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Talent stat on a Driver - How does it function and just how important is it?

How important is Talent? Does anyone really know how this stat works? Is a 20 talent with low stats quicker than a 1 talent with high stats all being of equal physical stats? Does it act as some kind of multiplier? If so, then do we know it's value?

The world may never know

Enlightening reply - thanks

Only the developers know the definitive answer to this question and they tend not to give out information of this type. I think it's generally accepted that because talent isn't trainable you should go for drivers with as high a talent rating as you can find/afford.
A 20 talent driver is going to be better than a talent 1 driver with all other attributes the same. Your question is slightly different because you ask for a comparison between a low talent driver with other attributes high and a high talent driver with all other attributes low. Not sure what the answer is but one thing for certain you will never be able to train the low talent driver to such a high level as a talent 20 driver.
As for the multiplier question. Another interesting point that had been debated before and again there's been much speculation but no definitive answer.

I just remembered something.

A talent 20 driver can be trained to level 20.

A driver whose talent is terrible can never make it to level 20. I've seen one or two low talent drivers who were level 15 and had their stats all maxed out but couldn't be great because they had terrible talent.

Yes but here's the big question... Why is it that some talent 20 drivers only achieve L18 when all of their other attributes are trained to 20 and their weight is minimum, whereas others max out at L19 and some at L20?
Is it because drivers who are displayed as talent 20 are actually anywhere between 19.1 and 20? Or maybe there are hidden and untrainable attributes which influence the maximum level a driver can achieve?
I've asked this question months ago but didn't get a response.

I found the previous thread where this issue was discussed at some length. Here is a link if you're interested... Link to earlier driver talent thread

Yeah I remember your thread,like I said the world is full of things that shouldn't be known,this is one of them

From my observations, the only stat that dramatically affects driver performance in new iGP is Talent, with possibly stamina coming second. A higher Talent driver will qualify better and have better pace than drivers with lower Talent, which is why most of the top teams only have 20 Talent drivers, with a few maybe having drivers with 18 or 19 Talent. I've had/have 20 Talent drivers with much less than 20 stats in driving and mental and they could win quite a number of races in Elite. Whereas in old iGP, a heavier driver could be half to more than a second a lap slower, and driving stats had a greater effect too.

As for maxed 20 Talent drivers having different levels, I don't know exactly what are the factors but I have a guess. I have 2 20 Talent drivers in my main team (1 is gonna get released from the team soon 'cause he's expensive), one maxed stats, the other not maxed, but the one that's not maxed has a higher level, and higher experience:

https://igpmanager.com/app/d=driver&id=1323823 (maxed driver, less experience, lvl 18)
https://igpmanager.com/app/d=driver&id=603108 (not maxed driver, maxed experience, lvl 19)

However, the maxed driver was level 5 when I bought him this year (around the same lvl as getting a driver from the driver academy, same low salary too). The one that's not maxed was around lvl 8-9 when I bought him last year, so he could be a driver from old iGP.

Here's another driver with maxed stats and experience who's also level 18: https://igpmanager.com/app/d=driver&id=742621 (oh hai dan ruglio)

So if a maxed stats & maxed experience driver can also be level 18, my guess would be that it's drivers from old iGP that could reach higher levels (levels 19 & 20). As for which perform better, honestly I think they're all more or less the same as long as they have similar Talent and Physicals, but that's just my thoughts. That could change in future updates though.

Thanks I will take a look.

Thanks Boomer for the detailed reply.

In my race today on my other team, my opposition blew me awa, beating me by 19.3secs. Her car is about 6pts better than mine. She qualified 0.5secs quicker than me which has never happened before. We were both on 100% engine and both had almost identical setups S-H-H 10-19-18-19 and she had S-H-H 10-19-19-18. After the first stint she had gained 6.2secs on me.

Her driver is talent 7, mine is talent 2. Both drivers are maxed out on Physicals, but my driver has 7 points higher in stats and her driver has 1 more experience point.

My driver
https://igpmanager.com/app/d=driver&id=2382450

Her Driver
https://igpmanager.com/app/d=driver&id=2351838

How could her driver manage to get such a big victory when if it wins, usually it's between 1-2 second difference.

The driver is only one factor in the equation. There are many other variables such as the balance of dp across the car attributes, this also plays a part. Your competitor may have hit the sweet spot in terms of dp allocation for that particular circuit.

As an example, last night my cars finished 1st and 2nd in the rain and the car finishing 3rd was over 15 seconds behind my winning car. It can't have had anything to do with DRS because the enire race was run in the rain and therefore DRS was disabled. The third place car did two stints 13W/15W and my winning car did 15W/13W. When the third place car pitted at the end of lap 13 he was already over six seconds behind the lead car even though the lead car was carrying two laps (approx. 5 litres) extra fuel.
To be honest I have no idea why both my cars were so dominant, I don't think it's the drivers because 3rd place last night often beats my drivers at other circuits, so either my spread of DP was good for a wet China circuit or my drivers have some hidden wet weather "Rainmeister" attribute.

I think that could definitely be a factor regarding 'Hidden Attributes' contributing to how well or poor, a driver performs in certain conditions.

I don't think there are any "hidden attributes" in iGP, considering how drivers of the same Talent perform equally from my POV. Rain throws up a bit more factors, such as cars not being able to follow each other closely, and not being able to overtake without DRS or KERS, even against drivers on wrong tyres for the conditions. Managers who perform well in the rain usually have good strats for the weather, push level management, or just have better starting positions/correct starting tyres.

Slight flaw in drivers levels?

Old version Drivers level was 20 but the wee blue line was always 19. Talent and experience where the only two things that could become and stay 20 in the old version, everything else was 19's but you could do training to force other 20's on different areas of your choice that would return back to 19's after the race.

Hidden Attributes as they are being called would be Height & Weight.

Some tracks & conditions heavy driver is better and taller driver is better.
Think about it women are lighter than men!

oh dear me & my big mouth the extra weight from being a higher level on some tracks is a speed boost :P

I wouldn't exactly call height and weight "hidden".

There not hidden they have tool tips:
Height = impacts driver preference of setup
Weight = impacts overall weight of the car

But we have no idea of the cars weight to start with!
driver = weight
fuel = weight
weight = slow
slow = less wear to tyres and car condition percentages, in contrast slow also means more speed doing less damage.

It's one big vicious circle. Say lighter is better so why are women not dominating the game?

This game twists my head, there is a key to success without having the best of the best and I not giving up to I find it.

All very interesting, but without knowing how the simulator is coded it's all speculation and I think Ali was after an answer based on fact.
I was also speculating on the possible existence of "HIDDEN" driver attributes and if you think height and weight are hidden.....
....... You should have gone to Specsavers! LOL