Motorsport Manager (Formula One 2019 Mod) - Racing Point F1 Team

NoSkillz · 03-13-2019, 03:52 PM

I wrote a brief dynasty here a few years ago when Motorsport Manager was first released and I marveled at the quality and depth of this first-time effort by the game designers. It was a remarkably polished game and I enjoyed it quite a bit but I would drift away from the game soon after, as I've never been a true racing fan.

Fast forward to this past weekend, as Netflix released their new 10-part series "Formula One: Drive to Survive", a detailed look at the 2018 F1 season. If you haven't watched this, I can't recommend the series enough - it's truly captivating and singlehandedly has made me interested in the sport and the upcoming 2019 season, which starts this Friday with the Australia Grand Prix.

So, what better time then now to load up Motorsport Manager and try to emulate what happens on the track in 2019 and beyond?

I'm utilizing the Formula One 2019 Mod that is available in the Steam Workshop and it seems quite good on first glance.

There is one F1 team that has a significant Canadian influence so it just seems right for me to take on the challenge provided at Racing Point.

NoSkillz · 03-13-2019, 03:54 PM

Racing Point F1 - TEAM BACKGROUND

The origins of Racing Point date back to October 2007, when a consortium led by Indian businessman Vijay Mallya joined forces with Dutchman Michiel Mol to buy the Spyker F1 team for £88 million. The team was renamed as the Force India Formula One team for the 2008 season.

After finishing last in the constructors’ race in 2008, the team showed steady improvement in future years, with the 2014 addition of Mexican driver Sergio Perez being a key component. Perez would earn five of the six podium finishes in team history and Force India would finish a lofty fourth in the F1 constructors’ standings in both 2016 and 2017.

However, major financial issues continued to plague the team and chairman Vijay Mallya faced extradition by the Indian government to face charges of financial crimes. In July 2018, Force India was put into administration by the High Court in London and ultimately, another consortium, this time led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, purchased the team’s assets.

2019 will be the first full year under the newly renamed Racing Point F1 Team and I will be taking over as the team principal.

Racing Point is headquartered in the United Kingdom and here are some key numbers worth looking at as we begin our quest to move up in this racing world:

Fan Base: 9.8 million
Marketability: 87%
Total Staff: 280

We have a chairman (Lawrence Stroll), a team principal (that's me!), three drivers, a lead designer, two chief race mechanics, sixty other garage mechanics, 14 on our pit crew, a scout and an assistant. The rest of the staff must be in the administration and design departments.

A quick overview of our rankings within Formula One reinforces the challenge ahead.

Car: 8th (out of 10 teams)
Drivers: 9th
Headquarters: 9th
Staff: 8th
Sponsors: 5th
Pit Crew: 3rd

As for me, I'm a 45 year old ex-driver from Canada going into management for the first time and Racing Point fans are optimistic but slightly skeptical of my hiring. That said, the team's drivers love that I've come on board and that brings a +20 morale boost to the three drivers on staff.

NoSkillz · 03-13-2019, 03:55 PM

Racing Point F1 - TEAM HEADQUARTERS

Our team headquarters are ranked 9th out of the 10 teams in Formula One.

Factory: Level 3 (out of 4)
Telemetry Centre: MAX LEVEL
Wind Tunnel: Level 2 (out of 3)
Scouting Facility: MAX LEVEL
Brakes R&D Facility: Level 2 (out of 3)
Handling Development Centre: Level 2 (out of 3)
Simulator: MAX LEVEL
Forecasting Centre: Level 2 (out of 3)
Staff Centre: Level 2 (out of 3)

There are four other buildings that we could build in the future, including a Road Car Factory, a Test Track, a Tour Centre and finally, a Theme Park. The Theme Park is currently locked but the other three can be built at any time. I’ll hold off on that for now but the Test Track will likely be the first I build, as it unlocks Level 3 engine knowledge, something we desperately need.

There is a headquarters-specific set of rankings and we're once again near the bottom relative to our competitors on the circuit:

Design: 8th (out of 10)
Factory: 8th
Performance: 9th
Staff: 8th
Staff and Brand: 9th

NoSkillz · 03-13-2019, 03:57 PM

Racing Point F1 - CARS

As indicated, our car currently ranks 8th in Formula One but we have something we can work with.

Our chassis make up is pretty decent, with a Tyre Wear rating of 4/5, a Tyre Heating rating of 4/5, a Fuel Efficiency rating of 4/5 and an Improvability rating of 3.75/5. Not bad. We have a Mercedes engine, battery and chassis materials, utilize Petronas fuel and Pirelli brakes.

CAR #1 -
Brakes: 804/812
Engine: 885/892
Front Wing: 857/865
Gearbox: 843/853
Rear Wing: 855/862
Suspension: 805/812

CAR #2 -
Brakes: 750/762
Engine: 850/862
Front Wing: 800/800
Gearbox: 800/818
Rear Wing: 800/812
Suspension: 750/762

Like everything else, we are ranked in the middle-to-bottom in most of the rankings of individual parts:

Engine: 8th (out of 10)
Gearbox: 5th
Brakes: 5th
Front Wing: 7th
Suspension: 9th
Rear Wing: 8th

Continual improvements will be a must for us to become competitive in this series. A.B.B. – “Always be Building” will be my motto for the shop! Our new chairman has provided me with a healthy budget so money shouldn’t be an issue for our development team. The strategy will be to give the best parts to my top driver and any new parts will be put on his or her car as well, allowing me to then hand off the previous best part to our second driver.

NoSkillz · 03-13-2019, 04:00 PM

Racing Point F1 - DRIVERS

Alright, things get interesting when we look at who is behind the wheel at Racing Point. We have one long-time incumbent and one new controversial addition to the team in 2019.

MAIN DRIVER -
Sergio Perez - 29 Years Old, Male, Mexico, 4 stars (out of 5)
Contract Status: Equal Status Driver
Contract: £214,000 per race, 9 months remaining

Affectionately known as “Checo”, Perez signed with Force India in December 2013 after previous stints with McLaren and Ferrari’s Driver Academy. Checo stuck with the team through the 2018 reformation into Racing Point and is unquestionably our most talented driver, with eight Formula One podiums on his resume.

He has very good ratings across the board: Braking 15, Cornering 14, Smoothness 18, Overtaking 15, Consistency 13, Adaptability 16, Fitness 15, Feedback 18 and Focus 15. Not too bad! At 29 years of age, he’s in the prime of his career and as such, he’s fully reached his potential and these ratings likely won’t improve.

He also has a couple of specific personality traits that my assistant tells me about - he's “Content” with his standing at Racing Point and that comes with a 30 point morale boost. However, it may hurt his desire to win trophies somewhat. Checo is also a “Hard Worker”, comes in early and that trait gives him a +15 point boost to his relationship with his mechanic and a +1 boost to his fitness. Finally, he’s considered a “Stable” personality and that gives him an additional +2 boost to his consistency.

Perez is a national hero in his native Mexico and has an extremely high marketability rating of 95%. This all said, my chief scout feels that he’s destined for a poor year-end finishing position in the Driver’s Standings, predicting an 18th place finish. Interesting.

MAIN DRIVER -
Lance Stroll - 20 years old, Male, Canada, 2.75 stars (out of 5)
Contract Status: Equal Status Driver
Contract: £71,000 per race, 33 Months remaining

The main beneficiary of Lawrence Stroll bailing out Force India was his son, who leaves the hapless Williams Racing Team and joins his father as an equal status driver at Racing Point.

This was the most obvious cliffhanger ending in F1 history but was still a very controversial decision, as Stroll ends up taking a seat away from young Wonderkid Esteban Ocon, who now is a reserve driver at Mercedes. If you watched the Netflix Formula One series that was just released, one of the episodes documented the friction between Ocon and Perez at Force India last year so it was clear that one of the two drivers had to go. Personally, I would have went with Ocon, who is clearly on an upward trajectory, is incredibly ambitious and a hard worker. But I came on board after that decision was made so we’ll just have to make the best of it.

Lance comes to Racing Point with some serious pedigree, having won the Italian F4 championship in 2014, the Toyota Racing Series in 2015 and the FIA European Formula 3 championship in 2016. He was a splashy signing by Williams in 2017 and soon won his first podium, finishing 3rd at Azerbaijan to become the second youngest driver in F1 history to reach a podium and the youngest to do so in his rookie season. He’s experienced tough times ever since and in 41 career races over two years, still has that single top three finish.

Stroll is still young and has some decent potential to improve so we will be charting his progress throughout the season. He’s currently sitting with the following attribute rankings: Braking 10, Cornering 11, Smoothness 11, Overtaking 10, Consistency 8, Adaptability 13, Fitness 15, Feedback 11 and Focus 9.

He comes with a lot of warts though. Our assistant says he’s “Crash Happy”, which results in a -2 hit to his focus. He’s also considered “Erratic”, which means a -2 hit to his consistency attribute. There are positives though: he’s considered a pay driver and we earn a whopping £868,000 per race (!) that he starts through his sponsors, an incredible contribution. He’s also considered a “Nice Guy” which gives him +5 boosts to his mechanic relationship, his teammate’s morale and to the chairman’s happiness. Speaking of his famous and rich father, that provides another +10 marketability boost and lastly, he has a two month boost to his morale since he just signed a new deal with the team.

Like Perez, Stroll scores very well on marketability ratings (85%) but my scout summarizes his capabilities by saying he is one of the weakest drivers on circuit (17th place predicted finish) but does have the potential to improve significantly.

RESERVE DRIVER -
Nicholas Latifi - 23 years old, Male, Canada, 3.25 stars (out of 5)
Contract Status: Reserve
Contract: £4,000 per race, 21 months remaining

Latifi is an interesting case. He has been a reserve for the last three years in F1, serving as a test driver for Renault in 2016 and 2017 and served the same role on our team last year. He’s won a couple of races on the F2 circuit over the past two seasons and has some very intriguing ratings and potential: Braking 12, Cornering 12, Smoothness 13, Overtaking 12, Consistency 15, Adaptability 10, Fitness 14, Feedback 13 and Focus 12.

My assistant tells me he is content in his role as a reserve with the team and that provides a 30 point morale boost along with the perk that he'll likely request a salary close to 100,000 less than a similarly skilled driver would ask. He’s also considered a hard worker, stable and most intriguingly, a “Racer”, which provides a +2 boost to all of his ratings on raceday. That propels him well above Stroll and into Perez territory from a skill standpoint. That all said, I’d likely be fired if I took a seat away from the owner’s son so Latifi will have to wait for his opportunity.

It’s going to be an interesting year. The fact that my scout feels Stroll will finish higher than Perez indicates to me that his father (our chairman) wants him in our number 1 car. However, I plan on giving the best car to Perez, as he’s our best hope for points this season. We’ll see how that works out!

Next, we'll take a brief look at our key staff members...

NoSkillz · 03-13-2019, 04:02 PM

Racing Point F1 - KEY STAFF

LEAD DESIGNER -
Andrew Green, 45 years old, Male, United Kingdom, 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Contract: £16,000 per race, 57 months remaining

Williams looks like he was recently signed to a five year contract but he’s making a very modest salary for what he brings to the table.

He’s a solid designer overall, with ratings of Engine 15, Brakes 13, Gearbox 14, Front Wing 15, Suspension 13 and Rear Wing 14. Despite his age, he’s still got some hidden potential with his skillset.

RACE MECHANIC (for Sergio Perez) -
Bradley Joyce, 41 years old, Male, United Kingdom, 4.0 stars (out of 5)
Contract: £3000 per race, 21 months remaining

Joyce has worked with Perez for the last two years and is a top flight mechanic in Formula One: Concentration 14, Part Fixes 17, Pit Stops 10, Reliability 17, Chemistry 18 and Performance 18. He has Level 1 Soft Tyre knowledge and has plenty of room to improve in future years.

RACE MECHANIC (for Lance Stroll) -
Tim Wright, 33 years old, Male, United Kingdom, 4.25 stars (out of 5)
Contract: £3000 per race, 21 months remaining

Wright has worked with Lance Stroll for the last 47 weeks and is also an excellent race mechanic: Concentration 12, Part Fixes 18, Pit Stops 18, Reliability 19, Chemistry 16 and Performance 16. Wright has Level 1 knowledge of Wet Tyres and at only 33 years of age, has plenty of potential to improve on his already excellent ratings.

We have a team of 60 mechanics in the garage and 14 members of our pit crew. Our garage and pit staff are definite strengths of the team.

NoSkillz · 03-13-2019, 04:03 PM

Racing Point F1 - FINANCES AND CHAIRMAN TARGETS FOR 2019

Lawrence Stroll brings a big wallet with him to the team and we have plenty to work with to improve our car and the overall infrastructure at Racing Point.

Available Budget to start: £150,000,000
Income per race to start: +£785,000

We are allocating £952,000 per race to next year's car, the maximum we are allowed, only £6,000 to our race mechanics, £16,000 to our lead designer, £1,035,000 for HQ Upkeep & Staff, £187,000 to our pit crew and £70,000 for travel costs. Incredibly, due to pay driver Lance Stroll and the associated sponsorship income, we have a net surplus of £579,000 per week on driver costs!

Offsetting those costs is our per race income of £2.365 million in the form of Chairman payments and an additional £160,000 per race from our four official fixed payment sponsors. All of our sponsorship agreements are in place for this season only, including our main car sponsor BWT.

I meet with our chairman and he gives me a couple of options as far as targets and budget. I don't really take much time on this one and opt for the conservative approach of working with the budget already implemented and striving to finish off the foot of the table in 9th place in the constructors’ standings.

This should be fun. Let’s get on with the season!

NoSkillz · 03-13-2019, 04:08 PM

2019 Formula One Series - OVERVIEW

The 2019 F1 season features 21 races all across the world. Unfortunately, Motorsport Manager doesn’t feature tracks at all of the real-life F1 destinations so there are a few repeat visits among the 21 stops on the schedule, albeit using different track configurations for any of those repeat visits. The prize fund in 2019 is a whopping £500,000,000 and the series has an estimated world-wide TV Audience of 425 million...seems high but that’s impressive!

There are ten teams fighting for the constructors championship in F1 in 2019. Here's a brief look at our nine opponents:

Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda, Italy, 3 stars out of five (Expected Finish: 10th)
- Switching to Honda engines for 2018 was a massive risk but has been negotiated adequately. Daniil Kvyat returns after being ditched by the team at the end of 2017. Alongside him is Formula 2 race winner Alexander Albon. Keeping off the foot of the table will be the aim for this team this year.
- Chairman: Dietrich Mateschitz
- Team Principal: Franz Tost
- Budget: £100,000,000
- Suppliers: Engine (Honda), Fuel (Esso), Chassis Materials (Red Bull Racing), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (TAG)
- Drivers: Alexander Albon, 22, Thailand (0 career races) and Daniil Kvyat, 24, Russia (72 races, 2 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Niko Kari, 19, Finland (0 career races)

Alfa Romeo Racing, Switzerland, 3.25 stars (Expected finish: 8th)
- Sauber, now renamed to Alfa Romeo Racing, were the most improved team during the 2018 season. Charles Leclerc proved he is the real deal but has moved up to Ferrari. In his place, veteran Kimi Raikkonen has returned to the team where he made his debut in 2001. Alongside him races the fast but error-prone Antonio Gionvinazzi. A solid midfield placing will be the hope for this fan favourite team.
- Chairman: Pascal Picci
- Team Principal: Frederic Vasseur
- Budget: £100,000,000
- Suppliers: Engine (Ferrari), Fuel (Shell), Chassis Materials (Ferrari), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Magneti Marelli)
- Main Drivers: Kimi Raikkonen, 39, Finland (291 races, 103 podiums, 21 wins) and Antonio Giovinazzi, 25, Italy (2 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Tatiana Calderon, 23, Columbia (0 career races)

ROKiT Williams Racing, United Kingdom, 3.5 stars (Expected finish: 7th)
- After being rejuvenated by Mercedes engines from 2014 onwards, Williams are sliding down the F1 order, finishing last in 2018. The team’s reliance on pay drivers has failed to keep the team financially competitive. F2 champion George Russell has been recruited alongside returning fan favourite Robert Kubica.
- Chairman: Sir Frank Williams
- Team Principal: Claire Williams
- Budget: 125,000,000
- Suppliers: Engine (Mercedes), Fuel (Petronas), Chassis Materials (Mercedes), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Mercedes)
- Main Drivers: George Russell, 21, England (0 career races) and Robert Kubica, 34, Poland (76 races, 12 podiums, 1 win); Reserve Driver: Sergei Sirotkin, 23, Russia (21 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins)

Rich Energy Haas F1 Team, United States, 3.5 stars (Expected finish: 6th)
- The American Haas team has proved far more successful than anticipated during their first three seasons in Formula 1, although other teams remain suspicious of their close ties to Ferrari. Drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean are consistent and fast. New sponsorship from Rich Energy has raised eyebrows but financial security will be key for this new team to continue their remarkable run.
- Chairman: Gene Haas
- Team Principal: Guenther Steiner
- Budget: 110,000,000
- Suppliers: Engine (Ferrari), Fuel (Shell), Chassis Materials (Ferrari), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Magneti Marelli)
- Main Drivers: Kevin Magnussen, 26, Denmark (81 races, 1 podium, 0 wins) and Romain Grosjean, 32, Switzerland (143 races, 10 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Pietro Fittipaldi, 22, Brazil (0 career races)

McLaren F1 Team, United Kingdom, 3.5 stars (Expected finish: 5th)
- McLaren are currently enduring the worst few seasons in their glorious history. The ill-fated partnership with Honda has been abandoned but car performance has not improved as expected. Fernando Alonso has walked away to race in IndyCars and a new driver pairing has been enlisted. Further changes will be required to restore this team to past glories.
- Chairman: Zak Brown
- Team Principal: Gil De Ferran
- Budget: 170,000,000
- Suppliers: Engine (Renault), Fuel (Castrol), Chassis Materials (McLaren), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (McLaren)
- Main Drivers: Carlos Sainz Jr., 24, Spain (81 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) and Lando Norris, 19, England (0 career races); Reserve Driver: Sergio Sette Camara, 20, Brazil (0 career races)

Renault F1 Team, France, 3.75 stars (Expected finish: 4th)
- Having re-entered Formula 1 in 2016, Renault are now ready to lead the charge to the top teams. A 4th place constructors finish was achieved in 2018 and the team is ready to build from there. Daniel Ricciardo has been lured from Red Bull to race alongside the highly rated Nico Hulkenberg, as both aim for podiums and race wins in the near future.
- Chairman: Thierry Koskas
- Team Principal: Cyril Abiteboul
- Budget: 250,000,000
- Suppliers: Engine (Renault), Fuel (Castrol), Chassis Materials (Renault), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Renault)
- Main Drivers: Daniel Ricciardo, 29, Australia (150 races, 29 podiums, 7 wins) and Nico Hulkenberg, 31, Germany (156 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Artem Markelov, 24, Russia (0 career races)

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, United Kingdom, 3.75 stars (Expected finish: 3rd)
- Red Bull took four drivers and constructors championships between 2010 and 2013 before Mercedes matched their achievements in the years since. In recent years, wins have proven hard to come by and the relationship between Renault and Red Bull has fallen apart. A new partnership with Honda presents an uncertain future. Max Verstappen has impressed since joining in 2016 but new teammate Pierre Gasly will be looking to match him.
- Chairman: Dietrich Mateschitz
- Team Principal: Christian Horner
- Budget: 220,000,000
- Suppliers: Engine (Honda), Fuel (Mobile 1), Chassis Materials (Red Bull), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (TAG)
- Main Drivers: Max Verstappen, 21, Holland (81 races, 22 podiums, 5 wins) and Pierre Gasly, 23, France (26 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Brendon Hartley, 29, New Zealand (25 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins)

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Germany, 4.0 stars (Expected finish: 2nd)
- Mercedes have dominated Formula 1 since the introduction of hybrid engines in 2014. Four drivers and constructors championships in a row have cemented their place at the top of the F1 pecking order. Five time champion Lewis Hamilton races alongside Fin Valtteri Bottas, who needs to improve to keep his seat after a winless 2018. Maintaining a competitive car will be a must for a new team principal.
- Chairman: Dieter Zetsche
- Team Principal: Toto Wolff
- Budget: 250,000,000
- Suppliers: Engine (Mercedes), Fuel (Petronas), Chassis Materials (Mercedes), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Mercedes)
- Main Drivers: Lewis Hamilton, 34, England (229 races, 134 podiums, 73 wins) and Valtteri Bottas, 29, Finland (118 races, 30 podiums, 3 wins); Reserve Driver: Esteban Ocan, 22, France (50 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins)

Scuderia Ferrari, Italy, 4.0 stars (Expected finish: 1st)
- Ferrari have proven to be the closest challengers to Mercedes in recent years. Vettel came close to the driver’s championship in 2017 and 2018 but missed out to Hamilton. Veteran Kimi Raikkonen has made way for the superbly talented Charles Leclerc. Surely Ferrari’s best chance for the driver’s and constructors double lies on the horizon.
- Chairman: Louis Camilleri
- Team Principal: Maurizio Arrivabene
- Budget: 260,000,000
- Suppliers: Engine (Ferrari), Fuel (Shell), Chassis Materials (Ferrari), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Magneti Marelli)
- Main Drivers: Sebastian Vettel, 31, Germany (219 races, 111 podiums, 52 wins) and Charles Leclerc, 21, Monaco (21 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Antonio Fuoco, 22, Italy (0 career races)

NoSkillz · 03-13-2019, 11:31 PM

RACE ONE: Australian Grand Prix, Sydney (March 17, 2019)

Track Layout A
Track Guide - Acceleration, Low Speed Corners and Top Speed Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (medium), Tyre Wear (high)
Laps - 41 (3.62 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Mediums, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Sunny); Qualifying (Partly Cloudy w/Showers); Race Day (Rain)

We have three full weeks to prepare for our first race and we immediately begin work designing new brakes. They don’t take too long to produce and once finished, we get our mechanics working on upgrades and reliability on the new part. Our designers then start work on a new gearbox – it won’t be ready in time for Australia but I think it should be ready (and reliable) by the time we hit Dubai in a couple weeks.

I have our chief scout doing reports on drivers from other circuits, mostly to build a database on what’s out there. I don’t forsee any changes to our lineup in year one.

PRACTICE –

Practice sessions in F1 in 2019 last 30 minutes, which is more than enough time to dial in the cars and gain critical knowledge required for both qualifying and the race itself.

The weather looks ominous this weekend, with rain on the schedule both for qualifying and for the actual race. We’ll likely need inters for both so I plan on utilizing them in practice despite the glorious weather to build some track knowledge with them. We’ll also look to gain some knowledge on SuperSofts.

We get both cars dialed in nicely (both at 98%), have level three Qualifying and Race Trim, level two Inter Tyre knowledge and level one Supersoft tyre knowledge by the time practice ends.

QUALIFYING –

In past Motorsport Manager careers, I never had to worry about qualifying so this is something completely new to me and much more strategic than I initially expected.

There are three stages in qualifying: in Q1, the drivers need to finish in the top 15 (out of 20 drivers) to move on to Q2. You can try to set as many times as possible to help your cause in each of these stages but generally, you can usually only fit in two timed laps in the time provided. However, if a driver finishes reasonably well in their first lap, often they will be content with that one lap and cross their fingers that it holds up, a strategy employed to save on tyre usage. The five racers eliminated in this stage start at the back of the pack for the actual race, with the slowest time in the 20th grid position.

In Q2, the fastest ten racers (out of 15 remaining in qualifying) move on to Q3, the final stage. Then it’s a shootout for the last ten grid spots – what’s interesting about Q3 is the fact that you will be forced to start the actual race on the set of tyres you used to set your fastest Q3 qualifying time. So essentially, the top 10 racers get the advantage of better starting positions but have to start on worn tyres, while the 10 racers eliminated in either Q1 or Q2 get the chance to start on fresh tyres.

It’s raining moderately during most of the qualifiers so we utilize our Inter tyre knowledge along with our Level Three qualifying trim for both racers. In Q1, both Perez and Stroll post top 10 lap times on their first attempt and I take the chance and keep them in the pits for the last five minutes of qualifying, thinking it’s enough to get them through. Thankfully, the strategy to save a set of tyres works and both of our racers move through to Q2.

The rain continues into Q2 and once again, both drivers are on inters. Perez and Stroll are both once again in decent positions after their first lap and I once again roll the dice that their times will hold up, skipping a second attempt. However, a few racers improve on their times on their second attempt and Stroll just gets bumped down to 11th, eliminating him from Q3. Perez is able to get through to final qualifying.

In Q3, we get Perez out for two qualifying attempts but he finishes 8th and will have to utilize his partially worn set of SuperSofts at the start of the Grand Prix. Lance Stroll will start 11th and can change to a new set of tyres. Sebastian Vettel from Ferrari wins the pole by 0.003 seconds over Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes, the driver’s champion for the last four years.

THE RACE –

Planning a strategy for this race proves to be difficult due to the constantly changing weather conditions. Forecasts show sunshine giving way to moderate rains by about lap 12, with heavy, driving rains coming midway through the race. We’ll need SuperSofts to start and will likely need inters and wets during the race. At best, it will be a two pit race for both drivers, with the Grand Prix scheduled for 41 laps.

Perez gets off to a blazing start, passing multiple cars on the first lap to move from 8th place into second, right on the tail of Sebastian Vettal. I attempt to utilize his ERS (Energy Recovery System) to give him a temporary boost of power in an attempt to pass Vettal on a straightaway but Perez CRASHES and is out of the race on the second lap.

What a disaster!

Meanwhile, Stroll falls back considerably to start, racing at the back of the pack for a while before slowly moving up as the race progresses. He gets as high as fifth but it’s a mirage, as we’ve tried to baby his tyres to perhaps save a pit stop. In the end, Stroll is able to barely make the checkered flag with 1% left on his tyres, utilizing an ERS boost on the final straightaway to pass George Russell from Williams to finish in 12th place, a pretty decent result considering the fact I’ve given him our worst car.

Lewis Hamilton took control midway through the race and stormed to a 33 second win over Vettel, Hamilton’s 74th career Formula One victory. Red Bull’s Wonderkid, Max Verstappen, takes the final podium position.

March 17, 2019
Australian Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 41 Laps, 25 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 41 Laps, +32.989, 18 Points
3. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 41 Laps, +38.650, 15 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 41 Laps, +40.459, 12 Points
5. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 41 Laps, +41.562, 10 Points
6. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 41 Laps, +52.669, 8 Points
7. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 41 Laps, +53.513, 6 Points
8. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 41 Laps, +71.751, 4 Points
9. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 41 Laps, +76.404, 2 Points
10. Robert Kubica, Williams, 41 Laps, +78.060, 1 Point

12. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 41 Laps, +81.783, 0 Points

20. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 1 Lap, CRASHED, 0 Points

NoSkillz · 03-14-2019, 01:42 AM

RACE TWO: Dubai Grand Prix, Dubai (March 31, 2019)

Track Layout A
Track Guide – Top Speed, Deceleration and High Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (low), Tyre Wear (very low)
Laps - 36 (4.08 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Mediums, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Sunny); Qualifying (Partly Sunny); Race Day (Sunny)

We have significant repairs to make to both cars but especially the Perez #1 car after his lap two crash in Sydney. It takes a couple of days to get things right but we’re back in business with part and reliability improvements. We get our new gearbox completed and start working on its performance and reliability, while also getting started on a new Rear Wing in the design department. It gets completed before the race but it won’t be reliable enough to put into a car until the Chinese Grand Prix in a couple weeks.

Pundits are predicting that Lewis Hamilton will once again take the checkered flag on race day, with the Toro Rosso team expected to struggle once again.

With the weather looking promising, I elect to go with seven SuperSofts, 4 Softs and 4 Mediums for the weekend. The mediums allow me to potentially use a “long” strategy with our tyres and perhaps eliminate a pit stop along the way. But we’ll see how practice and qualifying goes first.

PRACTICE –

With weather looking good all weekend, I think we can work with a one pit strategy, utilizing SuperSofts for part of the race and Softs for another. We barely are able to get our level three knowledge on both sets of tyres and achieve level three qualifying and race trim as well.

We continue our great work in getting the cars dialed in, with Stroll’s car at 98% optimum balance and Perez at 99%. We don’t push the tyres too much in practice and our times suffer as a result, with both racers finishing near the bottom of the pack.

QUALIFYING –

It’s another gorgeous day and we send both Perez and Stroll out on SuperSofts in Q1, utilizing our 15% Level Three Qualifying Trim boost and our 15% Level Three SuperSoft tyres boost. Our cars are not running well on the Abu Dhabi track, with Perez finishing 12th in his first lap and Stroll right at the bottom in last place. Not good! I need to send both drivers out again to try to ensure top 15 finishes and I’m forced to utilize another set of tyres for each guy. It does not work out well at all, as Perez runs a slower second lap and Stroll barely improves upon his time – Perez drops one spot to 13th and barely moves on to Q2 while Stroll stays in last, almost 2 seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel, who tops Q1.

I elect to send out Perez in his first Q2 lap with a slightly worn set of SuperSofts and post a time but unsurprisingly, he finishes 14th out of the 15 racers. So it’s back out on a brand new set of SuperSofts for his final Q2 lap and he’s only able to improve one position, finishing in 13th 1.223 seconds behind Charles Leclerc from Ferrari, who tops Q2. Perez now joins Stroll on the sidelines.

In Q3, Lewis Hamilton edges Sebastian Vettel and wins the pole for tomorrow’s race. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez will start in the 13th position while Lance Stroll starts at the back of the field in 20th.

THE RACE –

It’s obvious that our cars are completely overmatched for this race – I don’t know if the track simply doesn’t suit us or if it’s our drivers but we are running so much slower than everyone else.

Stroll will start on Softs and try to go long on those tyres while I’d go with a more aggressive strategy with Perez in the middle of the field, utilizing SuperSofts.

Stroll gets off to a wonderful start, moving up about six places and even passing Perez but would soon fall back into 19th by the end of the first lap. Perez would stabilize and retake position over Stroll and race comfortably in the middle of the field, pitting on lap 22 in 9th position. Stroll would pit one lap later from 12th. Both would have to make up considerable ground upon returning to the race, with Perez emerging from pit row in 19th and Stroll in 20th.

Perez would eventually climb up to 10th and hold that position on the final lap but somehow would lose position on the last few turns, getting passed by four drivers and finishing out of the points in 14th.

Meanwhile, Stroll finished strong, moving up a few spots near the end on fresher tyres, finishing 15th.

As expected, it was a tough race for us and once again, we leave a race without points.

Once again, it was Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel dueling it out for the victory, with Hamilton leading all the way until his pit stop on lap 18. Vettel would take the lead and pit on lap 19 but dramatically exit pit row just in front of his rival. Vettel would hold on the rest of the way, winning for the 53rd time in his F1 career by 2.9 seconds over Hamilton. Vettel’s teammate, youngster Charles Leclerc, would earn his first ever podium in Formula One, finishing third, well back of the winner.

Alfa Romeo had a wonderful weekend, getting points from both drivers while George Russell from Williams and Lando Norris from McLaren, both F1 rookies, secure their first ever points on the top circuit.

March 31, 2019
Dubai Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 36 Laps, 25 Points
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 36 Laps, +2.914, 18 Points
3. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 36 Laps, +28.404, 15 Points
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4. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 36 Laps, +37.531, 12 Points
5. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 36 Laps, +40.678, 10 Points
6. George Russell, Williams, 36 Laps, +43.185, 8 Points
7. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, 36 Laps, +52.816, 6 Points
8. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 36 Laps, +58.250, 4 Points
9. Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, 36 Laps, +59.836 2 Points
10. Lando Norris, McLaren, 36 Laps, +61.699, 1 Point

14. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 36 Laps, +63.897, 0 Points
15. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 36 Laps, +65.067, 0 Points

Brian Swartz · 03-14-2019, 03:23 AM

Really good formatting and reporting style for this game - I'm impressed by the dynasty so far! I've been working on a MM project for quite a while, finally finished all the challenges and I've got a career just finished up the first year in the GT Series. I've never managed a team with the resources you have here yet, so I'm interested to see how it goes.

NoSkillz · 03-14-2019, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Really good formatting and reporting style for this game - I'm impressed by the dynasty so far! I've been working on a MM project for quite a while, finally finished all the challenges and I've got a career just finished up the first year in the GT Series. I've never managed a team with the resources you have here yet, so I'm interested to see how it goes.

Thanks Brian,

I'm like you - I mostly take the underdog teams (like Predator Racing in Motorsport Manager) with small budgets, as I find it fun to build them up. That said, starting with a team like Racing Point is just as interesting so far, as we're at such a disadvantage to the other, more established teams, even with the budget we're given.

I'm interested to see how it goes. I've also ramped up the difficulty, setting it right in between "Normal" and "Hard" at 5 on the sliding scale they have in the settings.

NoSkillz · 03-16-2019, 09:31 PM

RACE THREE: Chinese Grand Prix, Beijing (April 14, 2019)

Track Layout A
Track Guide – Top Speed, Deceleration and Low Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (Low), Tyre Wear (Medium)
Laps - 54 (2.73 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Mediums, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Mostly Sunny); Qualifying (Rain); Race Day (Partly Cloudy)

Our cars, as usual, took a bit of a beating in the race and will need about a days work to get back on track. A new front wing is completed just after the completion of the race in Dubai and I get our engineers working on building a new engine next.

The pundits once again are backing Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes, while saying Dubai race winner Sebastian Vettel will struggle in Beijing in the Ferrari. Somehow I doubt that! There is even a brief snippet about Racing Point, with prognosticators saying we’re destined to struggle this week as well.

There is a 40% chance of rain on race day and it looks like we’ll be dealing with rain during qualifying as well. We’ll stick with the same tyre setup as last week, going with seven SuperSofts, 4 Softs and 4 Mediums for the weekend.

It’s do or die time for Sergio Perez – I’ve given him the better car in the first two races and he hasn’t been able to do anything with it. I’m giving him one more chance to impress and if he can’t secure some points, I’m going to switch our best parts over to Stroll.

PRACTICE –

We have rain early in the practice session, which gives us a chance to build our Intermediate tyre knowledge for a possible wet track on race day. In the end, we are able to secure Level Three knowledge for Qualifying Trim, Race Trim, Intermediate Tyres and SuperSofts, while also securing Level Two knowledge on Soft Tyres. Fantastic!

Perez tears up the track in his last practice run and sets the fastest time in the field, while Stroll also runs well in practice, setting an 8th place time. Excellent stuff! We have no trouble getting Perez’ car dialed in to a 99% optimum balance while we struggle somewhat with Stroll’s speed balance, only securing a “Great” rating and 97% overall balance.

QUALIFYING –

It looks like we have rain in the forecast for the entire qualifying session so we’ll be on inters here. I utilize the 15% performance boosts given for Inters and for Qualifying trip, as you’d expect. I’m going to take a chance in Q1 and wait for the heavy rain to stop before going out, which will give us only one potential time in the session. It works to PERFECTION, as Perez crosses the line with the top Q1 qualifying time and Stroll comes in 3rd. Amazing! Charles Leclerc from Ferrari is second in Q1. Even more amazing are the names of racers who don’t make it into Q2: Lewis Hamilton (16th), Max Verstappen (19th) and Sebastian Vettel, who pundits predicted would struggle on this track, finishes dead last in Q1 and all are eliminated from further qualifying. WOW!

Things have completely dried out for Q2 so we’ll be heading out on SuperSofts. We don’t race as well in good weather and Perez sets the 10th fastest time while Stroll is 12th on the first lap. We get them both on a fresh set of slicks and send them out once more in an attempt to better their positions. Unfortunately, both put in worse performances on the second timed lap and ultimately, Perez finishes 11th and Stroll 13th, eliminating both of our racers from further qualifying. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo has the fastest Q2 time, followed by Romain Grosjean from Haas and Carlos Sainz from McLaren.

Ricciardo continues his good form in Q3 and wins the pole for the race tomorrow. Charles Leclerc joins him on the front row and Valtteri Bottas is in third.

THE RACE –

It’s raining to start the race and it looks like it’s going to be a wet one almost the whole way through. I’m guessing we’ll need to go to actual wets at a couple points during the race, as it looks like the middle laps especially will be under monsoon conditions. This should set up reasonably well for us, slowing everyone down to our speed.

Both drivers will start on inters and we’ll make at least two pit stops in the race but I’d guess three might be necessary.

We get off to a slow start but on lap two, there is a crash between Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean and both are out of the race. On lap four, both Stroll and Perez make big moves and move into the middle of the field in 9th and 8th place respectively. On lap 7, we pit for Wet Tyres and upon re-entering from the pits, we get Perez up to 3rd and Stroll up to 4th after utilizing their ERS boosts.

By lap 13, Perez and Stroll are comfortably in 3rd and 5th respectively and just coasting along on their wets, with Daniel Ricciardo still in good form and leading the race. Max Verstappen crashes and is out, eliminating yet another big threat.

We have to pit again on lap 17, one lap after all the other racers, as the track has dried up to the point where the wets aren’t working as well and we need inters again. Both pit stops go well and we load up on more ERS and re-enter proceedings in 4th with Perez and 7th with Stroll. We’re back on wets AGAIN by lap 24, with Perez moving up to 3rd and Stroll up to 6th. We really seem to be managing this race well so far.

We have another crash on lap 37, with Nico Hulkenberg bowing out of the race. The rain has stopped by this point but we still have a wet track, with Perez now up in third by over seven seconds and Stroll comfortably in 7th. Both are now on inters and it looks like we’ll have a shootout of a finish at the end on a dry track.

With about 10 laps to go, the track dries out and we go onto slicks and Perez continues to hold on to third spot. Stroll starts having engine problems but we need to keep him out there. Unfortunately, his car starts failing on him with about three laps to go and he ultimately gets passed by four cars, finishing 12th.

However, Perez holds firm and crosses the line in 3rd place, a little over 14 seconds behind race winner Daniel Ricciardo, for Racing Point’s first ever podium finish!!!

Joining Ricciardo and Perez on the podium is Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who finished second. Lewis Hamilton finished behind Perez in fourth, just one second further back.

It would have been great to get double points this weekend but we need to keep working on the reliability of our cars to ensure both Perez and Stroll can get across the finish line with parts intact. Still, a wonderful result for our team and Perez really ran a great race, as did Stroll, but Perez has the better technology at his disposal right now and took advantage.

Perez moves into seventh place in the Drivers Standings with his 15 points while Racing Point moves into sixth in the Constructors Standings, three points behind Haas.

April 14, 2019
Chinese Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 54 Laps, 25 Points
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 54 Laps, +2.195, 18 Points
3. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 54 Laps, +16.471, 15 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 54 Laps, +17.588, 12 Points
5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 54 Laps, +17.758, 10 Points
6. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 54 Laps, +21.535, 8 Points
7. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 54 Laps, +32.529, 6 Points
8. Robert Kubica, Williams, 54 Laps, +41.558, 4 Points
9. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 54 Laps, +50.726, 2 Points
10. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, 54 Laps, +54.079, 1 Point

12. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 54 Laps, +59.766, 0 Points

NoSkillz · 03-18-2019, 12:48 AM

RACE FOUR: Russian Grand Prix, Black Sea (April 28, 2019)

Track Layout B
Track Guide – Top Speed, Medium Speed Corners and High Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (Very High), Tyre Wear (Very High)
Laps - 61 (2.41 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Mediums, Hards, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Qualifying (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Partly Cloudy)

We get a brand new engine finished just after the Chinese Grand Prix and we immediately begin work on performance and reliability. Our design team gets to work on building a new suspension. Once that’s done, we will have finished building a full set of new “Average” rated components and can then start building a set of “Good” components.

Chinese Grand Prix podium finisher Checo Perez comes to me indicating that he’s started racing motorbikes in his free time, which adds +1 to his smoothness rating and +5 to his marketability. He’ll maintain those bonuses for 20 weeks.

Pundits feel Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes team will continue to dominate at Black Sea, with the Toro Rosso’s expected to struggle.

Our design team gets the new suspension completed just before race day but I’m not putting it into a car until the reliability is improved, so Perez will have to wait until next weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix.

Once again, there is a 40% chance of rain on race day. We can choose between Softs, Mediums and Hards and I end up taking 6 Softs, 6 Mediums and 3 Hards for each driver. Perez is considered “Happy” with his current car setup while Stroll is “Content”. Both are improved from last week’s “Content” and “Angry” respectively.

PRACTICE –

From a strategic perspective, we could try to go for a one pit race for Perez if we use Hards, as he’s better with Tyres than his counterpart, Lance Stroll. I don’t see how I can get away from having at least two pits with Stroll, even if the weather is favourable, which is up in the air right now. That all said, I think I’m going to attempt to get Level Three knowledge on the hard tyres and the mediums in practice.

We have a lovely, dry day for the entire practice run and it goes better than I could ever expect, as we quickly get both cars dialed in to 99% optimum balance and not only do I hit Level Three Knowledge in Soft Tyres, Hard Tyres, Qualifying Trim and Race Trim, but I also get the bonus of hitting Level Two Knowledge in Inters, just in case we see rain on race day. Just a splendid 25 minutes of practice!

Making it even better is the fact that Perez’s car posts the fastest lap time, with Lance Stroll doing well to post the fifth best time. Let’s see what we can do in qualifying though…

QUALIFYING –

It’s another gorgeous day for qualifying in Russia and I will utilize the 15% performance bonuses for Qualifying Trim and for Soft Tyres. We are confident after a great practice session but once again, we are foiled in the first lap of Q1, with Perez running 17th and Stroll is at the back of the pack in 20th, both WELL back of moving on to Q2. Geez! Perez is able to improve to 10th on his second attempt while Stroll can only move up to 18th. I’m able to squeeze Stroll out for a third try just before time expires on a third set of Softs but his car is just not up to the task and he can’t improve on that second time. He will start in 18th in the race, while Perez just moves on to Q2.

Q2 sees Perez out on the track first but he can only nab 11th with his first attempt. He’s back out on his second last set of fresh Soft Tyres for his second attempt and is able to squeeze into 9th, barely slipping through to Q3.

Laughably, I send out Perez on Mediums to start Q3, saving his last set of Softs for his second qualifying run. Predictably, he finishes dead last among the ten drivers left in Q3 so I send him back out on his last set of Softs and unfortunately, it doesn’t help, and Perez will start in 10th on the grid on a really worn set of softs. That might be the worst result I can possibly imagine.

Lewis Hamilton wins the pole position and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc starts on front row in 2nd position. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel will start third.

THE RACE –

We have more sunshine to start the race and I don’t see rain in the forecast for the first half but the “fog of war” means I can’t see beyond lap 30. I’m going to need different strategies for both drivers – Perez will be starting on some seriously worn Soft Tyres due to qualifying regulations (he is forced to use the tyres he used to set his fastest lap time in Q2), while Stroll can start on whatever tyres he wishes. It will be at least a two pit race for both drivers and I plan on going exclusively with Mediums for Stroll to get him there, while I plan on using the worn Softs to start for Perez, then move him to Hards for the rest of the race.

Both drivers start well then I finally utilize the ERS power boost smartly for both drivers, getting Perez up to second and Stroll up to 5th (from 20th!!!) by lap three. They are both down to zero power, however, and their engines move into harvest mode.

I quickly realize I’ve made my first GRAVE mistake of the race, not noticing that the game defaulted to having Stroll start on a Soft Tyre – this is going to completely screw up my strategy and I’m going to have to nurse this set of tyres to ensure he can maintain a two stop strategy. My god…

Perez falls to about 6th and has to pit on lap 11, as his Soft Tyres are down to about 18% and he emerges from the pits in 19th place. Not good. Stroll is 7th at this point but his Soft Tyres are quickly wearing as well on a notoriously tough track. I quickly realize my error in not switching him off Softs to start the race is going to mean one extra pit stop and may blow a top ten finish for him. I’ll just let him attack all race if that’s the case. Like Perez, Stroll pits and comes out in 19th.

Stroll just CHEWS THROUGH TYRES and I have to pit again with him on lap 28, as he’s only able to get 13 laps on the Mediums. My goodness. I’ll need to have him baby the next two sets or else he may have to pit four times this race. I look to the forecast to see if rain is coming and my dreams don’t look like they’ll be coming true today. At this point, Stroll is in 17th (Charles Leclerc has crashed and is out of the race) while Perez is rolling along on his hard tyres and is in 4th spot.

Perez pits on lap 37 for a second set of Hards while Stroll pits for a final time on lap 45, as he gets 16 laps out of the last set and should just be able to get to the finish.

We manage fuel and ERS boosts pretty well the rest of the way, with Perez hitting the checkered flag in 5th place, while Stroll hits the line in 14th and out of the points.

Lewis Hamilton wins his second race of the year by 8.7 seconds over Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas finishes third, another 25 seconds back.

I’m quite satisfied with the final results – Lance Stroll only finished about 11 seconds behind 10th place so my huge pre-race mistake in not getting him on medium tyres possibly cost him points. That said, Stroll went through tyres much quicker than anticipated so I’m not sure if there was any way around taking three pit stops.

April 28, 2019
Russian Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 61 Laps, 25 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 61 Laps, +8.666, 18 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 61 Laps, +33.594, 15 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 61 Laps, +42.526, 12 Points
5. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 61 Laps, +43.252, 10 Points
6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 61 Laps, +53.048, 8 Points
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 60 Laps, +1 Lap, 6 Points
8. Lando Norris, McLaren, 60 Laps, +1 Lap, 4 Points
9. Robert Kubica, Williams, 60 Laps, +1 Lap, 2 Points
10. Carlos Sainz, McLaren, 60 Laps, +1 Lap, 1 Point

14. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 60 Laps, +1 Lap, 0 Points

NoSkillz · 03-18-2019, 10:10 PM

RACE FIVE: Portuguese Grand Prix, Tondela (May 5, 2019)

Track Layout A
Track Guide – Acceleration and Low Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful
Track Info - Fuel Burn (Medium), Tyre Wear (High)
Laps - 48 (3.08 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Mediums, Hards, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Mostly Sunny); Qualifying (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Mostly Sunny)

With only three days between the end of the Russian Grand Prix and the start of practice at Tondela, there’s not much time to work on improvements to our car. We get a few of our newer parts up to 100% and our recently developed engine is now up to 93% reliability. Our new suspension won’t be ready in time for this race, unfortunately but should be good to go by South Africa in two weeks time.

I take part in my first Formula One vote, with the removal of the German Grand Prix on the table. Supposedly that race doesn’t fit our car or capabilities as a team but I decide to abstain from voting – in the end, the vote is 6-3 in favour of keeping the German Grand Prix on the schedule. Cool by me.

Lance Stroll has made some derogatory comments about our suspension not being up to snuff and I agree with him when asked by the press, saying it’s something we need to keep working on. Our team takes a 10% marketing hit as a result. I don’t think there was really an answer that would have benefited us there but whatever…not a big deal.

We already have some work being done to our headquarters, with construction on upgrades to our Wind Tunnel progressing nicely and we decide to splurge on two more additions, building a Test Track for 8 million and also starting work on a Tour Centre that will cost us 1.5 million. We still have a very healthy bank balance but we’ll save our remaining budget for improvements to the car.

The forecast looks absolutely perfect all weekend. This track is reasonably hard on tyres so I think I may need to consider using hards, so I take a balanced approach, picking 7 Softs, 4 Mediums and 4 Hards.

PRACTICE –

Stroll is much harder on tyres than his teammate Perez and for me to work a one pit race with the Canadian, I’ll need to utilize hard tyres. Perez likely can milk mediums in a one pit race. I’m going to try to hit bonuses for Softs, Mediums and Hards during our practice run.

It takes me only one pit stop in practice to dial Stroll’s car into 99% optimum balance, surely a record for me, especially since Stroll isn’t as adept with feedback. It takes three practice pits to get Perez all dialed in but from there, we are off working on our Qualifying and Race Trim bonuses along with the tyre bonuses. We get close to our goals, ending up with Level Three knowledge on Qualifying and Race Trim, along with Soft and Hard Tyres. We end up with Level two knowledge of mediums. Still, a solid result.

Practice lap times don’t mean an awful lot at this level but Perez clocks the second fastest time in practice on Softs, while Stroll sets the 8th fastest time while running on Hards, a pretty good accomplishment.

QUALIFYING –

We have another beautiful day for qualifying and I decide to utilize some different knowledge for Stroll, taking advantage of the fact he has a Level Two Mechanic’s Component with Super Overtake Mode. That power could come in handy for qualifying. We’ll also utilize his 15% Level Three Qualifying Trim. For Perez, we’ll use Level three knowledge for Soft Tyres and Qualifying Trim.

I send out Perez first in Q1 and hold Stroll in the pits for a couple of minutes as the track gains some grip. Perez ends up tallying a 12th place time while Stroll, even with his Super Overtake Mode in effect, comes in 13th. Those aren’t safe so we need to head out again with both drivers on fresh sets of Softs. Neither are able to better their positions but Perez ends up 13th and Stroll barely finishes 15th to move on to Q2.

Stroll just doesn’t have the car to keep up with these guys and his first Q2 lap is worst of the remaining racers. Perez is also below the Q2 elimination threshold at 11th. We can’t get improvements out of lap two and Perez is eliminated in 12th while Stroll will have to start 15th on the grid.

In the end, it’s Lewis Hamilton once again taking the pole for Mercedes by two tenths of a second over rival Sebastian Vettel. Vettel’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc will start in third.

THE RACE –

It looks like a perfect day for a race, unless you are Team Racing Point and always want rain! We will utilize similar strategies for both our drivers but get there in slightly different ways. We plan on this being a one lap race for both drivers, with Stroll using Hard Tyres while Perez will use Mediums. Stroll will utilize his Level Three knowledge of the Hards and his Level Two Super Overtake Mode while Perez will use his Level Three knowledge of Race Trim and Level Two knowledge of Medium Tyres. Perez starts 12th alongside Kimi Raikkonen while Stroll starts 15th alongside Daniil Kyvat.

Both drivers start impressively, with Perez up to 8th after the first lap and Stroll uses his Super Overtake mode to move up to 9th. We immediately employ the ERS after the completion of Lap One when the battery is fully charged and Perez is able to move up to 5th while Stroll is battling Max Verstappen for 7th position. What an exciting start!

From here, we settle in, with Perez in 5th and Stroll in 8th through 10 laps. We get to lap 21 and we’re starting to see both drivers have tyre trouble, with Perez at 19% and Stroll at 30%. Perez still has 28 laps remaining and a one pit race is starting to look unlikely unless I move him to Hard Tyres and have him baby them the whole way. With most of the race leaders looking like they’ll be doing two pits, I decide to keep Perez on Mediums and will change to a two-pit strategy for him.

Perez pits and re-emerges in 6th, just in front of his teammate. On lap 25, we bring Stroll to the pits and put new hard tyres on his car in hopes of making this a one pit race for him. He re-emerges in 13th position, with Perez up to 5th.

The race is going well, with Perez pitting for hopefully the final time on lap 37. We contemplate putting him on the faster soft tyres but he won’t get a performance boost PLUS he doesn’t have a fresh set, as we’d have to use a lightly used Soft Tyre from his qualifying session. I elect to stick with the Mediums, which will allow me to push a bit more without too much worry of wearing them out before the checkered flag. Perez re-emerges in 4th place but has Charles Leclerc hot on his heels on faster tyres so it will be tough to hold off the Ferrari. Stroll is in 12th and will be in tough to improve much on that by the looks of it.

With five laps to go, Stroll is now in 14th and languishing but Perez continues to hold off Leclerc in the battle for fourth. Vettel and Hamilton are having a great battle for the title while Bottas looks comfortably in third, 18 seconds ahead of our car so 4th is what we’re fighting for at the moment. We have a 1.5 second lead over the Ferrari at this time.

With two laps to go, we take advantage of a blue flag and blow past Daniil Kyvat to open up a bigger lead on Leclerc, one that we are able to maintain to the finish for a very satisfying 4th place finish!!! Stroll finishes in 14th.
Sebastian Vettel wins the Portuguese Grand Prix by about four and a half seconds over Lewis Hamilton, with Valtteri Bottas finishing on the podium in third.

We adapted quite well in that race, with Perez doing exceptionally well in the middle stages of the race specifically to nurse his tyres to the point where he was able to maintain his position in the last ten laps over a faster Ferrari. There’s only so much we can do with Stroll right now, as his car is very weak. Soon, he will start getting some of Perez’s parts and hopefully that will set him up for some potential points in the second half of the season. Until then, he needs a lot of good fortune in order to compete.

May 5, 2019
Portuguese Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 48 Laps, 25 Points
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 48 Laps, +4.538, 18 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 48 Laps, +22.689, 15 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 48 Laps, +37.022, 12 Points
5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 48 Laps, +39.508, 10 Points
6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 48 Laps, +50.167, 8 Points
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 48 Laps, +50.767, 6 Points
8. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 48 Laps, +58.361, 4 Points
9. George Russell, Williams, 48 Laps, +67.076, 2 Points
10. Robert Kubica, Williams, 48 Laps, +67.868, 1 Point

14. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 47 Laps, +1 Lap, 0 Points

TEAM STANDINGS (After Five Races)

1. Mercedes, 2 Wins, 156 Points
2. Ferrari, 2 Wins, 133 Points
3. Renault, 1 Win, 71 Points
4. Red Bull, 0 Wins, 57 Points
5. Racing Point, 0 Wins, 37 Points
6. Williams, 0 Wins, 18 Points
7. Haas, 0 Wins, 18 Points
8. Alfa Romeo, 0 Wins, 9 Points
9. McLaren, 0 Wins, 6 Points
10. Toro Rosso, 0 Wins, 0 Points

As you can see, we are holding onto the top position in the so-called midfield, with Williams defying expectations thus far. Toro Rosso has really struggled all season and have yet to score a point.

DRIVERS STANDINGS (After Five Races)

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 2 Wins, 98 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 2 Wins, 92 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 0 Wins, 58 Points
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 1 Win, 55 Points
5. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 0 Wins, 43 Points
6. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 0 Wins, 41 Points
7. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 0 Wins, 37 Points
8. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 0 Wins, 16 Points
9. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 0 Wins, 14 Points
T10. George Russell, Williams, 0 Wins, 10 Points
T10. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 0 Wins, 10 Points

T18. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 0 Wins, 0 Points

It’s looking like a great race between Hamilton and Vettel at this point for the Drivers Championship while our own Sergio Perez is acquitting himself very well early on. He will only get better as we continue our good work with our car. Lance Stroll is one of only three drivers without a point thus far.

NoSkillz · 03-21-2019, 06:28 PM

RACE SIX: South African Grand Prix, Cape Town (May 19, 2019)

Track Layout A
Track Guide – Acceleration, Deceleration and Low Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (Low), Tyre Wear (Medium)
Laps - 64 (2.3 miles each)
Tyres Available - UltraSoft, SuperSoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Qualifying (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Partly Cloudy)

We have two weeks to get working on further improvements to our car and we’re able to get our new suspension completely upgraded and up to 100% performance and reliability. With a week until the race, we have a new engine completed, our second new engine design, with this one rated as “Good”. It won’t be reliable enough until the Canadian Grand Prix so it won’t be going into a car until then. I’m happy to say that for Cape Town, Sergio Perez will have a car with all new 2019 components, while Lance Stroll is essentially driving the car Perez started the year with. We also begin working on our second new set of brakes – hopefully we can get those in a car in Canada as well. So improvements continue to come…

Interestingly enough, in F1’s preview for the South African Grand Prix, Sergio Perez is interviewed and he feels a podium finish is “doable”, saying that “Cape Town is one of my favourite tracks on the circuit, so I can’t wait to get out there.”

Cool.

The weather forecast looks dry, with only a 10% chance of rain on race day. For the first time, we can choose the super fast UltraSoft Tyres – since this track is okay on tyres, we will be picking 8 UltraSofts, 4 SuperSofts and 3 Softs for this race.

PRACTICE –

It looks like it will be a pretty fast track here in Cape Town and I’m thinking that we’re going to have to take advantage of fast tyres. Still, I need to keep my options open, so I’m hoping to gain top level knowledge of the UltraSofts and SuperSofts and go from there.

It takes me all 25 minutes to figure out an optimal setup for both cars, as I really struggled with the speed balance specifically. I get them both dialed in and we do incredibly well with gaining Level Three knowledge for Ultras, Supers and Softs while also getting in Level One knowledge on Inters, just in case. Our times aren’t great during the session but that’s never meant much anyway.

QUALIFYING –

The sun is shining in Q1 and we will go with Level Three UltraSoft knowledge for both drivers, while using the Super Overtake Mode (Level Two) for Stroll and the Level Three Qualifying Trim for Perez.

Our cars don’t perform well, with Perez placing 13th and Stroll 18th. I send Stroll out again but roll the dice with Perez and keep him in the pits – he’s got a .1 second advantage over the 16th placed car and I’m thinking they can’t catch him. I’d prefer to hold off on using extra tyres if it’s not necessary. Stroll does not improve upon his time and attempts to go out a third time. I better send Perez back out there, even though he continues to hold onto 13th place. Romain Grosjean is one spot further back and he’s staying in the pits by the looks of it. Despite three cracks at it, Stroll can not better his 18th place standing and he is out while Perez moves into Q2.

In Q2, Perez sets personal bests for each sector but still places 12th in his first timed lap, not good enough to move on. I’m going to give him one more crack at bettering that mark and he has a clear track in front of him but once again, our car just can’t get it done and we are once again eliminated in Q2.

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes grab another pole, while the two Ferrari’s once again sit 2/3, with Vettel and Leclerc.

THE RACE –

We are looking at a three pit race for both racers but Stroll will likely have to move from Ultras to SuperSofts at least once during the race to do so. We utilize Level Three Knowledge of both race trim and UltraSofts. Perez starts 13th today and Stroll is back in 18th.

It’s a decent start for both, with Perez reaching 7th on lap three and Stroll is up to 14th after using their ERS boosts.

Stroll pits on lap 17 and comes out in last place, while Perez pits on lap 19 and re-emerges in 12th. We are really slow in the pits right now and I’ll need to look at our crew, normally a strength, after this race.

Stroll pits for a second time and is still at the back of the pack while Perez is now 16th after his second pit stop. We are really botching this strategy.

We just never get into a groove in this race and Perez can only get back up to 13th when the checkered flag is out while Stroll embarrassingly finishes last.

Lewis Hamilton wins the Grand Prix by five seconds over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, with Valtteri Bottas finishing third.

Just a miserable performance both both racers and very poor strategy equal zero points.

May 19, 2019
South African Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 64 Laps, 25 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 64 Laps, +5.145, 18 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 64 Laps, +11.581, 15 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 64 Laps, +17.860, 12 Points
5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 64 Laps, +33.171 10 Points
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 64 Laps, +39.160, 8 Points
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 64 Laps, +47.014, 6 Points
8. Carlos Sainz, McLaren, 64 Laps, +49.516, 4 Points
9. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 64 Laps, +55.364, 2 Points
10. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 64 Laps, +58.276, 1 Point

13. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 63 Laps, +1 Lap, 0 Points
20. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 63 Laps, +1 Lap, 0 Points

NoSkillz · 03-21-2019, 08:51 PM

RACE SEVEN: Canadian Grand Prix, Vancouver (June 2, 2019)

Track Layout A
Track Guide – Medium Speed Corners and High Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful
Track Info - Fuel Burn (High), Tyre Wear (High)
Laps - 44 (3.39 miles each)
Tyres Available - UltraSoft, SuperSoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Qualifying (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Mostly Sunny)

Well, no one ever said it would be easy. South Africa was unquestionably a low point of the season and we need to do much better in Canada, essentially a home race for our team, as owner Lawrence Stroll and his son Lance are both Montreal natives.

We get a new set of brakes completed and we begin work on performance and reliability improvements. In the meantime, our design team begins work on building a new gearbox.

The drivers race has been dominated by Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, with the two racers exchanging wins. Hamilton is the betting favourite in Vancouver, with Red Bull also expected to impress.

My scout tells me that there is a 40% chance of rain on race day but the forecast shows mostly sunshine. Interesting. The Vancouver track is tough on tyres so that might help us a bit – I think I’ll need to go with a long strategy to have any chance so we’ll have a balanced set of tyres for the weekend, with both racers having 6 Ultras, 5 Supers and 4 Softs.

PRACTICE –

For the second consecutive race, I have major issues getting Perez’s car optimized but thankfully, it only takes me a couple of cracks to get Stroll to 99% optimization. The best I can do with Perez’s car is 96% so we’ll continue our attempts to dial it in during qualifying. Stroll finishes with the fifth best time in practice while Perez can only nab the 8th best time.

We gain Level Three Knowledge of Qualifying and Lap Trim, UltraSoft and SuperSoft Tyres and Level Two Knowledge of Softs.

QUALIFYING –

The sun is shining in Q1 and we will go with Level Three Qualifying Trim knowledge for both drivers, while using the Super Overtake Mode (Level Two) for Stroll and the Level Three UltraSoft Tyre knowledge for Perez.

I continue to tweak Perez’s setup and it works, as he gets to 98% optimization after his first qualifying lap. However, his time is a mediocre 14th. Stroll’s time is slightly worse and he’s on the bubble in 15th, so both racers will need to give it another shot. As usual, neither driver is able to improve upon their time on their second timed lap and unfortunately, two drivers in the bottom five DO improve, dropping Perez to 16th and Stroll to 17th and they are both eliminated. That is the first time we’ve seen both drivers fail to advance to Q2 and it’s apparent that despite our steady car and part improvement, we’re not improving as quickly as the other teams.

Sebastian Vettel sets the fastest time in Q2, with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen right behind.

In Q3, it’s Vettel once again setting the pace and winning the pole, with Hamilton starting alongside him on front row and Charles Leclerc starting third.

THE RACE –

We could probably use some rain today but the forecast looks perfect. It’s a 44 lap race and I should be able to make this a one pit race for both drivers, utilizing Softs for Stroll and Supers for Perez. We utilize Level Three race trim for both drivers, Level Three Super Knowledge for Perez and Level Two Soft knowledge for Stroll. Hopefully we can make up some ground early and get at least one of our drivers into the points in our “home” race.

Stroll has a brilliant start, moving all the way up to 13th on the second turn while Perez drops to 20th. By the time we finish the first lap, Stroll is up to 11th and Perez has recovered to 14th.

Things are going quite well early and through ten laps, Stroll is up to 7th and Perez is right behind in 8th, as a couple of drivers have already had to go to the pits due to worn tyres.

On lap 19, Stroll is up in 2nd (!!!) while Perez runs 4th, with Lewis Hamilton right in between. Hamilton has already pitted and Perez is down to 22% on his tyres, while Stroll is doing better with 33% on his softs. I’m going to need to pit with Perez and I don’t see how I can keep him on SuperSofts but I’m going to try. He pits on lap 21 and re-emerges in 16th position. Stroll is now down to third after being passed by Hamilton.

Stroll makes it to Lap 24 before pitting and comes out in 10th, a pretty solid result. Perez is back up to 13th by this time.

We get to lap 30 and Stroll is now running an impressive 6th, while Perez is in 9th. Stroll’s just running a beautiful race and we’re conserving Perez’s tyres right now and that might actually be helping keep faster cars behind him and Stroll. There is a high likelihood that a few racers ahead of Stroll will need to pit again so we have the potential to hold on to this position, at the very least.

On lap 34, Ricciardo and Verstappen both pit and that allows Stroll to move up to 4th! Both are on Ultras now and it will likely be tough to hold this position on slower tyres but we’ll try! Perez is currently up to 6th.

With five laps to go, Stroll is in an incredible battle with Ricciardo for 4th and I don’t know how much longer he can hold him off. Perez continues to hold of Verstappen for 6th as I’m freaking out at all the action right now!

We’re down to the final two laps and Stroll’s tyre wear is low, as he CONTINUES to somehow hold off Ricciardo on his fresh Ultras. Perez continues to hold off Verstappen and we continue the beautiful racing right to the end, as Stroll hits the checkered flag in 4th position while Perez nabs 6th.

Simply a BRILLIANT race from Racing Point!!! Double points!!!

Sebastian Vettel continues the back and forth affair with Lewis Hamilton, taking the Canadian Grand Prix by 15 seconds over his Mercedes rival. Valtteri Bottas finishes third.

Lance Stroll picks up his first points for Racing Point and in his home race, no less! Simply superb driving all race long, coming from 17th in a brilliant performance. Perez had a tough start but did a great job to nurse his second set of Supers to the end of the race, holding off faster cars behind him the whole time.

June 2, 2019
Canadian Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 44 Laps, 25 Points
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 44 Laps, +15.075, 18 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 44 Laps, +29.667, 15 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 44 Laps, +44.611, 12 Points
5. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 44 Laps, +46.405 10 Points
6. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 44 Laps, +47.799, 8 Points
7. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 44 Laps, +49.716, 6 Points
8. George Russell, Williams, 44 Laps, +53.359, 4 Points
9. Lando Norris, McLaren, 44 Laps, +56.644, 2 Points
10. Robert Kubica, Williams, 44 Laps, +60.111, 1 Point

** Max Verstappen hit with a 10 second time penalty, dropping him from 9th place to 11th.

Sergio Perez stays in 7th in the Drivers Standings while Stroll vaults all the way up to 11th after this performance. Racing Point stays comfortably in 5th position in the Constructors Standings.

NoSkillz · 03-22-2019, 12:31 AM

RACE EIGHT: Russian Grand Prix #2, Black Sea (June 16, 2019)

Track Layout C
Track Guide – Low Speed Corners and Medium Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful
Track Info - Fuel Burn (Medium), Tyre Wear (Very High)
Laps - 71 (2.08 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Medium, Hard, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Qualifying (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Partly Cloudy w/Rain)

We come off a very successful home Grand Prix and have a brand new gearbox to work with. We should be able to get it reliable enough to be in a car by raceday. Our design team then starts work on a new suspension but it won’t be finished until shortly after the upcoming Grand Prix.

We still have lots going on at our headquarters, with work progressing on a new Tour Centre, a new Test Track and upgrades are being made to our Wind Tunnel.

My assistant tells me that there is a 40% chance of rain on race day and the track is really tough on tyres. It’s also a whopping 71 lap race so I’m guessing we may need to go with some longer lasting tyres. As a result, we fit both racers with 6 Softs, 5 Mediums and 4 Hards for the weekend.

PRACTICE –

I’m starting to struggle somewhat with setups but in the end, we get both cars dialed in sufficiently and we do well to gain level three knowledge of all three main tyre compounds, along with race and qualifying trim.

Perez nails down the fastest practice time and Stroll comes fifth.

QUALIFYING –

It’s another sunny day for qualifying The sun is shining in Q1 and we will go with Level Three Qualifying Trim and Soft Tyre knowledge for both drivers. I forsake the Super Overdrive mode for Stroll, as it hasn’t helped him whatsoever in the last two qualifying sessions.

I send both drivers out early and it’s yet another disaster, as Perez comes in 17th and Stroll 18th on their first attempt. I send them both out right away, as it looks like I may be able to get a third attempt in if necessary before the 10 minute time allotment expires due to a short track. Stroll does not improve but Perez moves up to 11th and into a safe position. We send Stroll out for one more crack but his car is just not up to the challenge and he’ll start 19th on race day.

Perez makes it to Q2 but I don’t like our chances of moving forward from here. Interestingly enough, the rains come for Q2 and I hold off a couple of minutes on sending Perez out, hoping to take advantage of a potentially drier track. Incredibly, we time it beautifully, as Perez finishes 1st in his first run. I’ve got to imagine that will be good enough to get him through to Q3, even though the track may completely dry out in the final minute of Q2. We fall to fourth with about 2 minutes left so I send Perez out on Softs, hoping the track dries out. A bunch of teams have the same idea but we finish 5th in Q2 and move onto the last stage. Incredibly, Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas all flop in Q2 and are eliminated and will start near the back of the pack.

In Q3, I send Perez out last among the remaining ten drivers, hoping to get the track at its best and he places 7th in his first attempt. I try one more time, on his last set of fresh Softs and it actually produces a faster time, a rarity for us, as Perez finishes with the 4th best time and will start in row two!! Nice!

THE RACE –

Okay this will be a challenging race. It’s raining to start and it looks like we’ll have a wet track for at least the first 25 laps or so based on the forecast, with the race running 71 laps. That means we will need at least two sets of inters and at least two more tyre changes after the rain stops, meaning the best we can hope for is a three pit race. Therefore, for both racers, I’m going with Level Three Race Trim and Hard Tyre Knowledge to try to facilitate the fewest stops possible.

Stroll continues to show incredible first lap racing ability, moving from 19th to 13th with ease while Perez falls back into 5th spot.

By lap 11, Perez is down to 6th and Stroll is languishing near the back of the pack in 18th.

We pit a bit later than everyone else due to going easy on our tyres, with Stroll pitting on lap 18 while in 8th, while Perez pits one lap later in 2nd. Stroll re-emerges in 15th while Perez is in 6th.

By lap 29, the rain has stopped and most of the racers have already pitted for either soft or hard tyres. So we send both drivers to the pits to change to hards and once again, Perez emerges in 6th and Stroll in 15th. However, most of our competitors are now on faster tyres than us…we’re hoping to pit one less time than our fellow racers to move up the board.

With 30 laps to go, many racers are pitting again and will still need one more pit stop to get them to the end of the race. We are starting to churn through our hards a bit quicker than anticipated but we have Perez up to 5th at the moment and Stroll has moved up to 11th.

We’re off to lap 47 and both Stroll and Perez need to pit for hopefully the last time, with Stroll coming out in 16th and Perez in 7th. We’ll really need to nurse these tires to the end.

It’s a pretty uneventful finish, as Perez and Stroll essentially just hold their positions, with Perez finishing a fine 6th and Stroll 15th, a pretty decent result all things considered. This is Perez’s second straight 6th place finish.
It’s becoming pretty boring at the top, as the top three here in Russia are the same top three from Canada, with Sebastian Vettel winning again, Lewis Hamilton finishing second (despite starting 11th) and Valtteri Bottas finishing third after starting 13th on the grid.

June 16, 2019
Russian Grand Prix #2 - EVENT RESULTS

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 71 Laps, 25 Points
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 71 Laps, +9.159, 18 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 71 Laps, +34.410, 15 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 71 Laps, +37.916, 12 Points
5. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 71 Laps, +44.323 10 Points
6. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 71 Laps, +45.432, 8 Points
7. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 70 Laps, +1 Lap, 6 Points
8. George Russell, Williams, 70 Laps, +1 Lap, 4 Points
9. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 70 Laps, +1 Lap, 2 Points
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 70 Laps, +1 Lap, 1 Point

15. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 70 Laps, +1 Lap, 0 Points

Sebastian Vettel takes over the lead in the overall Drivers Standings by a single point over Lewis Hamilton. Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll maintain their 7th and 11th spots respectively, while our team is very comfortably in 5th place in the Constructors, 14 points behind Red Bull and 38 points ahead of Williams. Toro Rosso is still looking for their first point of the season.

NoSkillz · 03-23-2019, 02:18 PM

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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.

NoSkillz · 03-30-2019, 02:08 PM

RACE TEN: British Grand Prix, Guildford (July 14, 2019)

Track Layout A
Track Guide – Top Speed, Medium Speed Corners and High Speed Corners Crucial
Track Info - Fuel Burn (Low), Tyre Wear (Very High)
Laps - 43 (3.47 miles each)
Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Medium, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Rain); Qualifying (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Partly Cloudy)

We get a brand new front wing completed after the race in Munich and will begin reliability and performance improvements in order to get it into a car for Guildford. Meanwhile, our design team gets to work on another rear wing. We get that completed a couple days before the race but it won’t be ready for this grand prix. The design team now starts working on a new set of brakes.

It’s going to be an interesting buildup to the race, as the forecast indicates rain for the practice session and only a 20% chance of rain on race day.

Getting the proper tyre knowledge will be key in tough practice conditions.
The Guildford track is very tough on tyres so we will go with 6 SuperSofts, 5 Softs and 4 Mediums for race weekend for both drivers.

PRACTICE –

We get Lance Stroll’s car dialed in very quickly but have lots of trouble with Perez’s wing positions and we’ll need to do another slight tweak in qualifying by the looks of it.

That said, Perez still nails down the 3rd fastest time in practice while Stroll comes fifth in a session marred by rain. We gain Level 3 knowledge on SuperSofts and Mediums, along with level three knowledge on both qualifying and race trims.

QUALIFYING –

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

Q1’s first lap sees us finish 10th with Perez and 14th with Stroll, which means I have to send both drivers out again. Neither driver is able to improve upon their time and both drop a couple spots, meaning Stroll is once again eliminated in Q1 and will start 16th, while Perez is able to squeak through to Q2. The good news is that my minor tweak to Perez’s downforce has brought him to 100% optimization, maybe the first time I’ve nailed that perfect number.

In Q2, Perez finishes on the outside looking in on lap one, with an 11th place time. I try to wait to the last minute to send him back out for his final Q2 timed lap in order to get the track at its best. Unfortunately, everyone else has the same idea and Perez can’t improve on the time, which means he’ll start 11th on race day.

Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari runs well in all sessions and he will be on the pole on race day. Lewis Hamilton is right beside his main rival and Charles Leclerc will start third.

THE RACE –

Ugh. Well, the 20% chance of rain on race day looks like 100% now, as we’ll deal with wet conditions for at least ¾ of the race by the looks of it. The rain will start on lap two or three according to the forecast. We will start on inters and hopefully not give up too much pace in the first couple of laps. We utilize our level three race trim and SuperSoft tyre knowledge for both drivers. I decide to drop two laps of fuel from Stroll’s tank and one lap from Perez’s tank to hopefully make the cars a bit lighter and faster at the race’s start.

Thankfully, everyone is on inters to start despite the dry conditions at the start. Perez moves up to 7th by the end of the first lap while Stroll stays in 16th. However, Stroll makes a big move shortly thereafter, moving up to 10th halfway through lap two as the rain begins to fall.

We pit with Stroll on lap 15 and with Perez one lap later, with Perez emerging in 10th and Stroll 14th. Both should move up a couple of spots as more guys pit. Indeed, within one lap, Perez is up to 6th and Stroll 11th.

By lap 19, I can see that the forecast will just get worse as the race moves on and we’ll need to move to Wet Tyres for the last ten laps or so. Not ideal.

On lap 33, we pit both drivers for wet tyres and Perez re-emerges to the race in 5th and Stoll in 11th. It’s going to be an interesting finish, as everyone is now on Wets. Perez is six seconds behind 4th and 7 seconds up on 6th so he looks entrenched in that fifth place position right now. Meanwhile, Stroll is in a serious battle for 10th and has many on his tail so I’m concentrating most on his race and trying to get him a point if possible.

Unfortunately, he can’t catch Carlos Sainz in front of him and ultimately finishes 11th. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez is able to comfortably finish the race without incident, holding of Max Verstappen behind him to finish in fifth and add 10 points to his season total, another fine result.

Sebastian Vettel holds onto the lead for the majority of the race and wins the British Grand Prix by about 9 seconds over Lewis Hamilton. Charles Leclerc takes down the last podium position.

July 14, 2019
German Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 43 Laps, 25 Points
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 43 Laps, +8.776, 18 Points
3. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 43 Laps, +16.985, 15 Points
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4. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 43 Laps, +28.941, 12 Points
5. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 43 Laps, +40.163, 10 Points
6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 43 Laps, +44.288, 8 Points
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 43 Laps, +47.859, 6 Points
8. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 43 Laps, +56.394, 4 Points
9. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 43 Laps, +58.205, 2 Points
10. Carlos Sainz, McLaren, 43 Laps, +73.036, 1 Point

11. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 43 Laps, +76.211, 0 Points

TEAM STANDINGS (After Ten Races)

1. Mercedes, 4 Wins, 329 Points
2. Ferrari, 5 Wins, 295 Points
3. Renault, 1 Win, 128 Points
4. Red Bull, 0 Wins, 91 Points
5. Racing Point, 0 Wins, 79 Points
6. Haas, 0 Wins, 31 Points
7. Williams, 0 Wins, 27 Points
8. McLaren, 0 Wins, 19 Points
9. Alfa Romeo, 0 Wins, 11 Points
10. Toro Rosso, 0 Wins, 0 Points

It’s a great race at the top, as Mercedes holds the lead in the constructors race despite one less race win than Ferrari. We continue to be very comfortable in fifth.

DRIVERS STANDINGS (After Ten Races)

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 5 Wins, 203 Points
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 4 Wins, 202 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 0 Wins, 127 Points
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 1 Win, 104 Points
5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 0 Wins, 92 Points
6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 0 Wins, 69 Points
7. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 0 Wins, 67 Points
8. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 0 Wins, 24 Points
9. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 0 Wins, 22 Points
10. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 0 Wins, 21 Points

T12. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 0 Wins, 12 Points

It’s an amazing battle at the top, with a single point separating Vettel and Hamilton. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez is within two points of Max Verstappen and Red Bull, as he continues his fine season with our team. Stroll had one excellent finish and sits 12th overall.

03-13-2019, 03:55 PM	#3
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	Racing Point F1 - TEAM HEADQUARTERS Our team headquarters are ranked 9th out of the 10 teams in Formula One. Factory: Level 3 (out of 4) Telemetry Centre: MAX LEVEL Wind Tunnel: Level 2 (out of 3) Scouting Facility: MAX LEVEL Brakes R&D Facility: Level 2 (out of 3) Handling Development Centre: Level 2 (out of 3) Simulator: MAX LEVEL Forecasting Centre: Level 2 (out of 3) Staff Centre: Level 2 (out of 3) There are four other buildings that we could build in the future, including a Road Car Factory, a Test Track, a Tour Centre and finally, a Theme Park. The Theme Park is currently locked but the other three can be built at any time. I’ll hold off on that for now but the Test Track will likely be the first I build, as it unlocks Level 3 engine knowledge, something we desperately need. There is a headquarters-specific set of rankings and we're once again near the bottom relative to our competitors on the circuit: Design: 8th (out of 10) Factory: 8th Performance: 9th Staff: 8th Staff and Brand: 9th __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo

03-13-2019, 03:57 PM	#4
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	Racing Point F1 - CARS As indicated, our car currently ranks 8th in Formula One but we have something we can work with. Our chassis make up is pretty decent, with a Tyre Wear rating of 4/5, a Tyre Heating rating of 4/5, a Fuel Efficiency rating of 4/5 and an Improvability rating of 3.75/5. Not bad. We have a Mercedes engine, battery and chassis materials, utilize Petronas fuel and Pirelli brakes. CAR #1 - Brakes: 804/812 Engine: 885/892 Front Wing: 857/865 Gearbox: 843/853 Rear Wing: 855/862 Suspension: 805/812 CAR #2 - Brakes: 750/762 Engine: 850/862 Front Wing: 800/800 Gearbox: 800/818 Rear Wing: 800/812 Suspension: 750/762 Like everything else, we are ranked in the middle-to-bottom in most of the rankings of individual parts: Engine: 8th (out of 10) Gearbox: 5th Brakes: 5th Front Wing: 7th Suspension: 9th Rear Wing: 8th Continual improvements will be a must for us to become competitive in this series. A.B.B. – “Always be Building” will be my motto for the shop! Our new chairman has provided me with a healthy budget so money shouldn’t be an issue for our development team. The strategy will be to give the best parts to my top driver and any new parts will be put on his or her car as well, allowing me to then hand off the previous best part to our second driver. __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo

03-13-2019, 04:00 PM	#5
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	Racing Point F1 - DRIVERS Alright, things get interesting when we look at who is behind the wheel at Racing Point. We have one long-time incumbent and one new controversial addition to the team in 2019. MAIN DRIVER - Sergio Perez - 29 Years Old, Male, Mexico, 4 stars (out of 5) Contract Status: Equal Status Driver Contract: £214,000 per race, 9 months remaining Affectionately known as “Checo”, Perez signed with Force India in December 2013 after previous stints with McLaren and Ferrari’s Driver Academy. Checo stuck with the team through the 2018 reformation into Racing Point and is unquestionably our most talented driver, with eight Formula One podiums on his resume. He has very good ratings across the board: Braking 15, Cornering 14, Smoothness 18, Overtaking 15, Consistency 13, Adaptability 16, Fitness 15, Feedback 18 and Focus 15. Not too bad! At 29 years of age, he’s in the prime of his career and as such, he’s fully reached his potential and these ratings likely won’t improve. He also has a couple of specific personality traits that my assistant tells me about - he's “Content” with his standing at Racing Point and that comes with a 30 point morale boost. However, it may hurt his desire to win trophies somewhat. Checo is also a “Hard Worker”, comes in early and that trait gives him a +15 point boost to his relationship with his mechanic and a +1 boost to his fitness. Finally, he’s considered a “Stable” personality and that gives him an additional +2 boost to his consistency. Perez is a national hero in his native Mexico and has an extremely high marketability rating of 95%. This all said, my chief scout feels that he’s destined for a poor year-end finishing position in the Driver’s Standings, predicting an 18th place finish. Interesting. MAIN DRIVER - Lance Stroll - 20 years old, Male, Canada, 2.75 stars (out of 5) Contract Status: Equal Status Driver Contract: £71,000 per race, 33 Months remaining The main beneficiary of Lawrence Stroll bailing out Force India was his son, who leaves the hapless Williams Racing Team and joins his father as an equal status driver at Racing Point. This was the most obvious cliffhanger ending in F1 history but was still a very controversial decision, as Stroll ends up taking a seat away from young Wonderkid Esteban Ocon, who now is a reserve driver at Mercedes. If you watched the Netflix Formula One series that was just released, one of the episodes documented the friction between Ocon and Perez at Force India last year so it was clear that one of the two drivers had to go. Personally, I would have went with Ocon, who is clearly on an upward trajectory, is incredibly ambitious and a hard worker. But I came on board after that decision was made so we’ll just have to make the best of it. Lance comes to Racing Point with some serious pedigree, having won the Italian F4 championship in 2014, the Toyota Racing Series in 2015 and the FIA European Formula 3 championship in 2016. He was a splashy signing by Williams in 2017 and soon won his first podium, finishing 3rd at Azerbaijan to become the second youngest driver in F1 history to reach a podium and the youngest to do so in his rookie season. He’s experienced tough times ever since and in 41 career races over two years, still has that single top three finish. Stroll is still young and has some decent potential to improve so we will be charting his progress throughout the season. He’s currently sitting with the following attribute rankings: Braking 10, Cornering 11, Smoothness 11, Overtaking 10, Consistency 8, Adaptability 13, Fitness 15, Feedback 11 and Focus 9. He comes with a lot of warts though. Our assistant says he’s “Crash Happy”, which results in a -2 hit to his focus. He’s also considered “Erratic”, which means a -2 hit to his consistency attribute. There are positives though: he’s considered a pay driver and we earn a whopping £868,000 per race (!) that he starts through his sponsors, an incredible contribution. He’s also considered a “Nice Guy” which gives him +5 boosts to his mechanic relationship, his teammate’s morale and to the chairman’s happiness. Speaking of his famous and rich father, that provides another +10 marketability boost and lastly, he has a two month boost to his morale since he just signed a new deal with the team. Like Perez, Stroll scores very well on marketability ratings (85%) but my scout summarizes his capabilities by saying he is one of the weakest drivers on circuit (17th place predicted finish) but does have the potential to improve significantly. RESERVE DRIVER - Nicholas Latifi - 23 years old, Male, Canada, 3.25 stars (out of 5) Contract Status: Reserve Contract: £4,000 per race, 21 months remaining Latifi is an interesting case. He has been a reserve for the last three years in F1, serving as a test driver for Renault in 2016 and 2017 and served the same role on our team last year. He’s won a couple of races on the F2 circuit over the past two seasons and has some very intriguing ratings and potential: Braking 12, Cornering 12, Smoothness 13, Overtaking 12, Consistency 15, Adaptability 10, Fitness 14, Feedback 13 and Focus 12. My assistant tells me he is content in his role as a reserve with the team and that provides a 30 point morale boost along with the perk that he'll likely request a salary close to 100,000 less than a similarly skilled driver would ask. He’s also considered a hard worker, stable and most intriguingly, a “Racer”, which provides a +2 boost to all of his ratings on raceday. That propels him well above Stroll and into Perez territory from a skill standpoint. That all said, I’d likely be fired if I took a seat away from the owner’s son so Latifi will have to wait for his opportunity. It’s going to be an interesting year. The fact that my scout feels Stroll will finish higher than Perez indicates to me that his father (our chairman) wants him in our number 1 car. However, I plan on giving the best car to Perez, as he’s our best hope for points this season. We’ll see how that works out! Next, we'll take a brief look at our key staff members... __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo Last edited by NoSkillz : 03-13-2019 at 10:11 PM.

03-13-2019, 04:02 PM	#6
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	Racing Point F1 - KEY STAFF LEAD DESIGNER - Andrew Green, 45 years old, Male, United Kingdom, 3.5 stars (out of 5) Contract: £16,000 per race, 57 months remaining Williams looks like he was recently signed to a five year contract but he’s making a very modest salary for what he brings to the table. He’s a solid designer overall, with ratings of Engine 15, Brakes 13, Gearbox 14, Front Wing 15, Suspension 13 and Rear Wing 14. Despite his age, he’s still got some hidden potential with his skillset. RACE MECHANIC (for Sergio Perez) - Bradley Joyce, 41 years old, Male, United Kingdom, 4.0 stars (out of 5) Contract: £3000 per race, 21 months remaining Joyce has worked with Perez for the last two years and is a top flight mechanic in Formula One: Concentration 14, Part Fixes 17, Pit Stops 10, Reliability 17, Chemistry 18 and Performance 18. He has Level 1 Soft Tyre knowledge and has plenty of room to improve in future years. RACE MECHANIC (for Lance Stroll) - Tim Wright, 33 years old, Male, United Kingdom, 4.25 stars (out of 5) Contract: £3000 per race, 21 months remaining Wright has worked with Lance Stroll for the last 47 weeks and is also an excellent race mechanic: Concentration 12, Part Fixes 18, Pit Stops 18, Reliability 19, Chemistry 16 and Performance 16. Wright has Level 1 knowledge of Wet Tyres and at only 33 years of age, has plenty of potential to improve on his already excellent ratings. We have a team of 60 mechanics in the garage and 14 members of our pit crew. Our garage and pit staff are definite strengths of the team. __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo

03-13-2019, 04:03 PM	#7
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	Racing Point F1 - FINANCES AND CHAIRMAN TARGETS FOR 2019 Lawrence Stroll brings a big wallet with him to the team and we have plenty to work with to improve our car and the overall infrastructure at Racing Point. Available Budget to start: £150,000,000 Income per race to start: +£785,000 We are allocating £952,000 per race to next year's car, the maximum we are allowed, only £6,000 to our race mechanics, £16,000 to our lead designer, £1,035,000 for HQ Upkeep & Staff, £187,000 to our pit crew and £70,000 for travel costs. Incredibly, due to pay driver Lance Stroll and the associated sponsorship income, we have a net surplus of £579,000 per week on driver costs! Offsetting those costs is our per race income of £2.365 million in the form of Chairman payments and an additional £160,000 per race from our four official fixed payment sponsors. All of our sponsorship agreements are in place for this season only, including our main car sponsor BWT. I meet with our chairman and he gives me a couple of options as far as targets and budget. I don't really take much time on this one and opt for the conservative approach of working with the budget already implemented and striving to finish off the foot of the table in 9th place in the constructors’ standings. This should be fun. Let’s get on with the season! __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo

03-13-2019, 03:54 PM	#2
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	Racing Point F1 - TEAM BACKGROUND The origins of Racing Point date back to October 2007, when a consortium led by Indian businessman Vijay Mallya joined forces with Dutchman Michiel Mol to buy the Spyker F1 team for £88 million. The team was renamed as the Force India Formula One team for the 2008 season. After finishing last in the constructors’ race in 2008, the team showed steady improvement in future years, with the 2014 addition of Mexican driver Sergio Perez being a key component. Perez would earn five of the six podium finishes in team history and Force India would finish a lofty fourth in the F1 constructors’ standings in both 2016 and 2017. However, major financial issues continued to plague the team and chairman Vijay Mallya faced extradition by the Indian government to face charges of financial crimes. In July 2018, Force India was put into administration by the High Court in London and ultimately, another consortium, this time led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, purchased the team’s assets. 2019 will be the first full year under the newly renamed Racing Point F1 Team and I will be taking over as the team principal. Racing Point is headquartered in the United Kingdom and here are some key numbers worth looking at as we begin our quest to move up in this racing world: Fan Base: 9.8 million Marketability: 87% Total Staff: 280 We have a chairman (Lawrence Stroll), a team principal (that's me!), three drivers, a lead designer, two chief race mechanics, sixty other garage mechanics, 14 on our pit crew, a scout and an assistant. The rest of the staff must be in the administration and design departments. A quick overview of our rankings within Formula One reinforces the challenge ahead. Car: 8th (out of 10 teams) Drivers: 9th Headquarters: 9th Staff: 8th Sponsors: 5th Pit Crew: 3rd As for me, I'm a 45 year old ex-driver from Canada going into management for the first time and Racing Point fans are optimistic but slightly skeptical of my hiring. That said, the team's drivers love that I've come on board and that brings a +20 morale boost to the three drivers on staff. __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo Last edited by NoSkillz : 03-13-2019 at 10:05 PM.

03-13-2019, 04:08 PM	#8
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	2019 Formula One Series - OVERVIEW The 2019 F1 season features 21 races all across the world. Unfortunately, Motorsport Manager doesn’t feature tracks at all of the real-life F1 destinations so there are a few repeat visits among the 21 stops on the schedule, albeit using different track configurations for any of those repeat visits. The prize fund in 2019 is a whopping £500,000,000 and the series has an estimated world-wide TV Audience of 425 million...seems high but that’s impressive! There are ten teams fighting for the constructors championship in F1 in 2019. Here's a brief look at our nine opponents: Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda, Italy, 3 stars out of five (Expected Finish: 10th) - Switching to Honda engines for 2018 was a massive risk but has been negotiated adequately. Daniil Kvyat returns after being ditched by the team at the end of 2017. Alongside him is Formula 2 race winner Alexander Albon. Keeping off the foot of the table will be the aim for this team this year. - Chairman: Dietrich Mateschitz - Team Principal: Franz Tost - Budget: £100,000,000 - Suppliers: Engine (Honda), Fuel (Esso), Chassis Materials (Red Bull Racing), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (TAG) - Drivers: Alexander Albon, 22, Thailand (0 career races) and Daniil Kvyat, 24, Russia (72 races, 2 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Niko Kari, 19, Finland (0 career races) Alfa Romeo Racing, Switzerland, 3.25 stars (Expected finish: 8th) - Sauber, now renamed to Alfa Romeo Racing, were the most improved team during the 2018 season. Charles Leclerc proved he is the real deal but has moved up to Ferrari. In his place, veteran Kimi Raikkonen has returned to the team where he made his debut in 2001. Alongside him races the fast but error-prone Antonio Gionvinazzi. A solid midfield placing will be the hope for this fan favourite team. - Chairman: Pascal Picci - Team Principal: Frederic Vasseur - Budget: £100,000,000 - Suppliers: Engine (Ferrari), Fuel (Shell), Chassis Materials (Ferrari), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Magneti Marelli) - Main Drivers: Kimi Raikkonen, 39, Finland (291 races, 103 podiums, 21 wins) and Antonio Giovinazzi, 25, Italy (2 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Tatiana Calderon, 23, Columbia (0 career races) ROKiT Williams Racing, United Kingdom, 3.5 stars (Expected finish: 7th) - After being rejuvenated by Mercedes engines from 2014 onwards, Williams are sliding down the F1 order, finishing last in 2018. The team’s reliance on pay drivers has failed to keep the team financially competitive. F2 champion George Russell has been recruited alongside returning fan favourite Robert Kubica. - Chairman: Sir Frank Williams - Team Principal: Claire Williams - Budget: 125,000,000 - Suppliers: Engine (Mercedes), Fuel (Petronas), Chassis Materials (Mercedes), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Mercedes) - Main Drivers: George Russell, 21, England (0 career races) and Robert Kubica, 34, Poland (76 races, 12 podiums, 1 win); Reserve Driver: Sergei Sirotkin, 23, Russia (21 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) Rich Energy Haas F1 Team, United States, 3.5 stars (Expected finish: 6th) - The American Haas team has proved far more successful than anticipated during their first three seasons in Formula 1, although other teams remain suspicious of their close ties to Ferrari. Drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean are consistent and fast. New sponsorship from Rich Energy has raised eyebrows but financial security will be key for this new team to continue their remarkable run. - Chairman: Gene Haas - Team Principal: Guenther Steiner - Budget: 110,000,000 - Suppliers: Engine (Ferrari), Fuel (Shell), Chassis Materials (Ferrari), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Magneti Marelli) - Main Drivers: Kevin Magnussen, 26, Denmark (81 races, 1 podium, 0 wins) and Romain Grosjean, 32, Switzerland (143 races, 10 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Pietro Fittipaldi, 22, Brazil (0 career races) McLaren F1 Team, United Kingdom, 3.5 stars (Expected finish: 5th) - McLaren are currently enduring the worst few seasons in their glorious history. The ill-fated partnership with Honda has been abandoned but car performance has not improved as expected. Fernando Alonso has walked away to race in IndyCars and a new driver pairing has been enlisted. Further changes will be required to restore this team to past glories. - Chairman: Zak Brown - Team Principal: Gil De Ferran - Budget: 170,000,000 - Suppliers: Engine (Renault), Fuel (Castrol), Chassis Materials (McLaren), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (McLaren) - Main Drivers: Carlos Sainz Jr., 24, Spain (81 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) and Lando Norris, 19, England (0 career races); Reserve Driver: Sergio Sette Camara, 20, Brazil (0 career races) Renault F1 Team, France, 3.75 stars (Expected finish: 4th) - Having re-entered Formula 1 in 2016, Renault are now ready to lead the charge to the top teams. A 4th place constructors finish was achieved in 2018 and the team is ready to build from there. Daniel Ricciardo has been lured from Red Bull to race alongside the highly rated Nico Hulkenberg, as both aim for podiums and race wins in the near future. - Chairman: Thierry Koskas - Team Principal: Cyril Abiteboul - Budget: 250,000,000 - Suppliers: Engine (Renault), Fuel (Castrol), Chassis Materials (Renault), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Renault) - Main Drivers: Daniel Ricciardo, 29, Australia (150 races, 29 podiums, 7 wins) and Nico Hulkenberg, 31, Germany (156 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Artem Markelov, 24, Russia (0 career races) Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, United Kingdom, 3.75 stars (Expected finish: 3rd) - Red Bull took four drivers and constructors championships between 2010 and 2013 before Mercedes matched their achievements in the years since. In recent years, wins have proven hard to come by and the relationship between Renault and Red Bull has fallen apart. A new partnership with Honda presents an uncertain future. Max Verstappen has impressed since joining in 2016 but new teammate Pierre Gasly will be looking to match him. - Chairman: Dietrich Mateschitz - Team Principal: Christian Horner - Budget: 220,000,000 - Suppliers: Engine (Honda), Fuel (Mobile 1), Chassis Materials (Red Bull), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (TAG) - Main Drivers: Max Verstappen, 21, Holland (81 races, 22 podiums, 5 wins) and Pierre Gasly, 23, France (26 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Brendon Hartley, 29, New Zealand (25 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Germany, 4.0 stars (Expected finish: 2nd) - Mercedes have dominated Formula 1 since the introduction of hybrid engines in 2014. Four drivers and constructors championships in a row have cemented their place at the top of the F1 pecking order. Five time champion Lewis Hamilton races alongside Fin Valtteri Bottas, who needs to improve to keep his seat after a winless 2018. Maintaining a competitive car will be a must for a new team principal. - Chairman: Dieter Zetsche - Team Principal: Toto Wolff - Budget: 250,000,000 - Suppliers: Engine (Mercedes), Fuel (Petronas), Chassis Materials (Mercedes), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Mercedes) - Main Drivers: Lewis Hamilton, 34, England (229 races, 134 podiums, 73 wins) and Valtteri Bottas, 29, Finland (118 races, 30 podiums, 3 wins); Reserve Driver: Esteban Ocan, 22, France (50 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins) Scuderia Ferrari, Italy, 4.0 stars (Expected finish: 1st) - Ferrari have proven to be the closest challengers to Mercedes in recent years. Vettel came close to the driver’s championship in 2017 and 2018 but missed out to Hamilton. Veteran Kimi Raikkonen has made way for the superbly talented Charles Leclerc. Surely Ferrari’s best chance for the driver’s and constructors double lies on the horizon. - Chairman: Louis Camilleri - Team Principal: Maurizio Arrivabene - Budget: 260,000,000 - Suppliers: Engine (Ferrari), Fuel (Shell), Chassis Materials (Ferrari), Brakes (Pirelli), Battery (Magneti Marelli) - Main Drivers: Sebastian Vettel, 31, Germany (219 races, 111 podiums, 52 wins) and Charles Leclerc, 21, Monaco (21 races, 0 podiums, 0 wins); Reserve Driver: Antonio Fuoco, 22, Italy (0 career races) __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo

03-13-2019, 11:31 PM	#9
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	RACE ONE: Australian Grand Prix, Sydney (March 17, 2019) Track Layout A Track Guide - Acceleration, Low Speed Corners and Top Speed Crucial Track Info - Fuel Burn (medium), Tyre Wear (high) Laps - 41 (3.62 miles each) Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Mediums, Intermediates, Wets Weather Forecast - Practice (Sunny); Qualifying (Partly Cloudy w/Showers); Race Day (Rain) We have three full weeks to prepare for our first race and we immediately begin work designing new brakes. They don’t take too long to produce and once finished, we get our mechanics working on upgrades and reliability on the new part. Our designers then start work on a new gearbox – it won’t be ready in time for Australia but I think it should be ready (and reliable) by the time we hit Dubai in a couple weeks. I have our chief scout doing reports on drivers from other circuits, mostly to build a database on what’s out there. I don’t forsee any changes to our lineup in year one. PRACTICE – Practice sessions in F1 in 2019 last 30 minutes, which is more than enough time to dial in the cars and gain critical knowledge required for both qualifying and the race itself. The weather looks ominous this weekend, with rain on the schedule both for qualifying and for the actual race. We’ll likely need inters for both so I plan on utilizing them in practice despite the glorious weather to build some track knowledge with them. We’ll also look to gain some knowledge on SuperSofts. We get both cars dialed in nicely (both at 98%), have level three Qualifying and Race Trim, level two Inter Tyre knowledge and level one Supersoft tyre knowledge by the time practice ends. QUALIFYING – In past Motorsport Manager careers, I never had to worry about qualifying so this is something completely new to me and much more strategic than I initially expected. There are three stages in qualifying: in Q1, the drivers need to finish in the top 15 (out of 20 drivers) to move on to Q2. You can try to set as many times as possible to help your cause in each of these stages but generally, you can usually only fit in two timed laps in the time provided. However, if a driver finishes reasonably well in their first lap, often they will be content with that one lap and cross their fingers that it holds up, a strategy employed to save on tyre usage. The five racers eliminated in this stage start at the back of the pack for the actual race, with the slowest time in the 20th grid position. In Q2, the fastest ten racers (out of 15 remaining in qualifying) move on to Q3, the final stage. Then it’s a shootout for the last ten grid spots – what’s interesting about Q3 is the fact that you will be forced to start the actual race on the set of tyres you used to set your fastest Q3 qualifying time. So essentially, the top 10 racers get the advantage of better starting positions but have to start on worn tyres, while the 10 racers eliminated in either Q1 or Q2 get the chance to start on fresh tyres. It’s raining moderately during most of the qualifiers so we utilize our Inter tyre knowledge along with our Level Three qualifying trim for both racers. In Q1, both Perez and Stroll post top 10 lap times on their first attempt and I take the chance and keep them in the pits for the last five minutes of qualifying, thinking it’s enough to get them through. Thankfully, the strategy to save a set of tyres works and both of our racers move through to Q2. The rain continues into Q2 and once again, both drivers are on inters. Perez and Stroll are both once again in decent positions after their first lap and I once again roll the dice that their times will hold up, skipping a second attempt. However, a few racers improve on their times on their second attempt and Stroll just gets bumped down to 11th, eliminating him from Q3. Perez is able to get through to final qualifying. In Q3, we get Perez out for two qualifying attempts but he finishes 8th and will have to utilize his partially worn set of SuperSofts at the start of the Grand Prix. Lance Stroll will start 11th and can change to a new set of tyres. Sebastian Vettel from Ferrari wins the pole by 0.003 seconds over Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes, the driver’s champion for the last four years. THE RACE – Planning a strategy for this race proves to be difficult due to the constantly changing weather conditions. Forecasts show sunshine giving way to moderate rains by about lap 12, with heavy, driving rains coming midway through the race. We’ll need SuperSofts to start and will likely need inters and wets during the race. At best, it will be a two pit race for both drivers, with the Grand Prix scheduled for 41 laps. Perez gets off to a blazing start, passing multiple cars on the first lap to move from 8th place into second, right on the tail of Sebastian Vettal. I attempt to utilize his ERS (Energy Recovery System) to give him a temporary boost of power in an attempt to pass Vettal on a straightaway but Perez CRASHES and is out of the race on the second lap. What a disaster! Meanwhile, Stroll falls back considerably to start, racing at the back of the pack for a while before slowly moving up as the race progresses. He gets as high as fifth but it’s a mirage, as we’ve tried to baby his tyres to perhaps save a pit stop. In the end, Stroll is able to barely make the checkered flag with 1% left on his tyres, utilizing an ERS boost on the final straightaway to pass George Russell from Williams to finish in 12th place, a pretty decent result considering the fact I’ve given him our worst car. Lewis Hamilton took control midway through the race and stormed to a 33 second win over Vettel, Hamilton’s 74th career Formula One victory. Red Bull’s Wonderkid, Max Verstappen, takes the final podium position. March 17, 2019 Australian Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS 1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 41 Laps, 25 Points 2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 41 Laps, +32.989, 18 Points 3. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 41 Laps, +38.650, 15 Points ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 41 Laps, +40.459, 12 Points 5. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 41 Laps, +41.562, 10 Points 6. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 41 Laps, +52.669, 8 Points 7. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 41 Laps, +53.513, 6 Points 8. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 41 Laps, +71.751, 4 Points 9. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 41 Laps, +76.404, 2 Points 10. Robert Kubica, Williams, 41 Laps, +78.060, 1 Point 12. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 41 Laps, +81.783, 0 Points 20. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 1 Lap, CRASHED, 0 Points __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo Last edited by NoSkillz : 03-13-2019 at 11:32 PM.

03-14-2019, 01:42 AM	#10
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	RACE TWO: Dubai Grand Prix, Dubai (March 31, 2019) Track Layout A Track Guide – Top Speed, Deceleration and High Speed Corners Crucial Track Info - Fuel Burn (low), Tyre Wear (very low) Laps - 36 (4.08 miles each) Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Mediums, Intermediates, Wets Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Sunny); Qualifying (Partly Sunny); Race Day (Sunny) We have significant repairs to make to both cars but especially the Perez #1 car after his lap two crash in Sydney. It takes a couple of days to get things right but we’re back in business with part and reliability improvements. We get our new gearbox completed and start working on its performance and reliability, while also getting started on a new Rear Wing in the design department. It gets completed before the race but it won’t be reliable enough to put into a car until the Chinese Grand Prix in a couple weeks. Pundits are predicting that Lewis Hamilton will once again take the checkered flag on race day, with the Toro Rosso team expected to struggle once again. With the weather looking promising, I elect to go with seven SuperSofts, 4 Softs and 4 Mediums for the weekend. The mediums allow me to potentially use a “long” strategy with our tyres and perhaps eliminate a pit stop along the way. But we’ll see how practice and qualifying goes first. PRACTICE – With weather looking good all weekend, I think we can work with a one pit strategy, utilizing SuperSofts for part of the race and Softs for another. We barely are able to get our level three knowledge on both sets of tyres and achieve level three qualifying and race trim as well. We continue our great work in getting the cars dialed in, with Stroll’s car at 98% optimum balance and Perez at 99%. We don’t push the tyres too much in practice and our times suffer as a result, with both racers finishing near the bottom of the pack. QUALIFYING – It’s another gorgeous day and we send both Perez and Stroll out on SuperSofts in Q1, utilizing our 15% Level Three Qualifying Trim boost and our 15% Level Three SuperSoft tyres boost. Our cars are not running well on the Abu Dhabi track, with Perez finishing 12th in his first lap and Stroll right at the bottom in last place. Not good! I need to send both drivers out again to try to ensure top 15 finishes and I’m forced to utilize another set of tyres for each guy. It does not work out well at all, as Perez runs a slower second lap and Stroll barely improves upon his time – Perez drops one spot to 13th and barely moves on to Q2 while Stroll stays in last, almost 2 seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel, who tops Q1. I elect to send out Perez in his first Q2 lap with a slightly worn set of SuperSofts and post a time but unsurprisingly, he finishes 14th out of the 15 racers. So it’s back out on a brand new set of SuperSofts for his final Q2 lap and he’s only able to improve one position, finishing in 13th 1.223 seconds behind Charles Leclerc from Ferrari, who tops Q2. Perez now joins Stroll on the sidelines. In Q3, Lewis Hamilton edges Sebastian Vettel and wins the pole for tomorrow’s race. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez will start in the 13th position while Lance Stroll starts at the back of the field in 20th. THE RACE – It’s obvious that our cars are completely overmatched for this race – I don’t know if the track simply doesn’t suit us or if it’s our drivers but we are running so much slower than everyone else. Stroll will start on Softs and try to go long on those tyres while I’d go with a more aggressive strategy with Perez in the middle of the field, utilizing SuperSofts. Stroll gets off to a wonderful start, moving up about six places and even passing Perez but would soon fall back into 19th by the end of the first lap. Perez would stabilize and retake position over Stroll and race comfortably in the middle of the field, pitting on lap 22 in 9th position. Stroll would pit one lap later from 12th. Both would have to make up considerable ground upon returning to the race, with Perez emerging from pit row in 19th and Stroll in 20th. Perez would eventually climb up to 10th and hold that position on the final lap but somehow would lose position on the last few turns, getting passed by four drivers and finishing out of the points in 14th. Meanwhile, Stroll finished strong, moving up a few spots near the end on fresher tyres, finishing 15th. As expected, it was a tough race for us and once again, we leave a race without points. Once again, it was Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel dueling it out for the victory, with Hamilton leading all the way until his pit stop on lap 18. Vettel would take the lead and pit on lap 19 but dramatically exit pit row just in front of his rival. Vettel would hold on the rest of the way, winning for the 53rd time in his F1 career by 2.9 seconds over Hamilton. Vettel’s teammate, youngster Charles Leclerc, would earn his first ever podium in Formula One, finishing third, well back of the winner. Alfa Romeo had a wonderful weekend, getting points from both drivers while George Russell from Williams and Lando Norris from McLaren, both F1 rookies, secure their first ever points on the top circuit. March 31, 2019 Dubai Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS 1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 36 Laps, 25 Points 2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 36 Laps, +2.914, 18 Points 3. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 36 Laps, +28.404, 15 Points ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 36 Laps, +37.531, 12 Points 5. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 36 Laps, +40.678, 10 Points 6. George Russell, Williams, 36 Laps, +43.185, 8 Points 7. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, 36 Laps, +52.816, 6 Points 8. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 36 Laps, +58.250, 4 Points 9. Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, 36 Laps, +59.836 2 Points 10. Lando Norris, McLaren, 36 Laps, +61.699, 1 Point 14. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 36 Laps, +63.897, 0 Points 15. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 36 Laps, +65.067, 0 Points __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo Last edited by NoSkillz : 03-14-2019 at 01:43 AM.

03-14-2019, 03:23 AM	#11
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Really good formatting and reporting style for this game - I'm impressed by the dynasty so far! I've been working on a MM project for quite a while, finally finished all the challenges and I've got a career just finished up the first year in the GT Series. I've never managed a team with the resources you have here yet, so I'm interested to see how it goes.

03-16-2019, 09:31 PM	#13
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	RACE THREE: Chinese Grand Prix, Beijing (April 14, 2019) Track Layout A Track Guide – Top Speed, Deceleration and Low Speed Corners Crucial Track Info - Fuel Burn (Low), Tyre Wear (Medium) Laps - 54 (2.73 miles each) Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Mediums, Intermediates, Wets Weather Forecast - Practice (Mostly Sunny); Qualifying (Rain); Race Day (Partly Cloudy) Our cars, as usual, took a bit of a beating in the race and will need about a days work to get back on track. A new front wing is completed just after the completion of the race in Dubai and I get our engineers working on building a new engine next. The pundits once again are backing Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes, while saying Dubai race winner Sebastian Vettel will struggle in Beijing in the Ferrari. Somehow I doubt that! There is even a brief snippet about Racing Point, with prognosticators saying we’re destined to struggle this week as well. There is a 40% chance of rain on race day and it looks like we’ll be dealing with rain during qualifying as well. We’ll stick with the same tyre setup as last week, going with seven SuperSofts, 4 Softs and 4 Mediums for the weekend. It’s do or die time for Sergio Perez – I’ve given him the better car in the first two races and he hasn’t been able to do anything with it. I’m giving him one more chance to impress and if he can’t secure some points, I’m going to switch our best parts over to Stroll. PRACTICE – We have rain early in the practice session, which gives us a chance to build our Intermediate tyre knowledge for a possible wet track on race day. In the end, we are able to secure Level Three knowledge for Qualifying Trim, Race Trim, Intermediate Tyres and SuperSofts, while also securing Level Two knowledge on Soft Tyres. Fantastic! Perez tears up the track in his last practice run and sets the fastest time in the field, while Stroll also runs well in practice, setting an 8th place time. Excellent stuff! We have no trouble getting Perez’ car dialed in to a 99% optimum balance while we struggle somewhat with Stroll’s speed balance, only securing a “Great” rating and 97% overall balance. QUALIFYING – It looks like we have rain in the forecast for the entire qualifying session so we’ll be on inters here. I utilize the 15% performance boosts given for Inters and for Qualifying trip, as you’d expect. I’m going to take a chance in Q1 and wait for the heavy rain to stop before going out, which will give us only one potential time in the session. It works to PERFECTION, as Perez crosses the line with the top Q1 qualifying time and Stroll comes in 3rd. Amazing! Charles Leclerc from Ferrari is second in Q1. Even more amazing are the names of racers who don’t make it into Q2: Lewis Hamilton (16th), Max Verstappen (19th) and Sebastian Vettel, who pundits predicted would struggle on this track, finishes dead last in Q1 and all are eliminated from further qualifying. WOW! Things have completely dried out for Q2 so we’ll be heading out on SuperSofts. We don’t race as well in good weather and Perez sets the 10th fastest time while Stroll is 12th on the first lap. We get them both on a fresh set of slicks and send them out once more in an attempt to better their positions. Unfortunately, both put in worse performances on the second timed lap and ultimately, Perez finishes 11th and Stroll 13th, eliminating both of our racers from further qualifying. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo has the fastest Q2 time, followed by Romain Grosjean from Haas and Carlos Sainz from McLaren. Ricciardo continues his good form in Q3 and wins the pole for the race tomorrow. Charles Leclerc joins him on the front row and Valtteri Bottas is in third. THE RACE – It’s raining to start the race and it looks like it’s going to be a wet one almost the whole way through. I’m guessing we’ll need to go to actual wets at a couple points during the race, as it looks like the middle laps especially will be under monsoon conditions. This should set up reasonably well for us, slowing everyone down to our speed. Both drivers will start on inters and we’ll make at least two pit stops in the race but I’d guess three might be necessary. We get off to a slow start but on lap two, there is a crash between Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean and both are out of the race. On lap four, both Stroll and Perez make big moves and move into the middle of the field in 9th and 8th place respectively. On lap 7, we pit for Wet Tyres and upon re-entering from the pits, we get Perez up to 3rd and Stroll up to 4th after utilizing their ERS boosts. By lap 13, Perez and Stroll are comfortably in 3rd and 5th respectively and just coasting along on their wets, with Daniel Ricciardo still in good form and leading the race. Max Verstappen crashes and is out, eliminating yet another big threat. We have to pit again on lap 17, one lap after all the other racers, as the track has dried up to the point where the wets aren’t working as well and we need inters again. Both pit stops go well and we load up on more ERS and re-enter proceedings in 4th with Perez and 7th with Stroll. We’re back on wets AGAIN by lap 24, with Perez moving up to 3rd and Stroll up to 6th. We really seem to be managing this race well so far. We have another crash on lap 37, with Nico Hulkenberg bowing out of the race. The rain has stopped by this point but we still have a wet track, with Perez now up in third by over seven seconds and Stroll comfortably in 7th. Both are now on inters and it looks like we’ll have a shootout of a finish at the end on a dry track. With about 10 laps to go, the track dries out and we go onto slicks and Perez continues to hold on to third spot. Stroll starts having engine problems but we need to keep him out there. Unfortunately, his car starts failing on him with about three laps to go and he ultimately gets passed by four cars, finishing 12th. However, Perez holds firm and crosses the line in 3rd place, a little over 14 seconds behind race winner Daniel Ricciardo, for Racing Point’s first ever podium finish!!! Joining Ricciardo and Perez on the podium is Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who finished second. Lewis Hamilton finished behind Perez in fourth, just one second further back. It would have been great to get double points this weekend but we need to keep working on the reliability of our cars to ensure both Perez and Stroll can get across the finish line with parts intact. Still, a wonderful result for our team and Perez really ran a great race, as did Stroll, but Perez has the better technology at his disposal right now and took advantage. Perez moves into seventh place in the Drivers Standings with his 15 points while Racing Point moves into sixth in the Constructors Standings, three points behind Haas. April 14, 2019 Chinese Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS 1. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 54 Laps, 25 Points 2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 54 Laps, +2.195, 18 Points 3. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 54 Laps, +16.471, 15 Points ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 54 Laps, +17.588, 12 Points 5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 54 Laps, +17.758, 10 Points 6. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 54 Laps, +21.535, 8 Points 7. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 54 Laps, +32.529, 6 Points 8. Robert Kubica, Williams, 54 Laps, +41.558, 4 Points 9. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 54 Laps, +50.726, 2 Points 10. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, 54 Laps, +54.079, 1 Point 12. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 54 Laps, +59.766, 0 Points __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo

03-18-2019, 12:48 AM	#14
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	RACE FOUR: Russian Grand Prix, Black Sea (April 28, 2019) Track Layout B Track Guide – Top Speed, Medium Speed Corners and High Speed Corners Crucial Track Info - Fuel Burn (Very High), Tyre Wear (Very High) Laps - 61 (2.41 miles each) Tyres Available - Soft, Mediums, Hards, Intermediates, Wets Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Qualifying (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Partly Cloudy) We get a brand new engine finished just after the Chinese Grand Prix and we immediately begin work on performance and reliability. Our design team gets to work on building a new suspension. Once that’s done, we will have finished building a full set of new “Average” rated components and can then start building a set of “Good” components. Chinese Grand Prix podium finisher Checo Perez comes to me indicating that he’s started racing motorbikes in his free time, which adds +1 to his smoothness rating and +5 to his marketability. He’ll maintain those bonuses for 20 weeks. Pundits feel Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes team will continue to dominate at Black Sea, with the Toro Rosso’s expected to struggle. Our design team gets the new suspension completed just before race day but I’m not putting it into a car until the reliability is improved, so Perez will have to wait until next weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix. Once again, there is a 40% chance of rain on race day. We can choose between Softs, Mediums and Hards and I end up taking 6 Softs, 6 Mediums and 3 Hards for each driver. Perez is considered “Happy” with his current car setup while Stroll is “Content”. Both are improved from last week’s “Content” and “Angry” respectively. PRACTICE – From a strategic perspective, we could try to go for a one pit race for Perez if we use Hards, as he’s better with Tyres than his counterpart, Lance Stroll. I don’t see how I can get away from having at least two pits with Stroll, even if the weather is favourable, which is up in the air right now. That all said, I think I’m going to attempt to get Level Three knowledge on the hard tyres and the mediums in practice. We have a lovely, dry day for the entire practice run and it goes better than I could ever expect, as we quickly get both cars dialed in to 99% optimum balance and not only do I hit Level Three Knowledge in Soft Tyres, Hard Tyres, Qualifying Trim and Race Trim, but I also get the bonus of hitting Level Two Knowledge in Inters, just in case we see rain on race day. Just a splendid 25 minutes of practice! Making it even better is the fact that Perez’s car posts the fastest lap time, with Lance Stroll doing well to post the fifth best time. Let’s see what we can do in qualifying though… QUALIFYING – It’s another gorgeous day for qualifying in Russia and I will utilize the 15% performance bonuses for Qualifying Trim and for Soft Tyres. We are confident after a great practice session but once again, we are foiled in the first lap of Q1, with Perez running 17th and Stroll is at the back of the pack in 20th, both WELL back of moving on to Q2. Geez! Perez is able to improve to 10th on his second attempt while Stroll can only move up to 18th. I’m able to squeeze Stroll out for a third try just before time expires on a third set of Softs but his car is just not up to the task and he can’t improve on that second time. He will start in 18th in the race, while Perez just moves on to Q2. Q2 sees Perez out on the track first but he can only nab 11th with his first attempt. He’s back out on his second last set of fresh Soft Tyres for his second attempt and is able to squeeze into 9th, barely slipping through to Q3. Laughably, I send out Perez on Mediums to start Q3, saving his last set of Softs for his second qualifying run. Predictably, he finishes dead last among the ten drivers left in Q3 so I send him back out on his last set of Softs and unfortunately, it doesn’t help, and Perez will start in 10th on the grid on a really worn set of softs. That might be the worst result I can possibly imagine. Lewis Hamilton wins the pole position and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc starts on front row in 2nd position. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel will start third. THE RACE – We have more sunshine to start the race and I don’t see rain in the forecast for the first half but the “fog of war” means I can’t see beyond lap 30. I’m going to need different strategies for both drivers – Perez will be starting on some seriously worn Soft Tyres due to qualifying regulations (he is forced to use the tyres he used to set his fastest lap time in Q2), while Stroll can start on whatever tyres he wishes. It will be at least a two pit race for both drivers and I plan on going exclusively with Mediums for Stroll to get him there, while I plan on using the worn Softs to start for Perez, then move him to Hards for the rest of the race. Both drivers start well then I finally utilize the ERS power boost smartly for both drivers, getting Perez up to second and Stroll up to 5th (from 20th!!!) by lap three. They are both down to zero power, however, and their engines move into harvest mode. I quickly realize I’ve made my first GRAVE mistake of the race, not noticing that the game defaulted to having Stroll start on a Soft Tyre – this is going to completely screw up my strategy and I’m going to have to nurse this set of tyres to ensure he can maintain a two stop strategy. My god… Perez falls to about 6th and has to pit on lap 11, as his Soft Tyres are down to about 18% and he emerges from the pits in 19th place. Not good. Stroll is 7th at this point but his Soft Tyres are quickly wearing as well on a notoriously tough track. I quickly realize my error in not switching him off Softs to start the race is going to mean one extra pit stop and may blow a top ten finish for him. I’ll just let him attack all race if that’s the case. Like Perez, Stroll pits and comes out in 19th. Stroll just CHEWS THROUGH TYRES and I have to pit again with him on lap 28, as he’s only able to get 13 laps on the Mediums. My goodness. I’ll need to have him baby the next two sets or else he may have to pit four times this race. I look to the forecast to see if rain is coming and my dreams don’t look like they’ll be coming true today. At this point, Stroll is in 17th (Charles Leclerc has crashed and is out of the race) while Perez is rolling along on his hard tyres and is in 4th spot. Perez pits on lap 37 for a second set of Hards while Stroll pits for a final time on lap 45, as he gets 16 laps out of the last set and should just be able to get to the finish. We manage fuel and ERS boosts pretty well the rest of the way, with Perez hitting the checkered flag in 5th place, while Stroll hits the line in 14th and out of the points. Lewis Hamilton wins his second race of the year by 8.7 seconds over Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas finishes third, another 25 seconds back. I’m quite satisfied with the final results – Lance Stroll only finished about 11 seconds behind 10th place so my huge pre-race mistake in not getting him on medium tyres possibly cost him points. That said, Stroll went through tyres much quicker than anticipated so I’m not sure if there was any way around taking three pit stops. April 28, 2019 Russian Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS 1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 61 Laps, 25 Points 2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 61 Laps, +8.666, 18 Points 3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 61 Laps, +33.594, 15 Points ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 61 Laps, +42.526, 12 Points 5. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 61 Laps, +43.252, 10 Points 6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 61 Laps, +53.048, 8 Points 7. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 60 Laps, +1 Lap, 6 Points 8. Lando Norris, McLaren, 60 Laps, +1 Lap, 4 Points 9. Robert Kubica, Williams, 60 Laps, +1 Lap, 2 Points 10. Carlos Sainz, McLaren, 60 Laps, +1 Lap, 1 Point 14. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 60 Laps, +1 Lap, 0 Points __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo Last edited by NoSkillz : 03-18-2019 at 10:11 PM.

03-18-2019, 10:10 PM	#15
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	RACE FIVE: Portuguese Grand Prix, Tondela (May 5, 2019) Track Layout A Track Guide – Acceleration and Low Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful Track Info - Fuel Burn (Medium), Tyre Wear (High) Laps - 48 (3.08 miles each) Tyres Available - Soft, Mediums, Hards, Intermediates, Wets Weather Forecast - Practice (Mostly Sunny); Qualifying (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Mostly Sunny) With only three days between the end of the Russian Grand Prix and the start of practice at Tondela, there’s not much time to work on improvements to our car. We get a few of our newer parts up to 100% and our recently developed engine is now up to 93% reliability. Our new suspension won’t be ready in time for this race, unfortunately but should be good to go by South Africa in two weeks time. I take part in my first Formula One vote, with the removal of the German Grand Prix on the table. Supposedly that race doesn’t fit our car or capabilities as a team but I decide to abstain from voting – in the end, the vote is 6-3 in favour of keeping the German Grand Prix on the schedule. Cool by me. Lance Stroll has made some derogatory comments about our suspension not being up to snuff and I agree with him when asked by the press, saying it’s something we need to keep working on. Our team takes a 10% marketing hit as a result. I don’t think there was really an answer that would have benefited us there but whatever…not a big deal. We already have some work being done to our headquarters, with construction on upgrades to our Wind Tunnel progressing nicely and we decide to splurge on two more additions, building a Test Track for 8 million and also starting work on a Tour Centre that will cost us 1.5 million. We still have a very healthy bank balance but we’ll save our remaining budget for improvements to the car. The forecast looks absolutely perfect all weekend. This track is reasonably hard on tyres so I think I may need to consider using hards, so I take a balanced approach, picking 7 Softs, 4 Mediums and 4 Hards. PRACTICE – Stroll is much harder on tyres than his teammate Perez and for me to work a one pit race with the Canadian, I’ll need to utilize hard tyres. Perez likely can milk mediums in a one pit race. I’m going to try to hit bonuses for Softs, Mediums and Hards during our practice run. It takes me only one pit stop in practice to dial Stroll’s car into 99% optimum balance, surely a record for me, especially since Stroll isn’t as adept with feedback. It takes three practice pits to get Perez all dialed in but from there, we are off working on our Qualifying and Race Trim bonuses along with the tyre bonuses. We get close to our goals, ending up with Level Three knowledge on Qualifying and Race Trim, along with Soft and Hard Tyres. We end up with Level two knowledge of mediums. Still, a solid result. Practice lap times don’t mean an awful lot at this level but Perez clocks the second fastest time in practice on Softs, while Stroll sets the 8th fastest time while running on Hards, a pretty good accomplishment. QUALIFYING – We have another beautiful day for qualifying and I decide to utilize some different knowledge for Stroll, taking advantage of the fact he has a Level Two Mechanic’s Component with Super Overtake Mode. That power could come in handy for qualifying. We’ll also utilize his 15% Level Three Qualifying Trim. For Perez, we’ll use Level three knowledge for Soft Tyres and Qualifying Trim. I send out Perez first in Q1 and hold Stroll in the pits for a couple of minutes as the track gains some grip. Perez ends up tallying a 12th place time while Stroll, even with his Super Overtake Mode in effect, comes in 13th. Those aren’t safe so we need to head out again with both drivers on fresh sets of Softs. Neither are able to better their positions but Perez ends up 13th and Stroll barely finishes 15th to move on to Q2. Stroll just doesn’t have the car to keep up with these guys and his first Q2 lap is worst of the remaining racers. Perez is also below the Q2 elimination threshold at 11th. We can’t get improvements out of lap two and Perez is eliminated in 12th while Stroll will have to start 15th on the grid. In the end, it’s Lewis Hamilton once again taking the pole for Mercedes by two tenths of a second over rival Sebastian Vettel. Vettel’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc will start in third. THE RACE – It looks like a perfect day for a race, unless you are Team Racing Point and always want rain! We will utilize similar strategies for both our drivers but get there in slightly different ways. We plan on this being a one lap race for both drivers, with Stroll using Hard Tyres while Perez will use Mediums. Stroll will utilize his Level Three knowledge of the Hards and his Level Two Super Overtake Mode while Perez will use his Level Three knowledge of Race Trim and Level Two knowledge of Medium Tyres. Perez starts 12th alongside Kimi Raikkonen while Stroll starts 15th alongside Daniil Kyvat. Both drivers start impressively, with Perez up to 8th after the first lap and Stroll uses his Super Overtake mode to move up to 9th. We immediately employ the ERS after the completion of Lap One when the battery is fully charged and Perez is able to move up to 5th while Stroll is battling Max Verstappen for 7th position. What an exciting start! From here, we settle in, with Perez in 5th and Stroll in 8th through 10 laps. We get to lap 21 and we’re starting to see both drivers have tyre trouble, with Perez at 19% and Stroll at 30%. Perez still has 28 laps remaining and a one pit race is starting to look unlikely unless I move him to Hard Tyres and have him baby them the whole way. With most of the race leaders looking like they’ll be doing two pits, I decide to keep Perez on Mediums and will change to a two-pit strategy for him. Perez pits and re-emerges in 6th, just in front of his teammate. On lap 25, we bring Stroll to the pits and put new hard tyres on his car in hopes of making this a one pit race for him. He re-emerges in 13th position, with Perez up to 5th. The race is going well, with Perez pitting for hopefully the final time on lap 37. We contemplate putting him on the faster soft tyres but he won’t get a performance boost PLUS he doesn’t have a fresh set, as we’d have to use a lightly used Soft Tyre from his qualifying session. I elect to stick with the Mediums, which will allow me to push a bit more without too much worry of wearing them out before the checkered flag. Perez re-emerges in 4th place but has Charles Leclerc hot on his heels on faster tyres so it will be tough to hold off the Ferrari. Stroll is in 12th and will be in tough to improve much on that by the looks of it. With five laps to go, Stroll is now in 14th and languishing but Perez continues to hold off Leclerc in the battle for fourth. Vettel and Hamilton are having a great battle for the title while Bottas looks comfortably in third, 18 seconds ahead of our car so 4th is what we’re fighting for at the moment. We have a 1.5 second lead over the Ferrari at this time. With two laps to go, we take advantage of a blue flag and blow past Daniil Kyvat to open up a bigger lead on Leclerc, one that we are able to maintain to the finish for a very satisfying 4th place finish!!! Stroll finishes in 14th. Sebastian Vettel wins the Portuguese Grand Prix by about four and a half seconds over Lewis Hamilton, with Valtteri Bottas finishing on the podium in third. We adapted quite well in that race, with Perez doing exceptionally well in the middle stages of the race specifically to nurse his tyres to the point where he was able to maintain his position in the last ten laps over a faster Ferrari. There’s only so much we can do with Stroll right now, as his car is very weak. Soon, he will start getting some of Perez’s parts and hopefully that will set him up for some potential points in the second half of the season. Until then, he needs a lot of good fortune in order to compete. May 5, 2019 Portuguese Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS 1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 48 Laps, 25 Points 2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 48 Laps, +4.538, 18 Points 3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 48 Laps, +22.689, 15 Points ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 48 Laps, +37.022, 12 Points 5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 48 Laps, +39.508, 10 Points 6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 48 Laps, +50.167, 8 Points 7. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 48 Laps, +50.767, 6 Points 8. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 48 Laps, +58.361, 4 Points 9. George Russell, Williams, 48 Laps, +67.076, 2 Points 10. Robert Kubica, Williams, 48 Laps, +67.868, 1 Point 14. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 47 Laps, +1 Lap, 0 Points TEAM STANDINGS (After Five Races) 1. Mercedes, 2 Wins, 156 Points 2. Ferrari, 2 Wins, 133 Points 3. Renault, 1 Win, 71 Points 4. Red Bull, 0 Wins, 57 Points 5. Racing Point, 0 Wins, 37 Points 6. Williams, 0 Wins, 18 Points 7. Haas, 0 Wins, 18 Points 8. Alfa Romeo, 0 Wins, 9 Points 9. McLaren, 0 Wins, 6 Points 10. Toro Rosso, 0 Wins, 0 Points As you can see, we are holding onto the top position in the so-called midfield, with Williams defying expectations thus far. Toro Rosso has really struggled all season and have yet to score a point. DRIVERS STANDINGS (After Five Races) 1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 2 Wins, 98 Points 2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 2 Wins, 92 Points 3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 0 Wins, 58 Points 4. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 1 Win, 55 Points 5. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 0 Wins, 43 Points 6. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 0 Wins, 41 Points 7. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 0 Wins, 37 Points 8. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 0 Wins, 16 Points 9. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 0 Wins, 14 Points T10. George Russell, Williams, 0 Wins, 10 Points T10. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 0 Wins, 10 Points T18. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 0 Wins, 0 Points It’s looking like a great race between Hamilton and Vettel at this point for the Drivers Championship while our own Sergio Perez is acquitting himself very well early on. He will only get better as we continue our good work with our car. Lance Stroll is one of only three drivers without a point thus far. __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo Last edited by NoSkillz : 03-18-2019 at 10:17 PM.

03-21-2019, 06:28 PM	#16
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	RACE SIX: South African Grand Prix, Cape Town (May 19, 2019) Track Layout A Track Guide – Acceleration, Deceleration and Low Speed Corners Crucial Track Info - Fuel Burn (Low), Tyre Wear (Medium) Laps - 64 (2.3 miles each) Tyres Available - UltraSoft, SuperSoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Qualifying (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Partly Cloudy) We have two weeks to get working on further improvements to our car and we’re able to get our new suspension completely upgraded and up to 100% performance and reliability. With a week until the race, we have a new engine completed, our second new engine design, with this one rated as “Good”. It won’t be reliable enough until the Canadian Grand Prix so it won’t be going into a car until then. I’m happy to say that for Cape Town, Sergio Perez will have a car with all new 2019 components, while Lance Stroll is essentially driving the car Perez started the year with. We also begin working on our second new set of brakes – hopefully we can get those in a car in Canada as well. So improvements continue to come… Interestingly enough, in F1’s preview for the South African Grand Prix, Sergio Perez is interviewed and he feels a podium finish is “doable”, saying that “Cape Town is one of my favourite tracks on the circuit, so I can’t wait to get out there.” Cool. The weather forecast looks dry, with only a 10% chance of rain on race day. For the first time, we can choose the super fast UltraSoft Tyres – since this track is okay on tyres, we will be picking 8 UltraSofts, 4 SuperSofts and 3 Softs for this race. PRACTICE – It looks like it will be a pretty fast track here in Cape Town and I’m thinking that we’re going to have to take advantage of fast tyres. Still, I need to keep my options open, so I’m hoping to gain top level knowledge of the UltraSofts and SuperSofts and go from there. It takes me all 25 minutes to figure out an optimal setup for both cars, as I really struggled with the speed balance specifically. I get them both dialed in and we do incredibly well with gaining Level Three knowledge for Ultras, Supers and Softs while also getting in Level One knowledge on Inters, just in case. Our times aren’t great during the session but that’s never meant much anyway. QUALIFYING – The sun is shining in Q1 and we will go with Level Three UltraSoft knowledge for both drivers, while using the Super Overtake Mode (Level Two) for Stroll and the Level Three Qualifying Trim for Perez. Our cars don’t perform well, with Perez placing 13th and Stroll 18th. I send Stroll out again but roll the dice with Perez and keep him in the pits – he’s got a .1 second advantage over the 16th placed car and I’m thinking they can’t catch him. I’d prefer to hold off on using extra tyres if it’s not necessary. Stroll does not improve upon his time and attempts to go out a third time. I better send Perez back out there, even though he continues to hold onto 13th place. Romain Grosjean is one spot further back and he’s staying in the pits by the looks of it. Despite three cracks at it, Stroll can not better his 18th place standing and he is out while Perez moves into Q2. In Q2, Perez sets personal bests for each sector but still places 12th in his first timed lap, not good enough to move on. I’m going to give him one more crack at bettering that mark and he has a clear track in front of him but once again, our car just can’t get it done and we are once again eliminated in Q2. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes grab another pole, while the two Ferrari’s once again sit 2/3, with Vettel and Leclerc. THE RACE – We are looking at a three pit race for both racers but Stroll will likely have to move from Ultras to SuperSofts at least once during the race to do so. We utilize Level Three Knowledge of both race trim and UltraSofts. Perez starts 13th today and Stroll is back in 18th. It’s a decent start for both, with Perez reaching 7th on lap three and Stroll is up to 14th after using their ERS boosts. Stroll pits on lap 17 and comes out in last place, while Perez pits on lap 19 and re-emerges in 12th. We are really slow in the pits right now and I’ll need to look at our crew, normally a strength, after this race. Stroll pits for a second time and is still at the back of the pack while Perez is now 16th after his second pit stop. We are really botching this strategy. We just never get into a groove in this race and Perez can only get back up to 13th when the checkered flag is out while Stroll embarrassingly finishes last. Lewis Hamilton wins the Grand Prix by five seconds over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, with Valtteri Bottas finishing third. Just a miserable performance both both racers and very poor strategy equal zero points. May 19, 2019 South African Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS 1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 64 Laps, 25 Points 2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 64 Laps, +5.145, 18 Points 3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 64 Laps, +11.581, 15 Points ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 64 Laps, +17.860, 12 Points 5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 64 Laps, +33.171 10 Points 6. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 64 Laps, +39.160, 8 Points 7. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 64 Laps, +47.014, 6 Points 8. Carlos Sainz, McLaren, 64 Laps, +49.516, 4 Points 9. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 64 Laps, +55.364, 2 Points 10. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 64 Laps, +58.276, 1 Point 13. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 63 Laps, +1 Lap, 0 Points 20. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 63 Laps, +1 Lap, 0 Points __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo

03-21-2019, 08:51 PM	#17
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	RACE SEVEN: Canadian Grand Prix, Vancouver (June 2, 2019) Track Layout A Track Guide – Medium Speed Corners and High Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful Track Info - Fuel Burn (High), Tyre Wear (High) Laps - 44 (3.39 miles each) Tyres Available - UltraSoft, SuperSoft, Soft, Intermediates, Wets Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Qualifying (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Mostly Sunny) Well, no one ever said it would be easy. South Africa was unquestionably a low point of the season and we need to do much better in Canada, essentially a home race for our team, as owner Lawrence Stroll and his son Lance are both Montreal natives. We get a new set of brakes completed and we begin work on performance and reliability improvements. In the meantime, our design team begins work on building a new gearbox. The drivers race has been dominated by Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, with the two racers exchanging wins. Hamilton is the betting favourite in Vancouver, with Red Bull also expected to impress. My scout tells me that there is a 40% chance of rain on race day but the forecast shows mostly sunshine. Interesting. The Vancouver track is tough on tyres so that might help us a bit – I think I’ll need to go with a long strategy to have any chance so we’ll have a balanced set of tyres for the weekend, with both racers having 6 Ultras, 5 Supers and 4 Softs. PRACTICE – For the second consecutive race, I have major issues getting Perez’s car optimized but thankfully, it only takes me a couple of cracks to get Stroll to 99% optimization. The best I can do with Perez’s car is 96% so we’ll continue our attempts to dial it in during qualifying. Stroll finishes with the fifth best time in practice while Perez can only nab the 8th best time. We gain Level Three Knowledge of Qualifying and Lap Trim, UltraSoft and SuperSoft Tyres and Level Two Knowledge of Softs. QUALIFYING – The sun is shining in Q1 and we will go with Level Three Qualifying Trim knowledge for both drivers, while using the Super Overtake Mode (Level Two) for Stroll and the Level Three UltraSoft Tyre knowledge for Perez. I continue to tweak Perez’s setup and it works, as he gets to 98% optimization after his first qualifying lap. However, his time is a mediocre 14th. Stroll’s time is slightly worse and he’s on the bubble in 15th, so both racers will need to give it another shot. As usual, neither driver is able to improve upon their time on their second timed lap and unfortunately, two drivers in the bottom five DO improve, dropping Perez to 16th and Stroll to 17th and they are both eliminated. That is the first time we’ve seen both drivers fail to advance to Q2 and it’s apparent that despite our steady car and part improvement, we’re not improving as quickly as the other teams. Sebastian Vettel sets the fastest time in Q2, with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen right behind. In Q3, it’s Vettel once again setting the pace and winning the pole, with Hamilton starting alongside him on front row and Charles Leclerc starting third. THE RACE – We could probably use some rain today but the forecast looks perfect. It’s a 44 lap race and I should be able to make this a one pit race for both drivers, utilizing Softs for Stroll and Supers for Perez. We utilize Level Three race trim for both drivers, Level Three Super Knowledge for Perez and Level Two Soft knowledge for Stroll. Hopefully we can make up some ground early and get at least one of our drivers into the points in our “home” race. Stroll has a brilliant start, moving all the way up to 13th on the second turn while Perez drops to 20th. By the time we finish the first lap, Stroll is up to 11th and Perez has recovered to 14th. Things are going quite well early and through ten laps, Stroll is up to 7th and Perez is right behind in 8th, as a couple of drivers have already had to go to the pits due to worn tyres. On lap 19, Stroll is up in 2nd (!!!) while Perez runs 4th, with Lewis Hamilton right in between. Hamilton has already pitted and Perez is down to 22% on his tyres, while Stroll is doing better with 33% on his softs. I’m going to need to pit with Perez and I don’t see how I can keep him on SuperSofts but I’m going to try. He pits on lap 21 and re-emerges in 16th position. Stroll is now down to third after being passed by Hamilton. Stroll makes it to Lap 24 before pitting and comes out in 10th, a pretty solid result. Perez is back up to 13th by this time. We get to lap 30 and Stroll is now running an impressive 6th, while Perez is in 9th. Stroll’s just running a beautiful race and we’re conserving Perez’s tyres right now and that might actually be helping keep faster cars behind him and Stroll. There is a high likelihood that a few racers ahead of Stroll will need to pit again so we have the potential to hold on to this position, at the very least. On lap 34, Ricciardo and Verstappen both pit and that allows Stroll to move up to 4th! Both are on Ultras now and it will likely be tough to hold this position on slower tyres but we’ll try! Perez is currently up to 6th. With five laps to go, Stroll is in an incredible battle with Ricciardo for 4th and I don’t know how much longer he can hold him off. Perez continues to hold of Verstappen for 6th as I’m freaking out at all the action right now! We’re down to the final two laps and Stroll’s tyre wear is low, as he CONTINUES to somehow hold off Ricciardo on his fresh Ultras. Perez continues to hold off Verstappen and we continue the beautiful racing right to the end, as Stroll hits the checkered flag in 4th position while Perez nabs 6th. Simply a BRILLIANT race from Racing Point!!! Double points!!! Sebastian Vettel continues the back and forth affair with Lewis Hamilton, taking the Canadian Grand Prix by 15 seconds over his Mercedes rival. Valtteri Bottas finishes third. Lance Stroll picks up his first points for Racing Point and in his home race, no less! Simply superb driving all race long, coming from 17th in a brilliant performance. Perez had a tough start but did a great job to nurse his second set of Supers to the end of the race, holding off faster cars behind him the whole time. June 2, 2019 Canadian Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS 1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 44 Laps, 25 Points 2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 44 Laps, +15.075, 18 Points 3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 44 Laps, +29.667, 15 Points ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 44 Laps, +44.611, 12 Points 5. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 44 Laps, +46.405 10 Points 6. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 44 Laps, +47.799, 8 Points 7. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 44 Laps, +49.716, 6 Points 8. George Russell, Williams, 44 Laps, +53.359, 4 Points 9. Lando Norris, McLaren, 44 Laps, +56.644, 2 Points 10. Robert Kubica, Williams, 44 Laps, +60.111, 1 Point Max Verstappen hit with a 10 second time penalty, dropping him from 9th place to 11th. Sergio Perez stays in 7th in the Drivers Standings while Stroll vaults all the way up to 11th after this performance. Racing Point stays comfortably in 5th position in the Constructors Standings. __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY -** EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo Last edited by NoSkillz : 03-21-2019 at 09:26 PM.

03-22-2019, 12:31 AM	#18
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	RACE EIGHT: Russian Grand Prix #2, Black Sea (June 16, 2019) Track Layout C Track Guide – Low Speed Corners and Medium Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful Track Info - Fuel Burn (Medium), Tyre Wear (Very High) Laps - 71 (2.08 miles each) Tyres Available - Soft, Medium, Hard, Intermediates, Wets Weather Forecast - Practice (Partly Cloudy); Qualifying (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Partly Cloudy w/Rain) We come off a very successful home Grand Prix and have a brand new gearbox to work with. We should be able to get it reliable enough to be in a car by raceday. Our design team then starts work on a new suspension but it won’t be finished until shortly after the upcoming Grand Prix. We still have lots going on at our headquarters, with work progressing on a new Tour Centre, a new Test Track and upgrades are being made to our Wind Tunnel. My assistant tells me that there is a 40% chance of rain on race day and the track is really tough on tyres. It’s also a whopping 71 lap race so I’m guessing we may need to go with some longer lasting tyres. As a result, we fit both racers with 6 Softs, 5 Mediums and 4 Hards for the weekend. PRACTICE – I’m starting to struggle somewhat with setups but in the end, we get both cars dialed in sufficiently and we do well to gain level three knowledge of all three main tyre compounds, along with race and qualifying trim. Perez nails down the fastest practice time and Stroll comes fifth. QUALIFYING – It’s another sunny day for qualifying The sun is shining in Q1 and we will go with Level Three Qualifying Trim and Soft Tyre knowledge for both drivers. I forsake the Super Overdrive mode for Stroll, as it hasn’t helped him whatsoever in the last two qualifying sessions. I send both drivers out early and it’s yet another disaster, as Perez comes in 17th and Stroll 18th on their first attempt. I send them both out right away, as it looks like I may be able to get a third attempt in if necessary before the 10 minute time allotment expires due to a short track. Stroll does not improve but Perez moves up to 11th and into a safe position. We send Stroll out for one more crack but his car is just not up to the challenge and he’ll start 19th on race day. Perez makes it to Q2 but I don’t like our chances of moving forward from here. Interestingly enough, the rains come for Q2 and I hold off a couple of minutes on sending Perez out, hoping to take advantage of a potentially drier track. Incredibly, we time it beautifully, as Perez finishes 1st in his first run. I’ve got to imagine that will be good enough to get him through to Q3, even though the track may completely dry out in the final minute of Q2. We fall to fourth with about 2 minutes left so I send Perez out on Softs, hoping the track dries out. A bunch of teams have the same idea but we finish 5th in Q2 and move onto the last stage. Incredibly, Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas all flop in Q2 and are eliminated and will start near the back of the pack. In Q3, I send Perez out last among the remaining ten drivers, hoping to get the track at its best and he places 7th in his first attempt. I try one more time, on his last set of fresh Softs and it actually produces a faster time, a rarity for us, as Perez finishes with the 4th best time and will start in row two!! Nice! THE RACE – Okay this will be a challenging race. It’s raining to start and it looks like we’ll have a wet track for at least the first 25 laps or so based on the forecast, with the race running 71 laps. That means we will need at least two sets of inters and at least two more tyre changes after the rain stops, meaning the best we can hope for is a three pit race. Therefore, for both racers, I’m going with Level Three Race Trim and Hard Tyre Knowledge to try to facilitate the fewest stops possible. Stroll continues to show incredible first lap racing ability, moving from 19th to 13th with ease while Perez falls back into 5th spot. By lap 11, Perez is down to 6th and Stroll is languishing near the back of the pack in 18th. We pit a bit later than everyone else due to going easy on our tyres, with Stroll pitting on lap 18 while in 8th, while Perez pits one lap later in 2nd. Stroll re-emerges in 15th while Perez is in 6th. By lap 29, the rain has stopped and most of the racers have already pitted for either soft or hard tyres. So we send both drivers to the pits to change to hards and once again, Perez emerges in 6th and Stroll in 15th. However, most of our competitors are now on faster tyres than us…we’re hoping to pit one less time than our fellow racers to move up the board. With 30 laps to go, many racers are pitting again and will still need one more pit stop to get them to the end of the race. We are starting to churn through our hards a bit quicker than anticipated but we have Perez up to 5th at the moment and Stroll has moved up to 11th. We’re off to lap 47 and both Stroll and Perez need to pit for hopefully the last time, with Stroll coming out in 16th and Perez in 7th. We’ll really need to nurse these tires to the end. It’s a pretty uneventful finish, as Perez and Stroll essentially just hold their positions, with Perez finishing a fine 6th and Stroll 15th, a pretty decent result all things considered. This is Perez’s second straight 6th place finish. It’s becoming pretty boring at the top, as the top three here in Russia are the same top three from Canada, with Sebastian Vettel winning again, Lewis Hamilton finishing second (despite starting 11th) and Valtteri Bottas finishing third after starting 13th on the grid. June 16, 2019 Russian Grand Prix #2 - EVENT RESULTS 1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 71 Laps, 25 Points 2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 71 Laps, +9.159, 18 Points 3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 71 Laps, +34.410, 15 Points ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 71 Laps, +37.916, 12 Points 5. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 71 Laps, +44.323 10 Points 6. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 71 Laps, +45.432, 8 Points 7. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 70 Laps, +1 Lap, 6 Points 8. George Russell, Williams, 70 Laps, +1 Lap, 4 Points 9. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 70 Laps, +1 Lap, 2 Points 10. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 70 Laps, +1 Lap, 1 Point 15. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 70 Laps, +1 Lap, 0 Points Sebastian Vettel takes over the lead in the overall Drivers Standings by a single point over Lewis Hamilton. Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll maintain their 7th and 11th spots respectively, while our team is very comfortably in 5th place in the Constructors, 14 points behind Red Bull and 38 points ahead of Williams. Toro Rosso is still looking for their first point of the season. __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo

03-23-2019, 02:18 PM	#19
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo

03-30-2019, 02:08 PM	#20
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	RACE TEN: British Grand Prix, Guildford (July 14, 2019) Track Layout A Track Guide – Top Speed, Medium Speed Corners and High Speed Corners Crucial Track Info - Fuel Burn (Low), Tyre Wear (Very High) Laps - 43 (3.47 miles each) Tyres Available - SuperSoft, Soft, Medium, Intermediates, Wets Weather Forecast - Practice (Rain); Qualifying (Partly Cloudy); Race Day (Partly Cloudy) We get a brand new front wing completed after the race in Munich and will begin reliability and performance improvements in order to get it into a car for Guildford. Meanwhile, our design team gets to work on another rear wing. We get that completed a couple days before the race but it won’t be ready for this grand prix. The design team now starts working on a new set of brakes. It’s going to be an interesting buildup to the race, as the forecast indicates rain for the practice session and only a 20% chance of rain on race day. Getting the proper tyre knowledge will be key in tough practice conditions. The Guildford track is very tough on tyres so we will go with 6 SuperSofts, 5 Softs and 4 Mediums for race weekend for both drivers. PRACTICE – We get Lance Stroll’s car dialed in very quickly but have lots of trouble with Perez’s wing positions and we’ll need to do another slight tweak in qualifying by the looks of it. That said, Perez still nails down the 3rd fastest time in practice while Stroll comes fifth in a session marred by rain. We gain Level 3 knowledge on SuperSofts and Mediums, along with level three knowledge on both qualifying and race trims. QUALIFYING – It’s another sunny day for qualifying and the sun is out for Q1. I use Level Three SuperSoft knowledge for both drivers, Level 2 Super Overtake mode for Stroll and Level 3 Qualifying Trim for Perez. Q1’s first lap sees us finish 10th with Perez and 14th with Stroll, which means I have to send both drivers out again. Neither driver is able to improve upon their time and both drop a couple spots, meaning Stroll is once again eliminated in Q1 and will start 16th, while Perez is able to squeak through to Q2. The good news is that my minor tweak to Perez’s downforce has brought him to 100% optimization, maybe the first time I’ve nailed that perfect number. In Q2, Perez finishes on the outside looking in on lap one, with an 11th place time. I try to wait to the last minute to send him back out for his final Q2 timed lap in order to get the track at its best. Unfortunately, everyone else has the same idea and Perez can’t improve on the time, which means he’ll start 11th on race day. Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari runs well in all sessions and he will be on the pole on race day. Lewis Hamilton is right beside his main rival and Charles Leclerc will start third. THE RACE – Ugh. Well, the 20% chance of rain on race day looks like 100% now, as we’ll deal with wet conditions for at least ¾ of the race by the looks of it. The rain will start on lap two or three according to the forecast. We will start on inters and hopefully not give up too much pace in the first couple of laps. We utilize our level three race trim and SuperSoft tyre knowledge for both drivers. I decide to drop two laps of fuel from Stroll’s tank and one lap from Perez’s tank to hopefully make the cars a bit lighter and faster at the race’s start. Thankfully, everyone is on inters to start despite the dry conditions at the start. Perez moves up to 7th by the end of the first lap while Stroll stays in 16th. However, Stroll makes a big move shortly thereafter, moving up to 10th halfway through lap two as the rain begins to fall. We pit with Stroll on lap 15 and with Perez one lap later, with Perez emerging in 10th and Stroll 14th. Both should move up a couple of spots as more guys pit. Indeed, within one lap, Perez is up to 6th and Stroll 11th. By lap 19, I can see that the forecast will just get worse as the race moves on and we’ll need to move to Wet Tyres for the last ten laps or so. Not ideal. On lap 33, we pit both drivers for wet tyres and Perez re-emerges to the race in 5th and Stoll in 11th. It’s going to be an interesting finish, as everyone is now on Wets. Perez is six seconds behind 4th and 7 seconds up on 6th so he looks entrenched in that fifth place position right now. Meanwhile, Stroll is in a serious battle for 10th and has many on his tail so I’m concentrating most on his race and trying to get him a point if possible. Unfortunately, he can’t catch Carlos Sainz in front of him and ultimately finishes 11th. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez is able to comfortably finish the race without incident, holding of Max Verstappen behind him to finish in fifth and add 10 points to his season total, another fine result. Sebastian Vettel holds onto the lead for the majority of the race and wins the British Grand Prix by about 9 seconds over Lewis Hamilton. Charles Leclerc takes down the last podium position. July 14, 2019 German Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS 1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 43 Laps, 25 Points 2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 43 Laps, +8.776, 18 Points 3. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 43 Laps, +16.985, 15 Points ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 43 Laps, +28.941, 12 Points 5. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 43 Laps, +40.163, 10 Points 6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 43 Laps, +44.288, 8 Points 7. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 43 Laps, +47.859, 6 Points 8. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 43 Laps, +56.394, 4 Points 9. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 43 Laps, +58.205, 2 Points 10. Carlos Sainz, McLaren, 43 Laps, +73.036, 1 Point 11. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 43 Laps, +76.211, 0 Points TEAM STANDINGS (After Ten Races) 1. Mercedes, 4 Wins, 329 Points 2. Ferrari, 5 Wins, 295 Points 3. Renault, 1 Win, 128 Points 4. Red Bull, 0 Wins, 91 Points 5. Racing Point, 0 Wins, 79 Points 6. Haas, 0 Wins, 31 Points 7. Williams, 0 Wins, 27 Points 8. McLaren, 0 Wins, 19 Points 9. Alfa Romeo, 0 Wins, 11 Points 10. Toro Rosso, 0 Wins, 0 Points It’s a great race at the top, as Mercedes holds the lead in the constructors race despite one less race win than Ferrari. We continue to be very comfortable in fifth. DRIVERS STANDINGS (After Ten Races) 1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 5 Wins, 203 Points 2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 4 Wins, 202 Points 3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 0 Wins, 127 Points 4. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 1 Win, 104 Points 5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 0 Wins, 92 Points 6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 0 Wins, 69 Points 7. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 0 Wins, 67 Points 8. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 0 Wins, 24 Points 9. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 0 Wins, 22 Points 10. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 0 Wins, 21 Points T12. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 0 Wins, 12 Points It’s an amazing battle at the top, with a single point separating Vettel and Hamilton. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez is within two points of Max Verstappen and Red Bull, as he continues his fine season with our team. Stroll had one excellent finish and sits 12th overall. __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo Last edited by NoSkillz : 03-30-2019 at 02:09 PM.

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