I've been playing this videogame for a few months now and racing the XRG car in these demo worlds like that Air Attack one, and I seem to be kind of slow, only able to hit low 1:36.xx consistently. However, I've only been using mouse steer, auto clutch, and mouse buttons to accelerate and brake. People on this AirAttack world seem to consistently be able to hit low 1:34.xx and low 1:33.xx sometimes, is that a result of using superior input methods, or are those times achievable on my setting and I am just not that great at this game yet? How much time could I hope to lose by switching to a wheel and pedals?

Almost forgot to mention, I was using the RWD car that looks like an old starion or RX7.

Does Force Feedback have any practical advantage or is it just for the immersion feeling?

Also, how do I pass people safely on the racetrack, I feel like the rather dubious methods I used to use in Gran Turismo 4 would likely get me banned from a lot of worlds, but still I often accidentally bump people in the corner. Also the screen I am using is like 13" and its really hard to see beside the car which also results in my accidental bumping, is there an easy way to get better view beside the vehicle without the look to side with w and e because those make me dizzy and often I fall off the track when trying to use them before a corner, where I would usually need to check if there was a car to my side.

Hi, you should know that almost all world records in lfs are done with exatctly the same controls setup like yours. Especially, the demo cars are much much more easier to drive with mouse+keys. If you want 34's times you need to grind much deeper man, for some it takes years.

Now about the ffb wheel, for a long time I've driven with mouse and was able to hit low 33's in the old BL1 combo with XFG. When I got the wheel I was much slower and my learning curve was super slow. The immersion and the feel got to completely another level and that excitement is what kept me playing and enjoying the lfs even more. I was never able to reach those mouse time ever again, because everything you do on the wheel is so much more complex, mainly throttle and brake inputs instead of being pretty much on/off controls on mouse, with wheel these become an art that needs to be mastered consistently. For all other cars, ffb wheel makes things easier over time, because higher hp rwd cars are very sensitive to driving inputs and information that you get from ffb is very valuable for understanding the car grip. Only with those cars wheel drivers are usually better, but even there, some guys on mouse are still among the fastest.

One last thing, ask some guys to send you a car setup, this can be done ingame. If you were using default setup 1 36 is actually pretty decent time.

With FBM on blackwood i used a gamepad for around 6 years and managed to get into mid 1.12s, when i changed to using a g27 wheel i ended up getting into 1.11's, but found that i had to use very little FFB.

Simply the ability to incrementally control throttle and brakes using pedals can help you to improve your times and remain consistent (and it is of course a more realistic experience). The forces through the wheel are intuitive in this sim and can help you determine when you are at the limit of grip, improving reaction times.

Take world record times with a grain of salt and focus on your own times relative to your racing peers.

No matter which method you use, there is always room to improve your racing and track knowledge - so logically your times should improve with practice. With a decent wheel and pedal setup you will enjoy this (and almost every other) sim much more and your overall understanding of racing is likely to improve.

You may also benefit from the advice in this thread. Some of the links might be old but the info is still useful. Best wishes

Quote from rane_nbg :

Hi, you should know that almost all world records in lfs are done with exatctly the same controls setup like yours. Especially, the demo cars are much much more easier to drive with mouse+keys.

I agree that lower power cars can be managed with mouse or even keyboard.
But I clicked through the hotlap charts and most WR and fast times are marked "w" for wheel. With only a few mouse drivers sprinkled inbetween.

In my opinion the big advantage of wheel is not in hotlapping. Hotlapping is basically learning that one excact line and unlimited retries until you get that one perfect run. It helps little in actual racing. In a race one perfect lap means nothing, instead you need many laps that do not have to be 100% at the limit but rather each lap has to be good enough.
You can not always drive the same line because other cars are in the way, you still have to make the turn despite missing the braking point, you have to recover from small and big mistakes. (instead of restarting), you have to fight for positions.
That is where wheel is in my experience much better than mouse. Sometimes mouse drivers do fast times in qualy but then in the race they do not always do as well and have higher DNF rates.

13" screen is tiny. For racing a big screen helps because you can see the apex of turns much better and also see cars beside you. There is a reason why any serious racing sim has support for multi-screen and/or VR. Headphones also help to hear where other cars are.

Thank you for the suggestions! I found out that I could slow down much quicker with a tighter differential

the best improvment you can expect is an immersive experience !!

I'm playing at mouse and i think that for mouse setup matters, like I got issues at BL1 with the fbm at the turn one, but when you watch other people times at the track they're absolutely flying.

That comes down mostly to a car setup. If your brakes are locking or you have oversteered on the turn exit it's impossible to get good times.

Thank you for your suggestions! I will take it.