2009B Rusyn Setup Process

For 2009B Rusyn is going to try a 'relative' setup development process among its members.  We'll try to talk in terms of relative changes with respect to a baseline.  The key to this is each member will be refining his own personal baseline to his taste and style, while we as a group share setup notes here on this page, which is open for all Rusyn members to edit.

The reason we think this is viable is that our new car has shown remarkable ability to use the same baseline across many test tracks and retain decent fundamental mechanical balance.  We think very often once we find  the right wing settings for a track and apply those to a baseline, we'll be within tenths of a race worthy setup, if not already there.  Incidentally, the tracks our car has shown this property across so far include Jerez, Jacarepagua, Shanghai, Sepang, Suzuka, and Paul Ricard.

NOTE TO OTHER TEAMS

These setups and setup notes are very tuned to our car in particular.  I would not expect them to generally work well with other cars, even the wing settings, as we actually chose the wing first setup around that with the other settings. We even designed the engine around an early baseline.  However, in our testing of the competition's cars, the GP suspension teams (Antares, SDL, and DLR) may in fact find some usefulness in our setups, while the KPI suspension teams (RAC, M-Sport, and Superoo) will find little value in our setups.  However, even the GP suspension teams will find limited value due to each car being sensitive to engine, aero, brakes, CG, etc.  Even carshape (for some unknown rFactor reason) makes a small difference.

Factory Baseline

We are providing four baselines, each developed around a different philosophy, and therefore each one may suit a different style.  All of these baselines have been tested to within a few tenths of each other at least Jacarepagua, Jerez, and Paul Ricard.  All of the factory baselines are also designed around exactly the same wing setting of 19/17.  This is on the low side of what will be optimal at most of our tracks, and this was on purpose because this stresses getting the rest of the setup well balanced.  Adding wing in event preparation is the easiest change to make.  Also, the difference in wing between front and rear (+2 to front), seems nearly optimal in balance change between fast and slow corners due to aero balance (if the difference between front and rear downforce is too much, the overall balance of the car will change a lot depending on speed).

The setups have names that do not reveal any technical details of the setup, or philosophy in making the setup.  This is to keep all the setups on a level playing field with respect to each other as members try them out.  Members are encouraged to try each one without peeking at what is in them, and pick their favorite one.  From there the members should look at their preferred baseline and start personalizing it.

Baseline Guidelines:

• 19/17 wing
• black tires (J or K)
• 30 liters of fuel
  

So as you work on your own custom baseline, try to stay on black tires and 19/17 wing.  Consider all your changes away from that to be track specific customizations, and track them as such.  That way you can easily apply distilled changes form other drivers to your personal setup.

Here are the seed baselines to try.

Earth

 Earth Baseline

Air

 Air Baseline

Fire

Water

 Water Baseline

Member Custom Baselines

 Scott Earth

Stephan Baseline

Track Setup Discussion, notes, and relative setup recommendations.

Each track will have discussion and data collected here, preferably in terms of RELATIVE changes to one's baseline, so people can apply relative changes to their own personal baselines.  So the idea is to say something like "for this track I add 3 clicks of front wing and 1 click of rear wing relative to my baseline" or tersely "wing +3/+1" (instead of absolute setting statements like "I use wing 22/18").  However, with the wing setting in particular, all of the factory baselines are designed around the same wing, so absolute wing statements would work.  However, personalized baselines may differ with wing, so relative statements are still preferred.

In addition, we may include 'delta' files which are simple files with the extension .svd that show changes to make to a setup.  The RELATIVE column shows how many clicks to change each setting.  Positive for up, negative for down.  The ABSOLUTE column is the setting that was actually in the setup svm file of the baseline used.  Note that for some things this can be misleading by inspection, such as wings.  In game wings start at 1, but in the files they start at 0.  So a 24 in a file is a 25 in game.  This is really a lot simpler than it might sound.  You'll see when you open a delta file.

Jacarepagua

• Even though this track has a very long straight, it also has a lot of fast corners that like downforce.  I have not found an optimum wing, but more wing than the baseline is definitely faster.  However, we will likely need to run less than optimal wing during races for the first two cups due to our straight line performance deficit wrt other teams.  -- AJ
  
• AJ wing delta (+6/+6): ajw wing
  

China

• This track has several very long straights and the corners are mixed.  So far in my testing, a very wide range of downforce levels has proven comparable in laptime, so it may be a pick-your-poison sort of tradeoff, with no clear optimum downforce level.  For our car, due to the not-so-stable unwinding exits onto long straights, I do think a couple clicks extra of rear wing is called for.  So I can see anywhere from (+3/+5 wing) up to (+20/+22 wing) being on the table.  Any other observations on the matter would help a lot. -- AJ
• Here is my chassis delta (ajw_chassis), and my gearing delta (ajw_gearing).
  

Bahrain

•  AJ wing delta (+7/+5).  Not much else to say.  I never found a good setup with both pace and and even wear.
  

Estoril

•  AJ baseline delta (ajw).
  

Laguna Seca

•  Stephan is further along as of this typing than AJ, and here is his setup (Stephan Qual').
  

Suzuka

•  AJ baseline delta (ajw delta)
  

Interlagos

• AJ baseline delta: ajw

Silverstone

• AJ baseline delta: ajw

Spa Francorchamps

Nuerburg

Paul Ricard

• The baseline was actually first developed on this track, so as far as I know so far, the baseline without modification should be good here.  In other words, the baseline is my Paul Ricard setup.  -- AJ