Formula 1 game

[rjbetty]

SEASON 2: HRT

1.AUSTRALIA
A good chance to see how I improve on season 1. Last time I was 24th over 6sec off in qual. This time, after lots of setup work I equal my best of 18th, 3.5sec off. I have to start 24th but spin Jenson round at turn 1 wrecking his race. I amazingly avoid a penalty and am on course for 14th (having been 13th but let Perez through early on) until Vitaly Petrov goes into the back of me into turn 13 near the end, for which I get a penalty, so 18th it is. Still a great improvement on my first season. Strangely, Liuzzi started 14th and finished 7th!
Q18 (start 24th) R18

[rjbetty]

2.MALAYSIA
Q-18th
Should have left the race to another day as it was midnight and I was shattered, but...
Started off extremely well, avoiding penalties and gliding past cars like a pro! From 18th on the grid I exited turn 4 behind Kobayashi and could have had him too if I wasn't so conservative. He edged away from me a few corners later, but I didn't mind as once things settled I realised I was in 4th place, which I remained in easily for the first part of the race! I knew I should have left the race till later as I got tired on lap 8 and drove off the trac at turn 4 after forgetting to brake at the 150 board instead of the 100 board, ruining the until then great drive. Time to quit and sleep.
RESTART: Cheating I know, but this time I just took a little inside kerb into turn 1 to avoid a penalty, for which I got a penalty for multiple illegal overtakes - GIVE ME A BREAK! Climbing my way up I ended up 15th being chased by Heidfeld. I held him off easily until the last lap on the final back straight where I was too conservative and he went past. I got him back into the last corner only to run slightly wide. It was a drag race to the line - he pipped me... Still, at least now a disastrous race for HRT is a midfield result!
Result - 16th
Last Year Q23 R22


Thoughts on the game:
The presentation is absolutely brilliant, and Codemasters have done a very good job of presenting F1 as a grand sport, which is how it should be. The music is fantastic too. I'm a big fan of all the statistics available. The driver menus are presented very well and I like the rendering of the cars.

The things I would moan about are firstly, that the AI racing contains even less retirements and incidents than real life. The results have a very artificial and samey feel to them. This appears to be a Codemasters trademark as I have noticed this in their rally games, which somewhat put a dampener on Colin Mcrae Rally 2.0, which would otherwise be a perfect game.

The results are maybe not as realistic or varied as they could be - Force India and Caterham seem to be significantly less competitive than in real life, whereas Massa and Webber seem to be better. The penalty system is obviously very flawed: Perhaps it would be preferable if it erred towards being more forgiving instead - that might be better because no-one I know likes getting undeserved penalties.

For me, the handling is also similar to Colin Mcrae 4, which for handling is my least favourite rally game. It takes some getting used to, and though I wouldn't know, I guess it is not how an F1 car might accurately handle in real life?

Overall my feelings are positive, especially for the menu/off track parts.

[steveaki13]

2.MALAYSIA
Q-18th
Should have left the race to another day as it was midnight and I was shattered, but...
Started off extremely well, avoiding penalties and gliding past cars like a pro! From 18th on the grid I exited turn 4 behind Kobayashi and could have had him too if I wasn't so conservative. He edged away from me a few corners later, but I didn't mind as once things settled I realised I was in 4th place, which I remained in easily for the first part of the race! I knew I should have left the race till later as I got tired on lap 8 and drove off the trac at turn 4 after forgetting to brake at the 150 board instead of the 100 board, ruining the until then great drive. Time to quit and sleep.
RESTART: Cheating I know, but this time I just took a little inside kerb into turn 1 to avoid a penalty, for which I got a penalty for multiple illegal overtakes - GIVE ME A BREAK! Climbing my way up I ended up 15th being chased by Heidfeld. I held him off easily until the last lap on the final back straight where I was too conservative and he went past. I got him back into the last corner only to run slightly wide. It was a drag race to the line - he pipped me... Still, at least now a disastrous race for HRT is a midfield result!
Result - 16th
Last Year Q23 R22


Thoughts on the game:
The presentation is absolutely brilliant, and Codemasters have done a very good job of presenting F1 as a grand sport, which is how it should be. The music is fantastic too. I'm a big fan of all the statistics available. The driver menus are presented very well and I like the rendering of the cars.

The things I would moan about are firstly, that the AI racing contains even less retirements and incidents than real life. The results have a very artificial and samey feel to them. This appears to be a Codemasters trademark as I have noticed this in their rally games, which somewhat put a dampener on Colin Mcrae Rally 2.0, which would otherwise be a perfect game.

The results are maybe not as realistic or varied as they could be - Force India and Caterham seem to be significantly less competitive than in real life, whereas Massa and Webber seem to be better. The penalty system is obviously very flawed: Perhaps it would be preferable if it erred towards being more forgiving instead - that might be better because no-one I know likes getting undeserved penalties.

For me, the handling is also similar to Colin Mcrae 4, which for handling is my least favourite rally game. It takes some getting used to, and though I wouldn't know, I guess it is not how an F1 car might accurately handle in real life?

Overall my feelings are positive, especially for the menu/off track parts.

Well sounds like your improving which is good. Midfield in an HRT. If scorpian make the grid, you might be employed. :

I have to agree about the points you raised.

The Backmarkers are very unrealistic. They may not match the rest of the field, but in this game they all cruise around in a bundle about 5 laps down. Ending up 5 laps behind and all normally within 10-20 seconds.

The lack of AI overtaking in the game is still an issue. If I brake early into a sharp corner, they still just slow down and follow you through unless you really pull over wide into the turn. Also along a straight if you slam on your brakes they stop in time. Brake testing AI cars is no fun.

The mechanical realiability and lack of errors is still not right. AI cars do ocassionally spin, but they dont really hit walls or crash into each other. As well as never braking down. I remember the N64 F1 game of 1997 cars would fall off all the time. Once around Monaco I started 17th as Irvine in a Ferrari and won the Race as all 21 others retired.

Also strategy is still too predictable. Everyone pits when it rains on the same Lap. On the same tyres, no one ever gambles or cars make mistakes in stops and drop down the field and you rarely end up with a jumbled up field.

[rjbetty]

3.CHINA - Q18 R18
Qual - Looking good for my first Q2 appearance till Perez improves on his last lap after session expires.
Race - My first laps are improving a lot now as I weave my way through the cars, yet am still assertive enough to take 4th! I let Webber by without enough of a fight though. Running 5th till stops. My natural position looks around 12th later in race till I have a silly clash with Perez behind me coming onto the short back straight, spinning off and getting a penalty. Though I drive pretty hard, 18th is the best I can do. So often coming out of the pits a load of cars just pass you as you're coming out... Very possibly a point maybe could have been had?

4.TURKEY - Q24 R19
After the catastrophe of last year where I must have had totally the wrong setup for the deluge. This time I qualify around 6sec off instead of more than 9sec. Still last but very close to others this time and happy with the improvement. Up to around 7th on lap 1, but get a penalty.
From last I charge back, overtaking the back cars. At the end my fuel is critical but I am catching di Resta, so I turn it up full, being on course to maybe get him into the last lap. But the car starts stuttering and it was actually pretty remarkable that I was able to hold Trulli and a Marussia behind me till the line! Disappointing result could have been better but it will do after last year being 3 laps behind the backmarkers.

5.SPAIN - Q18 (start 24th) R20
As spin at Wurth in qual causes a silly dangerous driving penalty as I get back on track, so I start last. I quite fancied my chances without that.
Still a pretty good race but at turn 4 into the second half of the race, I am in a 3 car fight and scrape against 2 at the same time as I get past. The result is TWO penalties, which drop me down! I sucked that up well, as frustrating as it was, but what happened in the final laps ticked me off: I was still in a decent 17th holding off Barrichello when the blue flags came up. We were both lapping the backmarker teams at the same time as having to let race leaders through. As you can imagine, this was a real mess. The system is so draconian that you will get a penalty if you don't move over pdq. I disagree with blue flags in real life; but I guess if you don't have it, you can get backmarkers being dangerous like Al Pease in the 60s. The problem is when I back right off along the back straight, everyone slams on their brakes going out of their way not to overtake you; leaders, backmarkers, everyone except Barrichello who sailed off into the distance!! How annoying! To make things worse, this made me angry enough to lose control as I went on the run-off deliberately at la Caixa(?) in a feeble attempt to get them to actually pass. Since backmarkers were mingled up with leaders, it was a mess. My tyres were shot so I kept spinning trying to get back on and damaged the car. I dropped to 20th. This was on the penultimate lap too.

6.MONACO - Q24 R15
Qual was such a mess. I tried a setup geared toward huge turn-in at the expense of actual grip. This seemed to help a lot providing I could nail a lap. I'm unhappy with my whole season really as I'm in pretty mediocre/quite good form but no better. Around Monaco, I did not even get 1 single representative lap in in qual as I kept bumping things, cutting corners, getting traffic etc, so I start last.
From there, there's not a lot of hope, especially when you can't pass into turn 1 without getting a penalty if one wheel even goes just a little over the kerb. In the real race in 2012, Sebastian Vettel got away with cutting that corner out IIRC? But he was allowed to keep the positions he gained since he'd been 'forced' to take that route. This is why I dislike Monaco so much these days: I so wish the wall was still there - that would have shown Vettel!
So he gets away with it, but when I'm forced to put one wheel over, it's McDonalds drive-thru for me.
Charging back up the field, I get in the top 10 during the stops. My wing was damaged on lap 6 (this happened several times) I find that this costs at least 2sec per lap(?) so it's significant! Also running hard (prime - I don't like those option/prime terms) tyres, it's sad that I find myself holding up Hamilton. I often seem to get in his way sadly, cos I'm a fan...

I am 15th after final stop, but have to let leaders through. Vettel takes ridiculously long to get past as I have to basically stop altogether in the tunnel and he still won't pass! This was nowhere near as bad as Spain, yet it had me literally screaming "COME ON! OVERTAKE ME!!!" As I come onto the next lap I see Kobayashi exiting the pits. He is less than 1 sec in front so I turn my fuel up, but go wide and he gets away. So I would have had 14th if it weren't for Vettel!
I was hoping for points today, but it seems I'm not quite ready yet.
It almost got worse as on the final lap I go wide at the top of the hill to let leaders through only to spin on worn tyres and get crunched into by Button, Hamilton and Massa as Vettel wins the race. Button's car is a wreck but the others survive. On stuttering fuel, worn tyres and no nosecone, it's like driving an articulated truck round the rest of the lap, but there is a 45sec gap to Alguersuari so I keep my position.

Result: 15th


So the quest for my first point continues. It seems that Valencia and Singapore are my only real chances now, since I was 10th in Valencia last season before running out of fuel on the last lap... Strangely, Force India are now down with Caterham and Marussia this season, while Liuzzi is in the midfield fighting for points every time. I find it impossible to beat him - he has beaten me every single time so far. Schumacher has also won 2 races as Mercedes seem good, as do Williams.

[rjbetty]

7.CANADA
QUAL - Not expecting much having qualified last in season 1. But I take the downforce off (i.e. 2-1 wing) and increase the turn in. Though it's tricky I am 18th in FP and for most of Q1 I set a time in 18th, just +0.007 behind 17th - and getting into Q2 for the first ever time! Also, that person is my team-mate Liuzzi so I would get to outqualify him for the first time this season (he is artificially hard this season)!
I need more straightline speed so take the final bit of front wing down to 1 and increase the turn-in elsewhere as there seems to be plenty of cornering grip. I put the front balance up to 10-11 and the back balance back up to 5 having spun in turn 1 when it was lower.
For the first time this season I display a tiny semblance of driving out of my skin (having been going thru the motions a bit) when I am quicker in sector 1. Even though there are cars around, I improve by -0.199sec to go 16th - my first ever Q2 appearance! (Though there is no Q2 and the session ends, which I'm fine with)
Q - 16th

RACE - Tough to make up many places at the start but get to 6th. Kobayashi is on great form as he slipstreams me on the back straight though, having taken Vettel too. In the final chicane we clash and both of us get massively sideways. Amazing how we didn't crash off! But he impressively takes the position. First pit stop on lap 7 drops me to 14th as I have to wait in the pits for 3 cars to go ahead of me! This has made me realise it might be good to set my stops to be on different laps to the AI cars so I get the pitlane to myself don't have to let them out first. Tyre wear is bad but I try to do 1 less stop. I am still running 14th near the end +27sec behind Alguersuari but over 20sec ahead of Buemi since he and made an extra stop compared to me. What I should have done is pitted since I had not taken enough care of my last set of hards. I would have still got out ahead of Buemi. But I stay out and the car becomes increasingly undriveable, really like ice on bald tyres. When I spin coming out of turn 4, I spin myself back round, only to be crunched into. Sadly it's my team-mate Liuzzi who now retires... Oh man... I have no choice but to pit and drop behind Buemi and finish the race there. Glock is still over 1min behind in 16th.

Result: 15th - at least I match my season best and meet the team objective.

Now it's onto Valencia which I am anticipating for my first points. I have already done FP, finishing 18th +4.244 sec off. I qualified +4.2sec off last time, but the practice time was set on hard tyres and fuel mix 1... Given that I was running 10th on the last lap last time even with penalties, if I play my cards right this could be very interesting.

[Joey Zyla]

Now that I have a wheel, I'm almost fully prepared to start my F1 2012 career.

[rjbetty]

Goodo Joey.

As for F1 2012, does anyone know if the penalty system has been improved/made fairer?


SEASON 2 - ROUND 8 VALENCIA - HRT
Q-18 R-14
5sec off pace in quali in 18th but could have been 3sec off and 16th. Putting more turn-in on the front balance in setup seems to help.

I was naughty restarting the race as I'd forgotten strategy, got bad penalty and got distracted.
Up to 9th at start which became 4th with opportunistic passes on lap 1!
Make my soft tyres last 8, not 6 laps. Hold Alonso behind me the whole way and still exit pits ahead.
Fuel mix 3 (rich) for first 10 laps, then 1 after that, with times running mix 2.
Stay out one lap too long on hards (lap 19), overtaken in pots by Webber, but get him coming out into turn 1.
Fuel stays on -3 laps even though I am running mix 1 for many laps (some kind of bug here?)
I try my best but I start running out 3 laps from home. I try to hold cars behind but can't keep it up.
Schumacher, Kobayashi and one other all DNF after hitting me.
Crawl round to a lapped 14th. 3 retired cars behind me then Liuzzi in 18th, who I lapped!
Disappointing, but still best result of season.

What is it with the fuel. I was careful to not go to -3 laps. I only just went over that limit. But running on lean, it was only on the final 2 laps, it got down to -2 laps. Is it that the display will only go up to -3 laps, meaning you can be 10 laps down, but the display won't go beyond 3?

[steveaki13]

I am still finishing F1 2011, but I have F1 2012 and have done a few single races as an HRT driver. From what I have experienced the penalties ar the same or collisions if not worse. Any contact with another car is a Pen. As it should be I suppose but if your a rubbish driver like me, then way to strict.

However I think they are better for corner cutting. In Oz I clumped the curbs nicely and got no Pen unless I actually cut the corner grass and all.

Have only raced at Oz a couple of times and Monaco though.

[rjbetty]

The penalties spoil the fun a bit I think. I got one when I shouldn't have in my latest race, but avoided one I should have got.

9.BRITAIN: Q-18th R-17th
About 4sec off in qual. Up to 6th at start but lose lotsa places. Trying too hard I ram Button and get penalised. I was far too aggressive against my team-mate: He was looking very good for 10th if I'd let him through early on, as he was faster. Oops...

10.GERMANY Q-18th R-16th
4sec off in quali again. Spin Petrov round a turn 1 but no penalty. Schumacher keeps bumping me going round Dunlop Curve on lap 2 though and I get penalised even though it had no effect on him. Poor Petrov as I race him very hard and make him go off again. At the end of the race I am just ahead of both him and Barrichello (as last year). They were lapped and I only just escaped being lapped twice.


Results at halfway point
Qual: 18th 18th 18th 24th 18th 24th 16th 18th 18th 18th
Race: 18th 16th 15th 19th 20th 15th 15th 14th 17th 16th

Y can't I get any points?!

[steveaki13]

Your looking consistant anyway.

More than I achieve. I am either flying and putting a backmarker on pole or I cant pass a single car and keep flying off the road