Choosing the best track/moment to have a penalty

[Wurz]

Hello guys,

I'm facing this problem every time I play on career mode. Soon or later I'm forced to get a penalty by exceeding the available number of engine pieces/gearbox in the season and every time I'm thinking which time would be the best moment to force the penalty, since "never" is an unlikely option.

Better to force the penalty on my 'weakests' tracks since my results would be poor already? Maybe on a stronger track so I can overcome the penalty and try to get a positive result? Getting the penalty whenever it arrives without caring that much?

And what do you think? How do you plan this moments in career mode?

Thank you very much 😊 and sorry in advance for the writing mistakes, I'm not english native 😋

[4eyedCoupe]

I'm also curious what strategies others use.   I try take penalties pretty early in the season before I need to.  I prefer to have 1 extra of every component before Austria, but I will take them based on my comfort with the track and how well I do with qualifying.  I take them when I feel I can overcome them and be satisfied with where I might finish.  But if you qualify at the back, the easier it is to overcome usually.  After a few races I start to run my most worn components in practice only and run fresher components for race and qualifying to help their longevity and also so they don't fail during a race.  I ALWAYS take new components after qualifying, especially the gearbox,

[James]

Im rubbish at Baku so I aways take all new extra components and take the penalty and start at the back of the grid. 

[DisposableHeroes]

I'm currently about half way through my first season (German GP) racing for Alfa Romeo, I decided early on in the season I was going to spend my R&D points on chassis and aero upgrades. So I've had to start using new engine elements as no reliability upgrades other than first one to open up that R&D. I've got to now use worn parts in FP1 and FP2 and save the fresher parts for FP3 (quali sim), Quali and Race, so I'm thinking of taking penalties at Hungarian gp, never do well there on previous games, so I'll take them then so that I can try and take advantage when CPU has to manage and take penalties in 2nd half of the season🤞🤞