Overtaking & Crashes

Overtaking Mechanics

After all lap times are calculated and cars sorted by cumulative time, adjacent pairs are checked.

Pre-conditions

Gap between cars must be < 1.5 seconds
Following car must have been faster on the current lap
Safety Car must NOT be active

Overtake Probability

Whether an overtake succeeds depends on several factors. The final chance is kept between 5% and 85% (never guaranteed, never impossible).

The starting point is the circuit's overtake percentage, which reflects how easy it is to pass at that track. A circuit rated 20% means there is a 20% baseline chance.

Four things then modify this chance:

Gap between cars: the closer they are, the more likely a pass. The modifier ranges from 0.5 (at 1.5 second gap) to 1.0 (at 0 second gap).
Attacker's Racecraft: a skilled attacker gets a bonus of up to 50%, calculated as their effective Racecraft multiplied by 4%.
Defender's Racecraft: a skilled defender makes it harder, reducing the chance by up to 50% the same way.
Lap 1 multiplier: the first lap is chaotic, so all overtake chances are multiplied by 1.5.

Success Effect

If the overtake succeeds, the cars swap positions. To make the pass stick, the lead car loses 0.3 seconds and the following car gains 0.3 seconds in their cumulative time.

Crashes

Every time an overtake attempt fails, there is a chance it results in a crash. The base risk is 2% per failed attempt, but several factors increase the danger:

More cars on track means more congestion. The modifier is the number of cars divided by 10, capped at 1.5x.
Early laps are riskier. Lap 1 has triple the crash chance. Laps 2 and 3 have 1.5x. Later laps are at normal risk.
Tight gaps are dangerous. If the gap is under 0.3 seconds, the crash chance doubles.
The final crash chance is capped at 25% per failed attempt.

Crash Severity

Score	Severity	Effect
-------	----------	--------
< 30	Minor	5-25% damage, no SC
30-59	Moderate	15-55% damage, SC 2 laps
60-84	Severe	40-100% damage (DNF), SC 3 laps
≥ 85	Catastrophic	Both DNF, SC 4 laps

Crew Chief Mechanics skill reduces severity: -min(15, effectiveMech × 1.5)

Safety Car / VSC

Deployed after moderate+ crashes for 2-4 laps:

All cars +3.0s ±0.5s lap time
Overtaking prohibited
Cars with a stop within 2 laps may pit opportunistically

Position Gain Cap

Lap 1: Unlimited gains
Normal laps: Maximum 1 position gained
Rare double-pass: 15% chance cap raised to 2

If a driver gains more than the cap, a traffic penalty is applied (0.2-0.5s per excess position).