I’ve just ran the first race in the Ginetta Juniors event and noticed something. Draft seems to have no effect on AI cars, they seem to drive at equal distances and don’t get closer to one another, despite sticking to aerodynamic tunnels behind their opponents.
Do you have any observations on that matter?
Do you mean draft? Im not sure about this exactly, but the ai dont seem to be effected by a few things. Rain doesnt effect them if they have race tires but they will pit if it does, with this new tire multiplier they seem to be able to drive the same on severely degraded tires.
Drafting doesnt have an effect below 100mph, or at least that was the threshold for every other motorsport. There have also been some cars over the years that dont seem to gain any advantage while others do.
An oval track would be your best bet to test something like this, just be specific when setting up the race. Like set the pi restrictions to the stock level and set power and weight to be the same, this for the most part will keep the other cars the same as yours. There used to be a no parts allowed option but that didnt make the transition to the new built from the ground up motorsport.
Ah, yes, “draft” is that word I was looking for, thanks 
Rain is indeed another thing that seems to have limited effect (if any) on AI cars. At least they are kind enough to slow down appropriately when the asphalt is getting wet 
Anyway, it seems that T10 needs to improve many things concerning AI (not only their ability to overtaking) if they think seriosuly about making endurance racing a real thing in this game.
The A.I are excluded from having to pit for fuel this I know. 8 lap race around the Nord and the only time some of the A.I pitted was to repair the damage from them driving off the track.
Also had tyre wear set to 7x on softs for a 3 lapper and I couldn’t make a lap without having to pit, the A.I never pitted and I tested it with other compounds and it was the same result.
Endurance racing will not work until it’s a level playing field
It’s not unheard of for games/sims to run simplified physics for AI/NPC drivers due to the processing demands of having both driving logic + full physics for multiple cars simultaneously.
This is true but tire wear and fuel doesnt need to be tied to physics like that and thats if its a physics thing at all. They need to be programmed to do the appropriate things at the appropriate times. I think they need to implement a blue flag system as well because since the ai has trouble passing they cant get by the backmarkers.
Agreed.
They do pit for fuel. When i do 30-40min races in free play the fuel hungry cars will always pit first, sometimes just a handful will.
Also does anyone have any proof that AI aren’t effected by the rain? I don’t really think they’re that much harder to catch when it’s raining and I’ll often see AI start the race with mediums when it’s raining and then pit on the first lap when its raining to switch tires.
Do a 6-10 lap race, set the weather to variable. It has to be a dry start, about midway through the race it will start to rain usually right after you pass the pit lane. While youre sliding around on your slick tires the ai will catch up and pass you as though the rain has no effect on them with slicks, because it doesnt.
The only thing ill say is i usually run a time multiplier of x24 which doesnt allow for a smooth transition when it rains. It basically goes from a drizzle to a rainstorm in like 20 seconds. So its possible if i was running at normal speed i would have time to pit and id never notice that the ai isnt effected by heavy rain.
The AI in FM7 would pit for fuel and tires. They should be able to integrate that into FM8 after about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years of monthly updates.
Yeah and that’s after them having to fix the bugs they just added to the game. It was litterally running fine until downgrade 8 dropped
What Cars being pushed to thier limit doing an average of 170kmh aren’t fuel hungry
Yeah I know what you’re saying, there’s certain rides in the game that burn way more fuel than they should, then you have the EV’s that seem to have the fastest charging in the world plus rubber that hardly wears out even tho they weigh in at least 500kg over the fuel guzzlers. EV’s should chew rubber faster but they don’t, just another in a long line of things that need addressing.
In noted this on another thread. The top Ai have a noticeable HP buff. Something they said they said they ld never do again
Promises! - No Promises!
I havent noticed any buffs. Theres no option to run no upgrades like there was in the past so ai cars even with the same pi wont necessarily have the same parts as you. The lead ai has whatever pace theyre going to have, if you cant match their pace then you need to do things to change that.
The cars are less than 300 PI. So there either running aero, heavier rims or ballast. Either way there’s no way to increase power beyond 300pi. I’ve tried. Have you?
Not talking about free play btw as I’ve not played it. Talking about the new tours. The AI is noticeably faster. If it wasn’t for the Ginerta series totally exposing it you’d never know. See for yourself it’s as clear as day.
And the last lap the A.I seems to ramp up some pressure which is nice… tho could be seen as rubberbanding 
Drafting in FM23 seems to be nerfed a lot, if it exists at all below the “DRS” effect at high speed.
I was talking more about testing your theory. I have played in the career mode and i chose not to upgrade the car and just tune it. Ive set the best practice times and won every race. Some of the cars are a little below 300, some are 300 and some are 309. Funnily enough the lower pi cars are actually faster than the higher ones.
The better ai dont have higher top speeds than me regardless, but what i do notice about them in various classes and divisions is they get a great exit out of slower corners. I dont run traction control, so this might help them a bit, but either way corner exit is the most important thing to nail especially when it leads onto a long straight.
Slower cars like these are all about momentum, theyre great cars to use to practice the basics before moving up to faster cars. Small mistakes punish you a little more because theres no power to make up for it. Ive always enjoyed this aspect of using these types of cars.
Against a fast opponent whether ai or human you have to be more perfect than they are. If theyre gaining times in the straights they likely got a better exit. Drafting seems to kick in at less than 100mph which was the threshold for so long, use it to your advantage when you can.
Yes I understand all about the importance of exits, I’ve played the game for a very long time as well.
Like you I also ran the car stock , at the Glen the PI limit was 3000, so not sure how some are higher and yes I also noticed the lower pi was quicker.
I was chasing down POS 1-3 and getting and getting power down early after T1 an excellent run up the hill on to the back straight, even getting in draft range straight out of the corner, then they gap me in the straight?
Like I say I’ve played this game (lvl 700p1) and other games to know when someone has a grip /power advantage in general, almost all of my time has been spent in career and I’ve always beaten the AI at the highest lvl, I did this time as well but it’s done differently imo