Im gonna take the liberty here and pop in with some unrequested tips for BF1. I watched the stream and while there are some experienced drivers on the grid, who know what to expect from the car and partially from the cars around them, there is also few cars on the grid with (to me) rather less known names and seemingly not enough experience with this fast, grippy, yet sometimes unpredictable car as well.
I acknowledge, that some of you take this series as learning of the car, or that majority just try to hang on to it and finish as cleanly as possible, but to be predictable, safe and really clean, you need to know some basics of this highly specific car. Being an annoying obstacle and, at worst, ruining someone elses race, is not fun. I will try to lay the tips out in hopefully understandable manner.
It is an F1 car.
"Yeah duh, genius.", i hear you say. Yes. But to really understand what that exactly means, you have to know, the speed, the grip and the low weight of the car are so far ahead of ANYTHING, that you can find in LFS. You might have some experience with F1 cars from other sims, but still, nothing compares.
The approaching speed of the car to a corner/obstacle is very fast, your reaction times must be faster than that. Going 320kph down the straight (for comparison, next fastest car in LFS normally does 270 - 290-ish kph and people also rarely drive it - FO8) and not seeing beyond the next turn, sometimes not even at the end of the straight, requires you to be super aware as well.
And not only of what is ahead, but especially around you. If you use virtual mirrors, it is probably advantage and also a good thing, if you are unsure and do not want to cause trouble. If you use cockpit view though, you are entering the problematic ground.
The view from the car is EXTREMELY limited. The mirrors are tiny, shaking with the car, the cockpit is obstructing the view massively and if you turn your wheel 90 degrees to any side, you partially do not see what is in front of you as well. Taking all that into account, it is another difficult part of what you definitely need to handle, if you want to be safe. Flying into unsighted car can ruin not only your race.
Thing that might help with this is
LFS Lazy, which has very useful radar feature, showing you the cars in close vicinity of yourself. Try to not rely on it too much though.
You may also use wider FOV, which takes some adjusting to, but might help. Or drive with VR, but that is a different matter.
Next thing is
weight, which i already mentioned, but now in different meaning. Count in the fuel. The car weighs 530 kg empty. You can put in 120 litres of fuel, which is more than 1/5 of the cars weight extra and you guessed right, it changes the balance of the car and suddenly it drives very differently. Learn the car on empty tank for quali, drive around on full tank for one stint, so you feel the difference and also try different sets of tyres for race (R3/R4), so you know what to expect.
Aero. This car sticks to the black stuff like glue. Well, mostly, if you are going really fast. If you are slow, the throttle and steering must be handled gently, until you are familiar with how the car handles in low speeds. Thankfully, traction control helps with that, but learn to set it up according to your liking. At high speeds, be aware of the loss of aero behind another car. In short, if you are under 0,3s behind someone, you are going to experience it in some way. The closer you are, the bigger is the draft on straight, but in turns you are going to lose majority of your grip and slide off. Plan according to that. Cathing up a slow car ahead just before entering the turn? Mind your gap. Are you battling with car ahead? Plan your overtake, so you do not lose time and perhaps position(s) to better prepared car(s) behind you. Defending from another car? Use the loss of aero on his car in turns and make him back off. Just do not necessarily rush for your first opportunity (unless it is obvious there is no unnecessary risk). The race is over 1 hour long. You will get your chance.
Another thing to remember here is that in draft you lose braking efficiency. If you are following another car closely, you MUST brake earlier, if you are not going for the overtake, otherwise you will not be able to slow down in time, that i guarantee you.
Fragility
This goes especially for the suspension. This car does not take much to break. Remember that when going over kerbs or so called "sleeping policemen". If you keep hitting them too hard too often, your suspension is going to break, you will have to pit and lose time.
Your wheels are also prone to damage. Even very slight contact might throw your race into shambles, as the car will become hard or impossible to handle.
Overtaking. I have one moment in front of my eyes from the first race. End of S/F straight, one car drafting another and at the last second diving to the inside, but too late. His speed was too high and T1 is not a good place for two BF1 to go side by side as well. Crash happened and noone was happy. Plan the place of your overtake. LFS tracks tend to have fast turns, where overtaking is not easy in this car, but also big braking points, where it is more suitable. As i said earlier, plan your move and wait for it. Do not be unnecessarily aggressive. Same goes for defending. One unnecessary move, cars touch and hoo boy they go spinning around sooo easy.
Also, in this car, usually very wide tracks seem much narrower. Train yourself to work with this knowledge.
Being lapped. A lot of you experienced this in the first race. If you know you are slower than the top guns, find good places where to let them pass and let them pass there. Do not do unpredictable and risky moves. If possible, make sure they know you are letting them by, but NEVER hit the brakes in front of anyone faster. You can move over to the side, but with enough time before the car behind passes you. Long straights, where you can slow down a bit, are the best. You do not even have to slow down too much, lifting the throttle only a little bit will slow the car down enough. Just do not lift the throttle fully, that is like hitting brakes in normal car! You can also use wide or slow turns after braking, where you can move over as well.
Crashing. A lot of you experienced this in the first race as well. It sucks, when this happens, but this has to be said. And i am going to talk only about crashing through your own fault, because everyone has read what i wrote above and nobody will crash with anyone else anymore.
Number one thing - if you spin out of control,
HIT THE BRAKES. This will make your trajectory predictable to others and they will avoid you more easily. Not doing so will not help anyone.
Second thing - going to the graveltrap is the worst thing, because you risk getting stuck and retiring or losing lots of time. If you know you will head in that direction, look around and see how you can make this situation suck less for you. Is there a grass strip before the barrier somewhere? Aim for that. Tarmac? Even better.
Losing control of the car does not have to always end up badly. If you can control the car when off track, try to aim head on to the barriers, or with your back first. Avoid hitting them with your sides. Hitting the wall head on will save you suspension damage repairs and if you are lucky, the car is not damaged so much, that you would drag your wing on the ground and had no steering, meaning you can continue the race without pitting, thanks to the LFS damage model.
Race length
I will say it again - the race is over 1 hour long. You have plenty of time to gain positions. If you try to "plow" through the field in first lap, you are rarely going to succeed. 15 out of 28 people retired in the first race. If you stay patient and keep the car on track, you will get up the order eventually. Remember that.
Formation lap, VSC, SC and restarts
These very specific situations, also specific to only a few organised series, require you to watch out also for what race control has to say. In both cases, keep safe distance from others. If someone is not doing the same for you, do not be aggressive towards them, but try to maintain your gap and be really careful of what you do and when you do it. Damaging your car before the race even starts through fault that might/might not be your own is not a good start.
On formation lap, remember your starting slot. The smoothness of the event relies on that, any delays might and will people nervous, which does not help, especially in BF1.
On restarts, keep sufficient gap around you, so you have plenty of time to react to anything that might occur in the upcoming seconds. Preferably do not use this gap to gain an advantage. This advantage might cause carnage, if misjudged by you, or by someone else. As with everything else, the outcome of your race is not entirely in your hands.
And finally, listen carefully to what the race control has to say. Not obeying race control might get you slapped with penalty. You do not want that.
Tyre warming
This is vital part of your race on the warmup lap and during the VSC and SC phases as well. You do not want to be stuck with cold tyres upon (re)start, so you have to weave to get some heat into them. In LFS, it unfortunately takes a LOT of weaving to get some heat, so it is essential to have big enough gap to everyone around you. DO NOT warm up your tyres, if you have no safe gap. DO NOT accelerate and brake unpredictably, as it will only cause problems for everyone behind you. Be smooth and predictable.
Finally, some things from this guide come with practice. Try and get as much practice as you can. To put it bluntly, this is not FXO, where you hit the track and go fast within 10 laps. With BF1, staying on the track and driving consistent laps takes a lot practice. Being fast takes more than that. With enough practice, you might not even get close to being fast. But being safe for you and for the drivers around is what is important in these big races.
Also, listen to your admins.
I might have not covered every aspect of the basics, but this is in my opinion the absolute basic stuff. Hope it helps you improve and perhaps even score some good results.
For further general driving tips, you might find these guides helpful.
https://en.lfsmanual.net/wiki/Basic_driving_guides
https://en.lfsmanual.net/wiki/Advanced_driving_guide
Some of these are very useful here.
I wish you best of luck and see you on track in the next race.
