7th GTP F1 World Championship (F1 2010 edition) * SEASON FINISHED :'''( *

GTP 7th F1 World Championship - Round 9 - Europe





Weather - Dry


Qualifying Results:


Pole - Shaggy Alonso (Tyrrell) - 1:38.440 (10 pts)


3rd. - DarkPSI (Benetton) - 1:38.698 (6 pts)


5th. - Mutu20 (Tyrrell)- 1:39.243 (4 pts)


7th. - Ardius (Brawn)-1:40.437 (2 pts)


9th. - AliT12 (Brabham)-1:41.003




Race Results:


1st. DarkPSI (Benetton) (25 pts) - 49m15.189s
2nd. Shaggy Alonso (Tyrrell) (18 pts) + 3.6s
3rd. Baumi27 (Brawn) (15 pts) + 12.8s
4th. Pipeslice (Jordan) (12 pts) + 35.8s
5th. Mutu20 (Tyrrell) (10 pts) + 2m08.4s
6th. kcheeb (Hesketh) (8 pts) + 1 lap
7th. AliT12 (Brabham) (6 pts) + 1 lap
8th. Tombrooks97 (Jordan) (4 pts) + 2 laps
9th. Ardius (Brawn) - DNF
10th. MikeTheHockeyFan (Benetton) - DNF


Qualifying:


This qualifying session was almost a case of no one wanting pole position. Nobody seemed to set a lap they were happy with at all, right down to 5th placed Mutu20. Valencia is one of those 'hurry up and wait' circuits where pushing extra hard seems to just make you go slower, and given how everyone pushes extra hard in qualifying, the lap times we saw may have been a result of this. It seemed like pure chance really that I was the one who ended up on pole, but knowing how turn one at Valencia is always a disaster, I was only grateful for the points. Kcheeb and AliT12 were only separated by 1 thousandth of a second - this was the fine line between the last points position and 9th.

Race:

I knew realistically from the off, I didn't have much of a chance of winning this race. In race simulations I was guzzling on the fuel whereas from his performances in Bahrain, Melbourne and Catalunya, I could bet that DarkPSI would be the fastest driver in the race. My only hope of winning was if I could get a clean start and he hit trouble.

I got an average start and was resigned to Pipeslice going past me through turn 1 - I just hoped to maintain 2nd place but Baumi27 came steaming through into turn 2 taking us all by surprise and somehow outbraked everyone to take the lead from 4th! This cut off Pipeslice who had to take avoiding action by taking the escape road and rejoined at the back of the pack. Other than this, it was an exceptionally clean first braking zone at Valencia. Coming out of turn 3 DarkPSI and I were side by side, but I had the inside line into 4 and did my best to give him room - he elected to take the run off area and slotted in back behind me through 6.

First couple of laps I managed not to spin (Valencia is always tricky with full fuel tanks) but had Dark breathing down my neck initially more than I was down Baumi's. Then by lap 3 I got my act together and pulled a slight margin on Dark and caught up to Baumi. He went deep into the final corner and I drove past into the lead. Next lap I turned the engine back down to standard and unfortunately was unable to build up much of a gap over Baumi, who fortunately for me was keeping DarkPSI at bay. After a couple more laps Dark did get past and started hunting me down before he pitted on lap 9. I went to lap 10 and ran with the engine turned up for a couple of laps and held a 6 second lead over him. Then I turned the engine down to cruise for what would be almost my entire second stint on primes. Dark started reeling me in at a huge rate - probably 2-3 seconds a lap - and he was on the back of me in no time. I wasn't really sure whether it would be A. best to fight him even though he would get past eventually, but in the process lose us both time and hasten Pipeslice's arrival on the scene who was catching us both OR B. let him through, accept defeat and try my best to hold off Pipe. In the end instinct took over and on lap 16, Dark cruised up on me on the last backstraight (almost as if he was using DRS such was the speed differential), I moved to the right to defend but dropped it under braking and spun. This held us both up badly - Pipeslice drove past me into turn 18 and was now right on the back of Dark. Pleasingly, even though I still had my engine down, I was able to just about keep pace with them for several laps before Pipeslice's race was ruined with a puncture - a thoroughly unfair race for him.

Initially after this, I was closing down Dark several tenths each lap with us both in cruise, but then he turned the wick up and started to pull out a lead again. Then I had to focus on Baumi who was catching me from behind and still running at maximum power. Although he was catching me, he seemed to always lose out through the twisty 12-13-14 section and I could hold him at bay. However, he got a good run at me into 12 on one lap and almost got past, but outbraked himself and I held on to 2nd place.

By the penultimate lap my fuel gauge was fine so I cranked it back up to full power and took about 3 seconds out of Dark's lead, I then made a bad mistake on the final lap losing about a second, but still caught him by another couple of seconds but in the end it wasn't enough. With hindsight, I could have turned my engine up a lap or two sooner towards the end and this may well have been enough to beat Dark as he ran out of fuel crossing the line, but I didn't want to risk running out myself and lose places to Baumi and Pipe - 28 points was still a good haul.

Congratulations go to DarkPSI who drove a pretty flawless race and fully deserved the victory. Commiserations go to Pipeslice who had the pace but not the luck. Also a mention should go to Baumi who put in a really strong race peformance, much more in line with his obvious qualifying pace. Thanks go to the guys who got lapped, made it very easy on all of us 👍

See you all again at Silverstone


Race Footage
Courtesy of kcheeb:


kcheeb's race:

Valencia Qualifying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_giXioTewQ
Valencia Race Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1talCMVYeQ
Valencia Race Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKpzEsU7aXg


And here are the tables:

The Championship Tables (As of round 9):


Drivers Championship

1st. Shaggy Alonso - 252 pts
2nd. DarkPSI - 219 pts
3rd. Baumi27 - 155 pts
4th. Pipeslice - 144 pts
5th. Mutu20 - 134 pts
6th. Tombrooks97 - 62 pts
7th. Ardius - 44 pts
8th. MikeTheHockeyFan - 43 pts
9th. kcheeb - 37 pts
10th. Upuaut - 36 pts
11th. NumbPhase - 34 pts
12th. AliT12 - 29 pts
13th. DOUQA - 19 pts
14th Jerry786 - 12 pts
15th. Shark33 - 3 pts
16th. Manios22DC - 2 pts
17th. jordy7777 - 2 pts



Teams Championship

1st. Tyrrell - 386 pts - Shaggy Alonso, Mutu20
2nd. Benetton - 262 pts - DarkPSI, MikeTheHockeyFan
3rd. Jordan - 221 pts - Tombrooks97, Pipeslice, Jerry786, Shark33
4rd. Brawn - 201 pts - Baumi27, Manios22DC, Ardius
5th. Hesketh - 92 pts - kcheeb, NumbPhase, DOUQA, jordy7777
6th. Brabham - 65 pts - Upuaut, AliT12

Hi Shaggy,

brilliant race report. Your reports always gives this championship a special atmosphere. Unfortunately I cant race this sunday due to 1 week holiday with my family at the baltic sea.
Perhaps we can postpone the race ?? I think mutu20 and ardius also cant attend.

Best regards

DarkPSI

Hey Dark, thanks, I try to make an effort to make the reports readable and interesting. It's great that everyone does this when they get a chance.

I was thinking about postponing the race myself because of you 3 not being available. However, I am conscious of how long this series is likely to go on for if we keep postponing races - at the moment we're scheduled to end the series on 4th September which is getting quite close to when F1 2011 will be out and no one will want to play this anymore.

Maybe it is best to postpone this race, but I think all the rest of them should go ahead regardless.

So yes, unless anyone has a serious issue with it, I think we'll postpone this weeks race. Enjoy your hols Dark 👍

Postponement is no big deal for me.

If eventually it is determined that F1 2011 will be out before we are scheduled to end the season, we could skip the odd bad track in the remaining schedule.

I REALLY want in on this next season - I hope I can work around my work schedule

MikeTheHockeyFan

Postponement is no big deal for me.

If eventually it is determined that F1 2011 will be out before we are scheduled to end the season, we could skip the odd bad track in the remaining schedule.

Click to expand...

Definitely Singapore!

Shaggy Alonso

Hey Dark, thanks, I try to make an effort to make the reports readable and interesting. It's great that everyone does this when they get a chance.

Click to expand...

Agreed, always good reading!

Shaggy Alonso

So yes, unless anyone has a serious issue with it, I think we'll postpone this weeks race. Enjoy your hols Dark 👍

Click to expand...

No problems for me, in fact gets me more practice time at a track I've struggled with!

Guys just a quick heads up for you, even if this is quite advanced, i'm won't be able to make the following dates:

Sunday 24th July - Holiday to Somerset
Sunday 14th August - Holiday to America
Sunday 21st August - Holiday to America

Personally I think the races should go ahead regardless, I think we're going to struggle bringing in the numbers when F1 2011 comes out and we are going to be forever delaying races due to the various holidays people take at this time of the year.
I'm not bothered about missing these two races. I understand the worry is over the championship contenders not being able to make it, but eventually we have to run the series regardless.

The longer the championship as a whole is delayed, the more likely various people won't make every race (or even people lose interest or start to play other games). It might be a shame if one person runs away with the championship due to a better attendence, but that is just how it is.

I guess its easy for me to say this when I'm not fighting for the win, but a line has to be drawn somewhere.

I don't agree with dropping races - there are very few races that have universal dislike, so inevitably dropping certain races is going to advantage/disadvantage certain people.

Ardius

Personally I think the races should go ahead regardless, I think we're going to struggle bringing in the numbers when F1 2011 comes out and we are going to be forever delaying races due to the various holidays people take at this time of the year.
I'm not bothered about missing these two races. I understand the worry is over the championship contenders not being able to make it, but eventually we have to run the series regardless.

The longer the championship as a whole is delayed, the more likely various people won't make every race (or even people lose interest or start to play other games). It might be a shame if one person runs away with the championship due to a better attendence, but that is just how it is.

I guess its easy for me to say this when I'm not fighting for the win, but a line has to be drawn somewhere.

I don't agree with dropping races - there are very few races that have universal dislike, so inevitably dropping certain races is going to advantage/disadvantage certain people.

Click to expand...

It's definitely a tough call, made a little easier by the fact a good portion of the front runners weren't able to make it.

It may not be an option from this point forward, as there are 11 Sundays left before F1 2011. That doesn't leave much wiggle room for completing our season prior to its release.

It's tough being an organizer and having to make those calls,

Well i've decided that although this race is postponed we're simply gonna press on with every other race there-on-in. Silverstone should be epic though, what-a-track. I want a good attendance there

Shaggy, long time no see man!! I haven't raced F1 cars in a long time with you. How you been? Still doing very well, it seems.

I have at last been gifted my summer holidays, and so i'm able to race online once again. I was hoping to be able to squeeze into this if there are ever any places available. I've driven the hell out of F1 2010, and i'm far better than I was in F1:CE, thanks to the much better physics engine this game has. So, if you ever have any places available, hit me up

Peter.

Shaggy, long time no see man!! I haven't raced F1 cars in a long time with you. How you been? Still doing very well, it seems.

I have at last been gifted my summer holidays, and so i'm able to race online once again. I was hoping to be able to squeeze into this if there are ever any places available. I've driven the hell out of F1 2010, and i'm far better than I was in F1:CE, thanks to the much better physics engine this game has. So, if you ever have any places available, hit me up

Click to expand...

Anyone want to join this?

Peter.

Shaggy, long time no see man!! I haven't raced F1 cars in a long time with you. How you been? Still doing very well, it seems.

I have at last been gifted my summer holidays, and so i'm able to race online once again. I was hoping to be able to squeeze into this if there are ever any places available. I've driven the hell out of F1 2010, and i'm far better than I was in F1:CE, thanks to the much better physics engine this game has. So, if you ever have any places available, hit me up

Click to expand...

Hey there Peter, good to hear from you. I've been well and i'd like to think i've matured a little since the 3rd F1 GTP championship, even if it wasn't really that long ago. You'll be glad to know this championship is just as competitive but has never actually resulted in any arguments. We express opinions, but it's always constructive.

Jordy7777 hasn't attended the last 2 races so i'll PM him about it and see if he's willing to relinquish his seat. Jerry786 also didn't attend the last race after saying he'd rejoin so i'm unsure about him, so there's a couple of possibilities there for ya - if not you can be a reserve driver if you want. I'll PM these guys and get back to you my adolescent Jamaican friend.

saidur_ali

Anyone want to join this?

Click to expand...

That series is for wusses and people with OCD

This is where the real competition is at Pipeslice is one of the fastest F1 2010 drivers in the whole world and he races here, so stick that in your blunt and smoke it.

Shaggy Alonso

That series is for wusses and people with OCD

This is where the real competition is at Pipeslice is one of the fastest F1 2010 drivers in the whole world and he races here, so stick that in your blunt and smoke it.

Click to expand...

Funny. I know a lot of top F1 2010 players have more OCD with leaderboards than we do.

Even if there is only three of us at the moment, the fight for first is still very competitive. The last event I did a time quicker than DigiProst to win. LewyOS is arguably a faster driver than everyone in this championship including Pipeslice. If you don't believe me, look at the times he is doing. I think all the times are higher up in the leaderboards than any member in this championship. You should join, add to the competition at the front. It does not take that much time and people could do this on top of this championship if they wanted to as it is very flexible.

saidur_ali

Funny. I know a lot of top F1 2010 players have more OCD with leaderboards than we do.

Even if there is only three of us at the moment, the fight for first is still very competitive. The last event I did a time quicker than DigiProst to win. LewyOS is arguably a faster driver than everyone in this championship including Pipeslice. If you don't believe me, look at the times he is doing. I think all the times are higher up in the leaderboards than any member in this championship. You should join, add to the competition at the front. It does not take that much time and people could do this on top of this championship if they wanted to as it is very flexible.

Click to expand...

I race in this league because everyone in it is agreat bunch of guys,all respectful clean racers.The forum is very good constructive chat and I enjoy it.I admit the physics aren't entirely accurate not like iracing but it is fun.I don't think I'm the fastest driver at all,but I see in your championship you allow assists,now that puts me off straight away.An example my time trial lap time on Silverstone puts me 15th in the world with no assists all people below are using assists like traction control,now on Silverstone there are a couple of corners where that would gain alot of time.so for me comparing laptimes with someone with no assists and someone with is an inaccurate comparison .For this league my race setups are completely different to my timetrial setups.most of my timetrial times I set last year when the game came out,I haven't worked on most of them since.if I spent my time just time trials now I would undoubtedly get better times but what's the point,with assists on and time trial like conditions the game feels unrealistic way to much grip.my time is spent on no assists race setups and practice for Sunday nights.i have kids so I would NT have time to do more than one league.

pipeslice

I race in this league because everyone in it is agreat bunch of guys,all respectful clean racers.The forum is very good constructive chat and I enjoy it.I admit the physics aren't entirely accurate not like iracing but it is fun.I don't think I'm the fastest driver at all,but I see in your championship you allow assists,now that puts me off straight away.An example my time trial lap time on Silverstone puts me 15th in the world with no assists all people below are using assists like traction control,now on Silverstone there are a couple of corners where that would gain alot of time.so for me comparing laptimes with someone with no assists and someone with is an inaccurate comparison .For this league my race setups are completely different to my timetrial setups.most of my timetrial times I set last year when the game came out,I haven't worked on most of them since.if I spent my time just time trials now I would undoubtedly get better times but what's the point,with assists on and time trial like conditions the game feels unrealistic way to much grip.my time is spent on no assists race setups and practice for Sunday nights.i have kids so I would NT have time to do more than one league.

Click to expand...

You can still do fast times with or without assists in the game. Someone with say a better wheel and pedal set might find it still easy to be fast with no assists and like you said, you did a 15th place ranking so shows that no assists does not cost you enough time to be not competitive. That is fast enough to win time trial events.

I hardly played this game since getting it. Just did 1 season on easy mode to quickly get into a top team. After that I left it until now, so doing time trials and learning the physics is new to me. I spend about a maximum of 5 hours on the F1 2010 time trials. That includes finding a good setup and learning the track. This is split over a few days so 1-2 hour sessions at most. You have an advantage that you know the game physics and tracks better than me, so you won't need as much time theoretically.

saidur_ali

You can still do fast times with or without assists in the game. Someone with say a better wheel and pedal set might find it still easy to be fast with no assists and like you said, you did a 15th place ranking so shows that no assists does not cost you enough time to be not competitive. That is fast enough to win time trial events.
.

Click to expand...

Drive the wall of champions with and without traction control on and tell me it doesn't help you. Also, any slow speed corner for that matter.

Mutu20

Drive the wall of champions with and without traction control on and tell me it doesn't help you. Also, any slow speed corner for that matter.

Click to expand...

I think the big difference is in low speed corners. High speed is OK with no traction control. There is still quite a lot of grip either way, even in the wet. I tried no traction control in Monza in the wet today and was surprised there is a lot of grip. In the wet the game is more realistic for real life dry conditions which is surprising. The lap times are closer to real life too.

At high speed you have downforce, so its not surprising there is more grip than at slow speed where downforce has less effect. Traction control comes in more with slipping wheels, which only happens in particular scenarios at high speed (as opposed to slow speed where obviously traction is far more critical through the lower gears). Monza is relatively flat and has very few bumps, so it doesn't cause the wheels to slip much and the car remains relatively stable. through the corners.
Try taking different speed corners with camber, bumps and so on with and without traction control and you will notice more of a difference, mostly when the car starts to spin out.

If you are already driving the car carefully, then you won't notice the TCS kicking in because it doesn't need to, it will then only kick in when you start really pushing the car over the edge - and its much easier than without the traction control.

In any case, no one should need aids if they are racing in this series. Its to your benefit to learn to drive the car without the aids because you learn much more in car control, feel and general experience. Having the traction control, steering assists or whatever come in and take away control from you is not just making the car easier to drive, but also taking away your ability to learn what the car feels like as you are constantly numbed by the computer.
Even automatic gears removes the aspect of learning your gear shifts and tuning the transmission to better fit the track and the engine, though this is a little less advantageous than the other assists, all you gain from this assist is that you never miss a gear basically, but the auto transmission is 90% slower than manual.

Ardius

At high speed you have downforce, so its not surprising there is more grip than at slow speed where downforce has less effect.

Click to expand...

Yes, I know about this. I was sort of referring to the wall of champions, I don't think the difference with no traction control over with traction control will be that huge as it is not low speed. Low speed corners you have to take a throttle a step back from the position with medium traction control and it is not as comfortable position with the DFGT pedals for me. Medium allows for me to be more natural with throttle input rather than having to hold my feet back a bit. It is more consistent and easier for me, but I can still drive without it.

Edit:

Just saw you added a lot to your original post. I think the above still covers most of it. I do drive with manual, I did so even using the X2010 in GT5. F1 2010 doesn't have very good on the edge physics so you can't really feel what the car is doing on the limit but just hope it is not going to lose rear grip. That is what I find anyway when trying to drive on the limit. You know by past experience at what point the car just loses all the grip so you try and just drive it so it just does not spin out.

The chicane at that point of the track though tends to throw the car off balance and into small slides. Without traction control, its quite easy to plant the throttle at the wrong point and either spin or slide sideways into the wall. With traction control, this never happens..or at least its not as likely to happen as the car automatically cuts throttle and doesn't let you spin it, giving you a perfect exit every time assuming you don't steer it into the wall still.
Basically, as you say, with traction control on, you can simply press the throttle and allow the computer to decide what the right amount is. Takes away some skill, wouldn't you say?

Surely isn't there some settings for steering wheels to adjust the pedal sensitivity? Isn't this what you should be doing instead of using traction control?

You still can lose the car with medium traction control if you go full throttle too early. It is also better to go half throttle sometimes as you lose some revs as the traction control can sometimes cut out quite a bit of the power due to sliding a bit too much. I agree it takes away some of the skill away.

I know there is throttle deadzone and saturation options but I never tried it. Thought it would remove the finesse and reduce some of the pedal travel too much. I want some throttle when I touch the accelerator pedal, otherwise it might just slow me down and cost me that extra few tenths if I travel further in just for my throttle input to register at slow speed corners. Anyway I feel most comfortable with medium as it is the one most natural for me.

TC will allow you to carry more speed through the final chicane at Montreal, it's a definite advantage. I was 5 tenths faster in time trial with TC switched on. But it's a benefit everywhere - as nice as it would be to think that modulating your throttle with TC on is still necessary, it's not really, just plant your foot and you will get better acceleration than if you don't floor it. It's also true of race starts, I always get great race starts in our series, yet online against guys with TC on I always get swamped at the start. TC is simply faster - it's not to say you can't get close without it, but it'll never be quicker without it.

I agree that this game lacks a lot of feel and in some areas it is downright terrible. For example, try mapping the throttle to the cross button on a pad. Enjoy the on/off throttle! This is why I use automatic gears almost exclusively just for this game. Because I can't map the throttle to cross because it completely lacks any analogue input, I have to instead map it to the R2 button/trigger. I hate using the analogue stick for throttle or gears so I'm only left with the L1/R1 or other buttons and it just doesn't feel comfortable for me. It seems I can only do gear shifts using the L2/R2 trigger buttons or not at all..which for Gran Turismo is no problem as all of the face buttons on the pad feature very good analogue sensitivity. But in this game its impossible.

I should really get a steering wheel, but alas still no space for it.

Shaggy Alonso

TC will allow you to carry more speed through the final chicane at Montreal, it's a definite advantage. I was 5 tenths faster in time trial with TC switched on. But it's a benefit everywhere - as nice as it would be to think that modulating your throttle with TC on is still necessary, it's not really, just plant your foot and you will get better acceleration than if you don't floor it. It's also true of race starts, I always get great race starts in our series, yet online against guys with TC on I always get swamped at the start. TC is simply faster - it's not to say you can't get close without it, but it'll never be quicker without it.

Click to expand...

I found it is better using medium traction control to modulate otherwise you slide too much and lose a bit of exit speed.

If you gained 5 tenths just through one corner then that means you could rack up couple of seconds with TC on advantage. If that is the case then how come no assists times are still up there on the leaderboards? Obviously it requires a lot more skill with no assists but it can't be holding down times that much without it as people can still do top times.

TC gives better starts but I found without TC, you can still do pretty good starts like you say you do yourself. You have to just get it in the rev window when it just grips and the revs drop. Going up to 2nd gear early usually helps if you spin too much of the rear wheels.

I'm new to driving the cars in the game on the limit for time trial mode and I think I found my sweet spot at the moment for the games physics. Like you say with TC it gives me an advantage, then on a time trial it is definately a good thing as the competition I'm in, it is allowed so I think I will continue to use it. If I could drive without TC on and without having to think too much about it then I would probably have done that.

Ardius, for control pad I have mine mapped to L2 and R2 for the brake and throttle, while square as gear up and X as gear down.


Edit: I thought I'll add I'm quite comfortable with Ferrari Virtual Academy with no tractional control and prefer it over with TC on. It is forced off on time trial mode and I tried TC on the practice mode and didn't feel as good to control with it on. I was not faster with it on at all. Maybe with F1 2011, I will probably drive without using traction control as the physics seem to have improved a lot judging by the early video.

Hi there,

I'm just back from baltic sea and looking forward for the british grand prix. I like the big flowing corners at Corpse and Stowe, sometimes I can gain nearly half of a second in this passage compared to my constant speed.
Perhaps we will have a wet race this sunday? We will see.

Best regards

DarkPSI

I have had no practice this week due to GT5 taking over my time

Someone please do tell me what time this race is in Jamaican time.

Peter.

Someone please do tell me what time this race is in Jamaican time.

Click to expand...

Should be 3PM according to this. Might be worth asking kcheeb to confirm that because he is in Canada and probably used to this time zone nonsense.