Hello everyone, what a world of discussion!
Reading the note about strategy, I thought of something to point out.
I agree that the most strategy comes in with your last pit stop. The strategy in deciding how much fuel to finish off the race, since every time before that you would get a full tank. You can stay for the 3sec and get a quick shot of fuel, or you can stay a few seconds longer to get a full tank.
But for the amount of time you lose in the pits it doesn't seem to be worth trying to get just the right amount fuel. You will only lose about 2 laps to completely fill up your car, and by staying in for a second or two less, you might gain a half a lap or so. But, by staying in a little less you run the risk of having to pit again because you run out of fuel. So, you might as well play it safe. Thus, your strategy won't matter much in the end, unless everyone is within 1 or 2 laps of each other, which is very rare.
However, there could be plenty of strategy when doing a longer enduro.
Since we control how much fuel is used, based on lap times, and how much fuel you start with, how long it takes to start getting fuel, and how long it takes to completely fill up a tank.... there are lots of possibilities.
One example would be that you burn very little fuel when turning an average lap time, like 5sec. Then if you go faster than, say 4.5sec, you burn a significantly larger amount of fuel. And if you break under 4sec you use lots and lots of fuel that lap. This would force people to think about driving conservatively. You would have the choice to drive "slow and steady" to win the race, or drive as fast as possible to win the race. This would add a little more realism to enduros, like racecar drivers do in really racing.... you usually see them go really fast to get an early lead, and then they slow down to a steady pace. When the end of the race gets closer, everyone picks up speed to move up a position or two.
My question to you guys is:
What do you think about experimenting like this for enduros?