I have some questions re: Pit Stops. They may be stupid.

1. To do a pit stop during an online race, do you just drive up to the yellow markings, stop and wait for something to happen? Or do you have to press a key / button to initiate it? A couple of times I have found myself waiting for 5+ seconds for something to happen. Is that delay right, or have I maybe not been within the yellow lines, then moved in / up and the pit stop action starts? BTW - I have done the training course on Pit Stops, but it doesn't always seem to happen so automatically in a race.

2. Can you abort a pit stop early? i.e. if I don't want to repair minor damage or add any fuel (because I have enough to finish the race, is there a key or button to end the stop early? Or do you have to sit it out until everything is done?

Thanks
Purp69

See you on the track.

1. Yes, all you need to do is stop in any box. You need to have something for the pit crew to do or the stop will just be instant. You can set up a pit stop from the garage information or F12 while on the track. Also note that you can't do a pit stop if you have outstanding drive through or stop-and-go penalties.

2. Once a pit stop has started, you can't abort it afaik. There used to be a bug which caused the pit stop to not end if you changed the fuel in F12 during a pit stop, not sure if that's still there. You can disable damage repairs from F12, but can't differentiate between minor and major.

Press F12 to bring up the Pit Instructions, from there you can tell it if you actually want to do anything or not, ie fuel, tyre changing, and repairing damage (which is automatically enabled if you change any of the setup options below). No, you can't abort the pit stop once the work has started. Of course, make sure you're within the yellow hatchings, and you can only make one pit stop each time you're in pit lane.

Also check out http://www.lfsmanual.net/ for other useful information

1. Just drive into the pits. To do a stop you must be within the pit lines to initiate a stop. This is done automatically

2. As far as I know, there is now way of exiting a stop once initiated. However, you can turn repair damage off by pressing F12 while out on track then using cursor key to move down to repair damage, and turn it off

Hope this helps

Something to note, if you use arrow keys for anything like gears or steering, then they won't work in the F12 menu. So you have to hold SHIFT KEY to use the arrows in the F12 menu if they are assigned to other controls of any kind.

And one thing to remember, as a Demo user, put it in Neutral gear while waiting for repairs/fuel/whatever.

When I WAS a noob I found out that FBM fries its clutch very easily !!!!!
DOH !!!!!!!!

Another thing: If you pit to serve a STOP GO penalty, you must stop in a box and wait for 10 seconds before you move. If you just stop and immediately go again you'll get another penalty.

One more thing: If you pit to serve a DRIVE-THROUGH penalty, don't even look at the pitboxes...

I know it is noobish but meh...

Quote from tongey :

1. Just drive into the pits. To do a stop you must be within the pit lines to initiate a stop. This is done automatically

2. As far as I know, there is now way of exiting a stop once initiated. However, you can turn repair damage off by pressing F12 while out on track then using cursor key to move down to repair damage, and turn it off

Hope this helps

You can get out of a Pit, just get in Reverse gear Drive a bit back and drive off

Thanks all. I think I've got it now.

On point 1: Delay - I must not have been within the confines of the yellow lines, hence the delay.

On point 2: Abort PitStop. I guess I'll just have to drive more gently and cause less damage, thus reducing my "repair" time and overall pit time.

But the "refuelling" part interests me. Will it always refuel to the % you start the race with or is LFS smart enough to know that if I don't need fuel to finish the race it won't add any?

Say I'm doing a 10 lap race, and it's 1.3% per lap, then theoretically I would only need 13% fuel for the full race. But if the race requires a pit stop, and I plan to stop somewhere between lap 6 and 8, would it be best to put the least amount necessary, say about 10% (with a small allowance for change in strategy during race) to get that far. Thus the refuelling time during a pit stop is minimised as it will only fill up to 10% rather than 13%? Or, as I asked earlier is LFS smart enough to know that if I have 13% at the start, that I don't need to refuel during a pit stop between laps 6-8 to complete 10 laps.

Is this the kind of detail that can be altered in game via F12?

Thanks
P69

Quote from Purp69 :

Is this the kind of detail that can be altered in game via F12?

Thanks
P69

You'll need to alter it in F12 if you want to change fuel load during the race. LFS doesn't calculate how much more fuel you'll need to make it to the end. Also, for a short race (less than, say, 20 laps) you're almost certainly better off carrying the full fuel load from the start than taking on fuel at a mandatory pit stop. In almost all the cars the fuel penalty (the amount of time you lose per lap by carrying the extra fuel) is less than the refuelling time lost in the pitstop. Do some research on your own and decide what's best for you, but I find most of the time it's quicker and easier to carry the full fuel load than to refuel at a pitstop.

Quote from Purp69 :

But the "refuelling" part interests me. Will it always refuel to the % you start the race with

- If you look in Garage > Info, there are two fuel settings. One for how much you start with, and the other for how much you get refuelled during every pit stop. They don't have to be the same.
- You can change the amount of fuel added via F12 prior to making a pit stop.

Quote :

is LFS smart enough to know that if I don't need fuel to finish the race it won't add any?

Since you are able to make this call using F12, it's not LFS' decision to make at all. It just does what you tell it to.

Quote :

[10 lap strategy]

In such a short race, it is always better to have all of the race fuel in at the start, and not do any pit stop procedures at all. Essentially you will just stop in the box and leave it instantly. The lap time gain is negligible, especially if you can't do every lap at 99% of what is theoretically possible. The pit stop becomes purely a track-position strategy, and you should use it to minimize the effects of traffic.