F1 2017 - Fully upgraded McLaren is OP! Career pointless after 5 seasons....

This is a situation you would not predict. After 5 seasons grinding for upgrade points I am just 2 ultimate upgrades away from fully upgraded. 2 races to go and the signing bonus I can safely say start of season 6 car will be DONE. Now the problem is we are so far ahead of the others there are only 3 'challenges' left to do.

1) Forget Alonso and tune AI so I can race against everyone else
2) Forget the rest and tune AI so team mate and me are equal.
3) Switch teams and get slaughtered...

Last 2 races, COTA and Mexico I came 2nd, .5 seconds ahead of the pack and 30 seconds behind Alonso. He is now a beast. I pitted 3 cars ahead of him and one later after he pitted I was already 13 seconds behind. I was holding him up for sure.
Constructors cup is ours already. I am 14 points ahead and 2 race left. He will win them both barring a crash (very rare) leaving us equal. Problem being next season he is over a second ahead in every circuit (I DID beat him Monza and Spa by full loading fuel and spamming rich mix for max speeds during race).

I raised the AI mid series as they were 30 seconds behind me with the upgraded car. Forgot that Alonso is also AI and off he shot with amazing poles in every race.
So that's option 2 left with basically only the 2 of us in a 2 car world series. It was pretty exciting stuff TBH having an opponent with an equal car in every way in some of the races. I can't imagine doing that for 5 more seasons though, although I presume the pack would be catching up with us by the end.

3) Switch to Ferrari and lower the AI so the McLaren wouldn't slaughter us every race. BUT that would mean it would still be me and Alonso as slowing him down slows everyone else too. I could switch and see if I can catch Mclaren up in the final 5 seasons. That's a kind of challenge I guess if I don't mind having ZERO chances of winning one race in a Ferrari for 2 or 3 seasons? They are way behind in upgrades.
All that would give though as a 5 season challenge after all that time would be to just get even.

Sucks having an OP car I am telling you! Alonso is a dirty AI git too....wrecked me several times does not even KNOW I'm a team mate.

Soo.... this post is really a warning for people playing the long game.....don't upgrade faster than the other teams if you still want a challenge! Bank your points and just make sure you are always the same level as whoever you want to compete with.

For reference I always upgraded every QC and efficiency first then all the upgrades themselves. Never had a single part fail in any race that way. Maybe failed parts is the better way!

Wont be getting it but wonder if 2018 will have the same problem?

 

Some more info on what happens when you upgrade a car!
(Interlagos qualified 2nd behind Alonso-depressingly I lowered the AI to 60 and he still a second faster...race in wet..i got smashed first corner..retired...he won 25% race by 45 seconds.....)

I upgraded all reliability first...this made huge difference as I could last a whole season on basic parts, although if I qualified badly I took the hit and purchased extra parts so ended up with 6 of everything usually. Practiced old parts...raced on new.

That took first season entirely.
Season 2 upgraded engine parts completely. Half way through season I noticed I could not stay on track in bends, realizing I needed to raise my downforce to cope with extra power (hint here is do NOT upgrade each dept separately, do them concurrently!)

Season 3/4/5 mixed up chassis with aero, doing aero first where possible.
During season 5 I started getting a rather nasty scraping/scratching noise coming from my speakers. I checked with headphones and still there.
Realized I had now had so much DF and speed I was scraping the track over 100mph...I had to raise the ride height to 9/10 (!) to stop most of this. Still did it at 190 plus (McLaren now does 212/215 on fast tracks!). Of course I could stiffen springs but thought that would wreck my handling more. I took it slow all first season tuning car for each track diligently. Now I am realizing my super car is overpowered period for the chassis!

I also have all the bonus race upgrades. Pit stops 2 instead of 3 seconds. Very useful.

I think i am going to retire after this season and do the extra championships instead, maybe. Going over to Ferrari would mean another 5 seasons doing the same as what I have done for the last couple months, just as I thought no more practice sessions YAY I'm going to have to grind and grind again....
of course as you upgrade the car the sessions do NOT get easier, you are expected to put in faster lap times as you have a faster car. So people who thought tire wear and fuel upgrades make them easier no they do not...
Another anomaly is that as these demands increase things become silly. For green qualify practice for example, they say 3rd place. So you go out post a great lap that puts you pole by a second...whereas at the start of the game that would guarantee purple (you need 19th for green for McLaren at the start) by now I have to beat my pole by TWO more seconds to get it. So qualify 1st by 3 seconds for the max score!
I ended up during 4th season halving the AI setting for all practice sessions so i could still make progress then putting it back up for Q and R.
Maybe if I had not done that it would have taken 10 seasons to do all the upgrades...sorry but i have a life! Noticed less than 0.5% people had the 75% upgrades trophy there cannot be many folk who have fully upgraded their car!

So yes I will retire. McLaren has been a blast and while it was fun to give Lewis or Seb the finger as you passed him on power down after any corner this grew tiresome after a few races. Was looking forward to doing full length races now I dont need to practice anymore but that will still need to be done if I switch teams, and I dont want to stay with McLaren in a 2 horse race lapping Ferrari in full length races.

It's been great fun EXCEPT the lack of safety car working properly and even if I did not hate my screen full of halos in 2018 no way am I doing another career grind like this, especially when I dont even know what's round the corner!

This is the upgrade situation after 5 seasons - just the last 2 Ultimate chassis upgrades left and plenty points to buy now if I stayed with McLaren..



This is Ferrari after 5 seasons - I just don't think I'm up to doing all that again! Off to do a 1 season championship instead with them. Crank the AI up and see how I do!

 

Gets a bit repetitive doesn't it....