Alltidxx's career - hard level

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Sepang (2nd MF1 Season 2)
Qualifying:
Qualifying was a big spectacle. At my first hotlap I didn’t realise I was stalked by a Ferrari so he hits me on the side in turn 4 and ruined that lap for me although the car was ok. At the backstraight before final turn I let a McLaren pass so that I could draft him on the start-finish straight but he freaks out for some reason and goes off spinning in the grass to the right after the final bend (ha ha :lol:). I run half a lap before I’m bullied by some other villain and I choose to drive into the pit without a time at the very same moment as it starts raining. I should’ve finished that lap… Intermediates on, going out catching cars still running on dry tires as it seems and at the very same spot the McLaren spun, a Ferrari is now doing the exact same mistake. As I pass by I stick my head out of the cockpit, point my finger and laugh a Nelson-type “HA HA” (or at least I wished for such feature in the game at that moment). Sucky visibility with cars all over the track in the rain and I do some mistakes myself and get pushed some more. Just before time runs out I finish a half-assed lap and qualify 20th ahead of Montoya and Fisichella with a 1:42.637. Monteiro place 19th.
Race:
Trulli smashes hard in turn 4 and I accidentally overtake slower cars under yellow flag. I get a short rev penalty for it but continue as 11th. As I step on it, at first it seems doable to hold the field behind me and I’m closing in on Liuzzi ahead. But then Rosberg comes lika cannonball from behind and push me aside. I suppose the Trulli incident shuffled the field. Another retirement along the way (I didn’t stop to see who it was) and then I was pushed by a suspected Honda. I’m then 12th. This I could maintain. Or so I thought. On lap 8 Fisichella and Montoya (the guys I qualified ahead of) come roaring from behind so I let them pass. The expected rain starts to fall on that lap and I pit lap 9 after 1 lap of rain. The crew didn’t get it so they give me dry tires and 30 laps of fuel... Driving with dry tires isn’t a catastrophy in terms of grip although I spin once and the AI is much faster so I continue with dry tires in the hope for the rain to stop soon. Now at 16th. But it gets worse so I have to pit again. But the pit won’t receive me so I go for a nice drivethrough. I pit again next lap and somehow I’m still ahead of Trulli and it only just occurs to me now that I’m typing this that Trulli himself did not retire in the first incident. However, he passes me and the rain stops after 20 laps. By then I’ve been lapped by both Super Aguris. The humiliation! As my intermediates start to wear from the dry racing I pit for the last time with 30 laps to go holding 16th place since many have retired. Even though I’m hopelessly last, 16th isn’t so bad so I just want to finish the race and heavy with fuel I’m 80 seconds behind Trulli. I’m thinking that if he has one more stop to make and I try to gain on him than maybe, maybe I could overtake him on the last lap. Fat chance. With less than 20 laps to go the rain starts again. I drive two laps this time before I go for the pit but as I do the rear gives me a throw in the final turn and I come into the pitlane over the grass. Ide also goes in from behind and we collide in the pitlane. Race over. 13 drivers finished the race, Monterio retired, Jenson Button won.

Next up christmas break without the PS3, meaning Melbourne will be run mid January.
 
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Are you doing full length races?

Speaking of, I need to get the Chinese GP Done!
 
PeterJB
Are you doing full length races?

Speaking of, I need to get the Chinese GP Done!
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Yup. That's what it says in the opening post ;). But races of late I've finished early due to the why-am-I-not-allowed-to-finish-the-race-with-half-a-car factor. The Chinese race is my sure fave!
 
Melbourne fast practice 1:29.440. Sector times 30.228, 24.302, 34.910. Placed me 19th in practice. All sector times scaled normally compared to the others so there seems to be no obvious settings changes to make. I'll mainly be fighting my teammate and Super Aguri on this track then. Both Toro Rosso were 6-7 tenths faster than that so that's a pretty big leap (although Webber placed 18th). Took me a while to find a good braking spot for turn 1 and turn 3. Monterio was a good 1.3 seconds behind me.
 
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Just started up qualifying for fun and did a 1:29.142 which placed me 16th and last place for Q2. So with less fuel it is definitely doable to push my fast practice lap which I did with 5 or 6 laps of fuel on board at the time. That's good news :)

Edit: Went ahead with Q2 and put in a 1:28.760 (30.112, 24.236, 34.412) which shocked me really. The car just handles so much better with low fuel. But no position change, still 16th. That's the end of it. Real qualifying and race in January.
 
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Melbourne (2nd MF1 Season 2)
Qualifying: 1:29.042 and 18th place. Monteiro 1.8 sec slower.
Race: Someone rear-ends Klien in front of me in the first bend so Klien slows down right in front of me blocking me while the others pass by. On lap two Ide inexplicably slows a lot before the S curve so I rear-end him hard. He retires and I head for the pit to get a new front wing. Next lap I hit an oilspill, smash up my front wing again and pit again. I'm therefore lapped by almost everyone 5 min into the race and also carry fuel filled up to the brim with my soft tires (since the pit changes fuelstrategy automatically in these instances but ignores tire choice and wingsettings and, yeah, pretty much every other aspect). Mid-race Couldthard conduct some true jerkass driving and hit me from behind. I lose a wheel from that collision. Melbourne is a fun track but the race was less fun. Down to 12th place in drivers table.

Failed following team ability test Silverstone. Unhappy management.
 
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Imola fast practice 1:20.958 (18.625, 29.150, 33.183) and 15th time. After this time I upped the downforce to gain stability and traction for the rear wheels and it came at a price of two tenths slower laptimes. I Softened dampers and suspension and increased ride hight to avoid accidental curbhittings to end up in catastrophy. I don't think I'll make it to Q2 but I was 6 tenths faster than Monterio.
 
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Imola (2nd MF1 Season 2)
Qualifying:
Q1: Reasonably distrubance free and sunny qualifying. My first hotlap had a turn 5 mistake, I cut turn 4 too late and braked too late which had half the car outside the track in turn 5. Other than that the rest of the lap was really fast and resulted in 1.21.7xx. Not good enough and by avoiding doing the same mistake twice but with slower sectors 2 and 3 than the first hotlap I later put in a more respectable 1:21.406 (sector times 18.708, 29.382, 33.316). I couldn’t improve that time further but I snatched the last place for Q2 with it which was a nice surprise. Monteiro at 1:22.817.
Q2: Second qualifying and with no real hope of placing better than 16th I felt I had nothing to lose. So, I attacked as hard as I could which resulted in various off-track escapades and spinning but also in the midst of all that one lap that I kept together and clocked 1:20.576 (18.393, 29.597, 32.586)! I have no idea how I could find another whole second to cut. It didn’t even feel like the fastest lap I’ve put in but it clearly was. I was extatic and worried at the same time with my 13th place on the grid because now I had faster cars than me that would be breathing down my neck just because I drove above my real capacity in Q2.
Race: Rosberg takes advantage of an early mistake of mine and I’m 14th ahead of Klien. I find it relatively easy to keep faster cars behind me on this track and the only real places to watch out is before the final chicane leading to the start-finish straight and two turns back from that. So at the spot two turns back Klien sticks his nose in but I manage that ok and then I make sure to hold the line after that. Not overly defensive but not straying by going wide. It works fine for some six laps and then I guess Klien just grows tired of me and bumps me there so that I spin off the track and rejoin the race as 19th. Although I spin a bunch of times during the first 2/3rds of the race as well as having a three stop strategy I manage to keep this position as 18th (Trulli retired) as my 3rd stop comes up. This is when things turn ugly for real. The pit won’t receive me so I go for a drivethrough. The distance I have built up to the cars behind helps me to stay ahead but when I reattempt pitting I push L2, R2 too quickly and get to watch the crew fiddling with the rear tires during a +10 second pitstop. I come out behind Sato by 6-7 seconds and some 15 laps to go. Stressed out I chase him down eventually at the same time as he is blueflagged by a Williams. I pass them both obnoxious as I am (previous in the race I had been blueflagged like 10 times for maybe the same Williams since I kept running away only just so that the blueflag disappeared and then came back when he closed a little. On and off all the time) :D. I can’t remember if I make a drivers mistake just after that or if I’m pushed off the track by that Williams but I spin good in the gravel, and because of that, Ide and Monteiro pass me! Now REALLY stressed out since maybe 5 laps remain of the race I start hitting the curbs pretty agressively to gain time since my settings should in theory allow that. It was shaky stuff but worked reasonably well until I make a spin because of it and probably lose most of the time I gained during those laps. But one more thing worked in my favor. Monterio, Ide and Sato lost more time than me during the blueflags. A lot due to the fact that I simply ignored blue flags at this point and tried to outrace my pursuers instead. And that worked somewhat. The revpenalty I did get slowed me less than the time the three cars ahead lost. And while closing in on the start-finish straight chicane with Alonso on my tail I keep a very tight line to deter Alonso. I have Monterio just in front of me coming out of that chicane starting the very last lap! But Alonso shows no mercy and bumps me into a spin in that chicane and I watch Monteiro and the rest disappear in the rear mirror. Someone must really hate me I though knowing that the only thing that could save me now was a Force Majeur type event happening. And later that final lap MONTEIRO AND IDE RUN INTO EACH OTHER!:lol: I saw Ide’s wheel lying around and I passed Monterio right after that place of accident and crossed the finish line ahead of Monteiro! Management was thrilled that I had qualified well, beaten Monterio and finished 19th, thus fulfilling the goals set out for me. My fastest racelap was 1:21.920.

Applied for a Red Bull position although I probably need divine help to actually be considered for a drivers position there. I would really like to drive for Red Bull though.
 
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Nürbergring fast practice session one 1:30.719 (29.648, 38.794, 22.277) and 17th time. On that lap I was 0.564 slower in sector three than my fastest sector three. A big difference. Not sure wheter it was because of a previous freak sector time or that I loose grip too much in turn 11. I don’t want to soften the car but it’s a rather bumpy ride, and turn 11 is critical to get good laptimes.
 
Nürbergring fast practice session two 1:30.436 (29.647, 38.429, 22.360) and 13th time. The fastest lap, but the paradox was that none of the sector times were green. Even after that I changed downforce, camber and brake balance back and forth alot and finally I just felt that what I had would have to do. I should beat Monterio easily anyway unless I lose my cool. I'll aim for a 31 flat in qualifying.
 
Nürburgring (2nd MF1 Season 2)
Qualifying:
Q1: Smooth session, 1:30.768 and 15th place. Big jump to Klien at 16th with 31.3xx.
Q2: I put in a 1:30.8xx lap which I was at first settling for but then I saw that Klien had improved as expected and held 15th with 30.7xx. So I went out to try and beat that and landed my personal best (again, see practice 2) at 1:30.436 (29.498, 38.462, 22.476):)! However, I heard the commentator mentioning Klien putting in more laps and he ended Q2 even better with 1:30.287. So 16th place on the grid for me and I was very happy with that.
Race: Three stop strategy at lap 15, 33 and 50 out of 60 laps. I take the outside of the first turn and then the inside of turn two and then Barrichello crashes up before turn 3 so that a wheel comes bouncing. I can stear clear of that pretty easily since I’m on the inside and I’m then 13th. With Villneuve ahead and a Red Bull behind I chase Villneueve who I can keep even pace with. Someone else krashes up during these laps I follow Villneuve and I’m 12th. He is slower than me in the chicane and after a failed attempt to overtake him where we just swap positions back again in the final turn I try again two laps later and press up side by side and take the inside in the final turn for clean overtake. This after some seven laps of pursuit. I hold Villneuve off for the remainder of the stint and pass someone else with engine failure. Thus I enter the pits as 10th and come out ahead of Sato as 16th. Pretty soon Klien is behind me and I would have held him off but I hit an oilspill and spun so he got past. Otherwise only a couple of blueflags that goes smoothly and warnings of possible rain. I exit from my second pitstop as 10th and drive the third stint with little drama. Enter third pitstop as 10th and come out 11th. At the end I try to catch Speed 5 seconds ahead. I gain a little but not enough but Speed goes for a very late pitstop. Alonso wins just behind me and I drive the last lap as a cooldown lap being the last car racing and finish 10th ahead of both Toro Rossos and the rest of the field behind me have all retired. I placed 9th in Bahrain with more running cars behind me but this was by far my most solid performance:tup:. Not a single spin except for that one oilspill. Now 13th in the championship. Fastest racelap 1:31.1xx

Management was extatic and Red Bull got back to me with a testdriving offer which I turned down.
 
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Catalunya fast practice session one 1:17.820 and 20th position. Aaah the most hated track. Not because it's a bad track but becauce the AI is so fast and this track is used alot to humiliate oneself in testdriving. I started with 1.19 and then made mixes of all kinds of unholy settings that made a cut of little more than one second. So far. I have a long way to go on this one before the final setup is there. I enjoy setting up the car for this track because I was denied from doing that in testdrivning. Finally I can maybe compete with Monteiro/Albers although Monteiro laps around 1.17.3xx. Finally the day of Catalunya vengeance is here! Muahaha :trouble:
 
Catalunya fast practice session two had a 1:17.102 and a third session gave a 1:16.708 (23.190, 31.274, 22.244). This time had me 18th in the field. Monteiro was very fast. He once put in a stunning 1:16.5xx! In this last session all I was changing was tire pressure. I thought that with relatively hefty cambers and low anti-roll that the the tire should in theory deform alot and probably heat too much in the race so I upped it to 24 vs 18 psi. And then I drove my fastest lap even though it felt less grippy. The plan for the race is to keep Monteiro behind me with a better start and two stops and hope for many retirements :)
 
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Catalunya (2nd MF1 Season 2)
Qualifying: Monterio is as eager as I am to get on the track and drive out of the garage just ahead of me but rams the inside wall of the pit and and wrecks his car!:crazy: OMG that’s the worst I’ve ever seen! Nerves, man, nerves. Still with eyes wide open I went out and clocked a solid 1:17.057 (23.423, 31.523, 22.111) but Monteiro answers with a 1:17.024 by being much faster in section 2 (31.092). So I go for another attempt and approaching the hotlap I refuse to get off throttle or compensate the line in the final bend to pull out full speed on the straight I cut too hard and smash off a wheel. No more time. 19th place just behind Monteiro. Button took second place on the grid. I decided to use a two stop strategy at 22 and 43 out of 66 laps. Gotta heat tires, sneak in ahead of Montero at the start and stay out long enough for him to pit first!
Race: I get away on a better line than Monteiro as he is hindered by traffic. A Toro Rosso comes pushing on the inside of turn 3 so I let him go and then I have Monteiro behind me. Later that lap a Williams go wide and therefore gets in between me and Monteiro. However that Williams push me into a spin at turn one the next lap and then I’m last. Never mind I though, as long as I just keep plugging laps then I might get Monteiro if he is on a three stopper. So I do that but on lap 10 an oilspill warning shows up at the worst place before next to final turn. So I become a litte hesitant and that’s enough to get the car a little shaky and me driving into the same wall I did in qualifying. DNF.
 
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Team ability test at Magny-Cours. In bad light and completely off at all braking points and with neutral cambers I act like a clown on the track rather than a second driver. So I have to restart the test to pass it. I apply for BMW just for the hell of it and they offered a test drive. At first I was thinking, no way I'm never going back to testdriving but hey BMW is a pretty good team to be on once in a racing seat. Since my aim is to win the championship once during the career maybe it would be a smart move to go to BMW mid season two.

I'll throw out the question to anyone who might read this other than myself :dopey:

Should I take this offer?
 
Alltidxx
Team ability test at Magny-Cours. In bad light and completely off at all braking points and with neutral cambers I act like a clown on the track rather than a second driver. So I have to restart the test to pass it. I apply for BMW just for the hell of it and they offered a test drive. At first I was thinking, no way I'm never going back to testdriving but hey BMW is a pretty good team to be on once in a racing seat. Since my aim is to win the championship once during the career maybe it would be a smart move to go to BMW mid season two.

I'll throw out the question to anyone who might read this other than myself :dopey:

Should I take this offer?
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IMHO absolutely, positively DO NOT take ANY test driver position! Besides the team trials/tests as a test driver are more difficult, and obviously much less rewarding, than racing. Also in comparison they are just boring as all get out. Stick with the MF1 2nd seat until an actual driving position with another team opens up. If it doesn't happen during the season I'm sure with your great results with a slow car you'll receive at least a couple of decent driving offers at the end of the season.

Edit-----

FWIW back checking my own MF1 Hard Mode Career thread I ended my 1st season as follows:
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=104785

icelt
Season 1 Summary
So my season 1 totals are (FWIW I never used a mulligan, once I began qualifying from then on I took/earned every result I experienced):
Races for team - 18
Total races - 18 (duh)
Total finishes - 11
Poles - 0
Wins - 0
Points - 12

According to whatever success formula they use this equated to a season 1 "score" of 25%. :grumpy:

On the bright side Super Aguri wants me as their 1st driver for season2! :scared::lol:
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I ended up saving my profile right before the 2nd season test offers get emailed to you. I then just kept attempting only those trials that took place at Magny (as discussed in another thread for whatever reason the Magny trial times are a little bit easier to beat than those of other tracks) and eventually I got a 2nd seat offer from BMW. 👍
 
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Yes that probably right. I'll stick with my racing seat or I would miss out on the crash derby of the season: Monaco. I have very few finishes ever on that track even on much shorter race distances. I look forward to it :)

I do go benchmark my times with yours now and then (even though our settings are usually very different) so I know you ended up on 12 points which is much stronger than I would expect to end up with myself. The way I see it, judged from my level of skill, I only have a decent chance of snatching points at Bahrain (but I missed out), Hungary and possibly Shanghai. That's ok though. It's fun with stiff competition.
 
A bit of a break from the career mode since I've spent time learning the new DFP wheel. I've run Monza alot with Toro Rosso and McLaren but also a litte on Magny-Cours with Super Aguri. Since Toro Rosso is my favourite team because of the way the car sounds, looks and feels and also is an underdog team (which suits me) I've practiced alot whith this team. I started out doing a fastest lap at Monza at 1:26.154 and after a whole bunch of laps later a couple of sessions later I did a 1:24:047 today 👍. So a big improvement due to practice but also adjusted settings for sure. I'm really happy with that time and it felt like there definitely was more time to cut! It's great fun to be able to smoothly drive around the long sweeping curve 3 using the DFP since it was more jerky movement with the standard controller before.

Also I noticed I'm really awake during the entire races while using manual gear. So no falling asleep behind the wheel anymore. :)
 
Monaco (2nd MF1 Season 2)

Been racing Simbin Race 07 with addons on the PC for a while and now my computer broke down so it's back to PS3 and F1CE during repairs. My first race with the DFP and manual gears and I have never ever won Monaco and hardly ever finished a race. And that's on much shorter distances with medium AI. So lets try out 100% racedistance and hard level and see how that goes :)
I fully expect to end up in the barriers and I don't even see how I could hold my concentration up for 78 laps. The way I see it, drive too fast=barrier, drive too slow=pushed by AI and barrier.

Fast Practice lap (Thursday 1) 1:15.231 (19:322, 37.051, 18.858) had me 18th. Monteiro 22th with 1:15.463. Both Super Aguri were faster than me. This track really requires special heating of front tires and that's what I'll be doing during parade lap.
Qualifying: 1:15.662 and 19th. Monteiro 21st with 1:16.027.
Race: At the first lap at turn 4 I loose the rear and crash up. I don't know what happened, I was cautious there knowing the tires were cold but that didn't help. It felt like a whole different car than in practice.

Edit: Added race comment today because I was to pissed off yesterday.
 
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Silverstone fast practice one: 1:22.784 (27.539, 34.329, 20.916) and 20th place. First sector is really good but I loose lots in second and some in third sector. Räikkönen in P4 had a first sector of 27.457. Monteiro last and Sato 1:22 flat.
 
Silverstone fast practice session two: 1:21.539 (27.191, 33.515, 20.833) and P18 (I think it was). Sector one is now the second fastest sector of the field, only Montoya at P8 were 0.033 faster. Getting the dampers set right was a huge relief and two clicks up to 9600 and 7600 N/m/s respectively for rebound and bump made the car handle super. I could cut curbs and handle my previous week backstraight turn 7 so much better. Monterio's times have been surprisingly bad so far and are probably not a representative laptimes of what he'll do in qualifying but I finally beat crazy-fast Sato with this time.
 
Silverstone (2nd MF1 Season 2)
Qualifying:1:22.352 which I'm content with but on my final attempt that timed out seconds before I could finish the lap had a 0.498 improvement in sector two and I held 7th gear all the way to turn 5 so there is definitely room for improvement. Nevertheless, 19th on the grid is what it gave. Surprisingly ahead of Liuzzi and then Monteiro and Ide. I really think I could've reached 16th place.
Race (60 laps):Pitstops scheduled at lap 17 and 38. Warning for rain. I get a bad start but hold my position, lose it once, gain it back and then overtake a Toro Rosso on the inside in the final turn. At some point early I spin and am last. Then it begins to rain. The whole field drives away and after being lapped the blueflags show up all the time. After 1/3 of the race I'm so far behind there is really no meaning in continuing the race so I quit.

Catalunya team ability test against Albers follow that I fail and the team starts threatening with replacing me. Ha ha. Not going very well.
 
Yeah rain is a bitch lol. Although I did have one funny experience in the rain at the Nurburgring, which had me 3rd and due to some tactical pitstops, I only finished 8th. So it was rather annoying, but when you're on inters racing in heavy rain, it's a struggle to stay on the track let-alone hold up some pretty quick McLaren's XD
 
Yeah it's tough stuff but it can be great fun if one manages to keep pace with at least some cars. I was driving really badly even when it was dry so I couldn't really care less in the end. I'm going to do more training at Montreal so that I can have a fun event again.
 
Do you have driving aids? If not, then I understand why the rain is so hard for you.
 
PJ-FFL
Do you have driving aids? If not, then I understand why the rain is so hard for you.
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I have anti-lock brakes and 90% Traction Control on. It takes some really quick adaptation since all brake points change and the downshifting with it and...oh my god they wrecked the Biogas car during qualifying at STCC on TV now... but like I said before, it can be great fun and it was when I was doing Shanghai. I'll make sure to pick up at Montreal.
 
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Ever tried lowering the AI difficulty, if you're having that much trouble?
 
driftking18594
Ever tried lowering the AI difficulty, if you're having that much trouble?
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You mean if one doesn't win with the next to worst team one should make the difficulty level easier? If one finishes 19th-20th with MF1 that would mean keeping even pace with AI. Easier difficulty is not going to stop me from wrecking the car so counting the finishes I've had (counting Silverstone quitting as 22nd place) I have averaged 15th place. It's not fun if one can just cruise to victory even in a bad car like is the case with medium difficulty. I like hard level, it's perfect for me :)
 

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