It's difficult to argue (when the real life Formula One drivers are using it) that this driving aid should be disallowed in online sessions, or that people shouldn't use it at all. A lot of people do use it now; partly because of real life F1 rules and partly because they find driving without traction control frustrating. I do understand this and yet I still find myself wanting to convince everyone to turn it off.
Using 'Low' traction control would definitely make me slightly quicker (and more consistant) but at the same time it would take away a lot of the challenge and it would almost remove one of the main driving techniques in throttle control.

Before traction control was introduced into Formula One Olivier Panis was able to compare some of his telemetry to that of Michael Schumacher to study why Michael was quicker - he found that Michael "did everything possible to maintain constant speed in the corners...using a smoother and more consistent application of the throttle". Without traction control techniques such as this are very difficult and you often end up spinning the car, but the drivers who did perfect the technique obviously got the benefits from it. Now that traction control has been introduced into Formula One this advantage will almost have disappeared as it is a lot easier to keep some throttle pressed down constantly during a corner; and it might also explain why some of the gaps between team mates are closing.

Driving without traction control can be very frustrating to begin with as it often means spinning the car after almost every corner, but it does get easier. Along with manual gears I would say it is the most difficult thing to learn but it is also the most rewarding when you can exit a corner on the limit of the cars grip (maybe even hearing some wheel spin) without actually going over the limit and spinning the car. It is possible to drive without traction control and still do consistant laps - there is more on this later in the guide.


7. Choosing A Good Car.

It really depends on what you want to achieve and also which Formula One cars you would actually like to drive. Some people might not want to drive a Ferrari but at the same time it is clearly (in my opinion) the best car in the game for overall speed and grip, so if you want to be driving the best lap times possible you really should use it. I am of course talking about the 2002 car.

In 'F1 2002' the Williams was the best car - it was slightly more difficult to drive (due to the engine power) but it nearly always resulted in the best lap times and all the hotlap websites reflected this. As a result I think a lot of people who upgraded to F1 Challenge instantly assumed the Williams was still the best - I see a lot of Williams drivers online and usually it's not because they are huge fans of the team; they simply think the Williams is the fastest car.

In F1 Challenge the 2002 Williams is very heavy - yes it still has a slight top speed advantage due to the engine power but unlike 'F1 2002' the extra weight actually has a large effect on lap times, so it is no longer the best car. Part of the confusion concerning how good (or bad) the Williams car is might be down to the fact that a lot of people are using the Ralph Hummerich 2003 season update now and they see the current 2003 F1 races and assume the Williams is a very good car in the game too, however this 2003 season addon uses the exact performance data of the original F1 Challenge 2002 season so the Williams is still very heavy and difficult to drive.

It's still personal preference if you want to drive as quick as possible - some people might be massive Williams fans and they simply don't want to drive anything else, that is up to them - I have still seen some very good lap times driven with the Williams but only by the extremely quick drivers.
If you don't want to drive a Ferrari then the McLaren is another very good car - I find it to be faster than the Williams and not far behind the Ferrari.
For me personally I am a fan of the super red team so I'm quite happy to drive the 2002 Ferrari - it was easily the best car in the 2002 Formula One season and F1 Challenge replicates this.

Obviously lap times aren't everything (?) so there are plenty of other cars to choose from. The Renault is a good car to drive and it is still competitive, the Jordan is a lot of fun too (like a slower version of the Ferrari) and even the Minardi is enjoyable if you don't mind been in the slowest car - it might not be fast in a straight line but it is a very predictable and forgiving car, I would actually recommend it to anyone new to F1 games. Also by driving one of these "lesser" cars you do appreciate the faster cars even more.


8. Car Setup.

I am not going to go into great detail about the various car setup options because there is a very popular (and very good) guide by RacerAlex available which already does this. It was written mainly for F1 2002 but it works just as well with F1 Challenge (taking into account one or two small differences). The guide is available to read here;

http://w3.enternet.hu/iroland/html/af1.htm

One thing I will say about setting up the car is simply don't rule anything out. I have been guilty of this in the past; assuming that depending on the circuit there were some settings you simply shouldn't try as they would never work. For example don't assume Monaco is 50 front - 50 rear wings and nothing else, it's always worth trying something new. I remember a few months ago I was discussing setups with someone online and they told me they were using 32-40 wings (32 front and 40 rear) - I couldn't believe it and I actually told them they wouldn't be able to do decent lap times unless they were using a setup where the front wing was greater than (or at least equal to) the rear wing. That's what I believed at the time, however since then I have tried adjusting setups to use greater rear wings (while using other settings to balance the car) and it has worked with very good results. So now I know that it is possible to make a very useful setup with wing settings I used to think were "back to front".
Until you have actually tested something for a good few laps you can't be sure it is wrong to take your setup in that direction.

Another thing I always found quite hard to understand was the theory of making a setup "to suit your driving style". I never thought it made much difference; surely everyone had pretty much the same driving style and if you had a good setup you'd be able to drive fast, but once again I have since realised this is untrue - making a setup for yourself is important. I think my driving style is pretty average - I like lots of turn-in and corner grip (who doesn't?) and I prefer a bit of oversteer much more than understeer. Because of this my setups are pretty average too and I think that's why a lot of other people have found them useful, but there are some drivers out there who have very different driving styles - some are capable of exploiting all the grip and benefits of a high downforce setup (pushing the limits more than the rest of us) while others have the ability to cope with much less grip and enjoy the nice straight line speed and acceleration of a low downforce setup while still being able to get the car through the corners quite well.

I didn't really start learning the car setup options until I bought F1 2001 a few years ago but since then (and following on with F1 2002 and F1 Challenge) I have learnt a huge amount about Formula One cars and what all the different setup parameters are for. It's taken me a very long time (almost 3 years) but I'm now confident I can make a setup from scratch for any racing circuit and start driving competitive lap times. There is a lot of trial and error involved in learning how to set the car up but despite this (and despite all the hard work and reading involved) I definitely recommend it if you have the time to spare - you are much better prepared for driving quick lap times if you know what to change on the setup to improve the car in all situations.

I've been lucky with my progress in making setups as I am a test driver for Delta Racing (Formula SimRacing World Championship team) - this has allowed me to drive online with some of the best drivers in the world and also discuss setup changes with them. In the past I have made a setup for a circuit from scratch (working hard on my lap times to make sure the setup is quick) and then I have given it to the team and our race drivers have gone out on track and instantly gone 1 second faster than me (using the exact same setup). This might seem a bit demoralising but at the same time it proves the setup was always capable of a lot more than I was getting out of it - I use that as inspiration and I work harder on my driving techniques because I know there is nothing wrong with my setup.
So if you make a setup yourself and you can't do really quick