Cars Overview

“Cars Overview” is the title the Car page carries, and it is where the team’s machinery is graded: six ratings, a letter grade each, computed from the parts actually fitted. This article covers the rating system itself — what each grade measures, how it is computed, what it is worth — and the three places the game lets you compare a car against the rest of the field.

How to open it

Career sidebar / desktop → the Car icon (icon 10) → the app lands on the Cars Overview page.
The hub’s Car status widget shows the same six ratings as grid ranks without opening anything.
World Data → Perf ranks all twelve teams on the same six numbers.
Unlocked from Phase 5 (Car Review).

Historical note: an older standalone “test bench” screen with Car 1 / Car 2 / Compare / Setup / Parts / Development tabs exists in the source tree but is not part of the current build — it is not compiled and cannot be opened. Nothing described below depends on it.

The rating model

Every rating comes from car_model_to_rating, run on the effective car model: the infrastructure/supplier baseline with the actually-fitted parts overlaid. Development, quality rolls and race damage all move these numbers — the grades are not a static reflection of your department levels.

Ratings deliberately mirror the sim’s own part weightings. There are no display-only blends.

Rating	Formula	Scale
Speed	engine `current_perf`	`(perf − 0.92) / 0.16 × 100`, clamped 1–100
Handling	avg(suspension, brake, floor)	same
Aero	avg(front wing, rear wing, floor)	same
Accel.	gearbox × 0.7 + engine × 0.3	same
Fuel Eff.	fuel system `current_perf`	same
Reliability	avg `fiability` of all 11 parts	`(fiab − 0.85) / 0.30 × 100`, clamped 1–100
Overall	average of the six above	—

Overall spans all six precisely so that the engine, gearbox and fuel system stay represented — an older 4-way blend folded all three powertrain parts into “Speed” and hid two of them.

Letter grades

Each rating gets a letter and a colour, used identically on the Car page badges, the World Data Perf table and the hub widget:

Value	Grade	Colour
80 – 100	A	green
65 – 79	B+	teal-green
50 – 64	B	blue
35 – 49	C	orange
20 – 34	D	red-orange
0 – 19	E	red

A glance at a row’s colours tells you where a team’s strengths and weaknesses sit without reading a single number.

Reading each grade

Speed

Pure engine. It is the Accelerating-zone king (weight 1.0), worth 0.5 in corners and 0.3 under braking. You do not design the engine — Speed moves when you change supplier, when the season’s shared vintage is re-rolled at an engine regulation, or when you spend Improve WU on the fitted unit.

Accel.

Gearbox-dominated (0.7) with an engine assist (0.3), because in the sim the gearbox carries weight 1.0 in the accelerating zone against 0.1 under braking. This is the rating that decides how you come off slow corners — the one that shows up as places gained on a street circuit.

Handling

Suspension + brakes + floor. Suspension is 1.0 in corners and 0.8 under braking; brakes are 1.0 braking and 0.2 in corners. It is also the department feeding Driveability, so investing here buys consistency for any driver, not just lap time.

Aero

Front wing + rear wing + floor. Weight 1.0 in corners, 0.6 braking — and a negative 0.15 on the straights when in surplus. Downforce is drag: a very high Aero grade genuinely costs you top speed. It also shapes how the car behaves in traffic through the draft and dirty-air traits.

Fuel Eff.

The fuel system’s perf divides kg/lap directly (1 / fuel_system_perf). Better fuel efficiency means less fuel carried at the start, a lighter car all race, and shorter refuel stops. It is the quietest rating and the one that changes strategy options.

Reliability

The flat average of all eleven fiability values, mapped from the 0.85–1.20 band. It drives per-lap failure probability once a component passes its endurance threshold. Because it is an average of eleven, one badly compromised part barely moves the grade while being the thing that actually retires the car — read the per-part reliability bars in R&D → Improve, not just this badge.

The three comparison surfaces

1. Side by side on the Car page

The page shows Car 1, the Reserve car and Car 2 as three cards, each with the same Stats and Parts tables. All three read car 1’s fitted parts, so this is a layout for reading one specification across three drivers — useful for judging driver–car fit, not for spotting a spec difference between your two cars. For a genuine per-car parts comparison, use R&D → R&D — Inventory and switch the car selector.

The Discovered Car Traits panel is per-car: two columns headed by your two race drivers, each listing only the traits of the parts fitted on that car.

The hub shows your six ratings as grid ranks, N/12, computed live against every AI team’s effective car model:

Rank	Colour
1 – 3	green
4 – 6	olive
7 +	red

Beside it, the same six per-part badges as the Car page (Front Wing, Rear Wing, Floor, Engine, Gearbox, Suspension). This is the fastest read in the game: six numbers that tell you exactly where you sit, refreshed as development lands.

3. World Data → Perf

The full table: one row per team, six graded columns, colour-coded with the same A–E palette, sortable on any column, with your row highlighted. Each team’s ratings are built from their effective car model — infrastructure, suppliers and their fitted, developed parts — so the ranking moves with in-season development rather than reflecting factory levels.

This is the real answer to “who has the best car and where”. A team that is A in Speed and D in Handling is a team you beat on a twisty circuit — check Track Traits before the weekend.

The two display scales — a warning

Three different scales exist for the same underlying current_perf, and they will not agree:

Where	Mapping	Notes
Stats badges / World Data / hub ranks	`(perf − 0.92) / 0.16 × 100`, clamped 1–100	The rating scale
Parts badges (Car page, hub)	`(perf − 0.896) / 0.208 × 85 + 15`, clamped 0–100	Floors a healthy level-1 part at ~15% instead of 0; damage drives it toward 0
R&D Improve / Inventory	`(perf − 0.92) / 0.16 × 100`, not clamped at 100	Measured on `initial_perf` (the as-built spec) in Improve; runs past 100 into the overdrive bands

Use the rating scale to compare teams, and the R&D scale to make development decisions. Never compare a Parts badge to an Improve number.

Advanced

A grades are a ceiling problem, not a spending problem. Perf 1.08 is exactly 100 points. With initial_perf capped at 1.12 on delivery and potential at 1.18, an A is reachable on any component — but only if the part’s rolled potential and your department levels support it.
Overall is a poor optimisation target. It is an unweighted mean of six ratings that matter very unequally per circuit. Optimise Speed + Accel for a power track, Handling + Aero for a technical one.
The Floor is in two ratings. It feeds Handling and Aero, so a floor upgrade moves two grades. Per WU spent it is the highest-leverage chassis component.
Reliability is diluted by design. Eleven parts averaged means the badge cannot warn you about a single fragile component. After an overdrive push, check the per-part Reliab bars.
World Data Perf is the AI-development tracker. Watch a rival’s Speed column jump between rounds and you have just seen their new engine vintage or a delivered design.
The hub ranks include only teams, not the development series. PF2 and PF3 cars are built to their own regulations and never enter this comparison — see Development Ladder (PF2 / PF3).
Grades move after every race, in both directions. Race damage lowers current_perf, so an unrepaired car reads worse. Repair first, then judge the grade.

Common mistakes

Chasing Overall. It is an average, not a lap time. Two teams on Overall 62 can be a second apart at a given circuit.
Reading the three car cards as three different specs. They all show car 1’s parts; only the trait columns are per-car.
Trusting the Reliability grade over the per-part bars. One 0.75-fiability component behind an 82 average is what ends your race.
Comparing badges across scales. A part reading 55 on the Car page and 30 in Improve is the same part — different mappings, plus wear vs as-built.
Assuming a high Aero grade is free. Surplus downforce carries a negative weight on the straights. On a power circuit it is a handicap.
Judging a rival from World Data at the season opener. Everyone’s grades converge on their infrastructure baseline in pre-season; the interesting spread appears once development lands, around GP 4–6.