Batracer thread!
- Thread starter MagpieRacer
- 11,018 comments
- 455,522 views
Am I late? I had a lot of troubles to register!!!
- 1,192
- Columbia, SC
- carolina2001 & GTP_carolina2001
Well, it's a good thing I chose thinker as a driver trait, because it seems George Morley has abandoned the series already. 
Edit: Uh-ooooooh.
Edit: Uh-ooooooh.
- 543
I hear you, Hanon, speaking as the Midland's #1 driver (or so I like to think of myself ^^). Go whatever team I'm driving for!
Incidentally, who is Steven LeSabre around here anyway? Hasn't left me any messages on team talk yet, but good to know I have a teammate.
But at least the season's underway, and it looks to be a fiery one if anything - Ferrari, Super Aguri fighters: I will be dissapointed if one of you does not Paul Tracy into the other team in the next race. Especially since you guys are like, up in the front and stuff.
Here's to a peaceful and exciting season
Would like to see if we could get some race reports going again, kinda slow on the summaries last year. (probably cause a Williams won
) Are you still summary king Bee, or do I have to do some work now?
Incidentally, who is Steven LeSabre around here anyway? Hasn't left me any messages on team talk yet, but good to know I have a teammate.
But at least the season's underway, and it looks to be a fiery one if anything - Ferrari, Super Aguri fighters: I will be dissapointed if one of you does not Paul Tracy into the other team in the next race. Especially since you guys are like, up in the front and stuff.
Here's to a peaceful and exciting season
Would like to see if we could get some race reports going again, kinda slow on the summaries last year. (probably cause a Williams won
) Are you still summary king Bee, or do I have to do some work now?
Der Meister
(Banned)
- 212
Yaay! Haven't been here in a while... so excited about my car getting P1!!! Whoo!!!
It will be a good race Bee, it's a pity your team-mate didn't do any practice runs to help you with setup... instead saving his tyres for Quali, which means that he's already used every green set, heat cycling them into mirco-blisters under the surface caused from running new unscrubbed tyres on qualifying pace So my take on it is that he'll have to do a short 2 or even 3 stopper because of tyre wear... oops! 
Either that or run at a slow pace to give the tyres a better life span.
I just want to finish this one with a car (or preferably both Super Aguri's) in the points. I'm not expecting a win here, not with a (fast) Ferrari beside me anyway.
6hrs 45mins to go before the lights go out...
Then it will be "GO GO GO!!!!"
Murray Walker (F1'97 - PSX) - "Streaming down to the first corner..." 👍
It will be a good race Bee, it's a pity your team-mate didn't do any practice runs to help you with setup... instead saving his tyres for Quali, which means that he's already used every green set, heat cycling them into mirco-blisters under the surface caused from running new unscrubbed tyres on qualifying pace
So my take on it is that he'll have to do a short 2 or even 3 stopper because of tyre wear... oops! Either that or run at a slow pace to give the tyres a better life span.I just want to finish this one with a car (or preferably both Super Aguri's) in the points. I'm not expecting a win here, not with a (fast) Ferrari beside me anyway.
6hrs 45mins to go before the lights go out...
Then it will be "GO GO GO!!!!"
Murray Walker (F1'97 - PSX) - "Streaming down to the first corner..." 👍
- 5,187
- The Grid
- OnE-JoKeR_
- OneCrazedJoker
I'm sure you're all aware with the Doom games and film, well just for kicks I had a go at making my BTCC MG car look better instead of the usual Red Bull livery, so I made a Doom sponsored car. I've enlarged the image a bit so you can see it better:
- 6,331
- Banbury, UK
- Uberbee
I love Bahrain.
I would write a report but I got a Job Interview on Monday with high chance of me getting the job so I probably wouldn't do all season, I'll stick with the Red Bulletins. You can take my crown. Yuuji, because Yuuji, I am your father...
I would write a report but I got a Job Interview on Monday with high chance of me getting the job so I probably wouldn't do all season, I'll stick with the Red Bulletins.
You can take my crown. Yuuji, because Yuuji, I am your father...
- 543
It's what you've all been waiting for, GTPF1 fans...Season 5 is on and the action is hotter than ever!
The trash talk started early in the preseason. There is a new female driver on the scene here, Jessica Weiland of Super Aguri, and she has caused a stir even before the green lights went off! Apparently a couple joking remarks were tossed between the crew members of Ferrari and Aguri, and they were taken more seriously than intended and soon we were having more people fighting than driving.
But honestly, Ferrari should have the race pace to stomp Super Aguri into the ground, if the performance of the FS05 (Ferrari Season 05) car is anything to go by. It'll need the pace too - it's Season 4 car was miserable (or maybe the drivers were), being beaten by everyone except Toyota and Toro Rosso.
Driver swaps during the offseason were common, too. Most of the deals had been signed and the hands had been shaked before Season 4 even ended, so most were no surprise. One note may be a driver that is not moving - reigning champ Dubois is staying at reigning champ Williams for this season - can he pull a repeat?
We can only guess how all the teams may perform - I do not believe any team has been left intact, and in fact 3 teams were scrambling to find a second driver for this season, so we'll have to see how everyone ends up when the finish line drops...
And so we're off to Bahrain, the first race of the season...
The trash talk started early in the preseason. There is a new female driver on the scene here, Jessica Weiland of Super Aguri, and she has caused a stir even before the green lights went off! Apparently a couple joking remarks were tossed between the crew members of Ferrari and Aguri, and they were taken more seriously than intended and soon we were having more people fighting than driving.
But honestly, Ferrari should have the race pace to stomp Super Aguri into the ground, if the performance of the FS05 (Ferrari Season 05) car is anything to go by. It'll need the pace too - it's Season 4 car was miserable (or maybe the drivers were), being beaten by everyone except Toyota and Toro Rosso.
Driver swaps during the offseason were common, too. Most of the deals had been signed and the hands had been shaked before Season 4 even ended, so most were no surprise. One note may be a driver that is not moving - reigning champ Dubois is staying at reigning champ Williams for this season - can he pull a repeat?
We can only guess how all the teams may perform - I do not believe any team has been left intact, and in fact 3 teams were scrambling to find a second driver for this season, so we'll have to see how everyone ends up when the finish line drops...
And so we're off to Bahrain, the first race of the season...
- 543
Season 5 Quali Report: Bahrain
Bahrain - hot, humid, middle of nowhere - and for many the most important race of the season. This is a proving ground, where teams get their first chance to see who's got it and who doesn't.
And it appears that both Ferrari and Aguri haven't backed down from their feud, running quali laps at 110% - a mixed front row results with James Shepard in the Aguri starting from P1, while Lee Davidson starts on the outside, a mere +0.081 back.
Duncan Hutchinson and Jef Beyens - two former teammates, now at different teams; McLaren and Renault respectively. Will they turn against each other in the race?
Herman Chang in McMerc #2 pulled a fast first lap and, in McLaren fashion, the car promptly kicked it. It was still good enough for the inside of row 3 over Jarrett Allman.
The new girl on the block, Jessica Weiland, starts 7th, with Brad Horton 8th.
Bruno Domingues ran an Aguri last season with moderate success - how will he do in a much quicker Renault? Abdeslam Charkaoui returns to season 5 after an absence and will round out the top 10.
Row 6, sponsored by Red Bull. Ashley Butler, the veteran in 11th and Chris Syme, the rookie in 12th.
Season 3 champion Yuuji Kawasie had a dismal Season 4, and is looking to bounce back, although it'll be tricky from P13. Luke Mason of Toyota is 14th.
Steven LeSabre starts 15th in the second Midland, and Danny Graham rounds out row 8 and the Midland-Toyota sandwich.
Tristan Lovett and George Morley are stuck back in row 9 - and both are ahead of their teammates.
Why? Guillaume Dubois of Williams was too busy laughing his arse off about his steal of a championship in Season 4, and forgot to drive out to quali. Will Whitcomb, miffed by a teammate's lack of communication, suffered a similar fate.
---
Bahrain, Season 5: Prancing Horse, Stinging Bee
Race Wrap-Up (now in past tense 'cause it feels easier. think grandprix.com, that site simply rocks)
You can talk the talk, or you can walk the walk.
While teammate Allman was busy getting himself into a situation with team Super Aguri, Lee Davidson of Ferrari walked the walk all the way to a close win in the first race of the season.
While Weiland and Allman were fighting it out in the lower points position, and did help their team, they obviously weren't the ones spraying champange with an ear-to-ear grin after the race.
The other 2 who would be doing that would be Bruno Domingues of Renault, and Herman Chang of McLaren. But more on them later.
As the green lights dropped the important thing is to get out of people's way, and the metallic sea parted for Whitcomb and Dubois. They had a good setup and a crap quali and they were determined to move up the field. Unfortunately they ending up moving into each other and Whitcomb in the BMW was left on the sidelines, shaking his head. Dubois spun, but was able to continue with no apparent damage.
Meanwhile Ashley Butler was also having a good start in the Red Bull until the Honda of Charkaoui spun in front of him, forcing Butler off the road. Unfortunately there was no grass to cut, only sand, and Butler found himself beached and out of the race.
After all this mess the safety car came out so the dust could be cleared. Aside from the 2 cars who did impromptu donuts, Weiland also lost a lot of spots on the start. Big winners included Davidson (Ferrari), slipping past into the lead, and Kawasie (Midland), jumping 4 spots on the start.
Kawasie gained another spot on the restart as Horton dropped back 4 in the Honda for no good reason. Things were looking nice and bright for Midland's #1 driver until he discovered that brightness happened to be the taillight on one Luke Mason's car. And so on lap 6 he drove into the back of the Toyota and that was the end of him.
Meanwhile, Mason dropped to the pits to go be irrelevant for the rest of the race. He wasn't very happy, and stalled the car upon exit.
The next lap Syme and Horton had a disagreement over the inside line and the two went clunk. Syme went back to the garage with broken vehicle and broken morale after a short rookie race, and Horton spent valuable alone time with his car and a cloud of tire smoke.
The safety car came, and only 3 cars pitted early, with variable success. Renault's pit crew got Domingues in and out smoothly, BMW's Morley overshot the pit box, and Williams' Lovett's pit time rivaled the gestation period of most mammals.
As the green flag came back out Davidson led Shepherd, Beyens, Hutchinson, Allman, Chang, Weiland, and Charkaoui and a bunch of other drivers to the flag. The exception was Morley, whose car stopped inexplicably, questioning his choice of radio station. He was forced to either retire or listen to country music. It's pretty obvious what he chose.
(btw, I'll just say right now, no offense to anyone. sorry if I do)
Up in the front Shepherd made a daring block on Beyens, chopping across his front wing. He forgot, however, that such moves are made to be done figuratively, not literally, and so the two cars collided and put on a choice synchronizes spinning ritual. Security was forced to restrain the Aguri pit crew, who apparently were ready to defend their honor against anyone.
Next lap, lap 14, Horton and Mason locked wheels and did a circle dance. Of course this was all overshadowed by Beyens' daring pass of Weiland. It wasn't "outside of a corner" daring, but more of a "ok, don't want to get strangled" daring. Luckily all Beyens got was flipped the bird.
Lap 18 saw Mason continue to have an entertaining day by going on an off-road adventure, damaging the car and forcing him to pit.
Pit stops came and went and came some more, but halfway through Weiland was leading in her maiden race. Aguri was dancing in the streets (in this case the track), forcing many drivers to take evasive action. If Super Aguri is one thing this year, it's enthusiastic.
Meanwhile, Davidson and Hutchison were waiting patiently in podium positions, while Domingues, Allman, Chang, Beyens, and Horton rounded out the points. When Weiland pitted one lap past halfway she dropped to 7th and Davidson found himself the possessor a 7-second lead.
And then pitstops happened again. The order was reshuffled again and somehow the math declared that 15 now equals 14. What had happened was that Hutchinson in the McLaren had made a driver error and crashed out of P4. However, it is popular belief that in McLaren's, there are no driver errors, just engine failures. The paddock belives that Hutchinson was forced to retire by team orders to make things diverse, and put blame on something other than the engine builders from Antarctica.
And so Davidson was in the lead by a slim 2.2 seconds when he bobbled at the final corner. Somehow he lost no time while doing so, luckily.
But the lead was slipping. Domingues in 2nd was closing up to two-tenths per lap, and certainly the Ferrari crew was sweating. There were 8 laps left when the gap was 1.8 seconds, and certainly it looked like it could come down to the wire.
Meanwhile, Beyens and Paul Tracy - er, Jessica Weiland continued to put on a good entertaining and probably not family-friendly show for the audience in a duel for P5.
But there is no question all eyes were on Domingues when he pulled the fastest lap on lap 55, lapping a full half-second faster than anyone else.
But it still wasn't good enough. Davidson got to the flag by barely over a second over the Renault.
Chang in the McLaren flew under the radar and straight to a podium finish, a strong start to the season.
Beyens completed a strong Renault 2-4 finish by finishing just outside the medals, with Weiland on his tail. Allman was right there too, and Horton and Dubois finished out the points.
By now Davidson has proved he can walk, but can he run to his first championship in many seasons of driving? This certainly looks like his best chance...
But there are still many contenders out there. Renault is strong as ever, Aguri is spirited and had almost had a double-points day, and nobody can truly be counted out.
We'll see how Sepang, famous for it's wet races, will shake things up.
---
Subjective Race Ratings (like those columns on the side of the magazines):
Good: Davidson's win in the Ferrari. You win any way, any how, you get props from me.
Good: Chang - always has had high ambitions, but hasn't quite gotten a good hand dealt to him. This podium might be just what he needs.
Good: Renault; 2nd and 4th is killer stuff.
Good: Jessica Weiland - although she might be a bit of a fighter, a controversial personality is what every sport needs, and some point-scoring ability doesn't hurt.
Good: Dubois - back of the grid up to a point, not bad, eh?
Bad: Butler; may not be his fault retiring early, but people come to expect results by one's 5th season.
Bad: Kawasie; see above, replace 5th with 3rd.
Bad: Hutchinson: Doesn't this look a lot like the DNF list? Yeah. Running well too.
Bad: Graham: Didn't do anything wrong, yet had a pretty bad race. Started on ridiculously worn tires?
Ugly: Mason - 2 collisons, 2 driver errors, 1 mechanical problem. Eek.
Ugly: Lovett - off pace = very yes
Ugly: BMW and Red Bull; double DNFs, have fun buliding new cars
Ugly: Allman - got beaten by a girl.
Bahrain - hot, humid, middle of nowhere - and for many the most important race of the season. This is a proving ground, where teams get their first chance to see who's got it and who doesn't.
And it appears that both Ferrari and Aguri haven't backed down from their feud, running quali laps at 110% - a mixed front row results with James Shepard in the Aguri starting from P1, while Lee Davidson starts on the outside, a mere +0.081 back.
Duncan Hutchinson and Jef Beyens - two former teammates, now at different teams; McLaren and Renault respectively. Will they turn against each other in the race?
Herman Chang in McMerc #2 pulled a fast first lap and, in McLaren fashion, the car promptly kicked it. It was still good enough for the inside of row 3 over Jarrett Allman.
The new girl on the block, Jessica Weiland, starts 7th, with Brad Horton 8th.
Bruno Domingues ran an Aguri last season with moderate success - how will he do in a much quicker Renault? Abdeslam Charkaoui returns to season 5 after an absence and will round out the top 10.
Row 6, sponsored by Red Bull. Ashley Butler, the veteran in 11th and Chris Syme, the rookie in 12th.
Season 3 champion Yuuji Kawasie had a dismal Season 4, and is looking to bounce back, although it'll be tricky from P13. Luke Mason of Toyota is 14th.
Steven LeSabre starts 15th in the second Midland, and Danny Graham rounds out row 8 and the Midland-Toyota sandwich.
Tristan Lovett and George Morley are stuck back in row 9 - and both are ahead of their teammates.
Why? Guillaume Dubois of Williams was too busy laughing his arse off about his steal of a championship in Season 4, and forgot to drive out to quali. Will Whitcomb, miffed by a teammate's lack of communication, suffered a similar fate.
---
Bahrain, Season 5: Prancing Horse, Stinging Bee
Race Wrap-Up (now in past tense 'cause it feels easier. think grandprix.com, that site simply rocks)
You can talk the talk, or you can walk the walk.
While teammate Allman was busy getting himself into a situation with team Super Aguri, Lee Davidson of Ferrari walked the walk all the way to a close win in the first race of the season.
While Weiland and Allman were fighting it out in the lower points position, and did help their team, they obviously weren't the ones spraying champange with an ear-to-ear grin after the race.
The other 2 who would be doing that would be Bruno Domingues of Renault, and Herman Chang of McLaren. But more on them later.
As the green lights dropped the important thing is to get out of people's way, and the metallic sea parted for Whitcomb and Dubois. They had a good setup and a crap quali and they were determined to move up the field. Unfortunately they ending up moving into each other and Whitcomb in the BMW was left on the sidelines, shaking his head. Dubois spun, but was able to continue with no apparent damage.
Meanwhile Ashley Butler was also having a good start in the Red Bull until the Honda of Charkaoui spun in front of him, forcing Butler off the road. Unfortunately there was no grass to cut, only sand, and Butler found himself beached and out of the race.
After all this mess the safety car came out so the dust could be cleared. Aside from the 2 cars who did impromptu donuts, Weiland also lost a lot of spots on the start. Big winners included Davidson (Ferrari), slipping past into the lead, and Kawasie (Midland), jumping 4 spots on the start.
Kawasie gained another spot on the restart as Horton dropped back 4 in the Honda for no good reason. Things were looking nice and bright for Midland's #1 driver until he discovered that brightness happened to be the taillight on one Luke Mason's car. And so on lap 6 he drove into the back of the Toyota and that was the end of him.
Meanwhile, Mason dropped to the pits to go be irrelevant for the rest of the race. He wasn't very happy, and stalled the car upon exit.
The next lap Syme and Horton had a disagreement over the inside line and the two went clunk. Syme went back to the garage with broken vehicle and broken morale after a short rookie race, and Horton spent valuable alone time with his car and a cloud of tire smoke.
The safety car came, and only 3 cars pitted early, with variable success. Renault's pit crew got Domingues in and out smoothly, BMW's Morley overshot the pit box, and Williams' Lovett's pit time rivaled the gestation period of most mammals.
As the green flag came back out Davidson led Shepherd, Beyens, Hutchinson, Allman, Chang, Weiland, and Charkaoui and a bunch of other drivers to the flag. The exception was Morley, whose car stopped inexplicably, questioning his choice of radio station. He was forced to either retire or listen to country music. It's pretty obvious what he chose.
(btw, I'll just say right now, no offense to anyone. sorry if I do)
Up in the front Shepherd made a daring block on Beyens, chopping across his front wing. He forgot, however, that such moves are made to be done figuratively, not literally, and so the two cars collided and put on a choice synchronizes spinning ritual. Security was forced to restrain the Aguri pit crew, who apparently were ready to defend their honor against anyone.
Next lap, lap 14, Horton and Mason locked wheels and did a circle dance. Of course this was all overshadowed by Beyens' daring pass of Weiland. It wasn't "outside of a corner" daring, but more of a "ok, don't want to get strangled" daring. Luckily all Beyens got was flipped the bird.
Lap 18 saw Mason continue to have an entertaining day by going on an off-road adventure, damaging the car and forcing him to pit.
Pit stops came and went and came some more, but halfway through Weiland was leading in her maiden race. Aguri was dancing in the streets (in this case the track), forcing many drivers to take evasive action. If Super Aguri is one thing this year, it's enthusiastic.
Meanwhile, Davidson and Hutchison were waiting patiently in podium positions, while Domingues, Allman, Chang, Beyens, and Horton rounded out the points. When Weiland pitted one lap past halfway she dropped to 7th and Davidson found himself the possessor a 7-second lead.
And then pitstops happened again. The order was reshuffled again and somehow the math declared that 15 now equals 14. What had happened was that Hutchinson in the McLaren had made a driver error and crashed out of P4. However, it is popular belief that in McLaren's, there are no driver errors, just engine failures. The paddock belives that Hutchinson was forced to retire by team orders to make things diverse, and put blame on something other than the engine builders from Antarctica.
And so Davidson was in the lead by a slim 2.2 seconds when he bobbled at the final corner. Somehow he lost no time while doing so, luckily.
But the lead was slipping. Domingues in 2nd was closing up to two-tenths per lap, and certainly the Ferrari crew was sweating. There were 8 laps left when the gap was 1.8 seconds, and certainly it looked like it could come down to the wire.
Meanwhile, Beyens and Paul Tracy - er, Jessica Weiland continued to put on a good entertaining and probably not family-friendly show for the audience in a duel for P5.
But there is no question all eyes were on Domingues when he pulled the fastest lap on lap 55, lapping a full half-second faster than anyone else.
But it still wasn't good enough. Davidson got to the flag by barely over a second over the Renault.
Chang in the McLaren flew under the radar and straight to a podium finish, a strong start to the season.
Beyens completed a strong Renault 2-4 finish by finishing just outside the medals, with Weiland on his tail. Allman was right there too, and Horton and Dubois finished out the points.
By now Davidson has proved he can walk, but can he run to his first championship in many seasons of driving? This certainly looks like his best chance...
But there are still many contenders out there. Renault is strong as ever, Aguri is spirited and had almost had a double-points day, and nobody can truly be counted out.
We'll see how Sepang, famous for it's wet races, will shake things up.
---
Subjective Race Ratings (like those columns on the side of the magazines):
Good: Davidson's win in the Ferrari. You win any way, any how, you get props from me.
Good: Chang - always has had high ambitions, but hasn't quite gotten a good hand dealt to him. This podium might be just what he needs.
Good: Renault; 2nd and 4th is killer stuff.
Good: Jessica Weiland - although she might be a bit of a fighter, a controversial personality is what every sport needs, and some point-scoring ability doesn't hurt.
Good: Dubois - back of the grid up to a point, not bad, eh?
Bad: Butler; may not be his fault retiring early, but people come to expect results by one's 5th season.
Bad: Kawasie; see above, replace 5th with 3rd.
Bad: Hutchinson: Doesn't this look a lot like the DNF list? Yeah. Running well too.
Bad: Graham: Didn't do anything wrong, yet had a pretty bad race. Started on ridiculously worn tires?
Ugly: Mason - 2 collisons, 2 driver errors, 1 mechanical problem. Eek.
Ugly: Lovett - off pace = very yes
Ugly: BMW and Red Bull; double DNFs, have fun buliding new cars
Ugly: Allman - got beaten by a girl.
Der Meister
(Banned)
- 212
This my friend is PURE GOLD... permission to use it in my sig?
Well, I must say; Aguri are here to prove a point, and we'll fight tooth and nail to make our car competitive. As team leader I'm proud to say that we have a great level of team work and both drivers give 110% to help one another.
We played a risk running our cars heavy on 1 stop strategies while sitting high up the grid, hoping that we could run a "Trulli Train" behind us until the first round of pit stops got underway. Unfortunatly in the blistering hot conditions we weren't given the grip levels we expected and therefore our lap times weren't as high as we would have liked.
We have learned from our mistakes and continue to press forward and score more points.
With the current humidity in Sepang we're not expecting to be as competitive as Bahrain, but we will be looking to score some more points and keep the early season midfield battle alive.
******NOTE TO ALL GTP SEASON 5 COMPETITORS******
Both regular SUPER Aguri drivers will be absent from the up coming Fosters Australian GP Qualifying Session at Albert Park, but we will have some replacement drivers from our GP2 ranks coming to fill seats. We expect to be back for the main event to take over.
Both cars will be running the same setup as in Malaysia, so we don't expect high qualifying results, but we are confident that we can put on a good show for the fans in the race even given the limited time to find a fast race car.
Cheers, Jamez Shepherd - Team Leader SUPER Aguri F1 Team
