THE LAP

One lap, 0 to 100%. A strategy cuts it into segments and sets what the car does in each. Both cars run their plan blind — nothing is re-decided mid-race except traction.

THE TANK

One energy tank, sized by TANK. Two modes spend it, two refill it. It is charged against distance covered, not seconds, so the same plan behaves the same over 1000 m and 4000 m. Run it dry and the car drops to CRUISE for the rest of the race whatever the plan said — the chip reads EMPTY.

BOOST is where energy is worth most: it costs three times PUSH's burn and buys roughly five times the pace. PUSH is the cheap way to lean on the car; BOOST is what wins a run-in.

THE FOUR STATS

A class is a points budget, not a set of numbers — every car in a class gets the same total and spends it differently. All four read the same way: more points is always better, and every tuning track adds points.

• TOP — outright pace. The biggest single lever on lap time.
• ACC — how hard the car chases a change of pace, and how quickly it gathers up a spin.
• GRIP — resistance to losing traction. More is always better; each point is worth a little less than the last, and it never quite reaches "cannot spin".
• TANK — the size of the energy budget: how long a BOOST can stay open.

Tuning adds 0.3 of a point per level, five levels a track — a full build is +6, about one and a half classes. Deliberately less than the class above: upgrades keep a car you like relevant, they are not a cheap route up.

WHAT THE HUD IS TELLING YOU

• BOOST / PUSH / CRUISE / SAVE — the segment the plan is in.
• EMPTY — dry tank; the plan is being overridden.
• NOS — a boost segment is running.
• TOW — sitting in the slipstream, worth about +6.5% pace. Only counts against the nearest car ahead, and only between 2% and 14% behind it: too close is dirty air, too far is clean air.
• SPIN — traction lost. The car holds about a third of its pace until ACC gathers it up.

THE SESSION

Track and sky bend the same numbers for everyone on the grid. TOP · ACC · SLIP · NOS · RGN are good when they go up; BURN (energy burn) and RISK (traction) are good when they go down.

IS THERE A BEST PLAN?

No. Measured over 500 races a pair in the same car, the eight plans win between 45% and 54%, and they beat each other in loops rather than a ladder — ALL IN takes STALKER but loses to BALANCED, STALKER takes BALANCED and ENDURANCE but loses to ALL IN. Pick for the track, not for the leaderboard.