I'm finding that on some tracks the AI qualifying pace doesn't properly represent their race pace. For example I may qualify 32nd out of 32 cars but can quickly make my way through the pack up to 5th place in a 30 race. AI may qualify at around 1:42 but their race pace is closer to 1:46 I think what's happening is the AI are slowing each other down too much when they are fighting for position. On the rare occasion I have seen an AI break away from the pack and then they start pumping out times closer to their qualifying speed. I feel this problem is also screwing up the Adaptive AI calculations as I've noticed it's just not finding the right level for me on many tracks.
I don't know if that is really a bug but for sure something to improve. I only have very limited tiome for playing and since there is no saving option for endu races, I can only do very short "raceweekends". So I do a 10 minutes qualifying and two 3 minutes races with extra lap. So mainly as 3 lap run. So 10 min qualifying at a circuit where you need about 2 min/lap is not much time. Especially when you start with a "new" car on a track that you do not know that much. And in a race it is IRL the same that the mid pack cars and cars in the back drive laptimes at the first 1-3 laps, that are quite far away from qual times or their fastest race lap times. So I think this is nothing uncommon. I do not know how R3E simulates cold typres etc.. And that the AI slows down each other is also clear cause of the awareness of the other cars (humans could do that much muchn better). But for your special point of AAI it is really odd, that is why I only use fixed AI strength with the disadvantage, that I'm good on some tracks and not so good on others. If AAI would work 100% precise (also taking into account the lap times at the first few laps) you always would have close racing at any track with any car. I have found my settings to enjoy that game and I even make the AI a little bit stronger, cause racing packed is much more fun, than winning each race being half a second faster than fastest AI driver.
I agree, the AI loses so much time when fighting with each other. You can always catch up in comparison to the qualifying pace.
but IRL the human drivers at real racing series also loose a lot of time when this battle for position. So hard to say what even should be "fixed". My personal ffeling is that the difference between qual and race is a litle bit too big but just a little bit.
The AI does lose time when fighting for position, just like any racer would. How much is too much is something we can debate until the proverbial cows come home, but there are a few things you can do to mitigate it. First off, don't use too many cars on a track. More cars means more fighting, and thus more time lost. This goes double for super-short tracks (Brands, Red Bull Südschleife etc) where the amount of tarmac is so limited that it is almost impossible to find clean air. Second, make sure you give the AI enough time to qualify. It usually doesn't hit its stride until the 3rd or 4th lap.
I try to run with only 14.18 cars but DTM1992 I want the whole pack ;-) But yes, matching the tracks e.g. for a championship to the car/class you use makes sense. Running highest formula class at one of the swedish tracks is senseless.
Note that I'm racing the Porsche 911 GT2 at the moment so I'm talking about my experience with this class but I also find that Porsche 911 GT3 club car to be similar. I usually run with 23 AI cars and do 20 minute qualifying session. I've noticed last night that after 20 min of qualifying the actual time spread from first to last is around 1 second. Maybe they need to spread the field a little more! But I do understand that it's all about finding that balance. There are a couple of things that noticed are holding up the pack too much too many large packs (3-5 cars) dicing for position; especially in the first 5-10 laps of a race. On sharper slow corners one car can dramatically hold up a lot of cars; but I guess this is real but I have noticed on tracks like Dubi a single car is too slow thru the sharp right handers compared to how fast I can take them! So since they are already too slow the following pack is ridiculously slow. Tracks where the AI have an oversteer wobble coming out of some corners (Hungary) make the cars following brake hard. I guess that's realistic but the number of oversteer wobbles on some tracks is not; so solve that and it takes away this factor. It can take about 15-20 laps for the field to start spreading out which in-turn starts to reduce the problem. I can see this issue is a result of many AI factors that need to be balanced; from physics to AI spacing to field strength spread etc etc ....so good luck devs LOL What could be great is to have some sliders that allow us to change some of the AI settings, that way the community can experiment to find what suits them best. ...and I'm not talking about an Aggression slider lol BUT I will say this; on tracks where the AI aren't holding each other up the AI are bloody brilliant; they are so hard to out brake and fight back through the corner and will dive underneath you if you are too timid with your approach. I'm also noticing that exit speeds out of the mid to fast corners are now realistic and that I can keep up with them if I get my exit right. So whilst it may appear I'm complaining I still feel R3E have the best AI. A few more tweaks R3E will be crowned King .