CDA4 Audi EVO 2 Release Notes

Welcome to the Audi R8 GT3 EVO 2 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 CDA4 Audi R8 setups. Please carry on reading below to see what our team found:

Brands Hatch

Soft suspension is used for good mechanical grip.
Higher bumpstop ranges on the front provide rotation and kerb compliance.
Lower bumpstop range on the rear combined with the soft suspension provides good traction with the necessary on power rotation.

Misano

A decent amount of front range is used to help kerb compliance at the first corners.
A soft suspension setup is used to provide the best grip which works well with the bumpstops needed for the kerbs.

Nurburgring

The kerbs and bumps present a challenge for this car, thus the dampers and bumpstops are set to make these easier, compromising the general balance but can be tuned through ride height, diff and toe settings.
The safe set is aimed more towards better traction and more predictable over kerbs but will be slower overall.
Electronics are important to the entry and exit of corners, with higher values of TC and ABS making it easier to drive.
It’s important to trail brake hard into the corners to get it to rotate.

Paul Ricard

The primary focus at Paul Ricard is traction for the slow speed corners and enough stability into the fast right at the end of the back straight.
In order to make this combination work, the front bumpstop range has been reduced significantly with a soft ARB configuration to help the car ease into the long flowing corners of the circuit.
Additionally the rear rebound and front bump have been stiffened. This provides better pitch control into high speed braking zones and helps in making the trail braking a little more forgiving.
The preload has also been dropped as this will help the car maintain optimal rotation through slow speed corners.

Paul Ricard – V2

Front bumpstop rate has been lowered to allow more rotation through high speed corners. The rake has been raised on top of that as well.
As the car has more stability, the brake bias was lowered to shorten braking distance and improve entry rotation.
Slight bump damper changes for more grip.

Silverstone

A low front bumpstop range is needed to keep the car stable in Copse. The ARBs have been set up to maintain a good balance for rotation through high speed corners.
In order to get the car more mechanically planted in low speed however the springs on the rear have been softened compared to the front.
A stiffer front damper configuration ensures that the car has enough agility and response into high speed corners.

Spa Francorchamps

The setup for Spa uses quite a large bumstop range on the rear to improve overall traction and stability through direction changes. The bumpstops on the front have been adjusted to provide optimal grip through Eau Rouge and to prevent the car from bottoming out at Radilion.
The ARBs have also been stiffened to ensure that the car does not roll too much, given the bumpstop ranges have been increased.
The rear toe has also been adjusted to a positive value to give a bit more stability into corner entries.
As seen on other tracks, a high wing configuration works well for the Audi, so low downforce setups have not been created. The safer variant keeps the car more planted through the downhill sections and provides better traction through slow speed corners, at the expense of some extra understeer.

Suzuka

High wing setup used for many high speed corners.
Fast Dampers tuned to give neutral to understeer reaction to kerbs to avoid any spinning through entry to the Degners.
Softer springs and roll bars used to improve cornering and traction.
Bumpstops short on the front to minimize pitch sensitivity, with longer bumpstops on the rear.
Safe setup uses shorter front bumpstop, softer rear springs, and less aggressive roll bar settings to give a more predictable and stable handling car.
Qualifying setup uses more aggressive settings suited to the lower fuel loads.

Zandvoort

The car has been softened quite a bit on the suspension settings, but still runs low enough bumpstop range to prevent too much roll in the higher speed sections.
The front dampers are run stiff to help in maintaining roll control and also preventing the front suspension from being underdamped in the bumpier sections of the track.
Tyre temperature management is always quite difficult at Zandvoort and the tyres sometimes end up being above 100 degrees celsius. Having done some tests it has been confirmed that the best way to control this is to run a slightly stiffer car. Although this seems counter intuitive, it is important to note that a soft car loads the car mechanically longer. Even though the grip improves, the tyres also heat up more since the car can be pushed closer to the limit. When this is done on a temperature prone track, it becomes an issue.
However, having tested more it has been confirmed that this temperature level has minimal effect on performance currently, so a softer setup has been maintained to improve driveability.
If temperature management becomes a concern in a longer endurance race, consider running a slightly stiffer ARB confrontation with the same ratio. Changing wheel rate settings is inadvisable as this would cause more pitch balancing problems.

Zolder

The starting point of this setup was Zandvoort, as both are circuits with similar characteristics of long speed corners. We realised the car lacked a bit of traction, so we ran the lowest rear wheel rate to ease this problem.
In exchange for this, we increased the rear ARB, also to control the roll. With this change the car felt with better rotation, but we reverted the change in the safe setup to make it easier to control
We reduced to 0.0 the rear toe to maximise the contact patch of the rear wheels and improve the traction in corner exit
For the safe setup, it is advisable to increase the TC to 2, as it is in the setup. If it feels confident, you can reduce to TC1
For the qualifying setup we increased the roll stiffness in the rear by a higher anti roll bar and lower bump stop range. This way it is faster in the corner entry and easier to attack the corners. The rotation also feels improved.

Barcelona

The car can be quite sensitive to setup changes and given the varied nature of the track, compromises will need to be taken to maintain enough stability at high speed with traction and rotation at low speed.
It is traction limited in general so you need to be careful to not be too aggressive with your throttle application.
While the diff and rear toe can have a big effect on car balance and help solve any instability issues, the TC and ABS can be put higher for more confidence, however, for corner entry and exit.

Barcelona – V2

The ARBs in the updated version have been stiffened to support the overall higher rear downforce without having to change the ride height.
To complement these changes, the dampers have also been adjusted and these changes have helped in regaining the mechanical grip lost from the stiffer ARBs.
These changes have been done in order to avoid a ride height change which could cause, ride height being a parameter which will have a greater effect on mechanical grip as the stint goes on.

Donington Park

Stiffer roll bar combo is used to provide stable aero and easy entry coming into the old hairpin.
Low rear bumpstop range provides less roll on the rear and therefore a more predictable handling. To maintain grip, the rate also has been lowered.
On the back many settings are already used to provide a lot of grip so further adjustment could be done by stiffening the front.
This track has a lot of long exits and as the car doesn’t provide a lot of rear traction it’s down to the driver to optimise them. All the rotation should be done on brakes or while coasting. When applying throttle on exit, your steering should be as straight as possible. “Slow in fast out” seems the optimal way.

Donington Park – V2

Lower preload to allow sharper entry to the chicane.
Higher front rebound to provide better mid corner rotation but also to control oscillations in the chicane.
Significantly more rear ride height to gain rotation as the car doesn’t have the snappy behaviour anymore.
Quali setup also has a higher rear arb for more rotation and responsiveness.

Laguna Seca

Raising the front arb gives a lot more control of rotation with your steering wheel. Soft front arb will require you to control the pitch of the car with the pedals.
Positive rear toe doesn’t work to control oversteer as it creates more notchy. behaviour in the rear. Neutral toe allows the rotation with slight tire slip to be smooth.
Lowering the preload increases the traction in low speed and also helps with rotating the car in the downhill section of sector 3.
The car has very good clearance so you can cut the corkscrew a lot to gain some time.
Rear bumpstop range has a lot of steps so it’s a good tool to fine tune the grip and rotation on power to one’s liking.
Softening the front rebound helps make the transition between braking and going back on power easier (less oversteer).

Laguna Seca – V2

A bit of negative toe in the rear to make the T2 exit smoother. Positive or neutral values give a more snappy behaviour while breaking traction.
Lower preload, higher rake and stiffer rear arb have been utilised to overall provide more rotation.
Higher front rebound provides a smoother ride through corkscrew but also makes the mid corner a bit more aggressive. Rear rebound has been softened to allow easier rotation at the downhill section in S3.

Kyalami

The track does not have many kerbs that can particularly unsettle the car despite having many small dips on the track surface. Hence the bumpstop ranges can be run a bit lower without risking hitting the bumpstops too hard.
This also helps stabilise the car downhill through the long right hander.
A stiffer front spring additionally helps in pitch control. The dampers have been stiffened on the front to match the stiffer front springs. The stiffer front rebound also maintains more weight on the front tyres.
Since the entire car has been set up with pitch stability and rotation control in mind, the preload has also been increased. This will help in maintaining high speed rotation post apex without risking excess understeer.

Kyalami – V2

The quali setup was the only setup that needed an adjustment.
The car just needed a bit more agility overall so the rear ride height has been increased. If the change is too aggressive, consider using the previous version as it is still viable, similar to the race fast and safe variants.

Hungaroring

The rear traction is best to tune with rear bumpstops. Higher range and lower rate can both be utilised with no downsides to the car’s behaviour over kerbs.
Adding more positive rear toe can help with oversteer during initial throttle applications on corner exits.
It’s best to gain rotation by softening the front as the rear is already struggling to provide enough grip to rear wheels.
To get easier transitions between braking and going on power, both fast and slow front rebounds should be softened together.
RS setup runs extra front ride height to make cutting of the chicane less risky.
In terms of driving style, going through the hairpins with a V line works best. Go a bit deeper into the corner and get a straighter exit. This will help control wheel spin in slow exits and tire temps crucial for overall grip.

Hungaroring – V2

Slight changes to alignment in the RF setup. More negative toe in front will provide more rotation on inside kerbs. Rear toe has also been lowered to rotate the car on power more easily.
Rake has been kept the same but the rear arb is significantly stiffer to provide rotation and quick direction changes.
Preload has been lowered to easily rotate the car and tighten the line through hairpins.

Monza

From many variations of bumpstops and wheel rates, the soft spring and low bumpstop range gave the most stability over the Ascari exit kerb. What seems to unsettle the car the most is holding too much steering input when attacking the sausage kerb so it’s necessary to get a tight line through the middle of Ascari.
Raising the front for the RS setup helped the car with potential loss of control while exiting Ascari but a tight line is still needed to get a fast and clean run out of the corner.
RF setup has a bit stiffer rear damper setup to eliminate roll and provide a lot of rotation on exits.
Q setup has increased negative front toe to help with more aggressive entries but it makes the car prone to getting pulled to the inside by kerbs, especially in the last corner.

Monza- V2

To achieve more overall rotation the front bumpstop range has been raised and the rear arb stiffened. Higher rake is avoided so as not to increase the drag of the car.
The bump damping has been softened to provide more grip
Front rebound has been significantly stiffened in order to provide mid corner rotation but also to handle the kerbs in Ascari better.

Imola

We found that the maximum wing works best in this car, especially here.
We set the softest spring to help drive the kerbs smoothly
We found the car very unstable in the rear, so we set 63 mm of rake, which is quite low, but that way we have the turn in we want. In contrast, we set very stiff ARBs in the front and soft in the rear, to make it neutral in corner entry.
Minimum toe in the rear to maximize traccion.
For the safe setup, we put less rake and minimum rear ARB, with softer bump stop in the rear.
It is highly recommended to run TC3 in qualifying but switch to TC2 in the hairpin.

Mount Panorama

Stiffer bar at the rear to stabilise the rear.
Little rake and high wing to have the car stable on the downhill.
Negative toe-in for good turn-in in qualifying.
Low bumpstops for good stability in high-speed turns

Snetterton

The main focus for Snetterton has been to get the rear end grip out of slow speed corners as high as possible without compromising on the exit rotation, thereby trying to avoid understeer.
The rear ride height has been increased to improve overall rotation and the traction issue has been fixed with the softer rear suspension.
In order to maintain enough load on the front going out of fast corners, the front rebound damping has also been stiffened. This will help avoid initial understeer going out of corners.
Due to this unique combination of settings and demanding nature of the track, the setup is quite agile in its balance on both setups. The safe setup is very similar in it’s balance and performance compared to the fast setup, but is more forgiving at the cost of slightly lower cornering speed.
The car fundamentally requires good throttle control, more so in a track that has multiple harpins such as Snetterton. It also grips up quite well on the front tyres, so minimal steering inputs would be optimal.

Snetterton – V2

Much more aggressive arb combo. Softer front arb will provide more rotation through hairpins. The front bump damping also has been softened. Stiffer rear arb provides a sharp entry to the 90 degree corners as well as good rotation through fast sections.
To control grip and stability with new arbs, the front springs were stiffened to provide easy braking after the back straight. Softer rear springs provide better grip on exits of hairpins.
For better high speed rotation the front bumpstop rate has been significantly lowered. The range is a step lower so as to not impact the low speed too much.
More aggressive aero with both front and rear heights changed.

Oulton Park

Suspension and dampers are tuned to help with the bumpy track and the kerbs.
Stiffer roll bars are used to provide the agility needed in the high speed corners, with softer suspension providing the traction and grip at low speed.
If traction on exits where the car has one side off the track on the astro turf is a major issue, adding some rear toe can help.

Oulton Park- V2

The main adjustments in version 2 were in the dampers. The front rebound has been stiffened quite significantly and the rear bump softened.
The rear rebound has also been stiffened. All these changes make the car much more predictable into high speed corners. It also makes the car rotate by a similar amount as before but with much better traction.
The car does however have a tendency to understeer if pushed over the limit so taking an appropriate line into the corners is very important, considering checking the Quali lap video to understand the approach.

Watkins Glen

High Downforce, medium rake used for best mix of rotation and stability with all the high speed corners.
High caster with reasonably conservative alignment values used.
Soft rear springs, shorter bumpstops, and reasonably stiff roll bars also used to add stability along with a reasonable strength preload, if you are experiencing entry oversteer, extra preload might be a good ‘quick fix’.
Stiffer dampers to cope with kerbs and bumps.
Safe setup uses higher front ride height to minimise impact on the kerbs and higher preload for more entry stability. Slight alignment changes were also made.
Qualifying setup uses more aggressive roll bar and spring values, along with alignment changes to optimise 1 lap pace.

COTA

Lower rear ranges are used for the necessary on power rotation with soft wheel rates and low bump dampers providing traction
High front range gives the ability to use kerbs through the esses.

COTA- V2

The rear ARB has been stiffened to improve general rotation of the car through the high speed corners, due to the understeer that the rear aero changes has caused in the latest patch.
The dampers on the front end have been adjusted so that the car does not break traction while throwing the car into the corners, an effect that is a by-product of the rear ARB change.
This has also improved the general response of the front end making the car much more stable through the esses in the first sector.

Indianapolis

Exit traction is challenging at Indy, therefore softer suspension is used for mechanical grip. Not too soft though as stability is needed for the quick change of direction in the middle sector
If the car is too loose in qualy on exits, try adding some rear toe.

Valencia

Very stiff arbs and wheel-rate to increase turn-in stability.
Low rake to maximise traction, as the car already has very good rotation.
Rear bump on 0 helps a lot with stability under braking and in general the balance of the car.
For the Quali setup, we raised the toe-in and raised the front bumpstops to have a more aggressive car, if the car is too aggressive you can use the RF setup even in qualifying.

Team List

Please note, sessions with no engineer shown were solo sessions:

Track	Driver	Engineer
Barcelona	David Pertile	Nick Deeley
Hungaroring	Hubert Szymanski
Imola	Amedeo Dekeyser	Miguel Jimenez
Kyalami	Amedeo Castorino	Saiduth Ramesh
Laguna Seca	Hubert Szymanski
Misano	Taariq Adam
Monza	Hubert Szymanski
Mount Panorama	Amedeo Castorino
Nurburgring	David Pertile	Nick Deeley
Paul Ricard	Hubert Szymanski	Saiduth Ramesh
Spa Francorchamps	David Pertile	Saiduth Ramesh
Suzuka	Amedeo Dekeyser	Rob Taplin
Zandvoort	David Pertile	Saiduth Ramesh
Zolder	Amedeo Dekeyser	Miguel Jimenez
Brands Hatch	Taariq Adam
Donington	Hubert Szymanski
Oulton Park	Taariq Adam
Snetterton	Hubert Szymanski	Saiduth Ramesh
Silverstone	Amedeo Castorino	Saiduth Ramesh
Watkins Glen	Luka Berk	Rob Taplin
Indianapolis	Taariq Adam
COTA	Taariq Adam
Valencia	Amedeo Castorino