Tybalt - I really do advise not using the sliders but using the advanced options. They really are not that complicated and after a while you will get a feel for them. I used to play Grand Prix 2 (still do sometimes tbh) and I sucked until I dived into the car setups. It's all about the first step.
The other important thing is that if most of us are also using specific setups we can relate them to you with specific numbers which you can mimic. Much easier than saying "make sure it is 3.8 cm from the left on my 19" monitor on 1200x1024 resolution"
The best setup I have found so far on this track is:
a) Drop your gear ratios right down again
b) The track is very flat - take your dampeners up to 4 for all wheels for better grip.
c) Let 10kPa of pressure out of each tyres *1
d) Try to kill the oversteer, front roll -0.20, rear to +0.40
e) Adjust the brake balance 3 clicks to the rear
Oh - and don't forget to reduce your fuel load!!
Anyway a lap of this with a keyboard would go something like this:
Accelerating down the pit straight you should hit 3rd gear comfortably before the corner. Just before the turning point take a short half stab at the brakes to ease your speed off as necessary and turn in as early as you feel comfortable. *2 Cruise your way around this and as soon as possible get the car straight (with a keyboard you often need to stop turning before you are lined up to convince the computer AI to accelerate you, and the just tap the key slightly to align yourself as needed).
This is the longest and most crucial straight, and you should get well up into the 4th gear revs. I like to drift left off of the line so that when I approach the cones I am in line with the big airfield road. This is because at such hard braking i do not want to be turning until I am off the brakes and if I didn't align then the corner would be sharper. The brake point is about 30m before the first cone, stab that hard for two cones dropping two gears to second and then turn in hard. Get your line right to hit the apex and look to drift wide to the left for turn 3. Note if you are cocky you can put in an extra little burst of speed once you are lined up, but you will need to brake again soon after to slow for the next turn.
You should hardly need to brake for turn 3, but a small stab doesn't hurt. Corner speed is more important than exit speed here but don't overcook it. Your turn in point has no markers but it is about 1/2 a second longer than feels natural for me. Keep turning through here and on the exit immediately move to the right. Put a small burst of speed in before you head in hard left to turn 4. You shouldlook to cut the inside curb right on the edging just feathering the throttle. Once you are past the apex it's hard down and up into third.
Turn 5 is like turn 1 in that it is a long right hander, but you do not hit it at quite the same speed. Whereas in turn 1 you are likely to keep the turn on and feather the throttle in this one you are likely to keep the throttle and feather the turn. Once the track opens up get as much speed as possible before the lovely sharp left that is turn 6. Keeping right you should look for some nice late breaking here (it's another good overtaking point). Where the road is straight out of turn 5 you want to start braking about half way down it. Drop to second, turn early for the curb, and hammer the throttle asap on the exit and into the pit straight.
My best time so far is 1:00.5, good enough for 5th place, so I need some more setup work!
*1 - I did not mention the effect of tyre pressure in my earlier quick guide, but this should be done at the same time as your suspension. The softer the tyre the better it will grip but the quicker it will wear. As these mini sprints are only a few laps I'm going to experiment with trying to "low profile" the heck out of them. I'm actually also curious to see if one will burst...
*2 - I'm having difficulty with the AI here. I would normally approach this corner by trying to invent my own apex a little earlier by turning in late at a slower speed and drifting wide. I'd then turn in about 1/3rd of the way through the corner and that would allow me to accelerate earlier. Effectively I am trying to extend the exit straight by as much as possible - as this is the longer straight my exit is more important than my entry. Unfortunately the computer AI does not understand this and just drifts me off the track, so I have to adjust my style to hugging the inside the whole way through. Although the time difference is marginal this gives me a faster speed heading into the tight turn 2 right hander - crucial if I want to overtake anyone.
I dropped the gear ratios and fuel. Stiffened all dampers to 4 (assuming this is a stiffening of course), added 20kPa to the tyres, and adjusted the rollbars to their maximum of 2 degrees.
