Hello there,
I want this to be a discussion about racing etiquette. I was racing a few (offline) races today and noticed that on some corners I seem to be cutting quite a lot. And I thought to myself
“I wonder of people would consider this cutting corners in an online game”
So here are two shots of me in these offline races
1st Sebring Club course, entering corner 8(?), second 90° corner at the “heel” of the shoe shaped track.
2nd Hockenheim short circuit, exiting the hair pin corner
Would you judge either of these racing lines cheating/cutting corners/unfair?
Please discuss 
On both images, no part of the car is actually on the race track, so should be deemed illegal.
the top image, you are mostly on the grass (!) and the outside wheels are on the rumble strip as oppose to the track.
the bottom image, all 4 tyres are clearly over the white lines, which clearly define the boundaries of the track.
with regards to the bottom image, Sebastian Vettel was given a penalty in a grand prix for crossing the white lines, exiting a hairpin.
I think that if you do this when hotlapping, or in a race in general, it will not post the time for that lap. I’ve been told. I was doing some hotlapping last night and I know some of my fastest times weren’t posted, because I probably did this. I don’t do it on purpose though. LOL. It’s just from taking corners a bit faster than I should or getting wonky on entering.
For a while I’ve turned all assists off. But I think it’s good to turn the lines back one when learning probably the best line for a certain track. So I’ve done this a few times and it does really help with teaching me where I need to be. Plus for some reason it helps my driving to be a little smoother. Which translates into better times. Now I just need to learn all the tracks better. I’ve only been playing for a couple of months and it feels like there is a lifetime of stuff to learn. I’ll probably never learn it all.
Thanks for the input. I myself would have deemed the first image as an illegal racing line, funnily the game didn’t invalidate the Lao at that point - at least I didn’t see the exclamation mark next to the time flash, the lap was however already invalidated due to drafting.
The second line I’d have considered legal, as I assumed that’s what the extended green rumble strip is there for. Thank for the info about the penalty, this time the game agreed with you.
The second line is most definitely illegal as well, since all four wheels are well beyond the white line which designates the boundary of the racing circuit. The green is actually the beginning of the run off area, not part of the racing circuit.
I would consider ‘cutting’ as anything that exploits track limits to gain time. There are hot spots like turn 1 at Hockenheim and Indy, the open bit at Alps, and the cambered bank in the first/last corner depending on direction. And then the last corner at Suzuka. And similar examples that I’ve missed.
Some corners you can chop and actually lose time fighting over kerbs and grass so there’s nothing gained there so as long as they don’t do it consistently then I don’t see a problem. Normally I see track limits as defined by what makes a dirty lap and what makes a clean lap. Enforcements like that, or others stipulated by racing leagues perhaps, as long as people adhere to them and everyone plays nice then things will be alright Us racers will always push to the limit and sometimes we cross the line and learn from it. Sadly, some people abuse it but they get found out and never prevail.
What are the actual rules? I didn’t even know about the white line thing. I almost always at least touch the rumble strips on most tracks. I usually try to stay just on the inside of them, but many times that’s not the case. And I thought I’ve seen real race cars on real tracks regularly hit rumble strips. I know for sure I’ve seen the Audi Prototypes banging them at LeMans in the chicanes on the long straight. So… I didn’t think it was a penalty to run over them to a degree.
It depends really. Some kerbs can unsettle the car and normally unless the kerb’s quite flat then you wouldn’t try to take a chunk out of it. If they’re flat like some of the ones you have in the first part of Mugello then you can put half a car over it and use them. Some like a few at Sebring are best avoided.
Most of the time it’s normal and fine to put half a car over the kerb and you shouldn’t worry about using it. They are designed for use, just not abuse! If you use the whole thing like some of the ones at Road America then that might be pushing it!
Well, I accept that both lines are illegal. Could I summarize for myself that I always need to have two tires within the white lines of the track? Can this be considered a general rule of thumb?
Also, lets not forget that sometimes hitting rumble strips can have disastrous effects:
lol every one does it and yes i do it because other people do it to
Road Atlanta will flip you too on turn 3 and then after the esses. Probably other places too. Them strips are pretty brutal there. But yeah, the infield on Sunset can really get a car. Especially the smaller ones.
Forza made the limits, if the dirty lap indicator didnt flash i would say its fine, you have about found the limit. there are some corners which are immoral to do it on (especially in forza 5 on yas) and its really for you to decide whether or not u are going to exploit the immoral corner or not.
That’s an interesting viewpoint. When I first tried to race online, I noticed that at Hockenheim people really cut corners, especially at turn 1. Because it’s basically flat beyond the rumble strips and doesn’t seem to matter. And it’s easy to go wide there too as it doesn’t really slow you down. But I was kind of like, wow. I don’t know if that’s normal or not, or what.
In general, both pictures are “illegal”.
How ever. if I would see you driving like this in lobby, I wouldn’t care, specially if you would be racing closely with someone, possibly going side by side with someone.
How ever, get any further off the track, specially if there isn’t clear driver error,(Locking brakes / braking too late / oversteer / understeer) or someone close by (less than 50 feet away) and I start having trouble with you, specially if you are in truly fast car (aka: Leaderboad car) or if you are truly fast guy (No problem getting in top 1000 most of the tracks without actual LB car.)
Good example where I start “hating” people is Hockenheim 1st corner where you can go just about without braking and “extend” the corner without “slow grass” slowing you down
Yeah, that’s what I was seeing at Hockenheim.
I go by what forza designates as dirty with the triangle and exclamation mark. The 1st picture probably would be clean (but slow) but the 2nd picture definitely would be dirty (and potentially faster depending on how you got on the power). Neither of these I would describe as cheating though.
I actually think the game designates the second as clean, many times they consider the green matting as part of the road.
No, the game would designate the 2nd one as dirty, 100% sure of that.
That first picture would probably be clean, but would definitely be slow because you can get pretty heavy on the accelerator about 35% of the way through that corner. So, clean, but costing you a lot of time. The second picture would without a doubt be dirty, but probably a bit faster. Either way, I dont see a problem with those turns in an online race. Its the first turn at hockenheim and and the turn after the tunnel on bernese alps that I consider to be cheating when people just blow them wide.
EDIT: Oh, and the Top-Gear track. There’s a reason that one gets voted to be skipped almost every single time it comes up in a lobby. Everyone starts with good intentions, but by the second lap everyone and their mother is delibrately driving off track and getting dirty laps. Drives me insane.