BOP in Automobilista 2
BOP stands for “Balance of Performance”: adjusting a car’s performance so the racing is closer. Automobilista 2 has supported it since version 1.6.9.8 (June 2026), where the feature is called “Performance Scalars”, and it works per driver, not per car. This guide covers what can be adjusted, by how much, and who decides what you are carrying.
Updated 27 August 2026
What it is, and what it is not
BOP changes three things about the car you drive. It is not a rating, it is not a penalty and it does not depend on how fast you go: it is a correction that someone — or the championship itself — set before the session started.
It is not a punishment for driving badly
Incidents and driving standards are handled by Safety Rating and in-race penalties. BOP knows nothing about them.
It is not your rating or your licence
Carrying ballast does not change your SR, your GRating or your licence. They are separate systems.
It is not decided during the race
It is fixed before the server starts. Nobody can add ballast halfway through a race.
It is not a secret handicap
You can see it before racing, and for championships the whole grid is published.
The three levers
The game lets you set three values per driver. The server applies them as the session starts, so they are active from lap one.
Ballast
kilos
Extra weight the car carries. You feel it under braking, in mid-corner load and in wear.
Range the server accepts0 kg +The game does not accept negative ballast: this lever can only penalise. You cannot take a car below its factory weight.
Power
multiplier
How much power the engine delivers. 1.000 is stock; below subtracts, above adds.
Range the server accepts0,900 – 1,100The lever you notice most in acceleration and on the straights. Unlike ballast, this one can add performance.
Drag
multiplier
How much the air holds the car back. More drag, less top speed.
Range the server accepts0,900 – 1,100The most track-dependent of the three: on a layout with long straights it costs a lot of time, on a twisty one you barely notice.
The limits, and the things that catch people out
Before configuring anything, it helps to know what the server allows. These four are usually discovered the hard way.
The multipliers are capped at ±10 %
Power and drag only accept 0.900 to 1.100. A value outside that range does not throw an error: the server clamps it. ±10 % will not turn one category into another, so BOP is for bringing similar cars closer, not for mixing anything with anything.
The server has to start from scratch
The server reads the BOP configuration once, at startup, and keeps it in memory. Changing it with the session running does nothing — not leaving and rejoining, not switching track. Until the next startup, the BOP in play is the old one.
Ballast shows in-game; power and drag do not
Ballast appears on the status screen next to your name. Both multipliers apply just the same, but the game shows no icon for them: you feel them while driving. That is why whoever sets them should say so.
It goes per driver, not per car
It is configured by Steam ID. The server does not know which car you will pick, so you cannot say “this Porsche at −2 % power”: you say “this driver at −2 % power”. For a per-car BOP to work, you have to know who is driving what before the server starts.
Where yours can come from
At Gonky there are four ways a car can end up with BOP. They do not compete at random: each one acts somewhere different.
| Route | Who sets it | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Gonky driver BOP | The Gonky team | Gonky public servers only |
| Session preset BOP | The community owner, per member | That community’s own server |
| Automatic championship BOP | Calculated automatically from the standings | Community championships that enable it |
| BOP from the Node ManagerIn testing | The node owner, from the app itself | Nodes in local mode |
Which one wins if there are several
The question that matters when something does not add up: if two apply to me, which one ends up on the car?
Gonky BOP never leaves Gonky servers
It is never sent to a community’s server. If you race on a community node, what you are carrying was decided by that community, not by Gonky.
In a championship, the automatic one wins
If the community had set you a manual BOP in the preset and the championship calculates another one for you, the championship’s applies. Manual settings for the other drivers still stand.
The round’s values are frozen
The automatic BOP is calculated once when the round starts and does not change within it: the race and any reverse-grid races carry exactly the same values.
If the calculation fails, the race goes out without BOP
A race is never delayed or cancelled over a BOP problem. It goes out without it, which beats not going out.
If you run a community: where to set it
The three routes you can use, and how they differ.
For one specific race
In your community’s session preset, under “BOP per driver”. Search for the member, set ballast and multipliers, and it applies the next time that preset starts a server. Best for a one-off adjustment.
For a whole championship
In the championship’s general options. You pick the severity and the system distributes it automatically, round by round, from the standings. You maintain no list.
Without going through the website
From the Node Manager in local mode, with the list stored on your own PC. Currently in testing on the app’s beta channel.
And in all three, the same rule
The server has to start from scratch for BOP to take effect. Editing the list while the session is up changes nothing until the next startup.
How to check it applied
The reliable way is not to look at the car: it is to ask the server. On the session status screen, each participant carries their ballast, power multiplier and drag multiplier. Watch out for one detail that trips people up: the multipliers arrive multiplied by a thousand, so 900 means 0.900 and 1000 means 1.000 — it is not a nonsense value, it is the scale.
Frequently asked questions
Can BOP be set on a car instead of a driver?
Not directly: the game configures it by Steam ID and does not know which car you will pick. It can be done from outside, by knowing which car each driver is taking before the server starts and translating that into per-Steam-ID values. That is what a per-car-class BOP requires, and it is why it only works with entries locked.
Does BOP affect my Safety Rating or GRating?
No. BOP only changes the car in that session. SR, GRating and your licence are calculated exactly as in any other race.
I changed the BOP and I feel nothing. Is it broken?
Most likely the server has not restarted. It reads the configuration only at startup and keeps it in memory: until the session restarts, it runs the previous values. Leaving and rejoining is not enough.
Why is ballast in kilos and power a multiplier?
Because that is how the game exposes them. And it has a practical consequence: 20 kilos is a very different penalty on a light formula car than on a GT3, whereas −5 % power is −5 % on both. That is why the automatic championship BOP derives ballast from the class average weight.
Can you give more power than stock?
Yes, up to +10 %, and drag can go down to −10 %. What you cannot do is remove weight: ballast starts at zero and only goes up. Slowing a car down is always more reliable than speeding another one up, so that is the usual direction.
Does it work in single player?
Yes, but by a different route: in single player it is defined in the custom livery files, and it also affects whoever picks that livery. What this guide covers is the multiplayer dedicated-server path.