Assetto Corsa Formula Abarth At Imola

Greetings,

Recently after joining online race i found out that Formula Abarth class can provide great fun and great racing. Why? Cars are offering great visibility, they are easy handled, have a lot of downforce which means they are precise and being precise means you will have precise overtakings, precise racing without bigger accidents, all you need to enjoy online racing.

So i started driving this Formula Abarth at Imola like i haven't seen it before in my life, these past two weeks! I started to enjoy it. I was barely noticing this car before. Assetto Corsa offers great deal of cars, tracks, etc and since i have it from the night they released it, of course that i have driven it however the simulation is around 11 times updated since then, more or less things are different. Far from that that this was my first touch with the car with whom now i struggled to fight the leaders who were doing lap times like 1;48 1:49 and i couldn't go below 1:51, it was just matter of time.

Since i consider myself as skillful driver, with little tweaks on the setup i was already doing laptimes below 1:50, high 1:49 and that lasted for a while. Then i got 1:48 and then medium 1:47 , by which point i started leading and dominating races online. This sounds like i was doing this for a year. No, not at all. It's about last two weeks in which i had like 20 races and i have won 8 of them, the rest, i wonder if some of those 12 finished like it should, without accidents, every once in a while you will do one....
Assetto Corsa really needs to do something about it, some system by penalizing drivers like in iRacing it would be awesome!!!!!

So, back on track. I was struggling to go faster at which point i realized something and went for it, to try it, to do some experiments and it worked out.

I have done 1:45.259 and very easily i would have entered in medium/high 1:44 if i had more than 10minutes time.

How i drove it ....

As you are approaching Turn 1, corner which is in a way showing off little by little, its not straight forward, either you should not take it that way, that means, you don't go on the outside line just like you prepare for every other, but stick to the left of the straight line long before Turn 1, just continue going straight and slowly you will find yourself at the outside, before you are placed at that point and start braking hard, gear by gear from 6th in 3rd. If you place your car right away on the outside you will notice the track is little by little going in long left so you will lose control prior braking to catch the apex...be sure to control the car and carry as much speed as possible through the corner because it's very important, the corner is followed by another short to medium straight with another same type of corner after which you reach Sector 1.  

So, hard braking from 6th to 3rd gear and go through, be sure you won't be too aggressive over the curbs, that might disturb the car or if you hit that small bumps you will spin right away or lose control totally after you hit on the throttle! 

This is the second corner which is the same type of corner like the previous one, but this one is a bit more simple. You have clear sight on the apex  and you can position your car to the far right before cutting through the apex like in the picture no.2 above this small text. At this point you are lowering from 6th to 5th using the mechanic slowing down and prepare right away for the other apex that you can see it in the short distance of the same picture, with another lower gear from 5th to 4th. By doing that you gain stability with the mechanic slowing down and putting the car in high revs which will be helpful to accelerate the car once you go out of the corner. 

Now this is the 1st Turn after Sector 1 and it's perhaps the slowest one at Imola. This is the corner at which i gained half a second after i realized that i could easily catch it with 3rd instead 2nd gear, which was slowing down the car even more than needed. I realized that after i had several weird accelerations at which point i had oversteer of the car. So prepare from the outside, don't go too wide, just enough, and lower to 3rd gear, touch the apex while you have left your feet of the brake or the throttle and leave the car for a second go through that point and right away hit the throttle or bump it little by little and start accelerating as soon as possible for the hill. 

When you will climb the hill you will be at this point at which i am starting to brake. Now, many times i went here again like in the previous with 1 gear lower than needed, with 4th instead 5th like i do it now. Hitting hard on the brake for part of a second fast gear down and go through the apex with the foot off the throttle, carefully by reaching the far outside i blip the throttle, touch the curb and go down at max speed possible. 

At this point i lower down from 6th to 5th and leave the car to rest in a brief second....then lower another gear to 4th by which moment the car is perfectly placed to climb up through that bumpy tight corner.

  Before making the turn i lower another gear to 3rd to calm down the car and gain stability instead leaving it with revs high open and provoke spin on the rear. This is a very tricky place and at this point i also gaine another -0.200/300 parts of the second. 

The chicane. The chicane i believe should be approached, at least that's how i do it, with high 3rd gear on the first curb and the milisecond before i hit the curb i lower to 2nd gear to calm down the car again before i disturb the car again by hitting the other bumpy curb and slowly accelerating and trying to not go out in the green surface which is not an asphalt and therefore it's very easy to lose control at it or spin 360. 

After we successfully past the chicane and went as soon as possible on the throttle we approach this 1st of two almost identical corners which should be carefully approached if not, it's a point where you could very easily lose 1 second or lose whole race, if that's the case. Since if you block the brakes or you start braking later you are off in the gravel and returning back is pretty much a problem. Enough about what if braking late is also big problem since this corner is very important for you to place the car on the perfect spot between the green surface and the asphalt for attack the very next corner which comes in one breath. So you brake hard to 3rd gear, with careful gearing down, and you touch the apex. Be careful not to go over the whole curb, you will take the car in the air, and even little makes big difference. So you take that apex, and place the car right on the outside. 

At this point you need to be careful again no to overdrive the rear wheels which may cause spin, so you put in higher 4th gear and wait literally next corner comes to you....

Hit that apex which is ever coming and slowly go towards the outside at max possible speed before the straight line. 

At this point you have done everything you needed to for a good lap.
Just sit back tight and watch the clock :) 

I hope you enjoyed my narration of my lap around Imola in the Formula Abarth. 

NOW, you might be thinking, but its impossible to go in this gear there etc.
The setup is very important, like you don't know it right?
So, what i use? 

My setup, my front wing is at 13 and my rear is at 8 my frong cambers are at -3.2 and rears at -2.9

The rest i have put to rest, literally and i still try to improve myself and catch eventually the record of 1:43.392

Here is my lap.