As the game is lacking a proper manual, I'm having a go at creating beginner's guide at least.

Reading other threads in this forum about how unnecessary a manual is for a racing sim, that is not the case. The user interface is great looking but not entirely self explanatory.

These are my key learnings from my first 5+ hours with this utterly enjoyable racing sim and the goal is for beginnner's to get going fairly quickly.

Following this guide might be simpler if you chose to run rFactor in windowed mode so you can read this guide at the same time. Windowed mode is enabled with rFactor Config. After you've set up your player, quit rFactor and uncheck windowed mode in rFactor Config again which makes racing so much more enjoyable.

Creating a player (for the first time)
This is self explanatory - just follow the guide. Click Customize -> Player.
Enter your name, and optionally date of birth (MMDDYYYY) and location (I wrote City, Country).
Click Accept.

As I'm an F1 fan, I chose OW Challenge 2005. You can chose whatever you want but my findings and guide is about OW Challenge 2005.
Click Accept.

Chose Customize (already selected) -> Settings.

Difficulty settings:
Use the small gray arrows to select Veteran difficulty. To see the details you can expand the Difficulty view by clicking on the icon that looks like a window with and arrow to the left of it.
In Veteran difficulty everything is off but Auto Clutch. If you like, enable Auto Reverse.

First tip!
The first time you run rFactor you might want to leave Difficulty settings to default (Intermediate), but as soon as you've raced a couple of lapses and got a feel for the car handling - turn off all help except Auto clutch and Auto reverse (optional).
Learning how to drive with all help turned off is essential, and not as hard as it might seem in the beginning.
After only 30 minutes of driving with Veteran difficulty settings, I was able to stay on the track without spinning wildly about. It's worth it.

Second tip!
You need an analog controller that let you make smooth inputs. As opposed to a steering wheel or a game pad the keyboard is digital; it's either full throttle or full brake, full left or full right. You need to be able to brake smoothly and steer smoothly as well as throw that steering wheel fast and hard, to make your car's rear end swing out, e.g. to start a swirve.
I use the Wingman Rumblepad myself, as my Saitek wheel takes up too much space on my desktop. It works great with some practice.

Rules settings:
Leave as default (Strict).

Controls settings:
Click the gray arrows untill your controller is selected.
Expand view and make adjustments to your liking. Asside from steering, shifting and throttle/brake, I found it useful to have Speed Limiter (default L) for use when entering and in the pit), Request Pit (default S) and LCD Mode (default Enter).
Make sure to save your settings so you can use it again when creating a new player.
Click Save. Enter name of your liking, and you're done.

First finding!
Your controller preferences are not remebered when creating a new player. If you've created a new player and made adjustments to the Controller Settings don't be surprised when nothing happens as you try to leave the pit - press Esc and select settings and load your saved controller settings.

Display and Audio settings.
I left mine as default except turning off the music.
This is very dependant on your hardware so fiddle about to your hearts content.

Chose Customize (already selected) -> Vehicle.

In OW Challenge 2005, you start out with the rFactor Academy Racer.
Click on Upgrades and buy the LCD unit by clicking Dashboard -> LCD Unit -> Buy Upgrade -> Install (done by default).
You don't have enough money yet to buy the Advanced School Package.

Second finding!
When buying and installing the Advanced School Package, your car actually becomes a rFactor Advanced Racer, it just doesn't change it's "name" or description in the listings. Stupid!

Start driving!

Chose Control -> Testing.
Pick a curcuit and click Load Curcuit (lower right corner).

Click Settings (top right).
Optionally change Race Length Type to Laps and set to between 5 and 10 for a quick racing fix ;)
No matter what you set here, the qualification is always 12 laps.

The Monitor view is fairly self-explanatory.
When driving you can access these views by clicking Esc. N.b. This also takes your car (back) to the pit.

In the Race Settings view you can restart your current race or even the whole event (if things are not going as well as you would like).

In the garage view i've only fiddled with the Basic and Setups settings.

In the Setups view set Starting Fuel to the number of total laps and [b]Number of Stops[{b] to zero (if you changed the Race Lenght Type to a specific number of laps)

Third tip!
Make sure you don't carry more fuel than you need, as a light car is a fast car.

Click Garage -> Basics.
I haven't gone further into tweaking my car than the Basics settings.
Depending on the track I've fiddled about with the following:
For oval curcuits I go for all Speed - Downforce all the way to the left and Gearing Bias all the way to the right.
No matter the curcuit I've always gone for 40-60% Oversteer (Balance slider somewhere to the left or right of the 2nd line toward Oversteer.
This is my preference and could be due to that I use a gamepad - but works for me.

Have tried understeering since I wrote this guide;
Don't really know how Soft or Stiff ride settings affect the preformance but for ovals I go for Stiff and curcuits with lots of turns and chicanes I go for Soft (right or wrong I don't know).

Click Race (lower right corner).

Fourth tip!
If your Difficulty settings are set to Veteran - remember to disable Speed Limit when exiting the pit and entering the curcuit.

Try out your car and be gentle on the controls, both steering, throttle and braking.

• Brake before upcoming turn. Don't brake and turn at the same time (as you will start spinning).
• You can see when it's time to slow down from the black skid marks on the ground.
• Don't brake too hard - be gentle. And remember to downshift.
• Depending on the sharpness of the turn I'm using 2nd or 3rd gear through the turn.
• When coming out of some turns you can really put your foot down on the throttle. For some sharper exits you need be smooth on the throttle till your car is going straight.
• Too much throttle at the wrong time will make your car spin.

When you feel that you start to have some control over throttle and brakes, and you can almost finish an entire lap without spinning off the curcuit - press Escape to get back into the pit and tweak those Speed vs Grip, Acceleration vs Speed and Understeer vs Oversteer settings till you're feeling comfortable.

Click Race again to try out your settings.

When you're done, press Esc and Leave Track (top right).

First racing season.

• Click Control -> Race Season -> rFactor Trainer Series.
• Click Continue (lower right).
• Change the Race Length Type to your preferred lenght. Keep the first season short, just to make enough money to buy the Advanced upgrade. I think I could afford it after one 5 lap season.
• Click Create Season (lower right).
• Click Next Race (lower right).
• Click Load Curcuit (lower right).
• Click Garage and fix your settings and use the practice race till you feel comfortable with them. Race, crash, Esc out, tweak, practice race.

When finished tweaking and practicing it's time for the 12 lap qualification.
Select Monitor and click Next Session.
Click Race (lower right).

Third finding!
According to the lap meter it seems that you need to prepare to enter pit when it reads 11/12. It could be me misinterpreting the lap meter? You will also get a note (text in blue frame, lower left corner) about entering the pit as soon as possible in order not to be penalized for driving too many laps.
What makes me unsure, is that the game tells me to ease up before the lap meter reads 12/12.

Fifth tip!
Press Enter once the first thing you do when entering your car, to have your LCD display show how far you are (ahead) of your opponents.

After qualifying first (of course), press Esc and Next Session to start the race.
Before I set difficulty settings to Veteran, I never qualified as 1st (rather 12th, ehem).

I have no idea yet how long it will take me to make those two million point one, it takes to buy one of the really fast cars. When I find out I will tell you.
I'll try to see if increasing the number of laps in a race earns you bigger winnings.

This is the guide I would have wanted when I first started. Hope you find it useful.
Any comments are welcome but please refrain from quoting the entire guide when doing so.

Happy racing!

This usefull info was founded on:
http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=222712

By ckount