Qualifying pace

Can someone please tell me if something has changed recently in the way qualifying pace works? Our season just finished today, and since about half way through the last season the qualifying orders have been really messed up (from the typical normal expected order) .. 

Even today, with one of my drivers being better than most of the drivers in the field (well, more trained any way), I managed to get P18 on 5/5 push, softs all round with an almost 90% car. The guys in front of me had cars lower - The guy who got P1 only had somewhere around a 60% car, and he was 0.8 quicker than me which is a fair bit.

Todays race was just one example, but every other race has been all over the place aswell. Some races certain drivers getting P1, and then in the following race they will be P10 or lower. It might be coincidence but I've never seen this much inconsistency from a grid over a whole season before.

Car setup, Suppliers, car design and current performance, and finally the drivers themselves effect the timing. As for the other cars, I would suspect those cars have been bolstered via spying?

Well my driver in P18 is more trained up than the guy who got P1, my car was miles better, and we run the same suppliers.. yet he was still 0.8 quicker? I just can't understand it. P6 or something I could maybe understand, but P18? That's nuts.

My driver scored pole in that race with a 60% car.

They haven't been in the top 10 for qualifying all season. Always 5/5 push and soft tyres and always an all "feels good" setup.

My other driver who normally qualfiies ahead was down in 10th which is about normal.

It would be great if you can write the race id here so that we can have a look at it.

Well it's not so much the one race that is confusing me, it's been most of the season - Qualifying has just been all over the place. We've had cars on 3/5 push level some races out qualifying guys on 5/5, even when the 5/5 guys have good drivers AND a 100% car.

None the less, here was yesterdays race.

http://igpmanager.com/play/?url=race-result/67524

P1   - Yaname      - 60-70% car, 5/5 softs
P4   - Macmahon  - 100% car, 5/5 softs     (+0.262)
P9   - Myhre          - 82-87% car, 5/5 softs  (+0.424)
P11 - Favalli          - 100% car, 5/5 softs     (+0.450)
P18 - Becker         - 82-87% car, 5/5 softs  (+0.804)

Yaname afaik is the least trained driver of the bunch aswell.

I mean don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about this at all, I think it's really good to see such a variation in the results - It keeps the racing interesting. I'm just having a little trouble understanding it and hoping someone can shed some light on the subject. This sort of qualifying result has been happening all season. You can go to one track and get P1, then the following day you're back in 12-15th or something. I've never seen that before. Usually the start of the season is a pretty clean cut indication of how the season is going to work out, especially if you yourself are running a higher % car with more well trained drivers.

To be honest, it looks to me like you have quite a competitive field, and the driver could be making the biggest difference. I don't know if it's true, but I have noticed that certain drivers favour certain circuits, and quali pace is usually slightly different from outright race pace.

Take my last quali for example:

1. T Kaiser - 1:28.834 - Softs (Not sure about push or car level, although I'm guessing somewhere in the 80% region)
2. B Janis - 1:28.841 - Softs, Push 5/5, 100% car.
3. J Davies - 1:28.842 - Softs, Push 5/5, 80% car. My driver, and his best quali this season.

This left Janis' team mate in 4th, and the team that won the first 4 races in 5th and 7th, with my second driver in 8th. With the top 10 covered by just 3 tenths of a second, a driver can make all the difference, and it also could be that drivers could be making slight mistakes in quali as well. 

Wrong. I checked that and your driver is definetly not more trained up than the one who got P1!
Your car is only a litte bit better than his car!
And you maybe forgot something to count it in. The supplier contracts effect the performance as well and you switched them a couple of days ago or did not renew them so you had to resign again which effects the performance.

"The supplier contracts effect the performance as well and you switched them a couple of days ago or did not renew them so you had to resign again which effects the performance."

This is true - I don't usually renew them, I just let them run out and re-sign them. I wasn't aware this affected the performance? I thought it was only switching suppliers which affected it, not just renewing them aswell. I hadn't switched any suppliers.

"Wrong. I checked that and your driver is definetly not more trained up than the one who got P1!
Your car is only a litte bit better than his car!"

Hmm, I've still never seen that big of a gap when two drivers are on 5/5 push, especially when the slower one has the better car (even if it is only a small amount (15-17%) better). If it's possible for drivers to make mistakes then I'd have to say Becker probably made atleast a few.

Thanks for the input though, much appreciated.

But back to the suppliers - Really? I honestly didn't know that letting the contract run out and then re-signing with the same supplier made you slower. I thought it was only if you went with a different supplier?

"But back to the suppliers - Really? I honestly didn't know that letting the contract run out and then re-signing with the same supplier made you slower. I thought it was only if you went with a different supplier?"

Yes, really. Renewing the contract will result in a long time contract. Let them run out and resign them will result in many short time contracts which effects your performance.


"Hmm, I've still never seen that big of a gap when two drivers are on 5/5 push, especially when the slower one has the better car (even if it is only a small amount (15-17%) better). If it's possible for drivers to make mistakes then I'd have to say Becker probably made atleast a few."

The car is closer than 15% but I guess the thing which definetly causes the big difference here is the supplier contract which can effect your performance by 0.2 seconds per lap. And your driver might did a mistake which would result in a time loss.