Probably better to do it by percentages. Being 2 second off at FE1 isn't that great but being 2 seconds off at KY3 isn't too bad. Doing it by percentages, each % is the same as 1 second on a 1.40 lap. Anything less than 102% of the fastest isn't too shabby
There are some reasons that can explain why you can't do better lap times:
Lack of experience, not having decent setups, not having the ability to notice you are doing something wrong and how to fix it, consistency and talent.
My suggest is to see the WR times and watch the lines, brake points, etc. That's exactly what I do and in a matter of 6 or 7 months I managed to do times under 1s off the WR in some combos (car+track).
You will never be able to improve substantially your times if you don't put effort on it.
If you're not a natural talent (which few of us are), you can use various replay analyzers to study fast laps in detail and compare them to your own laps. If you are analytical to your driving and setups, you should be able to go quite quick. But the faster you go, the harder it will be to improve your speed since the potential speed you can gain will be more and more marginalized. The potential speed is hiding more in the fine details of your driving, handling and setup. One way to view it is the requirements of you as the driver to identify and act upon these fine details of driving and handling will be exponential to how close to the WR you want to get. If you are aware of your driving and pace, practice and experience will get you a understanding and feel to what is making you able to drive faster.
If you use the LFSworld.net hotlap analyzer and compare any two top laps to each other, there is rarely much difference you can see in the telemetry. The biggest difference will probably be related to brake, steering and throttle which is closely linked to driving style and setup. But for the rest of the telemetry, such as car speed, racing lines, etc., the difference is often very marginal.
2% off WR times ? That counts as fast in most racing.
Have fun, put in 1000's of hours practice or be a natural alien - either will make you really fast.
Talent is key imo. I stopped playing lfs for a year awhile back and when i came back during the ironhorse days i all of a sudden started lapping a second or less off wr. Stopped playing again for a couple months and got back into it with the fz2 and i started appearing on the top of airio boards. Now that om back agaon with a whole new wheel. I suck.
In the end it could be either the g series wheels have a higher learning curve than the dfp or i been gone too long.
I had a time when I wasn't improving a lot for quite a long time and couldn't find what I was doing wrong. Then I found out that the most time I was losing was during braking. You have to brake as late as possible but still being able to hit the apex...for example I was doing the mistake of not downshifting fast enough by breaking - this helps really a lot. Since then I got considerably faster but there is still practice to do for me - I probably don't have that much talent but I have fun and try to improve fine details. I don't have a smallest chance to get close to top drivers but also without talent but with enough hard work you can get more than above average driving level.
Well not exactly, I don't spend all my time here. Maybe 2 hours a day average. That was enough for me to improve a lot my pace in the majority of the combos.
Its not all about the amount of practice you put in, its the effort and intention in the practice you do.
When you first practice, put in a good effort, dedication and a high intention-level. If you do that, and analyze your performance, that will take you far.
jk
waste of bandwidth