Perfecting the setup
Practice is short (15 minutes) in ERS, but no qualifying, so don't focus on laptime.

Just do installation laps (leave the pits then immediately click 'Bring in'). You'll get the feedback from your driver without wasting time waiting for them to complete a lap and come back to the pits.


Perfecting the setup
The mechanic makes a suggested range (the green area) for the setup, when you send your drivers out first, always start with the setup on one side of the green area (ideally the closest one to the center). Then when your driver comes back with feedback, you know it's only going to go one direction.

In the screenshot, I've started the setup with the handling setting inside the green area, heavily on the side of understeer, when the driver comes back with feedback, if it's not correct I know I'll need to move the setting to the right. The distance I move it depends on the feedback, if the driver says it's 'Very Poor', I'll move it a long way to the right. If the feedback is 'Good', I'll move it just a short way right.

Try to avoid using the same setup for both drivers when you send them out for the first time, set them up differently and you can learn from each driver.

ERS (European Racing Series (Tier 3 (GP3))) doesn't have qualifying at the start. First season was based on reverse championship - which works in your favour if you picked a bad team. Second season was random grids which can go either way (I've had a few cheeky front rows from this). Third season is qualifying. I'll add more to this when I get there!

Start Tyre Selection
Unless you have the fastest car on the grid, if you're starting in the mid-pack, go with the slower more durable tyre. You won't be able to maximise the softer tyre in traffic.

Race starts
Crank everything up to max or you'll be a sitting duck. You'll trash your tires so as soon as you're in clear air or people around you start lowering their tyre mode (look on the timings screen 'tab') start lowering your settings.

First Stint
As you're attacking for the start of the stint, you'll probably only manage half the expected lifetime of the tyre. At the start of the race you're almost always Tyre limited. Don't fill up with too much fuel!

Check the weather, then check again!
The rain in MM seems to replicate the stereotype of real circuits, Belgium pours, UK showers, Spain is bone dry. But because you can't see far into the forecast, ALWAYS check the weather report, rain comes out of nowhere.

Pit-Stops
I always select 'fast' pitstop, so far the worst it's done is added 1.4 seconds to a stop (it shows in red below the timer). So definitely worth the 2 seconds it saves on a pitstop.

Switching to Inters
Your drivers don't know anything about Inters! I've had 4 different drivers, none of them can make the right call on switching to inters, they'll scream at you to switch, ignore them. Let the AI switch to inters first, the you'll start to get a feel for the right timings.

Switching to Wets
You're not Jenson Button yet! If in doubt, stay on inters.

Safety Cars = Free Pitstop!
Unless you literally just came out of the pits

Excess Fuel
In your final stint you should see 'Excess Fuel'. This just means you have 1 milliliter more fuel than you need. When it stops saying 'Excess Fuel', you're introuble, lower the engine till it returns.

Tyre Temperature
Keep an eye on your tyre temps during the race, too high or two low and you're in trouble. Too low and you'll get graining and run slower (and raised degredation?). Too high, you'll burn through the tyres quickly.

Even if your tyres have a lot of degredation already, if the temperature is low, you'll need to set the driver to push to try bring that temp up.



Fixing Parts mid-race
Each element on the car will wear as the race progresses. Early season or with new parts, the reliability is low, so you'll get to the 'red zone' much quicker. The reliability is shown with a horizontal bar, the red 'zone' is red bit, the yellow indicates how long is left until you hit the red zone.

Performance is only affected when you hit the red zone, it depends on each race circumstance whether you try to fix the part mid-race. If I'm in the last few laps I won't fix it since the time it takes to fix doesn't make it worthwhile, however, once the red zone is completely gone, the part fails and your laptime will plummet alternatively you could be out of the race. So it's a gamble on whether to stay out or pit.

In the screenshot I've got 2 failing parts, with 2 laps to go, it'd take 30 seconds to fix both and drop me back into 18th place battling Rogers (just coming across the finish line). My pace has dropped, but only by 0.063, so I'm staying out!

What happened next? A double DNF - the first one I've had. When in the red-zone, parts can fail at any moment!

Improving Parts
The way this works is, every day, a certain amount of performance or reliability can be added to a part, or shared between several parts. The amout to be added is shown below your mechanics faces. Use the slider to favour performance or reliability.

This area let's you improve performance or reliabilty of your parts. When you start a season, reliability is vital, you might as well plant that slider over to the 'reliabilty' side now, you'll need it.

To start with, find your parts with the worst reliability value, click to add have your mechanics work on it, add another part too if they're equally aweful. Progress to the next day, then come back to see the improvement, it should have boosted the value slightly.

Aim to get everything to around 65%+ reliability before switching to performance. As the races roll on, reliability becomes less of a concern. Make sure your mechanics are always working on something! Never give them a day off, they can always boost something!

New parts!
This is the most important part of the early game. Keep the factory rolling with new parts, focus on the weakest and cheapest area first for me this is...

- Brakes
- Suspension
- Gearbox
- Engine

Risky Parts
Developing parts with risk is hard to recommend or condone. I ran two risky parts for most of the season (brakes and suspension), at the last race of the year the brakes were spotted. I got a fine £100k and a 2 place penalty (which cost me 4th place in the championship by 1 point!). I also got a letter from Ernie Hecklerock, GMA President saying they're confiscating the part. On the plus side, those illegal parts probably helped me get to 4th in the championship. So I'd probably take the risk again.

It's also possible to select components which counteract the risk level (this can really be worthwhile)

The new car is coming
The new car is expensive, you're paying for it all season so you'll have a tidy sum when you finish the season, but it's only enough for the bare essentials. At some point mid-to-end of season, it's worth letting your bank balance fill up. The best car in Tier 3 was around £15 million, the 'next years car' payout only gave me £7million.

The parts you have developed will cross over to the new year (give or take a few points). It seems to average out the values of your best parts. These then become the baseline parts for next season. In the first season I'd focus a little more on improving the factory. So make sure you're not caught short on the new car costs.

Get the best driver available
Early on, it pays to get a better driver, with Predator, I had two aweful starter drivers. Scout the unemployed driver (see the scouting section) and pick the best available. Be generous with the contract - you'll really need them!

In ERS the best you can approach is a 3 star driver, go for an unemployed driver to save money on contract buyouts. Then pair them with your best starter driver. Make the driver equal status since you'll want to pair them with a better driver later in the season.

Because they're equal status you'll have to balance the setup a little so you don't favour one or the other, tho annoying the bad driver isn't so bad right now.

A good driver can add a take whole seconds off the laptimes!

Scouting!
Scout out everyone who's unemployed, and in the < 20 category. You'll easily find someone better than your starter drivers.

Contracts
Talk to every driver (or staff) you're interested in at the same time, then pick your favourite based on who accepted your offers.

If someone says they're not fussed about a signon-fee or bonus, don't give them one. A token low amount will just offend them, despite saying they weren't interested.

Sponsors
It's better to wait for a realistic deal than sign straight away. Wait until just before the race to sign a sponsor, just incase a better deal comes along.

Headquarters
The factory level 2 is a must, it'll get you up to speed early season much better. The scouting facility also gives you access to a new bunch of unemployed drivers (see scouting above). As you're closing in on the end of the season it's a good time to get new facilities in. Especially if you win some prize-money.

Staff
Staff are cheap performance boosts! Get new mechanics (the chemistry bonus is pretty useful tho so don't break up a longterm relationship in the first few races!)



Voting & Politics
Choose where you give your f***s... i.e. if you don't really care whether a track uses layout A or B, use the option to 'Abstain'. You'll be able to use that vote for something you really do give a f*** about.

Chairman and Goals
He'll be annoyed if you're not on target, but it only takes 1 or 2 good results to keep him happy. I missed my season 1 target to finish 8th and he didn't care as we'd had a few good results towards the end of the season.

Christian West is rubbish!
A total legend for producing such a brilliant game on mobile and PC. But in the game he's very modestly s*** :D. For me anyway, scout him and see

Hope that helps someone. I've gone from dead last in the first few races of season 1 to 3 race wins and midfield at the end of season 2. This game is built really nicely and I love that it doesn't give wins cheap.

I love F1 and closely follow the junior series. I run a website called GP Hub in my spare time.