Race practice program - to ERS/DRS (or not)

As a rule I do not use ERS or DRS when doing race programs since on most race laps you’ll not get to use them. I made that decision when the strategy offered would under fuel me as a result of the program back in some other patch. The result though is that I seem to be over fuelled now.

I suspect that the program times are estimated with the assumption you will use ERS and DRS, which adds to the struggle of moving a back marker up the field.

But I stand ready to be corrected.

Last years game and the year before when doing race programs the game would return a race strategy based solely on your time and tyre wear.  So if you used drs on every lap.  It would give you a incorrect fuel amount.  And under fill the car.

This year using drs doesn’t seem to have the same effect.  As car  is always over fuelled at start off race  by 2-3 laps 

ERS I try not to use just to save on wear. But some off the target times at times means using it up in 3 laps just to pass 

I just did race program at Spain.  And I for the first time ever put enough fuel in to cover race distance. And it’s seems this may help with the game calculating fuel use as I’ve not haft to reduce fuel load in race strategy:  May just be  this track but maybe worth trying 

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@ScarDuck14 wrote:

I just did race program at Spain.  And I for the first time ever put enough fuel in to cover race distance. And it’s seems this may help with the game calculating fuel use as I’ve not haft to reduce fuel load in race strategy:  May just be  this track but maybe worth trying 

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Thanks @ScarDuck14 and @AEF251. Once they’ve fixed it so race program results filter back into the race strategy I might try out different combinations of fuel, ERS and DRS to see what effect they have on the suggested strategy. My guess would be not much has changed, so it’s probably still basing off 21 calculations. @ScarDuck14 I assume you changed the fuel load via the car setup page? Interestingly, I always used whatever fuel the game suggested to run the program, had a lower than expected fuel usage rate, but the suggested race strategy was always suggesting a lap or two of more fuel than I’d actually need. Given we no longer have “high” engine mode, the need for over-fuelling is now non-existent if you usually use less fuel. Hence why I think it’s still basing off 21 calcs.

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@ScarDuck14 wrote:

I just did race program at Spain.  And I for the first time ever put enough fuel in to cover race distance. And it’s seems this may help with the game calculating fuel use as I’ve not haft to reduce fuel load in race strategy:  May just be  this track but maybe worth trying 

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@ScarDuck14 I know you’re on PS5, if you’ve completed the race practice program are you able to “personalise” your race strategy i.e. before the race with the triangle button I think? For me this is not working atm since the new patch. I am using PS4 version of the game on PS5 as I want to use voice commands.