F1 2012 – General Discussion

[Mark29]

In the car setup screen, when adjusting brake bias the description below says that adjusting the bias either way increases the braking distance. However, my understanding was that front bias would reduce braking distance but with an increased chance of lock ups. Is it me that's wrong or the game?

[ARandyRancor · Accepted solution]

Front bias leads to more understeer undeer braking. Rear bias leads to oversteer. 

But whichever way you look at it, braking distances are longer in both instances if front or rear..

Also, braking pressure is either high or low. The brakes a more powerful and responsive at high pressure so you will brake earlier, which will sacrifice corner exit speed. this can also result iin a high chance of locking up, whereas low pressure will require later braking for quicker and smoother exiting of corners.

The game is correctomondo!

Hope this helped.  

[veyronfan]

Did you mean that the other way around? coz if you have high pressure with more braking power as you said then you would brake later not earlier. More powerful brakes = later braking

[Mark29]

@Randy - Ok I think I understand. Thanks for clearing that for me.

[DNW]

Well, I had an essay length written up to basically say why it's a pointless explanation, but the forum just wiped it for me and I can't be bothered typing it all again.

In a nutshell, "braking distances are longer" is a bit pointless. You use different bias settings for different things. Yes rear bias will lengthen the distance in heavy braking as the car pitches forward, the weight goes to the front, and you have to back off earlier as the downforce comes off. But with the front tyres less occupied with stopping the car, they have more grip available to be able to turn in with more speed as you trail the brakes (and hopefully don't get the rear end of the car horribly wrong). Front bias, yes you can wipe off a bunch of speed quickly, but there's the risk of locking them up, as well as having to take a slower entry speed so you don't have to be trailing the brakes so much.

Ideally the bias would shift as you go from heavy braking to backing off to turning in, but good luck doing that while you're trying to modulate the brake pedal properly, shift down the gears, and sight your turn in.

Point is, every braking zone and corner are different, and then there's different driving styles on top of that. "Longer braking distances" is pretty much the most pointless thing they could have choesn to point out in the description.

This is all of course just plain ignoring things like tyre wear and brake temperatures.