup development so I can spend more time with the family...

Dont start with a scratch setup each race Jimmy, big time consumer if you do that.

I actually use the same setup (even F1 setups) from one track to the next. After Silverstone, I brought that same setup to Barcelona (minor tweaks), and now have brought it again to China (almost no tweaks needed). Im running about 2 seconds faster then last season's race pace at China already and it is not a scratch built setup. Reality is, Ive been using the same setup from day-1 of my F1 career. Each race it evolves a little... better gearing, better damping, better this or that... and after a few seasons it has added up to be a pretty stout setup that I can bring to just about any track and run competitive with almost no setup development.

I use the majority of my testing time to refine ME, not the setup. I always try little things to find that next evolutionary step, but I do not focus on that.

In my past few F1 races.... zero spins or offs. That has meant more to me then the extra tenth or two over a lap.

So Tim you basically just use one setup for most tracks, and then spend time refining it from that point? Interesting... and you find it only takes minor tweaks? I'll have to try that...

Sure... why should we develop a new set for a different track? Rubber is still the same, asphalt is still the same, aero is still the same... what really changes? The primary changes are length of straights, so there are usually some gearing tweaks. But, the mechanical chassis of the car does not need to change from one track to the next... mostly.

Other then gearing and a minor tweak of wings and air pressures, I dont do too much more. I then get to focus on my line and maximizing everything from my driving.

On the flip side, I am constantly trying this or that to find something new. Diff settings, dampers, camber/caster... anything I can take a quick guess at. Sometimes it pays off big, other times I waste 10 minutes and accomplish nothing. Well, that is not true either, I do accomplish something; I know what NOT to do which saves me time later. But, again... my main focus is on me, not the car.

good info tim