Solved

A plea for help

Hello, fellow managers, I would like some help on how to improve my car during the season.
I usually upgrade my car in a peculiar way, at least the people I play with don't usually do it my way, but I believe I'm not the only one.
Well, it works like this: I usually use the free practice sessions of each race to decide which attributes I will allocate my design points and engine points to.
For example, assuming the next race is in Canada, I first define what the engine's weakness will be (let's consider tire economy, since my car is doing well in that aspect this season), then I put a strong point in acceleration, do a lap, go back to the engine, change the strong point to braking and do a lap, repeating this process changing the strong points in this sequence: acceleration, braking, aerodynamics and handling. After that, on the last lap of free practice, I put it on fuel economy and compare the times, seeing what the times were according to each engine strong point. For this race in Canada, I noticed that my car was faster when the engine's strong points were fuel economy (the car was about 2 tenths faster) and handling. For the race, I decided to keep the engine's strong point on fuel economy with a weakness in tire economy and put all 30 design points into handling. Basically, I follow this approach in every race, but lately my races have been terrible and I'm starting to get a little discouraged with the game, and I would like some help. I think maybe these free practice times aren't accurate enough to be used as a basis (as I've been told in the league I play in) or simply this approach doesn't work and is wrong. Could any more experienced manager tell me if this is correct? Or should I try something else? Why am I no longer getting results and I would like to know which direction to go. Thank you all.

(Just imagine that)

Ferrari to Red Bull: 

Hello, dear friends from Red Bull! 

We at Ferrari could really use your help! You see, lately, our car performance hasn’t been exactly… how shall we put it… championship-worthy. 🫣😁

Here’s what we’ve been doing: before every race, we let Charles and Lewis test the car by changing random settings every few laps — sometimes we go full downforce, then full braking, then maybe fuel economy (because why not?), and finally we check which one “feels faster.” Then, based on that, we decide what to prioritize for the race.
It worked once (we think), but lately our results have been… let’s say less impressive. 😅

So we thought: who better to ask than Red Bull, right? Could you please tell us if this approach is totally fine or if maybe, just maybe, we’re doing something wrong?

Please share your secrets on how to make the car fast again — we promise not to copy too much! 🏎️💨🤖

Grazie mille,
—Your slightly confused friends at Ferrari ❤️

Wow that’s certainly a unique way of developing your car.   During the season you want to maximise the amount of DP you earn each race.  Usually this means focusing on the big 4 and also FE if you are in a no refuelling league.  Normally you do this by looking to see which of these attributes you are furthest behind in and set you DP to that attribute (%this assumes you have a CD whose strength is in that attribute.). This way you will earn more DP over the season and it’s likely that if you aren’t doing this and your league mates are they have a big advantage as the season progresses.

Kevin’s guide to chassis design goes into this in more detail https://igpmanager.com/forum-thread/45546

Also remember that practice laps have built in errors so the data you receive by swapping engine attributes won’t necessarily be accurate 

Free practice times are nearly worthless...they'll give you a general idea, but they're mostly worthless. I even tried it awhile back with the Telemetry TD with Legendary ability...and that was also worthless.

Basically every track has it's own strengths and weaknesses...and there's a balance between them that works best...but generally speaking across all tracks: it goes in order of Acceleration-Handling-Braking-Downforce. Now you can decide to go all in on Acceleration, and you'll have a strong car at the start of the season...but you risk giving up research to the other managers and you'll end up weaker in the back half of the season. But ultimately you want to balance strong car vs strong research. Generally you focus your research in a category or two, and focus your design points in a category. 

There's a lot of design strategies at play and every season will be different. You can look at a schedule and decided how you want to play your design. Certain tracks benefit from a stronger car, and other tracks you can get by with a weaker car. You can also save your design points for a few races and dump them when you feel is right.

Obrigado pela ironia amigo, certamente ajudou muito

Exactly what Yousuf said, I would only add that you don’t have to spend design points every race. You can also save design points for a few races so your research gain is bigger. Or switch between saving and spending every few races, the possibilities are endless 

Oh if it was only so simple. I rarely play anymore, however I spent a good 2 years trying to find alternate ways to do development, and I can honestly say there is only about 3 different ways to develop a good car. 1) as Yousuf said, spam the acceleration stat and just hope everything works out in the second half of the season. 2) Save all of you design points and spend them systematically to develop the highest total dp possible by roughly race 8 and ride that high until everyone catches you. 3) Predict what gets pushed hard, spend elsewhere, and plan your research to keep good gains throughout the season. They usually all kind of balance out well, really depends on your league's spending patterns, tracks, and overall skill level in your league to determine what will be best.

You also have to know what is good. Typically the best stats are in order of Acceleration -> Handling -> Braking -> Downforce -> Economies. Reliability and cooling are straight worthless, forget they even exist.