I ask myself the same question tho I personally hate leaderboard hotlapping so that I don't do it very often. Only fixed setup option I know about is IF a hotlap competition is marked as such or on ranked rookie servers. But coming the other way round what Vale is basically saying, is to start with standard setups and to prioritize on your racing line, breaking points- into the apex and accelerating out of, shifting etc. in the most efficient way (by racing against a leaderboard ghost for example) and then looking into setup options step by step to enhance your performance.... but some more radical changes of your setup could result in conflict with the AI racing line and behaviour cause the AI setups may differ a lot from what experienced /fast online drivers use...
okay theres a few things, 1 can be a cheater the obvious one if thats the case theyll be banned eventually 2 they really just are getting alot more out of it that you and youre slower than you think 3 it could be a car that used the old H pattern and those cars are faster with those than sequential/paddles and not by a small amount either, its enough that you can get a bettwe exit than someone and still lose half a second on the straight alone
To find a fixed setup leaderboard you need to visit competitions on the portal. There are none active now but you can see finished ones. It is mentioned on the splash screen if they are fixed setup - some are premium so you need to own the car and track but others are free even if you don´t own the content. As mentioned in another post, these are optimum conditions with heated tyres, no wear or damage but it doesn´t matter as what counts more is findi the racing line and braking points - thes will be different from the in game racing line aid. You can choose get real with no driver aids ((unless the car has them as standard) or amateur with aids allowed but a weight penalty. The point against AI is that as the are not human they follow a pre programmed line and algorithm for a target laptime so this means the can be alien fast on some parts of the track yet slow on others.
i think setup for leaderboards shall be all fixed cause its about real driving skill not engineering and setuping skill. its race driver simulator not engineer and mechanic simulator. i played pCARS2 leaderboards and was curious how tey so fast but in pCARS2 you can copy setup from best player so it turned out tey used to complete close radiator opening to achieve no aero drag etc but engine lasted just one lap cause temps was 160 or more degree and it block mid second lap lol. also other unrealistic settings they wont use in real life cause they would upset the car, i was 7 seconds off them then copied best guy setup and bang just 2 second off them lol its shiieeety i agree i too dont like leaderboard but sometimes if i feel im good at one track i want to test myself to see how good i am. but cause of setups thing it shows nothing abous driving skill, like 70% succes was in setup.... and that suck
for example when i get ACC i wasnt newbie simracer, i was simracin for 5 years then, but had completely no knowledge abous setups, not even tyre temp thing and pressure thing LOL i mean i know it shall not overheat etc but didnt even know hows good pressure. i was like 20/30 driver often.. 5 years simracing no knowledge abous setups. then one day i just went to chill on spa server practice 10 hours and one guy must look how i drive xDD he told me things like i shall shift up at 6900 RPM, i was previously shiftin at abous 5900-6500 just when orange RPM shows. then he told me i use too low pressure (was usin default but weather was cold then on track) and that i shall make it 27,5 psi.. he told me about brake ducts opening, differential etc LOL all in chat.. as i was striggling to get 2:24 on SPA in M6 GT3 just after couple of teaching from him i made 2:21 same day. so i went into setups but still basics, i still got to learn more about it, now i once did 2:19 but i see bestest do 2:16 so i know for sure it all lies in setup knowledge.. or they buy setups or something xD but i can tell dont remember race when i wasnt top 10 out of 30 drivers. i set just brake ducts, spoiler, sometimes suspension height, brake bias, and some other small things . i think worst is to set up suspension good, that rebound etc things, toes, cambers, casters etc whole car geometry, i still not touch it i know like one or 5 videos on youtube would teach me into setups but i wont watch them, dont have time or they too boring for me
set set ups are often about breaking the physics to work for you, theres still cars in this that are like that and need old rf1 set ups and some are counter intuitive to drive with the right set up
Well basically it isn't an issue with the leaderboard competions per se rather than having those overambitous folks around who want to win at all cost (plus possible issues with self-esteem, thinking a podium makes them tough guys and "winners" or even thinking a kinda talent scout is lurking around somewhere - or even just for the "fun" of hacking those competitions)...which is also a result of our modern capitalistic consumers no-limit society of higher, faster, wider. And the Motorsport business is not the ideal role model either - just look at all the tricks and games that are played at F1 alone to circumnavigate or bend restrictions , rules and whatnot to beat your competitors (beneath all that shiny PR) If you are really honest to yourself its simply fraud but those protagonists are often displayed as cool cats, smart cunning guys a.s.o. with that Mob like approach of : "Just business m8- nothing personal" , before you got shot in the head (or stabbed in the back to stay with the allegory) ...and its a rough business with company interests and shareholders in the background who want see you winning for getting the stock value up, while running lap after lap with your 300-800 HP "rolling advertiser".... Age also matters, cause I'm old enough with certain simracing (and life-) experience, that I don't have to prove something to me or anyone anymore. I simply enjoy Simracing in all aspects, rather than to sit behind the wheel with a cramped facial expression to become THE WINNER at all cost ! (of what actually? Irony out). But I understand that it is also a matter of your personal learning curve and ambition (e.g. to become a real racedriver), and tbh I'm not fast enough anymore to compete against those young guns (at least without many many, MANY practice sessions ). Which, like I said, is a good thing cause now I can really enjoy the ride eventually - just for the sake of it LB hotlapping I mostly & only do as a first preparation for online races (community events or ranked races).... But yeah I agree, a fair competition on leaderboards should be held under the premise of "same material, same preset for all" BUT I can guarantee you that due to BoP Issues you will see then, that the majority of fast guys will use the one superior car for each track only "for not to stay behind" - because "the winner gets it all"...totally screwed (from the perspective of common sense the older I get) but that's how it is...the common social imprint.
Don´t forget that one obective of competition leaderboards is to promote and sell DLC so it is normal to have some with multiple car choices and picking the best tool for the job is also valid for single player and multiplayer gaming. For the OP, single car comps on a known track are the best way to start rather than going down and open setup or multi car rabbithole.
Don't worry about setups if you're new, concentrate on one car, Audi TT is a good starter and one track. By all means use the Leaderboard to improve your lines by challenging better and better opponents but the perfect tyre temps give a false security. Now you have a car and a track it's time to bang out laps, slow in to turns and faster and faster out, try to do all your braking with a straight steering wheel and remember that by lifting off the brakes you will gain more grip. Concentrate on weight distribution, weight on the fronts more steering and on the rears more acceleration. Starting slow and building your speed is best, this all takes time, so be prepared to put the hours in. To mix it up add in AI to build confidence of having other cars around you. Once you have one car/track combo nailed, all the rest will become far easier to learn. There are no short cuts unfortunately, just dedication and untold hours of eeking an extra 10th here and there. Never hurts to watch how others do it and from the off use all of the track, wide in, cut as much as the limits allow and as wide as you can get away with out, pointless learning tracks twice. Kerbs unsettle the car but speed comes from using as many of the kerbs as possible, get used to banging across them. Remember we all have bad days, if it's not happening then trying harder won't help, good practice is the best practice, if you're getting angry, go do something else. Last of all be relaxed on the wheel and with your driving, tension is the worst thing for speed, light touch on the wheel and smooth movements, if you tense your driving will suffer and the easiest way to be relaxed is to be confident you know the car/track combo like the back of your hand. Good luck and never give up, we were all shit to start with!
If you choose a car like the BMW M235i, the Porsche 964, The KTM X-Bow or the VW Scirocco, there is no need to spend time with the setup, you can drive in the leaderboard with the stock setup. At least, that's what I always do.
You are contradicting yourself here. If LB has nothing to do with how good a driver is able to drive how can you then "test myself to see how good i am"? And the other thing with your unrealistic completely closed radiator then on most of the tracks in LB its almost impossible to set the fastest lap on lap 1. So... My own experience both from Raceroom and a lot of years in iRacing is that its very easy to take a LB setup and then change a few things - and then use it as your favorite setup on the selected combo. At last I think that for a lot of drivers (me included) then a great part of the joy about sim racing is the challenge to mess with the setup of a car. Just like in RL racing. But OK thats maybe also because I know what Im doing
it is, im not talking about rrre but pcars2 you start rolling at full speed just before starting line, even before you pass starting line your engine has already like 1 % damage with closed radiator, when you finish lap you have like 70% damaged engine but it seems in this game it 0-99% damage not affecting performance just when it comes 100% your engine just blocks. im not telling how it looks in rrre or about leaderboards in general but i tell about shady tactics from stupid kids what they can do to just win ... because it not only radiator closing, it could be breaking game physics by setting enormous suspension that would break in real life but they found game bug so they now exploiting it just to win, even if guy know he uses weird physics bug he still happy that he wins... like cheating in counter strike kid has cheat that points his mouse into enemies head, he know he cant do shiit but he still happy. and thats as @Fairman told, in all life aspects, even F1, but difference between REAL F1 and simracing is they cant use unrealistic setups to win xD of course
LOL only difference is that in simracing you must be driver and engineer, and in real life drivers just tell engineer how car behaves and engineer setting it