Solved

Question about fuelconsumption

I am about to start my first full season and trying to optimize my setup for the first race. When I look at the history of all my previous races I noticed that i always had over 1 litre of excess fuel in the tank when I pit (sometimes even 2 litres). So now I am thinking I should put a little less fuel in than recommended. I am going to start on super softs so my push level will probably be pretty low and im therefore quite confident that I will be able to run on less fuel.

So If I want to run my first stint on super softs for 7 laps, the system tells me that 22 litres will give me 7.3 laps and 21 litres will give me 6.9 laps. My question is this; If I put 21 litres, and IF I am correct that that will be enough fuel for 7 laps, will the car still pit after 6 laps and I manually have to cancel it to run an extra lap or will it always automatically pit when I don't have enough fuel for one more lap? (because on the setup page it now tell me that I am fueled for 26/29 laps)

I run 2 cars and its x2 speed and since I am pretty inexperienced I am afraid I will mess up if I have to do it manually during the race.

Also, it will be quite cold in this race, about 10C°. Does the temperature affect the fuel consumption? Other than running on a higher push level to get heat in the tyres of course.

I hope someone can and is willing to share their experience :)

You can try putting in 21L for 6.9 laps. It may probably enough for ss and a low PL. Generally speaking fuel consumption is assumed for PL3. If you use a lower PL you use slightly less fuel and if you run a higher PL you use slightly more fuel.

Also generally speaking it is a good idea to be present in the race to be able among other things to manage boost and fuel adaption manually.

Regarding autopit in case of running low on fuel the game can sometimes be a bit tricky. It happens that the AI let you run another lap even if there's only 0.9 laps of fuel left in the tank. Sometimes even lower numbers and in the end you run out of fuel and dont make in to the pits again. Usually around 0.7/0.8 laps of fuel left. These (0.7) are however rare circumstances. 0.9 or 1.0 are far more common and you usually make it to the pits altough you'll most likely run out of fuel at the end of the lap and lose some time. I'm yet not quite sure if it's still better to that extra lap or pit earlier. It really depends on where you run out of fuel and how far it is to the pits. A short distance may not be so hurtful.

If you don't want to gamble make sure to have enough fuel left beforehand. 1ltr left at the end is not so bad, altough there are people who might disagree and are better than me when calculating fuel load since I usually use a more conservative approach.

Keeping track of push level used, FE value (the one in the "car" tab) and remaining fuel at the end of the stint will help you find out how much to load.

Use the consumption from practice to compute at least what is needed.

Thanks for the reply guys! 

The race started before you replied and I took a little "gamble" (or rather trusted my numbers) and fueled one less litres on all three stints. I ended each stint with 0.4L/0.4L/0.2L. And despite being miles away from everyone else in car development (only ran 7 races last season and me being level 5 compared to some level 8's) I ended up winning the first race comfortably with both cars in 1st and 2nd. Thanks to all great advice and tips from experienced managers all over the forum :D

Does anyone know if the temperature affects the fuel consumption? If I do practice runs in 35C° and the race is in 10C°, can I still trust the consumption numbers?

From what I observed, it has some influence.
But the circuit and push levels also, so it's hard to have consistent data on the same track, with same car development and temperatures different enough to be sure.