Tell us about your Career...

  • Thread starter Tom
  • 348 comments
  • 57,780 views
Season 1: Round 3-Shanghai (Race)

After a qualifying session I was really disappointed with, I was not expecting a good result for the race. Regardless, I would try. So the race starts and immediately I utilize the jam up through the twisty bit to snag a few places and get at high as 6th. I battle Massa, Rosberg, Schumacher and Button for a while before pits-stops. A few laps later, the Rain came down and I came in for Intermidiates at first and for four laps had good grip. However, I was beginning to feel the traction getting abit more difficult to slow the car down so I came back in for full wets. They were on the car all the way until 4 laps to go when I came in again back on intermediates. I then had to hold off Senna and Ricciardo for the 2nd straight week in a row and I managed to finish a very solid 10th. From 17th in Austrailia and lapped to finishing here on the same lap, Some truly stunning results have started to go my way. Now if only qualifying could go as well and ironically, the next race is at a track where qualifying never works out for me.

Edit: In the process, I've managed to be THE driver that gave Toro Rosso its first points finishing position of the year with the team now having 1 point and in turn, me having 1 point.
 
Last edited:
Season 1: Round 4-Bahrain (Practice)

Still feeling good after the impressive result in the last race, I come to Bahrain initially not sure if I'll be able to duplicate. Before I went out, I had a long time to think about how to get faster and after a while, some ideas finally started flowing. The first was the fuel mixture. It was during the last race I came to the realization I could actually alter that the way I wanted to and I would actually achieve some slightly faster results so with that in mind, I decided that starting this weekend I was going to run all practice and qualifying sessions full rich. Next was the gearing, something I notice severly lacked quite abit on the straights the past three races. And no wonder, the gearbox was only allowing me around 170 MPH, which was not ideal for a backmarker car to fight off the front runners with. I decided to go with a gear arrangement that allowed around 195-196 MPH in the hopes that I could much better hold off any cars trying to pass me. So with those significant changes and some Option tires, I set out to see what these changes could do for me. First timed lap Yielded a 1'37.373, which felt dangerously quick and then on lap 3, a 1'37.097 . Amazingly, I wasn't quite the slouch I was expecting to be. I was actually consistantly doing competitive laps and not taking the car off course or stuffing in the wall, at worst I just had some very eye-opening powerslides. And how did the new gearbox arrangement go? Ironically, Sebastian Vettel was there for me to try it out on. While he did get by, he didn't do it as fast as he usually would and I was able to sneak back pass going into turn 1, so it appears that change was very good. Later in the session, I managed to pull off an amazing 1'36.506, a time I thought was not even acheveable. I finished out the session in 14th and to top it off, 4 places higher then Ricciardo, the very guy who suggested an "conservative" direction. As can be seen, I don't do conservative. So far so good and its starting to seem even better then Malaysia so my feelings towards the race is beginning to turn around, hopefully this qualifying is where I start convincing my team to make me number 1.
 
Last edited:
I haven't updated you guys in a long time on what's happened in my career but basically I'm sitting 10th in the Championship with 56 points and I have offers from Ferrari as the second driver for next season or a renewal from Caterham. There are two rounds left, should I wait it out and wait for other offers or will it be slim pickings should I not accept Ferrari's offer?
 
I started with Force India, on legend. Couldn't keep up w/o TC so I switched to Pro on my second race with Force India season 1. Then I moved to Lotus for season 2 after winning 2 races with Force india in season 1, started dominating with Lotus winning every race on Pro AI. Season 2 so far has me with 10 wins, 10 poles, out of 11 races..... So I switched back to legend, and to Red Bull halfway through my 2nd season. I won Monza with Red bull, pole and win with medium TC. 1:21.7 was my pole, I feel like a cheater using TC but Pro AI is far too slow and the only way I can have fun with career is to do legend with TC now...

There's been rain glitches along the way. My favorite "AI glitch" was at Hungary S2 first race with RAB in the RB8. I led most of the way in the dry before it started raining with about 7 laps to go (50% distance race). I switched to Inters while the AI stays out on slicks and proceeds to crash all over. Probably 10 crashes with no safety car. I put about 40 seconds on 2nd place Schumacher during the blooper period of the AI. Then they switch to wets, I switch from Inters to wets. The last 2 laps Schumacher pulls back 25 seconds on me going flat out on the same exact tires as him with me on full traction control. Major issue with AI in the wet codies.....

So far the dry is fun, but it gives me the same sort of half full, or glass half empty feeling as the old Nascar 2006 title...or Nascar heat 2002. The rest of my career I'll probably just try and beat my old times. Like that 1:21.7 I did at Monza. Maybe I'll stay with Red bull or switch to Mclaren to see if the Mclaren is faster.
 
Season 1: Round 4-Bahrain (Qualifying)

I have such dissapointment of the results that I'm not so sure I want to delve that deep into this. While I did make it to Q2, I qualified terribly in 17th and did not make it to Q3.

Season 1: Round 4-Bahrain (Race)

Went with the good old "Primes First, Options last" plan. Going into the corner I braked as deep and as late as I could for the first corner and I was able to make many positions up coming to the second corner, I jumped up to 6th and from that point, heavily defended from Rosberg and in a huge surprise before my eyes, Raikkonen spins right in front me going into Turn 22. Afterwards, I get 5th and stay there. Four laps before I pit, Grojean made an agressive attempt as passing me, but ended up spinning himself out. Afterwards, the cars behind pitted 12 laps into the race. I stay out for 6 laps until it was time to pit. For the rest of the race, I was just putting some laps in when I came across my teammate Ricciardo. He was lapping much slower and when I got on the fornt stretch, Used both KERS and DRS to pass him on the inside. At the last minute, I saw Di Resta also passing on the right side. I braked late and kept the 15th place I got. by the end of the lap, Senna was now trying to pass me but just like Grojean, he too hit my right tire and spun. The rest of the race was smooth and while I got lapped by race winner Jensen Button (who I surprisingly kept up with to the checkered flag.), I once again bested Ricciardo. Its somewhat irritating that I couldn't do better then this consider what I acheved in Practice but as long as I can finish ahead of him repeatidly, I'm motivated and determined to take the position of 1st driver.

Season 1: Round 5-Catalunya (Practice)

We come to Barcelona. This race will be the first for the 2nd engine. Going off the impressive performance from the last race, the adjustments did make a difference on the straights so I got them on again this weekend. With a new engine, I was expecting to achieve much higher in practice. I also decided to prevent last week's qualfying disaster by only using Primes and making many laps until they were at their sweet spot. Right off, I managed a 1'26.567 on the first flying lap. Then I managed 1'26.108 and Managed to stay throughout the remaining 44 minutes in 6th. My teammate made a 1'27.792 and was stuck in 18th. I was pleased.
 
Season 1: Round 5-Catalunya (Qualifying)

This was finally the day were things would turn around and in a big way. Thanks to my exclusive time spent on 1 set of Primes for Practice, I had all Options available for Qualifying. In Q1, I made a very spirited four lap charge and put in a 1'26.549, putting me 14th while My teammate was down in 17th and I advanced. Then came the moment I wanted in Q2. I waited till the last few minutes were left and went out with a light fuel load and pre-scruffed options from Q1. I was able to set a 1'25.879 and barely made it in 10th, Bumping my teammate out literally on the last lap. In Q3, I set the fuel to a rich mixture and had just enough to time the tires getting up to there most grippy and set off. Already proud that for once I Out qualified me teammate and made it past Q2, I managed a 1'24.570 and qualified a incredible 6th. For the first four races of the season, Ricciardo was repeatidily Out-qualifying me and even getting in the top 10 a few times while I sat in the bottom 20. This time, I finally out-qualified him and by a huge margin to boot. Now I really can't wait for the race.
 
Update on my Career.

Season 1 with Williams. I've just finished the race in Germany (7th place).

I have 102 points and I'm 4th in the championship (just ahead of Button)

Taken pole position 5 times (Australia, Monaco, Canada, Britain and Hungary), but I've only won 2 races (Canada and Britain).

Really hoping for a Mclaren contract next season.
 
Season 1:
Team: Force India
Aims: Win the title
Next Season Team: Red Bull Racing
Best Qualifying Position: 1 (x9) CHI, SPA, MON, CAN, GER, HUN, UAE, USA, BRA
Best Finishing Position: 1 (x10) CHI, MON, EUR, GER, HUN, ITA, KOR, IND, UAE, USA
Drivers Championship Position: 1st

Season 2:
Team: Red Bull Racing
Aims: Win the title
Next Season Team: Red Bull Racing
Best Qualifying Position: 1 (x12)
Best Finishing Position: 1 (x12)
Drivers Championship Position: 1st
 
Update on my career.

Finished 1st in Hungary, 7th in Belgium, 1st in Monza, DNFed at Singapore and just finsihed the Suzuka race in 1st.

I set Button as my rival and have so far outraced him 2 - 1. I'm currently 4th in the drivers championship, 13 points behind Alonso.
 
Won the W.D.C. for Lotus in Singapore, then had a bit of a slip for the rest of the year after that, with my only points scoring finishes being two seconds in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi was particularly notable for my starting in thirteenth but gaining 9 places (cleanly) under breaking for the fifth corner.
Suddenly finding it hard to work out how people struggle to overtake there...

Onto the next season, stick with Lotus, and I win the first 2 races from pole and take victory in the third after starting behind both Ferraris.
 
Finished my first season in F1 2012 with Williams. I finished 4th in the championship, 1 point behind Alonso :ouch:. Ah well, I got a contract with Mclaren next season as their number 1 driver. My objective for the 2013 season is to finish 1st in the driver's championship, seems reasonable, considering that last year (in game) Mclaren took both the constructor's and driver's championship.
 
Win fourth race of the season from pole in the wettest weather I've seen the game produce. Massa second, Petrov third, Hamilton fourth, Webber fifth.

I'm still leading the drivers championship for Lotus with my perfect run of four out of four victories, and Lotus are now leading the constructors despite my team mate failing to score a SINGLE POINT thus far...

Red Bull did poorly in the last one, with Vettel dropping to last after spinning on the fourth corner and never recovering, and Webber losing his nose cone to Rosberg's Mercedes. Helped my championship cause a lot!
 
Just got the game. Feels at least a million times better than 2011 👍

Signed up for Williams. Having trouble keeping up the pace on Legend. Qualified at 12th with Alonso at 11th and Maldonado is somewhere in the top ten, almost a second faster than me. I forgot to switch the fuel mixture and the car was running too heavy with fuel on the last half of the 50% race. I kept the position but Maldonado dropped down to 17th!

Team: Williams-Renault
Aims: Finish 10th in the WDC
Next Season Team: I'll probably stay in Williams
Best Qualifying Position: 12th Australia
Best Finishing Position: 12th, Australia
Drivers Championship Position: 12th

EDIT:
I restarted my career because of my setups :P I could have gone faster in the first 3 races I did. I'll post my progress on a new one.
 
Last edited:
Kind of behind on this as I already completed this a week ago:

Season 1: Round 5-Catalunya (Race)

For the first time, here I was starting in the top 10. With where I qualified, I now couldn't utilize the strategy I had the last few races. So I just decided to go full out at the start and see if I could make soem noise at the front. Lights went out and everyone was away. I made a late braking pass into 1 and got to 3rd before I passed Maldonado through Turn 3 for 2nd and now I was right on Vettel. I followed him around Repoil before putting a nose down the inside at 5. We were side by side until I braked late into 7 & 8, barely keeping off the sandtrap. I was now in the lead, but not pulling away alot as Vettel keep me on my toes. For three laps, he kept getting by on the front straight but I'd keep getting by into 1. Finally thanks to a good exit in turn 1, I put a huge gap through Turn 3 and tapoil. After a while, the cars behind pitted while I managed to keep out for two extra laps before finally pulling in for Primes. For the rest of the race, it was about avoiding all the lapped cars (which there were plenty of) and keeping my lead until I get to the finish. Vettel close the gap to 5 secs but with 1 lap to go, I was able to keep the lead and took my first win. My teammate could only manage 17th, again with no points. Meanwhile, I managed to go from 14th to 7th in the drivers championship while also getting Toro Rosso way up the point standings to 8th in the constructors title.
 
Started my season with Mclaren and I'm up to Bahrain so far.

I qualified 1st in Melbourne but finished 7th. I was leading but a lapped car spun in front of me and I crashed into it, forcing me to make a pitstop for a new wing. I qualified 9th in Malaysia but started 19th since I tapped Bruno during practice. Had a good race and finished 3rd. Finally had a good weekend in China, qualified 1st and held on for the race win. Repeated my pole in Bahrain, but a bad start and lack of race pace resulted in me finishing 3rd (Mercedes got a 1-2 finish).

I'm currently 1st in the drivers championship, leading Rosberg by 8 points. Webber is 1 point behind Rosberg. My teammate is 5th, he was leading the drivers championship after Malaysia, but 2 straight DNFs have resulted in him moving down the table.
 
Lotus should be happy. While driving for them in this, my second season in the game I have won the first four races, finished fifth at the world's worst racing circuit, before I unfortunately got caught in a huge 12 car pile up at Casino which resulted in a DNF in Monaco, and then won the next five races after that, taking pole at all five races. I even won from pole at SILVERSTONE! A track I despise almost as much as Catalunya!

Valencia proved to be a particular challenge as the Red Bull's were somehow two seconds faster than anyone else through the second sector in both practise and qualifying, but somehow I was fast enough through sectors one and two to snatch pole from Webber by 0.004 of a second. In the race however, Rosberg and Button got the jump on them off the line and I had an easy time.
 
I am on my second season, currently driving for McLaren. In my first season with Williams, I had 9 poles and 4 wins, eventually finishing second on the championship to Hamilton by 7 points.

I'm now at Japan in my second season, having recorded 14 poles at 14 races, and 11 victories. The others were second places to Vettel at Bahrain and to teammate Button at Valencia and at Spa. We at McLaren have recorded one twos at all races but two (Bahrain where Button was outside the points and at Italy where I won and button was third behind Grosjean), giving us the constructors championship at Italy.

The battle for the drivers championship is just between myself and teammate Button. I have an 84 point lea over him going into Japan.

All in all I have had a very exciting and fun career.
 
I've had 11 consecutive victories now, and I won the driver's title in Italy. Lotus still second in driver's championship behind Red Bull though, probably because my team mate's only finished in the points TWICE this entire season... Ah well, We're only 7 points down.

I also picked up a Red Bull contract for next season after winning in Singapore! 👍

Won in Japan by a huge margin, after the rest of the field (except those cheeky guys at the far end of the pit lane in green and yellow, who snuck in a fourth place finish for their tyre preservation!) inexplicably chose to two stop while I only did a one stop! Pretty good going for a track I absolutely loathe.

Korea was fun too, winning in a race that started out in the pouring rain but slowly dried out in the last few laps. Had fun trying to keep Kobayashi at bay on wet tyres that were becoming less and less suited to the weather conditions.
It probably helped that the two Red Bulls, Alonso, and Hamilton collided at the first corner and dropped to the back of the field; and that Button had an enormous accident right in front of me halfway through the race, but still...

Kobayashi made it a hard race, OK!
 
What difficulty do you guys play on? Seems like everyone's having no trouble with the pace... or is it just my car? :P

Anyway, I restarted my career from Williams to Caterham. I'm currently on Canada, and struggling to keep up with the Torro Rosso cars. 10th on the driver's championship, with a huge lead to keep at least 9th on the constructor's championship.

The previous race, however, was epic! Finally made it to Q1 on Monaco where I'm less than a second slower than the pole sitter. Placed 9th but I was satisfied with that. I plunged the first corner to grab 4th place and chased Vettel for 2nd. Hamilton was too fast and the tight roads made it easier to block the rest of the field. Made a mistake at La Rascasse and lost 2nd place. Finished 3rd and probably the only podium I could pull of for Caterham... for this season at least.
 
Ok... Second season for Lotus done... In summary:

I won every race except Catalunya where I just didn't have the pace, and Monaco where I was taken out in an 8 car pile up.

My team mate only scored TWICE.

There was no random Torro Rosso from Sauber from Hispania podium in China this time round, although Petrov did finish on the podium. (something about that track messes up the AI pit strategies, is it just me who finds this?)

Lotus came second in the constructors championship, two points behind Red Bull. I thought we had the title when Vettel rolled on the fifth corner of the season finale, but Webber managed to overtake Alonso and Button and give Red Bull the title.

I'm moving to Red Bull next season, team mates with Vettel. Hopefully this'll get me a better car...



In response to the above question, I keep changing the difficulty settings, but I find the track has much more effect on difficulty than the AI. So I'll always be off the pace at Catalunya and Suzuka, even if I change the difficulty. Meanwhile, I set lap times around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve that are three seconds quicker than the lap record. No AI could compete with me, even on the highest difficulty.
 
I restarted my career and finished Season one with Marussia/Force India. Now im on second season with Williams and to my surprise Marussia has scored a total of 15 points up to Canada. Mercedes seems to dominate with faster car however they keep crashing. Constructors is neck and neck with Williams and McLaren.
 
Restarted my career with Marussia, and even though I've only done the qualifying for the first race so far, it has been interesting. I made it into Q2 but just didn't have the pace to keep up with the rest, so I'm starting in 17th. The second part of what makes it interesting are the 2 cars right behind me on the grid, Kobayashi and Schumacher in 18th and 19th respectively. My settings this time are that the AI is on intermediate and I've taken off automatic breaking.

EDIT: Did the race and ended it in 8th. Before the pitstops, I was in 10th place, just inside the points. After all others pitted, I got into the lead. Did my stop and dropped back down to 10th, since I prefer starting races on the harder compound, so I would naturally pit later into an empty pit lane. I held off Kobayashi and Rosberg for the remainder of the race. Got passed once or twice, but retook them under breaking. A retirement from Raikkonen early in the last lap promoted me to 9th, and in the last few cornesr, my train found a slow moving Maldonado, which allowed me, Rosberg, and Kobayashi into 8th, 9th, and 10th respectively.
 
Last edited:
wvs95tnf.jpg

It's been a long time since I last played career mode and I still had to run the Bahrain race. It was a wet race and Q3 was wet as well, yet the AI set dry lap times - hence why I had to start from 10th.

By the end of the first lap I was in 4th position and everything went well, with Webber and Alonso in front of me. They were fighting so I didn't have to step my game up (yet) and followed them closely. In hindsight I should've just left them behind and started to hunt down Button in P1 but anyway. Right at the start of lap 4 I managed to get around Alonso under braking into turn 1 and Webber didn't hold me up much longer either and I overtook him right before the S curves at the end of sector 1. Button lapped a bit slower than me but it took me until lap 8, turn 1 didn't do him any good either.

Everything went to plan and I stopped 3 times, falling back to 5th during the 1st, to 4th during the 2nd and back to 4th again after the 3rd but much closer (around 3 seconds) to Webber and Alonso than during the 2nd. 45 laps down, 12 to go.

After 6 laps I managed to get up to 2nd again and, due to my UI, I didn't know how far away Button was. The race engineer remained silent and wasn't of much help either so I decided to make it nothing or all and started hunting the second McLaren down. Luckily I managed to lap around 1.5 seconds quicker a lap and managed to get back into the lead in the last turn of the penultimate lap. Button tried to get the lead back but only once, at the end of the start / finish straight. It seems the AI gave up after that and I crossed the line 4.5 seconds in front of Button.
 
Resuming from quite some time ago..
Season 3, Red Bull:

China, Q:1st, R:1st
For the first 10 laps or so, Kobayashi was in second as was staying close. I only had a 3 second gap when I pitted on lap 11 and fitted primes. This was when the race started to go my way, because as the AI who had mostly fitted options at their first stops were pitting for the second time, the heavens opened.
I pitted on lap 28 for intermediates, and proceded to pull away in the damp conditions. By the time the AI came in for intermediates on lap 30, it felt like I was losing grip, so I pitted for wets. As I left the pits I thought I had made a bad decision, but then half way through the outlap, the AI were spinning everywhere and needed to stop for wet tyres. By the time this sequence had played out, I was leading by 2 and a half minutes!

But the race wasn't over yet. The rain stopped on lap 45, just 2 laps after the AI had replaced their 1st set of wets for another set.. race lead now 3 minutes! I pitted for the last time on lap 51 for intermediates, and drove the car off the racing line at every opportunity to keep the tyres cool as the track dried.

Bahrain, Q:18th, R:1st
Not sure why I was so slow in qualifying, probably just didn't attack enough.
In the race I moved through the field, and had a good fight with Rosberg, Perez and Vettel as we all spent most of the race trading fastest laps. About half way through, Perez closed the gap on Rosberg for second place and they held each other up, allowing me to extend my lead from 2.5 seconds to 14 seconds. They also allowed Vettel to catch them. In the end, I took the flag by 14 seconds from Perez and Vettel, with Rosberg falling back to 4th.

Spain, Q:1st, R: Not done yet.
I used 1 set of primes across Q1 and Q2, then used green options in Q3 and set 1 flying lap to take pole.

Edit: Spain R: Everything was going well.. pulling away 0.5~1 second per lap. Had half a minute lead when it started to rain. Got the call on intermediates perfect, but then screwed up big time on a call for wet tyres. I turned a 30 second lead into a 17 second deficit:ouch:
I pushed as hard as I could in the 15 laps remaining, but ended up 2.4 seconds short of Alonso at the flag, ending my 27 race winning streak :(
 
Last edited:
Season: 1
Current team: Williams-Renault
Aims: At least one podium in rookie season.
Best Qualifying Position: 5th at Germany, Dry
Best Race Finish: 4th in Canada, Dry/Wet/Dry
Most Recent Race: Belgium, Qualified 17th, Finished 6th
Next Race: Italy
 
Finished 8th in Abu Dhabi, a lot of breakdowns, and just barely finished above Daniel, by 2.398 seconds. So snagged a few points, I lead him over with 1 point currently, both 14th for me, and 15th for him. (AI still set to legend on each session.) Been trying to learn COTA lately, it's hard to get those esses right, from one to another. But I'll spend a few days to learn it, then have a shot at the qualifying and race session.
 
I was doing well until I switch to Sauber mid season. It all went downhill from there. Had to restart my career for the millionth time :grumpy:
 

Latest Posts

Back