CrewChief 4 is free external software specially designed for simracing. The software connects to the chosen simulator (rFactor 2, Assetto Corsa, Project CARS, F1 2019, iRacing, Assetto Corsa Competizione, RaceRoom and Automobilista, etc …) and continuously reads the data in real time providing you, like a real spotter, voice information on the race (your lap times, the gap from the leader and your closest opponents, etc …), the condition of the vehicle (brake temperature, tire temperature and pressures, etc …), the environment and much more.
The software also helps virtual pilots driving with a single monitor to better assess their surroundings. For example, if there is a vehicle to your right, you will hear “Car right”. But when it is no longer next to you but is still in the blind spot (therefore out of your view), you will hear “Right is clear”. You can even talk to CrewChief! An integrated speech recognition recognizes and responds to various predefined voice commands.
The software is completely in English, but its operation is very intuitive. However, in the following we will provide a small introduction to the installation and basic management of this new tool.
The CrewChief team is constantly involved in development and provides excellent technical support through the appropriate forum, from which you can also download the software (as better described below), or even through your own discord channel.
Installation
Download the software installation file (to do this, visit the CrewChief forum and click “Download CrewChief for PC”).
During the installation, you will need to accept the terms and conditions and specify the installation folders. You can observe the procedure through the following screenshots.
Note: Windows 10 and / or any antivirus on your PC may block CrewChief installation. Therefore, remember to disable the blocks that prevent the software from being installed.
Settings
Upon first launch, you will see several green buttons. You will need to click on these for CrewChief to load and install the update files.
The update will be performed automatically. Once the files are installed, you will receive a request to restart the program. Then click on “OK”.
Audio adjustment is made possible by the volume controls highlighted by the arrows in the image below.
It is possible to change the volume of the voice (left) and of the background noise (right).
Regarding the game settings, in the following screen you can simply choose with a click which simulator to use (in our case Assetto Corsa Competizione).
Now let’s select our name in the first drop-down menu. CrewChief has some personal names on file as, in some situations, the track engineer will address you directly with the name chosen here.
In the second drop-down menu you can select the “Boss” item. Currently, only the name “Jim” is present here, which simplifies the selection. The third menu gives you the option to select a different “spotter voice”.
At this point, we can start CrewChief by clicking on the “Start Application” button at the top left.
If everything is working correctly, you will hear the phrase “Radio Check” through headphones or speakers.
Voice commands implemented in the software
To contact your track engineer, you can choose one of the modes enclosed in the red square.
Below are the questions you can ask our track engineer:
- “how’s my [fuel / tyre wear / body work / aero / engine / transmission / suspension / pace ]”
- “how are my [tyre temps / tyre temperatures / brakes / brake temps / brake temperatures / engine temps / engine temperatures]” (gives a good / bad type response)
- “What are my [brake temps / tyre temps]” (gives the actual temps)
- “what’s my [gap in front / gap ahead / gap behind / last lap / last lap time / lap time / position / fuel level / best lap / best lap time]”
- “what’s the fastest lap” (reports the fastest lap in the session for the player’s car class)
- “keep quiet / I know what I’m doing / leave me alone” (switches off messages)
- “keep me informed / keep me posted / keep me updated” (switches messages back on)
- “how long’s left / how many laps are left / how many laps to go”
- “spot / don’t spot” (switches the spotter on and off – note even in “leave me alone” mode the spotter still operates unless you explicitly switch it off)
- “do I still have a penalty / do I have a penalty / have I served my penalty”
- “do I have to pit / do I need to pit / do I have a mandatory pit stop / do I have a mandatory stop / do I have to make a pit stop”
- “where’s [opponent driver last name]”
- “what’s [opponent driver last name]’s last lap”
- “what’s [opponent driver last name]’s best lap”
- “what’s [opponent race position]’s last lap” (for example, “what’s p 4’s best lap”, or “what’s position 4’s last lap”)
- “what’s [opponent race position]’s best lap”
- “what’s [the car in front / the guy in front / the car ahead / the guy ahead]’s last lap”
- “what’s [the car in front / the guy in front / the car ahead / the guy ahead]’s best lap”
- “what’s [the car behind / the guy behind]’s last lap”
- “what’s [the car behind / the guy behind]’s best lap”
- “what tyre(s) is [opponent driver last name / opponent race position] on”
“what are my sector times” - “what’s my last sector time”
- “what’s the [air / track] [temp / temperature]
- “who’s leading” (this one only works if you have the driver name recording for the lead car)
- “who’s [ahead / ahead in the race / in front / in front in the race / behind / behind in the race]” (gives the name of the car in front / behind in the race or on the timing sheet for qual / practice. This one only works if you have the driver name recording for that driver)
- “who’s [ahead on track / in front on track / behind on track]” (gives the name of the car in front / behind in on track, regardless of his race / qual position. This one only works if you have the driver name recording for that driver)
- “tell me the gaps / give me the gaps / tell me the deltas / give me the deltas” (switch on ‘deltas’ mode where the time deltas in front and behind get read out on each lap. Note that these messages will play even if you have disabled messages)
- “don’t tell me the gaps / don’t tell me the deltas / no more gaps / no more deltas” (switch off deltas mode)
- “repeat last message / say again” (replays the last message)
- “What are my [brake / tyre] [temperatures / temps]”
- “What time is it / what’s the time” (reports current real-world time)
- “What’s my fuel usage / what’s my fuel consumption / what’s my fuel use” (reports the per-lap or per-minute average fuel consumption)
- “What tires am I on / what tire am / on / what tire type am i on” (reports the tyre name you’re currently using, if available)
- “Calculate fuel for [X minutes / laps] / how much fuel do I need for [X minutes / laps] / how much fuel for [X minutes / laps]” (estimates how much fuel you’ll probably need for this many minutes or laps)
- “Give me tyre pace differences / what are the tire speeds / whats the difference between tires / compare tire compounds” (Raceroom only – gives lap time deltas for the best lap on each tyre type that’s been used during the session, across all drivers in the same car class as the player)
- “This is the formation lap / formation lap / rolling start”: Enable manual rolling-start mode (used by some online leagues)
- “Standing start / no formation lap”: Disable manual rolling-start mode
- “Where should I attack / where am I faster / where can I attack”: If the app has enough data, will report the corner name where you’re gaining the most time on the guy in front
- “Where should I defend / where am I slower / where is he faster / where will he attack”: If the app has enough data, will report the corner name where you’re losing the most time to the guy behind
- “Read corner names / corner names / tell me the corner names”: read out each corner name when you hit the mid-point of the corner, for this lap only (useful to test corner name mappings)
- “Damage report” / “How’s my car” / “Is my car ok?”: report any damage the car has sustained
“Car status”: report any damage the car has sustained, tyre and brake temperature status and fuel / battery status - “Session status” / “Race status”: report race position, gaps, time / laps left in session
- “Full update” / “Full status” / “Update me”: combines all of the above three status reports (will produce a very verbose response)
- “how much fuel to the end” / “how much fuel do we need”: report how many litres or gallons of fuel the app thinks you’ll need to finish the race
- “is the car ahead in my class” / “is the car ahead my class” / “is the car ahead the same class as me” / “is the car in front in my class” / “is the car in front my class” / “is the car in front the same class as me” – responds yes or no
- “is the car behind in my class” / “is the car behind my class” / “is the car behind the same class as me” – responds yes or no
- “what class is the car ahead” / “what class is the guy ahead” / “what class is the car in front” / “what class is the guy in front” – reports class name, or “faster” / “slower” if the app doesn’t have the class name
- “what class is the car behind” / “what class is the guy behind”- reports class name, or “faster” / “slower” if the app doesn’t have the class name
- “pitstop add [X liters]” (adds X amount of fuel next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop tearoff / pitstop windscreen” (enable next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop fast repair / pitstop repair” (enable fast repair next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop clear all” (clears all selected pitstop options, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop clear tyres (clears all tyre selections” next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop clear tearoff / pitstop clear windscreen” (clears tearoff selection next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop clear fast repair” (clears fast repair selection next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop clear fuel” (clears fuel refueling next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change all tyres” (change all tyres next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change left front tyre” (change left front tyre next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change right front tyre” (change right front tyre next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change left rear tyre” (change left rear tyre next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change right rear tyre” (change right rear tyre next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change left side tyres”(change left side tyres next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change right side tyres”(change right side tyres next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change tyres pressure [ new value ]” (change right rear tyre pressure next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change left front tyre pressure [ new value ]” (change left front tyre next pressure pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change right front tyre pressure [ new value ]” (change right front tyre pressure next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change left rear tyre pressure [ new value ]” (change left rear tyre pressure next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop change right rear tyre pressure [ new value ]” (change right rear tyre pressure next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
- “pitstop fuel to the end” / “pitstop fuel to the end of the race” (add the fuel amount the app calculates you’ll need to finish the race, this option is iRacing only)
If you do not want to actively interact with your track engineer, you can set the “Voice recognition mode” to “disabled”. In this case, the spotter will automatically update you, with a certain time frame, on the various race information.
To vary the timing with which you will be informed of a certain event on the track, you will need to:
- click on the “properties” button in the main window;
- on the next screen, search for the desired action by entering a keyword;
- vary the frequency with which the spotter will inform you about the selected action, increasing the numerical value associated with the aforementioned action.
In the image below, we have chosen to increase the frequency with which the spotter will have to inform us about the lap times of our opponents. To do this we have entered “lap time” as the keyword and in the “frequency of opponent race lap times (integer)” box we have entered the value 10 instead of the default value 4.
Interaction with CrewChief through the keyboard, the steering wheel or other devices
As an alternative to voice commands, it is possible to contact your track engineer by associating a key (on the steering wheel, keyboard or button box) to one of the above questions / actions.
CrewChief language change
Using special translation packs, it is possible to have the voice of our track engineer in other languages as well as in English. The German, French and Spanish translation packs can be downloaded from here, while the Italian language package can be downloaded from here.
The translation package must be extracted from the compressed folder and copied to this folder: C: \ Users \ YOUR_USER_NAME \ AppData \ Local \ CrewChiefV4 (as shown in the image above).
Note: To view the path of the “CrewChiefV4” folder, you must enable access to hidden folders.
Use CrewChief with Assetto Corsa Competizione
Start CrewChief and press the “Start Application” button, minimize the program screen, start Assetto Corsa Competizione and that’s it.
Remember: enter the ACC audio settings and reduce the volume of the communications of the spotter already present in the game to 0.
Useful videos
Trinacria Simracing 