Continental GT3 Release Notes

Welcome to the Continental GT3 release notes blog. In this page you will find the detailed notes compiled by the team after each session when creating the fast and safe variants of the new CDA3 Continental setups. In addition, a complete list of the driver and engineer combinations for each track is present so customers can see which driver and engineer worked on that circuit when looking for setup trends.

Note, some tracks required more notes and instruction than others. This is determined by how the car behaved in the session or how much scope for change in the setup there was.

To view the notes and team list, see below:

Brands Hatch

• Brands Hatch uses the combination of the Oulton Park suspension configuration and the Indianapolis dampers approach for providing high speed stability and optimal rear traction respectively. 
• The front ARB is run slightly stiffer than other tracks. It appears that a very soft ARB around here destabilises the aero more than the effect seen on other tracks, mostly due to the corners speeds, bumps and off cambered nature of many turns on the circuit. 
• The front dampers have been adjusted quite a bit in order to accommodate more compliance as the stiffer front ARB would take away a little mechanical stability on the front end. These changes along with a higher rear ride height and lower front ride height have ensured that the car performs optimally on different types of corners in the circuit. 
• The safe setup runs a lower rear ride height and adjusted front bumpstop ranges to make the car more safe on mid/exits of corners as well as provide better entry stability into the first and last corners on the track. 

Misano 

• The car is very sensitive to front springs and front ARB changes so it is advisable not to change those values too much.
• The suspension has been softened with respect to the old setup with heavy emphasis on roll stiffness and rear damper changes. In general the balance is more oversteer biased than the previous setup on entry with rear end stability regained on exit. 
• The preload is also quite powerful around Misano so adding more clicks will greatly improve entry stability. It will however start showing its impact on traction in the 2nd sector. 
• For more stability consider changing the bumpstop ranges by a few clicks. Lower front range and more rear range will make the car understeer more in general but will greatly improve the driveability of the car and is a decent option for longer races. 
• The front dampers have also been stiffened quite a bit with respect to the previous setup in order to compensate for the extra entry pitch into the faster corners. 

Nurburgring

• The car is setup towards the softer side, particularly with wheel rates, to help generate overall grip and help over kerbs as the roll bars are set relatively stiff to control roll in quick direction changes.
• Although the car appears to have bad BOP here, it is still a good car to drive in long endurance races as it’s easy, enjoyable to drive, predictable over kerbs and looks after its tyres.
• ABS can kick in quite heavily and can easily miss T1. If you want to avoid lock ups, look to change the brake bias instead.

Paul Ricard

• For the Paul Ricard setup we used the Zolder fast set as a baseline and the wing has been trimmed down to optimise straight line speed. Typically a reasonable amount of downforce is still required to get the car stable and rotating well through the fast right hander at the end of the long straight. 
• In order to get better rotation through the slow speed corners (since the rear ride height has been dropped for the lower wing) the front ARBs and dampers have also been adjusted.
• Bumpstop ranges on the front and rear have been tweaked to get less pitch and more entry stability into faster corners. The rear bumpstop adjustments have been made to improve traction through the slower corners of sector 3. 
• In order to get more stability for the safe setup, an extra click of rear wing has been given at the expense of 1 kph of top end speed at the straight. As a result the car is more predictable through the higher speed corners and this is a good alternative for longer endurance races. The fast setup has a lot of potential and is an optimal choice for sprint races. 

Silverstone

• Some large changes from the earlier CDA3 setup due to the change to the toe alignment meta settings. (going from toe in, to toe out on the rear makes a large difference to the rest of the setup philosophy).
• Stereotypical traction issues with the Bentley still exist, though the car has been set up to minimise these effects as best as possible, TC5 can be used to help if needed.
• Stiffer bumpstops with range are used to control higher speed/load movement whilst still leaving the car to be compliant at lower speeds.
• Safe setup uses a shorter front, and longer rear bumpstop with the aim to give more stability on entry and exit, along with TC5.

Spa Francorchamps 

• Really easy through Eau Rouge if you don’t give the car too much steering angle for too long.
• In order to make the car safer, you can either go down the aero or mechanical grip route, depending on where you need the car balance to be more understeer biased. Having a lower rear wheel rate and/or rear ARB will help more throughout sector 2. with a lower rear ride height and/or higher wing helping for the high speed sections in sectors 1 and 3.
• The low bumpstop ranges are key to preventing the car bottoming out through Eau Rouge resulting in a loss of control.
• The Bentley is a good car to rotate on brake, so especially through turn 11 and turn 13 you can use that by just slightly touching the brake and not turning too much

Suzuka 

• If needed to be safer, rear wheel rates and arbs can be used. But the car is already quite stable.
• Low front bumpstop range to help keep the car stable under braking as you have a lot of either heavy braking or trail braking or both. But soft wheel rates help over kerbs.
• Higher diff can be used to help keep the car stable throughout sector 1, especially in low grip conditions. Higher TC also helps but does make the car slower.
• Faster setup has a better potential and is more on edge but both setups are capable of the same lap time in an endurance race, just have different approaches to driving style.

Zandvoort

• Ride height can be a good tuning option to solve general balance issues, particularly with instability at high speed through sector 2.
• It’s recommended not go much lower on the brake bias because it introduces snaps on fast corner entry, however, going forward can be a quick fix to entry oversteer.
• 2nd and 3rd both work in the last but one corner. 2nd will give you more rotation. If you get the line correct, then 3rd will be quicker else you will understeer off on exit.

Zolder

• Using the Misano setup as a baseline, the high speed behaviour of the car through the flatter corners of sector 1 were already in a good window. Adjustments have been made to the front dampers to make the car a bit more compliant into faster corners since the high downforce corners are slightly longer at Zolder compared to Misano. 
• This has also had an effect on high speed damping in the chicane, and along with changes to the front ride height and front bumpstop values, the car is more manageable now on the two chicanes of the track. 
• A lower preload and higher rear ride height are used to aid in entry rotation since the higher front ride height costs general rotation around the lap. A stiffer rear wheel rate instead has been applied to counter this loss further and the car is in a good range for the fast setup. 
• In order to get the car safer in slow speed sections, consider increasing the rear bumpstop range by a few clicks and decreasing the rear bumpstop rate. 

Barcelona 

• The main focus for the Barcelona setup was to improve traction out of corners since many of the corners on the track have surface camber variations. Damper tuning on the rear suspension has been done to work around this issue. 
• The car also runs quite a soft rear suspension similar to other tracks whilst running quite stiff rebound dampers to stabilise the car into fast corners. Quite high bumpstop ranges have also been added to ensure maximum compliance through high speed corners. The bumpstop rates are also run slightly softer to improve stability on kerbs.

Donington Park 

• The car uses the front damper and suspension configuration from Zolder with a few changes to optimise the car through the chicane, keeping the aero balance in mind. 
• Adjustments have also been made to the rear slow speed dampers and preload to account for the off cambered throttle zones on the circuit. 
• For the chicane, focus on keeping a straight steering angle as the car is quite sensitive to tyre slip through mainly of the low traction zones on the track. This also applies to the right hander feeding onto the back straight (the straight leading up to the chicane). Try to hit an apex on this specific right hander. Going in too late and flooring the throttle with a lot of steering angle will snap the car because of the off cambered nature on that particular corner. 

Laguna Seca

• The low grip surface requires a soft car to get mechanical grip. In turn, a low bump stop range is needed to help with rotation.
• The car can get light over the crest into the corkscrew. Adjusting the brake bias forwards can help but if it’s a big enough issue then raising the diff preload can help.
• It is super important to be as close as possible to the sausage curbs on the inside of the corners. Sometimes if you are just a millimetre away from them you will already lose grip and therefore loose time.
• Front ride height is not minimum to keep the car off the floor through the corkscrew and following corner.

Kyalami

• The Kyalami setup runs a relatively stiff ARB combination to ensure that the car has decent direction changes and a stable aero platform for the twisty corners of the track. 
• It also runs a modified damper configuration to aid in traction and kerb absorption whilst still complementing the aero requirements for the high speed corners. Most of the other settings such as wheel rates, bumpstop range and bumpstop rates are similar to other tracks.
• For a more safe alternative consider dropping the preload and increasing the rear rebound damping by a few clicks for added off throttle stability and on throttle traction, at the cost of some high speed rotation. 
• A softer ARB configuration may make the car more compliant however from testing we have seen that it will also destabilise the aero forces on the car and will induce unpredictability in the higher speed sections. 
• If you prefer mechanical stability to aero stability, then consider dropping the front and rear ARB by 1 click.

Hungaroring

• The setup was already in a very good window so minimal changes were made.
• Overall stiffer wheel rates are used to gain back rotation due to high wing as it’s a high downforce track
• The car can be traction limited here due to the nature of the corners. Lowering the rear ride height can achieve this plus making the car safer under braking but you will lack rotation. A different approach could be to lower the diff as this can aid in entry rotation without sacrificing exit traction.

Monza

• For advanced drivers especially in the fast setup some TC changes to get the perfect lap with the current configuration being used. The main changes are 1st chicane TC2, 2nd chicane (after Cruva Grande) TC4, Lesmo 1 TC7, Lesmo 2 TC4, Ascarii TC7, and Parabolica TC5. 
• If you want to stick to one TC value for the entire lap, TC6 or TC7 are safe compromises. 
• To make the car safer consider adding more differential preload. With the current damper configuration, higher diff will give some more stability while running over camber changes on the surface of the track. The Lesmo corners are a good example of this phenomenon. 
• Softening the bumpstop rates could also work in stabilising the kerbs, however if that is the case consider also stiffening the fast dampers on the front and rear. This can also have a positive effect on traction, but also a little bit more understeer on high speed sections. 
• The safe setup can be run with TC5 with little problem, but it is certainly more understeer biased throughout the lap.

Imola

• Previous set already had a very good balance with tweaks made to the damping to help with kerb stability, particularly in sector 1. Increasing the bumpstop ranges can further help with kerb stability but with a cost of adding entry oversteer and exit understeer. This can be countered, however, by decreasing rear ride height or increasing diff preload.
• Front wheel rate can result in a big balance change, especially when combined with ride height changes, particularly in heavy braking zones.
• The car takes the last chicane very well – but it’s best to turn in early and take lots of kerb on the right hander.
• Aqua Minerale – Don’t brake too early, can go in quite hard into the corner as it needs the brake input to help settle the car, coasting will cause the car to oversteer. If your driving style is more coast orientated, then increasing the diff can help alleviate any oversteer problems you encounter at this corner.

Mount Panorama 

• For the Bathurst, the previous CDA version was a good starting point and the car was already in a decent working range for the track. We focused on optimising the stability of the car in the downhill sections whilst still getting more rotation on the high speed corners. 
• This was done by dropping the rear ride height in order to get stability and then a higher rear spring in order to maintain a higher effect ride height under full compression. A few clicks of differential preload were also added to get more stability off throttle through the downhill section. 
• For more stability down the hill it is advisable to add too much more rear wheel rate as this can start to have an effect on traction. Instead it is worth adding a click on the front wheel rate and then stiffening the front fast dampers to compliment this change for the bumpier sections of the track. 

Snetterton 

• Similar to the other tracks on the list, Snetterton also requires a common baseline suspension to be used. The main changes on the Snetterton setup lie in the dampers. 
• The high speed dampers have been stiffened to accommodate smoother kerb absorption due to the track surface and kerbs being more bumpy compared to Indianapolis. Ride height changes have also been done to provide better agility through the faster sections of the track. 
• A slightly lower preload is run to both aid in entry rotation and stabilise the rear of the car on hairpin exits and a stiffer rear spring helps in maintaining general rotation around higher speed corners. 

Oulton Park

• Oulton park has quite a bumpy track surface but also has very tight corner exits, so it is important to maintain enough response while still having a relatively soft suspension. 
• The ARBs are run quite soft with damper adjustments being done to compliment these effects. The ride heights have also been adjusted with respect to the Zolder setup in order to get more entry rotation through the final sector of the lap. 
• The safer setup runs an even softer rear ARB to aid in traction out the final right hander since the car has a tendency to get unsettled on the off cambered throttle zone. 
• The rear spring is also run a little softer in the safe setup. The car therefore doesn’t seem to be too sensitive to suspension changes. However it is quite sensitive to ride height and bumpstop range changes as this affects the aero balance around the tighter corners, so it is recommended not to change these values too much from what is present in both the fast and safe variants.

Indianapolis

• The Misano baseline was used to start off the setup for Indianapolis due to similarities in corner speeds, traction zones and track surface variations.
• The rear suspension has been adjusted quite a bit in terms of wheel rate and dampers to help in better traction out of the exits of slow speed corners. 
• To complement these changes and in order to prevent more understeer on high speed corners, the front dampers and suspension have also been tweaked slightly. 
• The car is quite sensitive to front range changes and rear ARB adjustments as they tend to destabilise the aero balance of the car more than other parts, so it is advisable not to change these settings too much. 
• Something unique about this setup is that the front rebound is softer than the front bump damping compared to other tracks, but the motec data is still rebound biased due to other parameters in the setup. The softer front rebound helps in better compliance through the second sector and is the reason that this current combination has been kept. 

COTA

• The optimal way to approach turn 1 is to clip the apex early and run the wide. Sticking to the inside line for too much time will destabilise the car on exit due to the camber change on the track. 
• The rear dampers have been made more rebound biased in order to help in braking stability as well as aid in traction. The front slow damping is also run slightly softer to improve compliance over the bumpier sections of the first sector. 
• A higher differential preload works in sync with the above mentioned changes to regain rotation on mid to late corner exits. Front bumpstop changes have also been made to reduce front end pitching and also control high speed roll without changing the ARBs (which would have affected mechanical stability significantly).

Watkins Glen

• The Watkins setup uses the Kyalami setup as a baseline since the off cambered nature of some of the corners would work well with the Kyalami suspension parameters. 
• Adjustments have been done to the front bumpstop range and differential to ensure that the traction and braking stability are better optimised through the second sector. The line needed for the chicane with the setup is quite narrow, if the kerbs are hit at the wrong angle it can destabilise the car slightly. Take a look at the onboard video to follow the optimal line through the chicane as the qualy lap uses similar dampers and ARB settings to the race setups. 
• If you want added stability through the chicane consider softening the ARBs by a click each and stiffening the fast dampers on both the front and rear by a few clicks. This will however have a negative impact on overall agility of the vehicle and will cause the car to become slightly unresponsive and a bit unpredictable in aero corners. 
• As we saw with other tracks the car is quite sensitive to ARB changes and wheel rate adjustments. If you want a bit more traction, consider increasing the rear bumpstop range and rate by a few clicks each.

Team List

Driver/Engineer Combination	Track
Taariq Adam/Saiduth Ramesh	Barcelona
Dennis Schoeniger/Nick Deeley	Hungaroring
Dennis Schoeniger/Nick Deeley	Imola
Gregor Schill	Kyalami
Gregor Schill	Laguna Seca
Taariq Adam/Saiduth Ramesh	Misano
Dennis Schoeniger/Nick Deeley	Monza
Jakob Ostermann/Saiduth Ramesh	Mount Panorama
Dennis Schoeniger/Nick Deeley	Nurburgring
Jakob Ostermann/Saiduth Ramesh	Paul Ricard
Jakob Ostermann/Nick Deeley	Spa Francorchamps
Jakob Ostermann/Nick Deeley	Suzuka
Dennis Schoeniger/Nick Deeley	Zandvoort
Taariq Adam/Saiduth Ramesh	Zolder
Taariq Adam/Saiduth Ramesh	Brands Hatch
Gregor Schill	Donington
Taariq Adam/Saiduth Ramesh	Oulton Park
Taariq Adam/Saiduth Ramesh	Snetterton
Luka Berk/Rob Taplin	Silverstone
Gregor Schill	Watkins Glen
Taariq Adam/Saiduth Ramesh	Indianapolis
Dennis Schoeniger/Saiduth Ramesh	COTA