We now support multiple drivers sharing a single team car in iRacing sessions!
Background
Specific iRacing series and special events, like the 24 Hours of Daytona and Nürburgring 24, will be set up for Team Driving.
Hosted Team Driving sessions can be created by enabling the "Team Driving" selection when setting up the session. Once enabled, you can then specify additional Team Driving related options. These include the minimum and maximum number of drivers that each team may field, which rules governing requirements for driver changes are to be enforced (if any), and whether or not only a team's qualifier is allowed to grid the car.
Rules Overview
- Each session will specify a minimum and maximum number of drivers that must drive for each team.
- Optionally, each driver on the team must drive a 'fair share' of laps. This Fair Share Rule is explained in more detail below.
- Optionally, the driver that set the fastest team lap in qualifying must be the driver to start the race for that team.
- Optionally, all drivers that will compete for a team in a session must be declared before the session starts. This Declare Drivers Rule is explained in more detail below. This rule will typically be enabled for iRacing series and events.
Note: All of these rules apply during qualifying and race sessions but not during open practice sessions.
Minimum and Maximum Driver Count Rules
Teams that do not meet the minimum and maximum driver count will be disqualified and will not scored. iRacing allows users to register 1-person teams for those that desire a personal challenge, but these teams will not be scored in the results.
Driver Fair Share Rule
The fair share rule exists to ensure all members of a team drive a substantial amount of time in a race and no members are allowed to field teams in which for example one user does 90% of the driving.
This rule will almost always be enabled in iRacing sessions, and is an option in hosted sessions.
A fair share is calculated as 1/4 of an equal share of the race distance. An equal share is calculated by simply dividing the number of laps by the number of drivers on a team and rounding down.
For example, Team Red consists of two drivers and they have determined their race will be approximately 200 laps. An equal share for each driver would be 200 laps divided by 2 drivers, or 100 laps per driver. A fair share then would be 1/4 of that value, or 25 laps per driver. This means if Driver A drove 25 laps and Driver B drove 175 laps they would meet this requirement. If Driver A drove 20 laps and Driver B drove 180 laps they would fail to meet this requirement as Driver A did not drive a fair share, and the team would be disqualified.
The Entries tab on the session screen in the simulation will show for each driver a display of the form
n/r(R)
Where
- n = laps driven
- r = the current required lap count for a fair share
- R = the estimated final required lap count for a fair share
It will be colored red if the team member has not driven enough laps to be considered official at this point in the race. It will be colored yellow if they have driven enough laps as of this point in the race, and it will be colored green if they have driven enough laps that they would be considered official at the current estimate of the number of laps that your team will complete in the session.
Additionally, the driver's F1/Lap Info black-box will have this same indicator, and the F3/Relative black box will have a simple "DC" indicator that is colored red/yellow/green as described above.
In time-limited sessions, the total number of laps in the session is not known ahead of time. The estimated number of laps required for each driver to be considered official will be recomputed periodically during the session. You should always be mindful that these are estimates. If the race runs under caution through much of the session, and runs under green-flag conditions late in the session, the estimated number of laps required per driver could grow. Don't wait to put a driver into the car for the final stint only to find that the number of laps they need has become larger than the number of laps remaining in the session!
Qualifying Driver Must Grid Rule
This rule exists to ensure that drivers grid for the race start in positions that accurately represent their own pace and not that of another team member.
When disabled, any member of the team may run qualifying laps in the car and any member may then start the race in the car. When enabled, any member of the team may run qualifying laps still, but whichever member sets the fastest qualifying lap must be the one to start the race in the car.
This will generally be disabled for Official iRacing sessions and is optional in hosted sessions.
Declare Drivers Rule
This rule exists to ensure that iRacing can more accurately create fair race splits based on team's actual iRating.
When enabled, a team registers for an event by declaring every driver that will race for that team in that session. Only those drivers declared during registration will be allowed to join the team and race in the session. All other users that are team members but not declared for the session will be able to join as spotter/crew. This allows iRacing to look at the iRatings of all drivers that will race in order to create splits.
Note that the Driver Fair Share Rule applies to all drivers that are declared. If Team Red declares 4 drivers and one is unable to join then that driver will fail to meet the fair share rule and the team will be disqualified.
When disabled, a team is registered for an event with a single driver and any number of team drivers can join the team during the session (based on predetermined access definitions - public, password protected, members only, etc). This means iRating used for splits is based only on those members registered.
Registration
The registration flow for declare driver sessions is substantially different than for those with the rule disabled, so they will be covered separately.
Declare Drivers Sessions
Any team member marked as an Admin is able to register a team.
After selecting a team, the admin must select each driver that will race on that team. The admin does not have to declare himself. The list of declared drivers can be modified during the registration window.
Once the session starts, team members may join through the Teams page. Those that are declared as drivers will automatically be registered as drivers, and those that are not declared will be registered as crew. Any member of the crew may take the spotter seat once in the session.
It is possible that multiple teams declare the same driver for their team. The decision of which team to drive for is ultimately left to the driver. Registering for one team will lock that driver in for the session and they will no longer be able to drive for the other team. The team that declared that driver but did not have him race will then fail to meet the Fair Share Rule. Declaration of the correct drivers is something left to the user that registers the team.
Drivers for a team are able to withdraw and register again once the race server is running. The team will continue to be registered. While drivers cannot register for another team in the same event, they can register for other practice sessions, races, or hosted sessions.
Non-Declare Driver Sessions
Any team member marked as an Admin is able to register a team.
After selecting a team, the admin and any other team members are able to Register to the team.
Once the session starts, team members may join through the Teams page. Users must choose if they want to join as a driver or a crew member. Joining as crew allows for being a crew chief or spotter, in addition to simply spectating.
It is possible that a driver is eligible for multiple teams in a single race session. The decision of which team to drive for is ultimately left to the driver. Registering for one team will lock that driver in for the session and they will no longer be able to drive for the other team. Drivers that are on the team roster but do not register as a driver are not taken into account when determining if the Fair Share Rule has been met.
Drivers for a team are able to withdraw and register again once the race server is running. The team will continue to be registered. While drivers cannot register for another team in the same event, they can register for other practice sessions, races, or hosted sessions.
An admin is able to unregister a team entirely once all driver registrations have been withdrawn. This is not possible once a race server has started.
Restrictions
Team Driving is NOT currently available for Tournaments.
There will be no Time Trials in any official iRacing Team Driving series.
At most six members of a team may be connected to a session at any one time, though many more than that may connect and disconnect over the course of a session (the current limit is 64 team members). If your team currently has the maximum number of allowed members connected to the session and you attempt to connect, instead of launching the simulation the web site will notify your currently-connected team members that you wish to join the session. If one or more of them exits the session, there will then be space for you, and you will be allowed to connect.
In Race sessions, only as many team members as the maximum specified by the session will be allowed to get into the car. In Lone Qualify sessions, only one team member will be allowed to get into the car. In any other type of session, all of the eligible team members are allowed to drive the car.
For races with detached qualification and without the Qualifying Driver Must Grid Rule enabled, it is not required that the team member whose Qualify time established the team's grid position drive in the Race session.
There is currently no notion of a "Team" championship and teams cannot score championship points. In official iRacing sessions with driver changes, championship points are computed per-car (team). Each team member who drove a "fair share" during the Race session will receive the full championship points given to the team. The team's points are only used for distributing championship points to drivers, and the team itself does not score championship points.
How to Change Drivers
When in the simulation, the [Drive] button will be displayed to all team members who are eligible to drive in the session whenever the team's car is "available." The car will be unavailable when one of the team members is "in" the car (driving, stopped out on circuit, or stopped in the pit stall), whenever someone has the car in the garage, if the session is over, if the team has been DQ'd.
Using ESC while out on track operates mostly as before (either the car is reset to the pit stall and made "new", or it is towed to the pit stall in its current condition), and the driver is removed from the car. Using the Car Reset control does mostly the same thing, except that the driver is left in the car. While sitting stopped in the pit stall, using ESC or Car Reset (if it is allowed to do so) will remove the driver from the car and leave the car in the pit stall. If necessary, the pit crew will turn-off the car's motor so that it does not overheat.
A driver change can only occur while the team's car is sitting still in the team's pit stall. Your current driver may exit the car immediately upon coming to a stop in the pit stall, and the substitute driver may click [Drive] and get into the car right after that. But a substitute driver may not drive away until a 30-second "driver-swap" timer has expired. The "driver-swap" timer starts from the point in time when the car came to a stop in the pit stall, so there is no need to attempt to quickly get the current driver out of the car, or the substitute driver into the car. The timer will count down both while no pit service is being performed and while pit service is being performed, but it will not count down either while the car is being towed to the pit stall, or while a penalty is being served.
If new cars are available for use, a [Request New Car] button (located below the [Drive] button) can be used to remove the current car from the pit stall and replace it with a new one.
If the team's car comes to a stop out on track, the [Drive] button for all the other team members will become a [Return To Pit] or [Tow Car] button, and any teammate can use the button to request the action (just as if the driver hit ESC or Reset). If the team's car is at a stop in the pit stall with the driver in the car, the button will become [Remove Driver], which will pull the driver from the car (just as if the driver hit ESC or Reset). Generally, the driver should be allowed to call for the tow or exit the car on their own. The car must be stopped for at least 5 seconds before these buttons become available for the teammates to use. Their purpose is to allow the team to recover the car if their current driver becomes distracted, or walks away from their computer.
So long as it is allowed to make changes to the car in the garage, any team member may remove the driverless car from the pit stall and put it into the garage. Whether or not any changes are made to the car in the garage, the car is left off-track until the next team driver uses [Drive] to put a "new" car back on-track.
Additional Information
Racing Radio (Voice Chat)
Transmission on the @drivers channel is limited to only people that are currently driving their team's car.
To facilitate communication between teams, a new @allteams channel has been added. Any team member may transmit on this channel. This is the most "public" channel on your radio.
Team Management
It is up to the team's members to decide who should be present at various times during the session, and what roles they are to fulfill. All team members with a sufficient license and/or iRating for the session are eligible to drive the car. All team members are eligible to put the car into the garage and make setup changes, become the Crew Chief (and so make black-box changes to be applied during pit stops), or to spot for the driver. Team members may change roles during the session, and could possibly play more than one role at the same time (spot for the driver and act as the crew chief, for example).
Session Behavior
Safety Rating and Incident Limits
Incident points and distance driven are tracked separately for each driver. Each driver's Safety Rating will be adjusted accordingly. The only way incident points incurred by one driver on a team impact the other drivers on the same team is if the session has an incident-point limit. If it does, the limit is applied to the sum of the incident points accrued by all of the team's drivers.
Car Number Assignment
Car number assignment is handled differently for team sessions than it is in single-driver sessions. Because we don't know who will drive what amount for any given team we can't say with certainty whose effective iRating will be higher or lower than any other team. Because of this, iRacing team sessions will typically allow cars to race with user-defined numbers. This is different than other iRacing sessions where numbers are assigned sequentially from #1 in iRating order.
Fair Share Rule Calculations: More Examples
Here are some examples of how the "fair share" is computed.
In a 100 lap race with a minimum of 4 drivers per team, an equal share for each team driver would be 25 laps. Each driver's fair share would thus be 25% of 25 laps, or 7 laps (0.25 * 25 = 6.25 laps, but any fractional portion of a lap always bumps the requirement up to the next full lap). It would be unwise to create a race where the minimum number of drivers exceeds the race's lap limit, as it would then be impossible for any team to meet the requirements!
The determination of whether your team has met the driver change rules in the session is computed against the number of laps your whole team completes in the session. For example, if in a 100 lap race with a minimum of 4 drivers your team only finishes 50 laps, the "fair share" for each of your drivers would be 50 / 4 * 0.25 = 3.125, or 4 laps. Keep this in mind when determining your strategy for the race. If you divide the driving up into the minimum number of roughly equal-length stints, and your second-to-the-last driver crashes your team out of the race, your final driver will not be able to race any laps. Since you then have had too few drivers finish a "fair share" of the race, your team will be Disqualified.
In addition to the "minimum number of drivers," sessions have a separate "maximum number of drivers" setting. In this same example, say that a team wants 6 of its members to drive. Then for all 6 drivers to be "Official" and receive championship points, each would have to drive their fair share of the laps. An equal share of 100 laps for 6 drivers would be 100/6 = 16.67, and a fair share of that would be 0.25 * 16.67 = 4.17, "ceiling’s" to 5 laps. So once you go beyond the minimum number of different drivers in the session, the number of laps required for each driver can be smaller.
Special Considerations
In non-declare driver sessions, it is possible for a team to be Official for the session, even though one or more of its members who drove is not considered to be Official. Taking the prior example, say that in a 100 lap session that requires a minimum of 4 drivers, a team has 6 of its members drive. Say those drivers drove 30, 20, 20, 20, 6, and 4 laps. The driver who drove only 4 laps would not be considered Official since they didn't drive enough laps, and they would receive 0 Championship Points for the session, while the remaining 5 team drivers would each receive the number of points the team garnered.
Custom Paints
The Team Paint Shop can be accessed in Teams->Edit->Team Paint Shop.
Custom paints are also supported with team driving. User-specific custom paint jobs include a user's CustomerID in the file name. In Team Driving sessions, everyone registers as part of a team, and teams have their own TeamIDs. Team custom paint jobs are read from files with similar names, but using "team_#" (where # is the TeamID) in place of the CustomerID.
For example, if your CustomerID is 10051, your custom paint job file name would be:
10051.tga
If you have a team with a TeamID of 10943, the custom paint file name for that team would be:
team_10943.tga
See http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/2219.page for more information on custom paints.
Concurrent Connections
Each registered team can have at most 6 concurrent connections to a single session.
If a team has 6 members already connected, and a 7th tries to register, the sim will inform those 6 that the 7th wants to connect, and that 7th member should be informed about this. It's up to the 6 already connected members to decide whether one wants to leave to allow the 7th to connect.
"The Registration for this team is closed" message
If you are attempting to join a team session and are seeing this error, you were likely added to the team AFTER the team was registered for the race session.
To join a team in a race, you must have been a member of the team BEFORE the team was registered for the session.