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

Wait doesn't more weight mean the car will be slower and hinder the tire more?The game confuses me A LOT

Yeah a heavier car results in slower pace. The thing is, driver weight does not seem to have as great an effect compared to old iGP. Back then, a heavier driver would cost you a lot of time per lap. Now it looks as though only weight from fuel affects your pace. Maybe there's a bit of a difference, but not a noticeable one from my view.

I actually tested for the"talent factor" during the beta phase last year. It turns out that after level 3 talent, double the talent is about 15 seconds per 50% race distance faster. All other attributes being equal and weight and stamina equal a talent 6 driver was around 15 seconds per race faster than a talent 3 driver and a talent 12 driver was around 15 seconds per race faster than talent 6 driver. Interestingly enough, the "stamina factor" was able to compensate for the "talent factor" so that the same talent 3 driver that was 15 seconds slower than the talent 6 driver became equal to the talent 6 driver if his stamina was made to double the stamina of the talent 6 driver.

In theory talent affect all other attributes
As we see number with out decimals (hidden attributes) and some drivers - staff coming from old IGP i don't have a clear answer. higher is better ofc but 15+ for lower teams in general is ok in my opinion.

To Kevin and Boomer about hidden attributes. I have also had a driver that was exceptional in wet conditions. His main noticeable difference was that the ride height was 3 higher than his teammate. James Greer also noticed this same correlation. This suggests a hidden characteristic that can be discerned. As far as other hidden characteristics, there definitely is something. Two Academy drivers with exactly equal stats can vary as much as a full second in practice speed and show decided preferences for certain tracks with the driver that is usually slower strangely becoming faster in practice and performing better at a particular track.

All tyres use the same amount of fuel per lap now, that is something we didn't have before. There is an exception to the rule with the weather where the odd time using a tyre can cause an extra litre to be used to push harder but it's very rare.

1 litre of extra fuel only costs you a few tenths per lap but that little extra can help keep the tyre temp down. It also allows you to push hard on out & in laps, leveling out the advantages of using spot on fuel where you have to maintain the same pace always.

Experience is a kind of hidden thing when two drivers look to be identical in every way. I don't know how it's calculated but imagine it's working in the way the blue-line did in the old game both drivers showing 10 but in the background one in 10.4 and the other is 10.8.
One driver could level up experience one race before the other & that would have a slight difference in pace. Even they do level up at the same time, one might be 11.2 & the other 11.3.

Thing I just remembered
Experience might work the same way as manager level. Doesn't say manager level maxed until you get enough points to reach the next level. drivers showing 20 experience might not be classed as official 20 until after the next 20 races or whatever it takes to level it up.

Some interesting posts from everyone here but the one that caught my eye was Boomer's statement that from what he can tell, weight of a driver has hardly any effect on the performance of the car.

I have a 19 Talent driver with 20 Stamina but his weight is 72kg and it's taking me a while to reduce it, so should I continue to reduce it or switch to Ability stats?

Has anyone else noticed this?

And this is why you should always start with Physical attributes first

I do and have always start with Physicals. In fact it's what I am always advising to new players who join my league to work on the physicals first. This driver however I purchased from the Auction with other attributes already been worked on.

Continuing with my question, have you noticed any difference with weight of a driver not effecting the car performance?

Light vs. Heavy Weight.

Light hits the ground running after a pit stop. (higher push level for longer)
Heavy can get the harder tyres switched on quicker.
Light SS temp stays lower for slightly longer.
Heavy slightly less wear on SS.
Light has an edge on high fuel.
Heavy has an edge on low fuel.
Heavy seems to work better than light in the wet. (Dont know why)

I have likely missed something but it's 3am already & 7am comes early in the morning.

I believe it's still a safe bet to max Physicals first since they don't increase driver level as much (allowing you to train drivers more). There's also the chance that driver weight does have an effect after all in new iGP, no matter how little. It's just that in old iGP, the effect of driver weight was much more significant.

I also have anecdotal evidence (kek evidence) that my drivers with higher ride height perform a bit better in the wet. Wonder if this "myth" will ever become proven fact (or disproven), like what Joey mentioned about gearing in old iGP.

https://igpmanager.com/forum-thread/7420
That fat driver was mine ;)
Normally was 0.1 - 0.3 sec slower on qualis but was fast on wet
I won that season champ tho as i was doing the most 1 stop strategy that was "new" there more less and i had lots of luck in many races;)