GT - Future Seasons ideas thread

I'd like to see qualifying changed in future. As it is at the moment, you can put in a week of practice and get outqualified by other drivers who can't do the same lap time but are lucky enough to get behind the right driver or have a friend/s in their division to work with to slipstream. The regulations were changed this season to stop fuel burning supposedly to make qualifying more about who is actually deserving of the place on the grid but all it's done is make qualifying entirely about slipstreaming.

It'll be interesting to see how the 1 hot lap qualifying works in the SCNG series, might be an option for Sunday season

Adding to the 1 hot lap qualifying idea, we had it successfully introduced for the FIA World Finals and it was able to be effectively done in a 10minute quali setting which aligns well with our current qualifying time.
For those that haven’t seen it, the process was as follows:

• The group of drivers were split into 2 groups (Order was by overall FIA season results, for ROOZ it could be done by current championship order)
• When the 10 minute session begins, in order, each driver from Group 1 were released at 10 seconds intervals. We were told our time to go before the session started. (Strict rules were in place that you could not slow down on your warm up and must ensure you maintain the gap to the vehicle ahead and behind, before your 1 x flying lap begins)
• When each driver from group 1 crosses the line to complete their 1 x flying lap, they exit back to the pits.
• At the 5min mark, it’s a repeat process for group 2 drivers at 10 second release intervals.

The group timing worked well as it ensured all Group 1 drivers would complete an outlap and hot lap before the 5min mark when Group 2 would begin.
This qualifying process is undoubtedly the best feature that GT introduced to FIA world tour events and offers a solution for the issue of slipstream that is a massive advantage within this game. It also can make qualifying very unpredictable and exciting.

Obviously in a round where we use a track that is really long, you would not have 2 groups and just have each driver go out at 10 second intervals - in order from current championship position.

Unfortunately you can’t turn off slipstream in GT, only the strength, which currently we have set at REAL. Any other setting and it’s actually stronger….. lol

This is a very good idea, probably worth giving it a shot. Everyone just goes out for a 'top 16 shootout' type deal. Sounds awesome.

This is the intent of SCNG on Thursday nights, though maybe less strict and formal on the release times and 2 groups. Also lobby settings won't allow for choosing tyres after qualifying so were going to run in practice mode with fuel on board

How do you keep cars apart though if there are multiple laps? Maybe it would work for a 2 hot lap quali but I think more than that and it would get messy and impossible to police. If it was done in two lots, two room captains, one goes in each session and the other spectates to ensure compliance, making it 2 laps(so 3 laps total) would probably increase qualifying time to 15 mins total

Potential (if a little painful) solution
You could set a 3-4 lap race with 0x fuel consumption and 0x tyre wear, with 3 minutes end of race timer.
Use the first lap to set intervals and it would allow 2-3 hotlaps.
Race results could then be viewed in lobby to view the fastest laps which would then be used to set the grid (manually).
The replay of said race could be used to later verify that no one got a tow to set their fastest lap.
Race settings would then be set and away we go.

Or, we could just use the current setup and have a gentlemen's agreement just to not use a tow in qualifying

There is no perfect solution unfortunately.

All of these ideas have merit, as does the tried and tested 10min qually. Slipstream being used has never bothered me either, but I do prefer to come out last with clear air and vision, and am willing to trade that for some maybe getting a slippy.
My problem is different specs for qually and racing. The reasons for this change have been discussed above, but it is unrealistic and creates problems of its own. The main one being a different handling car in qually compared to the race, lighter and no tyre wear. This is hard if you can't practice, and is also unrealistic. If you can't hot lap for 10mins or atleast 8min, tyre wear is too high. If it is worthwhile to burn fuel in qually rather than hotlap, fuel consumption is too high.

Very good points, however it will always be beneficial to conserve tyres/fuel burn, no matter how high/low the wear rates are, at least in the higher divs. Any advantage that can be gained, will be gained, and can often be the difference between pole and somewhere outside the top 10, sadly.

I had contemplated something very similar to this for SCNG even just for the single lap qualifying, but yeah, didn't want to bother with all the manual grid setting each round so stuck with practice mode and 2-5 second gaps.