The development of the car is crucial in order to deliver a car that can bring your drivers to the top spot of the podium. It's very important to keep developing a car as the car is the most important attribute in a low lap time.

Prerequisites

Development plans are based on concepts which are discovered in Research. In order to start development, a concept needs to be discovered first.

Basic information

Designer points

Points are required to create development plans. These plans allow you then to create effective parts that can be mounted to a car on the Cars page. The plans can be re-developed into a better plan until there is no more potential for improvement (based on the concepts' maximum potential value for the current season).

Depending on the part being developed, the points that it takes varies. A chassis will take the most points to develop and should be started as soon as possible on.

Designer

Before work can take place, a head designer needs to be assigned on the Staff page. The design team determine the modifiers. These modifiers are not immediately changed when changes are made, but theses values gradually increase or decrease after a change.

Rating

The rating of each part will tell you how the performance of the part is compared to the competition in the current division that we're in. This will only be shown once the part has done a certain mileage. The mileage needed varies from part to part. Once the rating is shown, the characteristics are shown as well. How well the part is doing versus the competition is also shown in the Competitors table.

Potential

As long as the potential has not been reached, the rating will be lower than the potential. The potential is taken from the concept that the development is based on.

Development project

Once you start to create a project you enter the development phase. In this phase you start the iteration from where you last left off when you finished the previous development project.

Characteristics

Every part has the following characteristics. Different types of parts differ in characteristics as well, but those will be discussed below. The specific characteristics of each part (which start under Weight) are the current values of each part. Every part that is produced will have a rating around this value.

Fine tuning

You can focus on all characteristics that will be described below, but there's also a special characteristic - finetune. Every part is designed for a specific chassis (as can be chosen when it's being developed). This doesn't mean that it won't be able to be mounted on other chassis, but it means that it will be made specifically for that chassis. The fine tuning characteristic looks at how well the parts work together. The chassis that it was built for has a certain way of how it is on track, and when parts are developed they have a way of how they work as well. With every iteration the parts will get closer to the chassis. That way the more iterations there are for each part, the more the car will work together as a whole.

Weight

Weight plays an important factor in the performance of the car. It's very important to keep this as low as possible.

Focus

With every part you can focus on a particular characteristic of the part. By focusing on a certain characteristic, you try to increase the level of that characteristic. You may fail and go back down one level, you may have no progress and the level will stay the same. Or you will succeed and increase the level. If you're really lucky, you may also increase 2 levels at once which is exceptional. The rating of the characteristic will improve or decrease depending on whether the level increased/decreased.

The focus chances of succeeding are heavily influenced by the design approach.

Design approach

When focusing on a characteristic the level may increase or decrease. This is heavily dependant on the design approach:

Aggressive: The designer will take more risk. This gives a higher chance of getting a breakthrough (one or more level increases), but also gives a higher chance of going backwards (level decreases).
Normal: The normal design chances.
Conservative: The designer takes almost no risk, and the chance that the level decreases is much lower.

Development in progress

Prerequisite

Before a development project can be started, the upgrade unlock progress percentage needs to be set at 100%. This is done by doing laps on track in the "Car development" program. The other programs also lead to an increase in progress, but at a much slower rate.

Iterate

Once a development project has been started, you can focus on the characteristics of the part that you wish to improve. Depending on the design approach, the levels will increase, stay the same or decrease. You need to focus (or iterate) on at least one characteristic before you can finish the project.

Reveal kilometers

Ideally, you can iterate the project multiple times. The more you iterate, the less kilometers it will take to get to know the actual result of the development project.

Success

Not every development project delivers the progress that is expected. Only by doing laps on track will the actual result become visible. If a project does not deliver what is expected, then the levels that were iterated during development will be lower than was shown. This information is visible on the development page while a project is not in development.

Parts

Chassis

The chassis is the single most important part of the car. Everything is built around the chassis, so it's vital to have a good chassis. Because of this the chassis also takes the longest to be developed. The wheelbase of the chassis is a unique characteristic of all parts to the chassis. A short wheel base will result in better cornering, but will affect the top speed of the car. A long wheel base will be the other way around; better top speed, but a negative effect on cornering. The medium length will be somewhere in the middle.

The other two characteristics of the chassis are aerodynamics and grip. Both play a very big role in the efficiency of both parameters, so it's very important to have them as high as possible. The aerodynamics play a big role in the speed and fast cornering of the car, while the grip parameter plays a big role in both slow and fast corners.

Gearbox

The gearbox is another very important aspect of the car. It is the part that takes the second longest to develop. There are two characteristics for the gearbox: shift time and reliable. Shift time explains itself, the higher this is rated the faster the gearbox will switch to another gear which is good for the speed of the car. The reliable characteristic determines how long the part will last and how correct the lifespan of the part is. A low reliability means that the gearbox won't last very long, and that you can't really trust the lifespan that is given when the part is produced.

Fuel tank

The fuel tank is used to feed fuel to the engine. The most important aspect of the fuel tank is weight. The fewer the tank weighs, the better the car will handle due to the lower weight. You can choose the capacity of the fuel tank when developing. The lower the capacity the fewer the tank will weigh, but the less options you have in choosing a race strategy.

Suspension

The suspensions prime functionality is to make sure the car sticks to the track by delivering good grip. This will improve the handling and cornering of the car a lot. The supsension influences the tire usage of the car as well.

Electrical system

The electrical system is what turns the car on and controls everything electronically. But its main purpose is to offer driving aids to the driver. It's not always allowed to use these aids, as the rules sometimes prohibit their usage. Traction control is a driving aid that improves the speed of the car. While ABS improves the cornering of the car by making sure the corners can be taken more quickly.

Steering system

The steering system delivers the input from the driver to the wheels. Its only special characteristic is the power steering aid that can be prohibited in the rules. This aid helps in the cornering of the car.

Floor

The floor is on the underbody of the car and is responsible for a lot of aerodynamics and mechanical grip. It is therefore an important part of the car.

Front wing

The front wing is the piece of the car that touches the air as the very first part. Therefore it has a significant influence on the cars aerodynamics and grip deliverance. The better the aerodynamics of the front wing, the better the speed and handling of the car will be. While the grip plays an influence on the handling and the cornering of the car.

Rear wing

The rear wing is a big part of the car, and therefore also has a significant influence on both the aerodynamics and the grip of the car. The aerodynamics improve the speed and the handling of the car, while the grip improves the handling and the cornering of the car.

Sidepods

The sidepods lead the airflow to the back of the car. Therefore the aerodynamics of the part should be quite good as it improves the handling of the car.

Airbox

The airbox is a relatively small part of the car, but it also has a slight influence on the aerodynamics of the car, that improves the handling of the car.

Diffuser

The diffuser is at the very back of the car and plays an influence in the grip of the car. It can offer really good grip at the back of the car, or no grip at all. It plays an influence in the handling and cornering of the car. Being a complex part, this part takes a while to develop as well.

Exhaust

The exhaust delivers the exhaust gasses from the engine to the back of the car. Due to the positioning of this part it can deliver extra grip to the car. This leads to an extra boost of the handling and cornering of the car.