Playing with a Driving Force Pro and using the paddle shift I'm a bit confused as to gear shifting.
I tend to race all cars but sometimes struggle to establish whether I should be lifting off the gas or not to change gear.
I've learned that the slower road cars need the lift as I would expect but the single seaters and the FZR (and the other 2) I'm not sure about.
I'm ashamed to say I'm using downloaded setups and is it perhaps specified in those whether a lift is required or not?
This would explain why sometimes a lift is required in a specific car and other times not (changes with track I think)
I've been through the manual but not really found anything about how the auto clutch should be used (I don't have a cluch pedal).
Is there anything written down about how the gear changes work for the in game cars. I have destroyed my clutch a couple of times and assume it's because I'm incorrectly shifting. But it all seems a bit random.
Any help, greatly appreciated

It depends on your gear box. In a road car you "burn the clutch" not lifting while in the FBM it is hardly possible to shift if you are not lifting it at all, on the other hand in the FBM you would not need to push the clutch even if you have it set to manual in the options, because it has a sequential box.

Quote from Driver 8 :

Playing with a Driving Force Pro and using the paddle shift I'm a bit confused as to gear shifting.
I tend to race all cars but sometimes struggle to establish whether I should be lifting off the gas or not to change gear.
I've learned that the slower road cars need the lift as I would expect but the single seaters and the FZR (and the other 2) I'm not sure about.
I'm ashamed to say I'm using downloaded setups and is it perhaps specified in those whether a lift is required or not?
This would explain why sometimes a lift is required in a specific car and other times not (changes with track I think)
I've been through the manual but not really found anything about how the auto clutch should be used (I don't have a cluch pedal).
Is there anything written down about how the gear changes work for the in game cars. I have destroyed my clutch a couple of times and assume it's because I'm incorrectly shifting. But it all seems a bit random.
Any help, greatly appreciated

There's no randomness to it. Some cars have H-pattern transmissions while others have sequential transmissions. It seems that you understand this.

Road cars and the FZR have H-pattern transmissions- you shift just like you would when you drive on the road IRL.

Race cars (excluding FZR) have sequential transmissions- you don't need the clutch (all) or to lift (excluding the FBM) to shift up. Downshifting sometimes doesn't require blipping the throttle because these cars have such strong brakes.

If you are forgetting to blip the throttle on downshifts, that might be one source of your clutch wear.

Quote from luftrofl :

Downshifting sometimes doesn't require blipping the throttle because these cars have such strong brakes.

The only reason why they wouldn't require blipping would be because the engine management does it itself. IE, on formula cars.

Riiiight, ok.
I've found the bit in the car info about the gear boxes.. So as a general rule of thumb. If it's H I should be lifting, if it's sequential I don't need to?
Apart from the FBM. :P

Cars with ignition cut obviously don't need lifting.

Quote from Driver 8 :

Riiiight, ok.
I've found the bit in the car info about the gear boxes.. So as a general rule of thumb. If it's H I should be lifting, if it's sequential I don't need to?
Apart from the FBM. :P

That sounds about right, yes.

Thanks all, that's great for now.
My next n00b question is currently being prepared :P

Quote from MadCat360 :

The only reason why they wouldn't require blipping would be because the engine management does it itself. IE, on formula cars.

Last time I checked, only the BF1 had anything like that.

Note that I italicized the word sometimes. There are situations where you're downshifting so fast that you don't need to blip the throttle.