So you shouldn't under-estimate the mental energy required to drive really quick lap times, and it is energy that the top drivers are willing to put into the game to get the most out of their ability. You have to work hard when trying to improve your speed and you must concentrate on refining your pedal control. Whether it's hotlapping, a short race or just a simple practice session you have to be 'on it', focused on each braking zone, turn-in point, corner line and throttle control at the exit.
To make it clear - if you are driving around locking the brakes before every turn, missing the apex, running wide or spinning on the exit of nearly all the corners you simply aren't concentrating enough; and you aren't putting the required effort into your driving.


11. Driving Online.

I drive online a lot, despite the fact that I only have a 56k modem and the EA F1 games have never been the smoothest for online racing (lag, connection problems, invisible cars, file mismatches and often cars that appear stationary on track). So why do I bother..? It's simply because I love driving with real people! I get to talk to people between practice laps and discuss setups, I get some real life competition and as long as I stick to sessions with a smaller number of drivers (4 or 5 max) the lag issue isn't really a problem (especially in the practice sessions... races are another matter).

I used to use the standard in-game multiplayer search function to find online games but recently I have started using F1RST - a 'race search tool' which allows you to find online sessions which are normally much better suited to drivers who don't use the driving aids. You can chat before you join a session and you can even use the hosting function to drive hotlaps and compete with other drivers for the fastest laps.

You might think it is good if you can join an online session and drive faster than everyone else who is taking part but that's not what I play online for. Yes it sometimes happens where you find a session and you are quite a bit quicker than the other drivers (usually because they are new to the game) but I actually prefer driving with the really fast drivers - competing (or at least trying to compete) with the best sim drivers in the world.

You can learn a lot from driving online and if you have a good online connection you can also watch other drivers on the circuit without lag. You use the + and - keys on the numpad to cycle through all the drivers in the session and then you can use the 'Insert' key to choose a TV-Cam style onboard view and watch them drive. Another good thing about this system is that you actually see the gears and speed readouts on the steering wheel display and if you press number 2 on your keyboard (to bring up the 'HUD') you will also get lap time information about their current lap. I've used this method in the past to watch some of the very quick drivers and they are always very impressive in action (rarely making mistakes).

It's worth remembering that each driver has their own opinion of what is considered 'cheating' or cutting the track online; I've seen many arguments between drivers who completely disagree about the various driving lines you should be allowed to take. Just recently I was in a Monza session online (no aids allowed) and somebody in the session said his best time was 1.22.8. The host instantly replied that 1.22.8 was not possible to achieve legally (his best was 1.23.6) and after some discussion he told us he didn't consider it legal to run wide at Ascari. Taking his narrow exit from Ascari into account I knew it was still more than possible to do 1.22.8 'legally' (to suit his requirements) so I went on track and did a lap time of 1.22.4 without running wide. I think the host was watching me on track during the lap and when I crossed the start/finish line he kicked me out of the session.
I'm not sure why he kicked me; maybe it was because he couldn't do similar lap times with his own setup, maybe he thought I was cheating (with edited grip levels or something), or maybe he just didn't like the thought of someone been faster than himself. It doesn't matter - the simple fact is there are drivers out there who could smash his 'illegal' 1.22.8 and break into low 1.21's without running wide at all so he was totally wrong to state lap times which weren't possible just by judging them against his own lap times.
It's best to keep an open mind if you really want to improve. My best lap time at Monza is 1.21.8 and yet there are other drivers who can go faster than 1.20.8... I know they are not cheating and at the same time I know it could take me years to find that extra 1 second... but I'm willing to try; I know it is possible.

There are some very bad online sessions of course and also some crazy people who drive around the track in the wrong direction but this is very rare and almost none existent if you use F1RST to find online games. If you drive very quickly you can get accused of cheating by other drivers and sometimes it is annoying when people join the session and then leave straight away (normally if they see it is a no aids session and they wanted to use some). However the good points far outweigh the bad in my opinion so if you are unsure about driving online I simply say give it a try - join an online session and more than likely you'll be hooked.


12. Replays And Telemetry.

Going back to the days of F1 2001 (when my lap times were quite bad) I used to watch replays of the more experienced drivers who were usually around 4 seconds per lap faster than me and unfortunately the replays weren't as helpful as they could have been. The EA F1 games have a pretty basic replay system which has continued through F1 2002 and now F1 Challenge - the saved replays don't show any driver inputs such as throttle or brake (unlike the replays in papyrus' Nascar sims) and they don't even show speed or gearing. As a result they aren't as useful - if you are driving at a decent level of speed to begin with then quite often a replay of a faster driver will look almost identical to your own except it will have a better lap time attached to it.

That's not to say they are pointless - if you don't know the perfect racing line, or if a faster driver has particularly unique lines and turn-in points you can pick those things up from the replay. You can also get an idea of the braking points but because there are no driver inputs or speed displayed in the replay you have to do it by the sound of the engine and the downshifts (as well as looking at the trackside scenery) instead of visually seeing the 'mph' start to decrease when the brake is pressed.

You shouldn't write off replays completely - they have some uses (and sometimes it's nice just to watch a super fast lap time been driven) but I wouldn't rely on them too much - you can learn a lot more from telemetry.

Telemetry;

I don't know a lot about the 'Telemetry' in real Formula One but the telemetry program that ships with F1 Challenge seems to be very advanced - there are many options to choose from and many ways to view different sections of a lap. When you load it up for the first time and see the complex interface and the many graphs and figures it can be quite daunting and I'm sure a lot of people just decide to exit the program and forget about it, but it is worth spending some time with - it's certainly worth learning the basics.

Clicking on a lap time at the top of the screen will display that laps telemetry on the circuit map - it is then ready to analyse. If you load up more than one lap you can display them both at the same as different coloured telemetry - you can choose the colour of a particular lap by right-clicking on the lap time at the top of the screen and selecting a different colour. You can also set a 'Reference Lap' for each circuit which will then always be displayed (in grey) when you load any other laps for that particular circuit.

Unfortunately you can only compare telemetry laps which are from the same season so you couldn't for example compare a 2001 lap with a 2002 lap. Also the telemetry program displays speeds in 'kmh' by default but you can change this to 'mph' by using notepad to edit the F1_Telemetry.cfg (C:F1 ChallengeTelemetryF1_Telemetry.cfg). You simply change this line "display_in_mph=0" so that it reads "display_in_mph=1".