How is functionning Virual Energy? I've had to pit in a 45 minutes race (the weekly on RoadAmerica) What am I supposed to do? Put more fuel in the car? I had 2 laps more than needed. How can I calculate the amount of fuel needed to not get at 0 in Virtual Energy? Why some drivers have been able to finish the race without pitting nor taking a penalty?
If anybody managed to finish without stopping id also be curious how they did it . I mean you can definitely go 45 minutes by fuel saving but when i tried in practice i was so slow that pitting was already borderline faster and i wouldve still needed to save more fuel to actually go the distance. As for knowing how much you need i guess the only way is to drive for a few laps, check how much fuel and virtual energy you use per lap and then manually calculate how much you need of each for the race distance. Although even doing it that way i ended up stationary for a little longer than ideal. After writing up to this point i asked chatgpt and if the response is correct the virtual energy is purely about the electrical power (i had thought its the total energy of fuel and electricity used). In that case using less mgu deployment and carrying more fuel would be the way to go Edit: chatgpt was wrong
Thank you for your answer. I'll keep this thread updated with tries and errors. I read that VE is ICE + MGU, nothing to see with fuel. Furthermore, in WEC, they pit without refueling, but in RaceRoom it's the only way (as for now) to do fill the Virtual Energy up. I'll look at how it works more closely tomorrow!
Looks like chatgpt got it wrong and it is the total energy output of ice and mgu combined afterall: https://www.imsa.com/news/2023/09/2...w-does-gtp-virtual-energy-replenishment-work/ Ill still play around a bit more in raceroom as well and see if i figure out anything new . Does anybody have an exact number of stint lengths in real life? Without any saving id only get around 37 minutes on road america which feels rather short but i also dont know what a normal stint is in real life and how much saving that typically involves
Then either something is a little off about energy use in r3e or im absolutely atrocious at fuel saving (which may well be the case )
Well I think they use different engine modes, and I've always used the most powerful one until now, I'll try a race with engine management but not sure it'll be the solution for a longer stint (maybe I should get rid of that spare tyre, it's useless right? Right?...)
Im sure they would run a lower engine map when trying to go long but at some point youre losing so much time that you might just go full gas and do an extra stop. With the bmw at road america i could go right around 20 laps when on map 5 and not saving at all (and at a fixed mgu deployment rate, not sure the exact number but probably 40% or 50%). When on map 4 and doing lift and coast i couldve probably gone 22 laps but was already almost 2 seconds per lap slower. Losing 2 seconds times 22 is already 44 seconds, i dont think a pit stop costs more than that. And to do the whole 45 minute race youd need 24 or even 25 laps meaning youd have to go even slower. You could try map 3 with lift and coast or map 2 and driving normally but i dont think those will make for a faster race time versus just pushing and stopping. But i too am intrigued enough to test some different approaches now
So after my first tests (in the bmw at road america) these are my findings: Virtual energy does in fact relate to the total energy used. When not changing engine map and driving style and only using different mgu deployment rates (tried 10% vs 50%) the virtual energy use remains the same at right around 5VE per lap (as do the lap times). Using more mgu will slightly reduce fuel use tho (2.8l per lap at 50%, 2.9l per lap at 10%). When using a fixed mgu deployment rate (30% now in my case) using a lower engine map will reduce both fuel and VE usage but come with a significant speed penalty. Driving normally on map 3 i used 2.5l and around 4.3VE per lap but was also around 2 seconds per lap slower than on map 5. When additionally fuel saving (lift and coast in every braking zone, slightly earlier upshifts but not so early that id actually call it shortshifting) that dropped to 2.3l and around 4.1VE per lap while losing roughly an additional 0.5 seconds per lap so 2.5 seconds per lap compared to normal driving with map 5. Now for a 45 minute race to be safe id wanna have VE for 25 laps meaning at most 4VE per lap meaning im still not saving enough while already losing 2.5s per lap (so 62s over the whole race). A pitstop for 22l and 26VE cost me around 40 seconds (while also allowing me to start the race 22 litres lighter) so a MUCH better choice even if it means having to overtake a couple fuel saving hypercars after the pitstop.
That's what I thought, we better have to stop than stay on track. How the VE is recharched during pitstop? Does it come back to full or does it need some time with the fuel fillfulling?
At the moment fuel and virtual energy are tied together at the pitstop. The more fuel you take on the more virtual energy youll also get but you cannot replenish virtual energy without taking on fuel. So youll have to take on a certain amount of fuel to get the virtual energy you need even if theoretically you wouldnt need more fuel to finish the race. Would be nice if we could manually choose fuel to be added and virtual energy to be added. Havent yet checked how much fuel youd have to put in to get back to 100VE since my focus has been on the 45 minute race scenario
They said it was coming for the Virtual Energy filling, I think they need to implement that since, it's a totally new feature on the game. So, the idea would be to calculate how many laps we hold on the VE tank, to have the amount of fuel adapted to the pitstop, so we could gain some time on the first stint and optimize all the race. I've not verified, but can we see in the preset pitstop menu before race the amount of VE chosed? I think there's no better way that : Take the start with a fuel quantity adapted to the VE consumption. Stop, refuel both and go for the finish line. That seems to be the fastest way around!
Amount of VE cant be seen in the pitstop presets, only out on track in the pitstop request menu. Im not entirely sure the amount of VE you get for a given amount of fuel is set in stone, if there are slight variations it wouldnt even be possible to show it in the presets. But other than that for the 45 minutes at road america id agree, the order i would go is 1) figure out how much fuel and VE you need for the race for map 5 and a chosen mgu level (e.g. 74l and 126VE), 2) check how much fuel you need to take on in a pitstop to get the 126-100=26VE (22l in my test), 3) start with the adjusted fuel (e.g. 74-22=52l), 4) just go full pace and do a pitstop. Depending on the result of 2) there might be scenarios where running more or less mgu might be beneficial but i think those should only be minor details, nothing id personally worry about too much. For a 40 minute race or maybe on a different track it might still be viable trying to save some fuel/VE and go without a pitstop but i havent checked anything regarding that.