[NoSkillz]

RACE NINE: German Grand Prix, Munich (June 30, 2019)

Track Layout C
Track Guide – Deceleration, Low Speed Corners and Medium Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (High), Tyre Wear (Very Low)
Laps - 47 (3.1 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Medium, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Qualifying (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Mostly Sunny)

A new suspension is completed right after the Russian Grand Prix and we will start working on reliability and performance improvements straight away. In the meantime, the design team begins working on a new front wing.

There is another vote among F1 principals, with this one centring on potential changes to the Points System. Under the new system, only the top eight drivers, instead of ten, would win points, with the maximum number of points for winning now 10 instead of the current 25. I’m not a fan of the change and vote against it – thankfully, the consensus among other teams is to also maintain the current system and the proposal is rejected by a considerable margin.

The forecast looks pretty decent but my assistant says there still may be a spot of rain at some point during the race in Munich. The track is good on tyre wear, which isn’t great for us as we seem to thrive in situations where other teams need to pit more often. We’ll have to see how it goes.

We elect to go with 7 SuperSofts, 5 Softs and 3 Mediums for race weekend for both drivers.

PRACTICE –

We do much better with car setups in this practice, getting both cars dialed into 98% optimization quickly.

Perez nails down the second fastest practice time and Stroll comes 8th. However, we don’t do a great job nailing down proper tyre knowledge, as we only hit Level 1 knowledge on mediums (which we may have to use for Lance Stroll). However, we gain Level 3 knowledge on SuperSofts and Softs.

QUALIFYING –

It’s another sunny day for qualifying and the sun is out for Q1. I use Level Three Qualifying trim for both drivers, Level 2 Super Overtake mode for Stroll and Level 3 SuperSoft knowledge for Perez.

As usual, we don’t set the world ablaze in Q1, with Perez in 14th and Stroll in 15th after their first lap. Neither are safe for Q2 so we’ll need to send them both out again. I send out Perez first and he has a pretty open track in front of him, beating his previous time by two one hundredth’s of a second and he should be safe. Stroll also beats his previous time but it’s not enough, as he is 16th while Perez BARELY makes it into Q2 with a 15th place time.

Perez runs impressively in his first Q2, lap, finishing 8th but I better send him out one more time, just in case. It ends up being a bad decision, as he doesn’t improve on the time but finishes 9th to move on to Q3.

Perez once again is 9th in his first Q3 lap and we’ll have to burn through his second last set of fresh Supers. Despite a clear track in front of him, he gets passed by Sebastian Vettel and once again finishes 9th, which is where he’ll start on race day. Stroll will start 16th.

THE RACE –

The weather forecast looks fine for race day. Perez needs to start off on a lightly used set of SuperSofts based on F1 rules so my plan for him is to use those until they can go no more then move onto Mediums in a bid to just pit the one time. Stroll will hopefully use just two sets of Softs for this race so he gets Level Three Knowledge of race trim and Softs while Perez gets Level One knowledge of mediums for the race.

Stroll is something else on first laps and moves from 16th to 12th by the end of the first lap, while Perez drops to 10th. By the end of lap two, Stroll is now past Perez and in 6th while Perez is dueling with Pierre Gasly for 7th spot.

DAMNIT! I realize that I didn’t change Stroll’s tyres before the race from the default setting (MY GOD) and he’s on SuperSofts. Just a ridiculous error. Now I’m likely going to have to slap on mediums when he’s gone through these tyres and not utilize any performance bonuses from our practice knowledge. So stupid…

And, it matters not, as Lance Stroll CRASHES on lap 11 and he’s out of the bloody race after running in 7th at the time. Brutal management and a brutal mistake by Stroll. Sheesh.

This race isn’t going well for our tyre wear, as Perez is already down to only 33% life on his set of Supers and will need to pit soon. I’m not sure if he can make it to the end of the race on one set of Mediums from here.

Perez comes to the pits in 6th on lap 16 and re-emerges in 17th – if we’re good with these tyres, we might be able to make it the last 32 laps without another pit stop.

By lap 25, Perez is battling for 14th and is racing against a bunch of guys on Softs.

By lap 35, Perez is up to 9th and he’s looking pretty decent, with Lando Norris ahead still needing to pit at some point. However, Nico Hulkenberg is a couple spots back on fresh Supers so he may be a threat to us finishing in the points. We have 47% tyre wear left with 13 laps remaining.

Norris pits and we’re up to 8th and we’re able to hold everyone else off, finishing in that position to gain a few crucial points. We plotted a nice strategy for Perez and it paid off well. Just wish I could have done the same with Stroll.

Lewis Hamilton takes the win and Vettel is second. At least we finally have a different man on the podium with them, as Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo comes third this week.

June 30, 2019
German Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 47 Laps, 25 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 47 Laps, +4.823, 18 Points
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 47 Laps, +43.141, 15 Points
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4. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 47 Laps, +45.968, 12 Points
5. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 47 Laps, +47.767, 10 Points
6. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 47 Laps, +52.998, 8 Points
7. Carlos Sainz, McLaren, 47 Laps, +59.812, 6 Points
8. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 47 Laps, +63.925, 4 Points
9. Alberto Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, 47 Laps, +71.825, 2 Points
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 47 Laps, +72.700, 1 Point

19. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 10 Laps, CRASHED, 0 Points

Lewis Hamilton retakes the overall lead in the drivers standings by 6 points over Sebastian Vettel. Perez maintains his hold on 7th while Stroll drops to 12th due to Romain Grosjean vaulting all the way up to 9th after his fine 5th place finish in Munich.