Driving with assists can make a racing experience
more enjoyable, but to truly go faster, there
is only one you must learn to drive without.
Today, we’re looking at Manual Gears.
Hey everyone, hope you’re all doing well
today. My name is PJ and today I’ll show
you how to drive with Manual Gears in F1 2020.
We’ll be covering how they work, how you
learn, and some advanced techniques along
the way.
If this is your first time here and you want
to learn how to get good at racing games,
I have several guides available. You can subscribe
to check them out but for now, let’s get
started.
Every racing engine has a certain rev range
where it produces optimum performance, delivering
as much power and torque to the wheels as
possible, and staying within this range is
the key to great laptimes.
In order to keep the engine revving in this
optimum window, most racing cars use a system
of gears to control this. If the revs are
too high, the driver will shift up, and if
the revs are too low, the driver will shift
down.
In F1 2020 you can choose to have the game
shift automatically for you, or take control
yourself and change gears whenever you like.
Depending on the circuit, a driver will change
gears up to 70 times per lap, which is a lot
to think about when you also have to accelerate,
brake, turn, battle other drivers and more.
It can be tempting to leave your gears on
Automatic and not worry about this, however
doing so will impact your performance. This
is because the game will generally lean towards
the conservative side when managing gear changes,
often shifting up or down too early, and not
using the full performance range of the engine.
By changing gears manually you unlock the
full potential of the engine, while also having
the opportunity to use more advanced techniques.
Before that however, let’s start with the
basics.
Upshifting is generally the easiest thing
to understand when using Manual Gears. As
you accelerate, keep an eye on your display,
and pay attention to what you hear. The engine
noise will increase in pitch as you rise through
the revs, and eventually your display will
light up with different colours.
When you reach the end of the red lights,
change up to the next gear. If you’re having
trouble identifying the right time to change
up a gear, there is a handy audio option you
can turn on; you’ll hear a beep when it’s
time to shift.
In some scenarios however you may want to
stay in a certain gear instead of shifting
up, such as when you’re mid-corner. Formula
1 cars tend to turn better in lower gears
so taking a corner in high third may end up
more useful than taking it in low fourth for
example.
If you shift too late, you will eventually
stop going faster, the car can only reach
a certain top speed in each gear. This also
damages the engine, something to consider
when playing in My Team or Career.
If you shift too early, the engine will have
very low revs in the next gear. This limits
how much power is delivered to the rear wheels
and in most cases you want to avoid this,
however it does open up an advanced and very
useful technique.
Short-shifting is the act of deliberately
upshifting early in order to limit how quickly
the rear wheels will spin. This is exceptionally
useful in low-grip situations like when exiting
a slow corner, driving on cold tyres, or racing
in the rain.
Also, if you sense the car is about to slide,
shifting up immediately can help catch the
slide before you lose control.
As you begin to accelerate, focus on shifting
up before any of the lights come on the display.
The engine will also sound different to when
you shift normally, with a lower tone. Some
cars display the rev lights differently to
others, but after trying this for a while
you’ll get a sense for how early to change.
Naturally however, what comes up must come
down, so let’s shift gears in the other
direction now.
Downshifting works in a similar fashion to
upshifting, only in the opposite direction.
When the revs are dropping, you will want
to shift down to the next gear in order to
bring the revs back into the ideal range again.
If you shift down too late, you will gently
slow the car down, however in Formula 1 you
want to reduce speed as quickly as possible,
so fast downshifting is important in heavy
braking zones.
If you shift down too early, the engine will
over-rev. This can cause significant damage
if done too often or too quickly, however
shifting down relatively quickly opens up
another important technique you will want
to master.
Engine braking is the process of rapidly downshifting,
stressing the engine so much that you force
it to slow down. This, combined with the brakes
and downforce makes a Formula 1 car come to
a complete stop in a very short distance,
and is the reason they can brake so late into
corners.
Engine braking also reduces stability at the
rear of the car, due to all of the forces
being placed on the rear wheels. In some corners
this can be very useful as it helps you turn
into the corner more, but overdo it and you’ll
spin out of control.
The ideal way to handle downshifting is to
establish a solid rhythm, and that starts
by keeping count.
When you’re first learning to drive with
Manual Gears it can be tempting to keep your
eye on the display all the time so that you
nail your shift points, but you’ll soon
realise that doing that while driving is a
significant challenge. That is why you will
need to learn how to shift without looking.
As mentioned previously, the engine noise
will change as you go through the gears, and
over time you will get a feel for how the
engine should sound when it’s time to shift.
Once you understand this, shifting without
looking will be easy.
The second part of this equation is to keep
track of what gear you’re in, and what gear
you plan to be in when you slow down. What
I like to do when driving is keep a count
in my head, this also helps me set my rhythm
when I’m downshifting. A typical straight
and corner might sound like five, six, seven,
eight…., seven, six, five, four, three,
and hold for the turn.
A quick glance of the display when on the
straights helps me keep my count in check,
but in most scenarios I can drive without
looking at the display at all, and in some
games I disable it entirely.
Now that you know how to drive a car with
Manual Gears, put those skills to the test
by learning how to drive without Traction
Control, or combine both skills to drive in
the Wet, you’ll find videos of both on the
screen now.
In the meantime, subscribe for future videos,
thanks for watching, and good luck on-track.
I’ll catch you all again soon, farewell.
