F1RWRS 2014 Season suggestions...

[SuperAguri]

With the popular 2014 season coming up soon, it looks like being a bumper season with new teams and the possibility of over 40 cars trying to get the 26 racing slots, because of this I have some suggestion which I hope that Aernod will read and other may make their own suggestions too.

Chassis / Engines

It did feel like all the new teams that entered during the season did have a unfair advantage as they could see what teams were doing well and the choose a chassis and engine that was near the better teams and unsurprisingly all these new teams scored podiums and wins.

It would be better rather then having absolute ratings, that the ratings should be within a random range, so if say a Ford ED engine has 650hp then it should be written as say 550 to 675hp or a Hart Engine is 700hp then it might get written as 600hp to 750hp just to make it more random.

Maybe new joining teams could have a slight power or chassis disadvantage for a few races as it is rare for new mid season joining teams to have such good luck

Reliability / Power

Do I have to point out that Foxdale and Sunshine were the fastest teams on the track and both had horrible results, with too many DNFs. I can point out that Douglas Manns Win and Shinobu Katayamas 2nd place only came about as both cars could pit before electrical failures could retire them (Foxdale have no other results apart from that and Sunshine have 2 5ths...). Also at the bottom end of the field there were DNPQs a plenty.

It would be good if say every 4 races, teams could sacrifice power or chassis performance for reliabity or for the other end, sacrifice reliability for power or chassis performance. I am sure a top team would not allow so many DNFs to happen if they have the speed to come first and I am sure some of the bottom teams would ramp up engine power to at least attempt to qualify. To stop it being to much of an advantage it would be easy just to have a few settings of minor, medium, major changes with adverse effects on performance or reliabiltiy or just allowing teams to implement it twice at race 4, 8 or 12...

Qualifying

Although will hurt me personally, I think the top ten teams should go into qualifying proper with everyone else prequalifying, maybe if there are too many teams, then maybe all the new teams or teams that DNPQed all season should have pre-pre qualifying to whittle down the field a bit so that prequalifying is more a battle. Halfway during the season, the pre-pre qualifiers should change with teams that have not managed to prequalify with ones that have managed to get better results in pre qualifying. With the normal top teams going into qualifying and the slowest bunch going back into prequalifying.

Points

Should be the new old system of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 so it is more challenging at the rear end.

News

To spice the drama up, all teams should be allowed to post at least one news story about another team. Like I did with Kay Lon (more then once, whistles....), sackings and drivers swaps make this game a bit more fun.

Super Licence

To stop slow drivers or robots from entering, there should be a super licence and all drivers should post (if they haven't already, and let's be fair most have) their early history whether it be in F1, Indycars, F3, F3000, GT Racing, Le Mans, IRDU, Formula Nippon, etc on the Wiki With Super Licences being withdrawn from slow or dangerous drivers... Let's be fair it is not too hard to create a new driver to fill the void and it is more fun if you have a team with another driver from another forum member. Isn't that right Klon

Anyway those are my suggestions. I hope some of them get taken on board, esp the power / reliability one.

[the Masked Lapwing]

Chassis / Engines

It did feel like all the new teams that entered during the season did have a unfair advantage as they could see what teams were doing well and the choose a chassis and engine that was near the better teams and unsurprisingly all these new teams scored podiums and wins.

It would be better rather then having absolute ratings, that the ratings should be within a random range, so if say a Ford ED engine has 650hp then it should be written as say 550 to 675hp or a Hart Engine is 700hp then it might get written as 600hp to 750hp just to make it more random.

Maybe new joining teams could have a slight power or chassis disadvantage for a few races as it is rare for new mid season joining teams to have such good luck

I have yet to see GRM on top of the podium
I think that the engine powers are that way because, well, they are. And there's no point not telling us their actual power, otherwise we might as well just have a spec series.

Reliability / Power

Do I have to point out that Foxdale and Sunshine were the fastest teams on the track and both had horrible results, with too many DNFs. I can point out that Douglas Manns Win and Shinobu Katayamas 2nd place only came about as both cars could pit before electrical failures could retire them (Foxdale have no other results apart from that and Sunshine have 2 5ths...). Also at the bottom end of the field there were DNPQs a plenty.

It would be good if say every 4 races, teams could sacrifice power or chassis performance for reliabity or for the other end, sacrifice reliability for power or chassis performance. I am sure a top team would not allow so many DNFs to happen if they have the speed to come first and I am sure some of the bottom teams would ramp up engine power to at least attempt to qualify. To stop it being to much of an advantage it would be easy just to have a few settings of minor, medium, major changes with adverse effects on performance or reliabiltiy or just allowing teams to implement it twice at race 4, 8 or 12...

That's their fault for choosing speed over reliability. I'd be really pissed off if I my decision with HRT was rendered null by teams being able to switch from one end of the scale to the other. Besides, it would probably mean that Aerond would have to switch team's chassis mid-season, sonce Foxdale's credits have all been blown on reliability, and they still have absolutely nothing.

Qualifying

Although will hurt me personally, I think the top ten teams should go into qualifying proper with everyone else prequalifying, maybe if there are too many teams, then maybe all the new teams or teams that DNPQed all season should have pre-pre qualifying to whittle down the field a bit so that prequalifying is more a battle. Halfway during the season, the pre-pre qualifiers should change with teams that have not managed to prequalify with ones that have managed to get better results in pre qualifying. With the normal top teams going into qualifying and the slowest bunch going back into prequalifying.

A massive pre-qualifying would solve nothing. All the teams who haven't qualified yet will be nearly broke, so won't be able to buy or update a new chassis, so would just be slower compared to everyone else and wouldn't get in anyway. Therefore, your Flying Fishes, FAT Turbos and Kamahas would still be getting in, but your Truebas and Tropicos wouldn't stand a chance. The reason pre-qualifying is so screwed up at the moment is dr-baker's incompetence ( ). Which is why I think FAT shouldn't race, because then, while Foxdale and Sunshine would still be guaranteed a spot, the final places would be fought between Calinetic and Trueba (and maybe SOTL).

Points

Should be the new old system of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 so it is more challenging at the rear end.

Agreed. The 2010 points system was too far towards rewarding consistency, the current one too far towards outright pace and reliability. The 2011-12 system was, I feel, about right (especially since Moll, Davies and De Bock would've been in with more of a shot at Dagnall, and in 2010 there would've been a 6-way fight at the final race).

News

To spice the drama up, all teams should be allowed to post at least one news story about another team. Like I did with Kay Lon (more then once, whistles....), sackings and drivers swaps make this game a bit more fun.

I reckon that it would be made of 50% driver poaching, 30% team slandering and 20% court cases. So if this is to work, they should use The Generic Times, so that Autosport doesn't get sued again

Super Licence

To stop slow drivers or robots from entering, there should be a super licence and all drivers should post (if they haven't already, and let's be fair most have) their early history whether it be in F1, Indycars, F3, F3000, GT Racing, Le Mans, IRDU, Formula Nippon, etc on the Wiki With Super Licences being withdrawn from slow or dangerous drivers... Let's be fair it is not too hard to create a new driver to fill the void and it is more fun if you have a team with another driver from another forum member. Isn't that right Klon

BINGO! We need superlicences! Drivers like Davies, Melrose, Dagnall the elder and Jones would be pretty much given it straight away, McAllister, De Bock, Douglas Mann and both Zimmer brothers might be slightly harder. But of course, drivers currently in the series are probably set (the only flaw I see is that Giovanni Roda should get one based on his 2011 season...)

[Klon]

Qualifying

Although will hurt me personally, I think the top ten teams should go into qualifying proper with everyone else prequalifying, maybe if there are too many teams, then maybe all the new teams or teams that DNPQed all season should have pre-pre qualifying to whittle down the field a bit so that prequalifying is more a battle. Halfway during the season, the pre-pre qualifiers should change with teams that have not managed to prequalify with ones that have managed to get better results in pre qualifying. With the normal top teams going into qualifying and the slowest bunch going back into prequalifying.

A massive pre-qualifying would solve nothing. All the teams who haven't qualified yet will be nearly broke, so won't be able to buy or update a new chassis, so would just be slower compared to everyone else and wouldn't get in anyway. Therefore, your Flying Fishes, FAT Turbos and Kamahas would still be getting in, but your Truebas and Tropicos wouldn't stand a chance. The reason pre-qualifying is so screwed up at the moment is dr-baker's incompetence ( ). Which is why I think FAT shouldn't race, because then, while Foxdale and Sunshine would still be guaranteed a spot, the final places would be fought between Calinetic and Trueba (and maybe SOTL).

Pretty much this. The only way we could have said effect is by removing the performance-related aspect of pre-qualifying forcing every team in Pre-Qualifying for a number of times, therefore assuring other teams safe spots in qualifying.

Regarding the engines and chassis, I would propose only one thing: Life and Subaru gotta go. I like rejectdom as much as the next guy, but these two engines (and regarding Life the chassis that goes with it) just ruin every chance at even slightly remote competitiveness, no matter how much money you throw at them.

[AndreaModa]

And I'd just like to point out, that although CJR have done well this year, the chassis and engine choice I made was simply trying to make the best of what was left on the list. There were others that I wanted to go for but had already been taken. There was absolutely no intention of capitalising on misfortunes for teams with certain chassis/engine combos, the fact the team has turned out to be remarkably competitive is purely by chance.

I think to be quite honest the system as it currently stands works quite well, TMLW is right, if people don't consider their chassis/engine choices properly, they suffer the consequences. It introduces a little bit of skill and thought into the series which is nice because obviously as we're all passive drivers/team owners we don't have much control over our results! This way it allows that control and rewards those who've thought things through.

As for the news article generation, I think people should be free to write what they want, to a certain extent. Perhaps the incident with Jones, Lon and the sex scandal went a little far, but I think it's healthy for the series to have big events, driver changes, fall outs, etc because it keeps the series ticking over between races and adds more interest for those of us participating. Other people taking control of your driver/team's destiny is unfair though so that's why I think people should maybe exercise some restraint, following the lessons of said Jones/Lon case.

I'm happy with the points as they are. Again it rewards those who've thought about their choices in terms of chassis/engine combo, and attrition is normally enough to mean most teams have scored at least once this year.

I do agree about taking out the Life chassis and engine and the Subaru engine though. Having said that, there are other choices still available so it's not like those were forced upon certain teams, so maybe they should be kept if that instance does arise so that someone entering late as CJR did for 2013 would be penalised by being forced to take the scraps of what's left - i.e. a rubbish chassis/engine combo.

All in all though I think we need some continuity after such a big rules change at the end of last season, to allow people to get their heads around the credit system and to ensure new entrants get up to speed quickly with the rules too.

[Shizuka]

As long as I'm not thrown away between teams - happened two times, third one isn't going to happen - I'm okay.

[Aerond]

With the popular 2014 season coming up soon, it looks like being a bumper season with new teams and the possibility of over 40 cars trying to get the 26 racing slots, because of this I have some suggestion which I hope that Aernod will read and other may make their own suggestions too.

Chassis / Engines

Well, the (very) high Random Grip range (Consistency points) drivers have is meant to do just that; offer high variations in performance range all over the season. We´ve seen a lot of variations regarding performance and it does it automatically, so I´m quite happy with the way it´s running now in that aspect. The game also randomizes a little bit the ammount of power so it isn´t exactly the same throughout the season.

Reliability / Power

I have to agree with TMLW here. And limitations in how much power a chassis/engine can have are there for a reason. Maybe we could consider adding a Reliability penalty for those teams investing only in power (like, I don´t know, 250 reliability points every 10 BHP purchased).

Qualifying

Well, I consider having three teams from PreQ into Qualifying is not a bad thing at all... If it was down to me, I would include more teams into main qualifying, but we face the game limitations. Another way of doing PreQ could be having two PreQ heats with 10 teams each, top 7 from each PreQ making it into main qualifying. In one heat we would have 1st-3rd-5th-7th-9th-11th-13th teams from previous year and in the other 2nd-4th... That´s down to you. I personally prefer the classic system, but will accept the change if everybody wants it. Anyway, PreQ is now unbalanced mainly because Foxdale and Sunshine incompetence rather than unfairness, so this system should still allow for close PreQ. I have to say that PreQ teams from next season will be calculated from the results of the LAST 16 RACES rather than the last 8 at the middle of the season, and the full season at the end. So after the 8th race, teams into PreQ will be the worst between last half of 2013 and first half of 2014 rather than first half of 2014 only.

Points

I like the current points system, specially having in count current reliability. I would like to give the current points system another chance before making changes. Championship title may be over now (because of luck rather than anything else), but fight for 2nd place is fierce in both driver and constructors championship.

News

I don´t agree with this. Anyone should be able to manage his own team as wanted. That would probably lead to an unreasonable ammount of driver changes, headaches to me and general anger of certain team managers who aren´t happy if they see their teams spoiled.

Super Licence

Well, any driver can be banned by the F1RWRS at the (reasonable) suggestion of any forum member. Maybe, from 2015 on, we can give some sort of priority to those drivers who have succesfully raced at other fantasy championships and, specially, F2RWRS.

[SuperAguri]

Chassis / Engines

Fair enough, although I still feel that a team joining during the season could see what the top team has a just pick the best engine and chassis that is closest to what the top team has.

Reliability / Power

I think the problem is that fast teams will have issues in finishing a race and scoring points and the slow teams not doing anything but seeing DNPQ after their names. Sunshine and Foxdale aren't really incompetent as most retirements are from parts failing. However if the Top 11 teams do not have to Prequalify next year then Sunshine and Foxdale will not have to PQ anymore.

What I am suggesting is that teams have the option to maybe once or twice during the season to sacrifice speed / chassis performance for reliabiltiy or reliability for speed / chassis performace. This will make fast teams slower but more likely to finish a race (although they probably won't score) and slower teams more likely to get up the grid but more likely to retire, it will help the DNPQ brigade too as they can risk a change for a chance to make it to the grid.

For example Foxdale might decide to do a major change so their cars are reliable but slower, if they are in PQ they might not PQ but if they do they might finish a race.

CR Motorsports might decide to do a medium change so their cars are faster, they might make it to qualifying proper but still may not qualify and may still finish down the pack.

Kamaha might decide to do a minor change for speed and might see a better chance of points but are more likely to retire.

Think of it as a mid season upgrade, some upgrades work and some make the car much slower or unreliable. The idea is you risk making the car worse rather then better but if you are DNPQing all week long or retiring every race whilst leading then it might then you might take the risk.

You might say that Pay Drivers will help you make the car better, but I do not see much evidence that it really does anything.


Qualifying

I think the top teams should not have to prequalify as it does make it feel more like the early 90s, which is a good thing, I just feel that instead of 11 teams in main qualifying straight away it should be 10 or less so more PQ teams can get the chance to qualify.

I also do not feel it is right that the PQ cut off should be the last part of the 2013 season and the start of the 2014 season, it should just be the first part of the 2014 season as if one of the new teams scores 10 points and ends up 10th or 11th and say Dagnall Engineering no points, then Dagnell will go through due to the points they scored at the end of the last season which the new team was not even driving.


Points

it is your game, but I think the top 8 is a nice compromise between the old system and the new, and remember Martin Brundle is a bitter old man cause he scored lots of 7th and 8ths and got nul points.


Super Licence

Fair enough

[the Masked Lapwing]

Sunshine and Foxdale aren't really incompetent as most retirements are from parts failing.

And whose fault is it for picking unreliable chassis and engine?

You might say that Pay Drivers will help you make the car better, but I do not see much evidence that it really does anything.

This is the decision some teams have to make - do you put a pay driver in the car for a few races, which will put you in a better position financially, or do you keep you current drivers and hope results keep coming?

I think the top teams should not have to prequalify as it does make it feel more like the early 90s, which is a good thing, I just feel that instead of 11 teams in main qualifying straight away it should be 10 or less so more PQ teams can get the chance to qualify.

More PQ teams wouldn't really give more of a chance, because the extra spaces in qualifying proper are created by putting more teams in PQ, teams who are faster on merit. If we were to have 10 teams in the race straight away, we'd have Flying Fish, Kamaha, MRT, Phoenix, Calinetic, Tropico, Trueba, Dofasco, Virgin (if they stick around), and whoever replaces FAT and Horizon. Fighting for four spots, you'd expect, based on this year's results, that Flying Fish and Kamaha would still be getting in, and Phoenix, Calinetic and MRT would be fighting over the last two spots, something that they'd do anyway if Foxdale and Sunshine weren't there.