Newbie...if someone doesn't mind answering a question or 2?

Hi, I recently joined and just have a couple of questions. I have searched the forum and read the guides but can't find what I'm after.

Firstly, I'm guessing its right that the estimated fuel usage isn't always exact? Its just I planned for a 7, 15, 7 stint in my first race and it ended up being an 8, 16, 5 stint, is this down to a differing fuel usage to what my advisor gave me?

Secondly, how do I know a good designer? I can now see the drivers abilities, but at what point can I see the designers/commercial managers etc abilities or can I never? Is it just Charisma, Experience and whatever the other one is and then I have to make a guess?

Sorry if these questions have been answered somewhere, again, I did have a look but couldn't find anything.

Thanks,
Ben

The technical director has a nice hunch nowadays for the fuel but it is not always fully correct and pay special attention when there's an uneven number of laps in the race. What it seems to be at this moment is that the fuel given is sufficient for pushing a race at the highest level (take big risks or 5/5).

As for the pushing levels, there's five of them and from lowest to highest many say 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, 5/5 as it's easier to type and I will do so now also. When at 2/5 or 3/5, you can be pretty sure you will manage with the fuel you calculate. Just take the number your technical director gives you, multiply it with the number of laps you want and see where you end up. When it's 30,2 for example, it's safe to do 30 most of the time. When it would be 30,8, probably best to go to 31.

When you click on one the name of your staff members, you will see their details and a triangle shaped graph in the right top corner which shows how good they are. Higher is better and the same goes for their rating. The 3 abilities you see is all they have and the experience ability seems to be the most important from where I stand.

Only drivers have more abilities and those can be actually trained. The other staff can get higher morale but they will never increase their rating or experience.

And as a last tip, don't bother changing drivers and staff during your first season and try to get the team itself up and running first with the facilities. I would go shopping for better staff and drivers after the first season and by then the fundings are likely better also. :)

Brilliant, thanks for your help! Was going to try and sign a new designer for next season because from what I can gather next years car is going to be rubbish haha!

Funding will be better? How so? Will sponsors just offer me more money? I think I take around £1mill each off all 4 so far...

Quickly again. With regards to design, how much emphasis should I have on next season as I have the slider fully on this season at the moment?
Also, with my staff and training them, is it likely I'm going to sign new staff next year? So what are the best areas to train? Should I concentrate on getting as much money as possible so train my commercial team or make my driver who I will probably replace better?

Opinion may differ on some of this....

For design, I would have the slider in the middle. If you focus on a season, your design will be compromised for the following season. Some prefer to compete like this, but you may find your season is rather boring if your car is poorly developed. Car design is a third of your speed.

If you are referring to driver training, the physical attributes are most important: health, reflexes & stamina. Jaap once said that a tired driver isn't likely to be fast. Drivers are a third of your speed.

With regard to staff training, the designers are important, as are mechanics & engineers. If you have things setup nicely, you won't need any commercial staff. They won't make you any faster either.

Seems people arn't giving a clear answer and some are completely misinterpretating your questions.

The fuel suggestion made by your Technical Director is the ammount of fuel your car will use at Full Push. So depending on the track length, your cruise pushing speed will be about 0.1 or 0.2 less.
The overall level of your Chief Designer is your best bet to decide what designer you want. Generally, just got for a higher Designer's Overall level. Nothing else impacts the game as much.

David, It would be much better if you could post things without being critical of others.

You could say that you don't agree & then type your post

First, many thanks to the help and advice in this and other threads for the new players.  It is greatly appreciated...So, on to the next question.  I just raced my first race.  I had been watching the weather for Spain and right up to race time it was showing it was raining.  I had set my cars for wet tires.  About 5 minutes before qualifying, I went into another league race for Spain and noticed it was a dry track.  I exited in time and changed my tire and fuel strategy, but....this confused me as I assumed the weather was current.  I understand the days before (and even the morning of the event) it is an estimate... is there no time frame prior to the event where the weather is "as is" and not a prediction?

Roger, the weather feed is live, or as near to live as it can be

It's not the best unfortunately, but it will have to suffice for the time being