Women's GT Junior Cup 2014/2015 - Season over!

go_Rubens · Post by **go_Rubens** » 12 Apr 2014, 13:25

Having 2 aggressive drivers in the world championship earlier worked for me. For a while, anyway. So, I'm going to do the same thing for Mikaela and Veronica. AGG gave us victory before. It can again.

pasta_maldonado · Post by **pasta_maldonado** » 12 Apr 2014, 13:29

Fair enough then. Kellogg's All-Bran EuroBran Racing with Morgan will set both of our drivers to AGG.

Herrmann Mann wrote:Ja, ja, ja, it has been a good start to der season, ja. I'd like to give more of this interview but I hear Jaegermeister calling meine name.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 12 Apr 2014, 14:08

Keep Munter on MOD and Kowalska on AGG please!

Hermann95 · Post by **Hermann95** » 12 Apr 2014, 16:09

I would like to change Amber Andersons race engineer to the one we tested in the second session.

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 12 Apr 2014, 16:58

We're going with both Emilee and Marika on full AGG seeing what it did for Mercedes. The car's barely good enough on a moderate clip to score points without heavy attrition. 12th place isn't going to please Gene and Tony.

mike robers · Post by **mike robers** » 13 Apr 2014, 00:46

I will have both girls on AGG.

V8fan12 · Post by **V8fan12** » 13 Apr 2014, 04:20

We will take a punt and put Alison MacLeod on AGG from the next race onwards to see if that improves her performance. She has until the 6th round to improve, otherwise we will be looking at replacements.

Turbogirl · Post by **Turbogirl** » 14 Apr 2014, 14:50

Alright, we've reached the deadline, and I'm off to calculate the next round!

Next: Round 05 - Netherlands up on Tuesday the 15th (CET)!

Turbogirl · Post by **Turbogirl** » 15 Apr 2014, 12:37

5th Round of the Women's GT Junior Cup

23. November 2014

Circuit Park Zandvoort, Netherlands

74 Laps / 4,320 km (2,68 mi)

Qualifying

Weather: Cold, dry, sunny

The Silverstone tests had shown once again, that Mercedes-Benz was indeed the force to be reckoned with this season. What the tests didn't show however, was the fact, that one Audi stood even above both Mercedes, and that was Alessandra Neri, who had taken a short vacation during the Silverstone tests to gather new energy.
The result was devastating, at least for those rivals, who had hoped to make a bigger impact on the Championship after Silverstone. Alessandra Neri took her second consecutive pole-position, followed by a very ambitious Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky in second and the Mercedes-Benz duo in third and fourth.
The only big difference was Elena Lana in 9th and Molly Taylor in 12th position on the grid. Michael Bartels had replaced ex Jaguar F1 employee David Pitchforth as the Technical Director of BMW Vitaphone Racing and was eager to prove the world, that the poor showings at the beginning of this season had only been of temporarily nature.
Team Audi might probably be in a fix after this remarkable qualifying result, taken into consideration, that Elena Myers is still learning to handle GT3 cars and might not be the perfect fit when fighting for the Constructor's Cup. Then again, if Audi should want to sign her again next season, she might put the experience she gained this season to good use in the future. It all depends on the strategy one is following, I presume.

Code: Select all

01    Alessandra Neri             (Audi)                 1:38.627
02    Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky   (Ferrari)              1:38.722
03    Hillary Will                (Mercedes-Benz)        1:38.818
04    Leah Pruett                 (Mercedes-Benz)        1:38.954
05    Tiffany Chittenden          (Dodge)                1:39.085
06    Veronica Valverde           (Ferrari)              1:39.268
07    Shannon McIntosh            (McLaren)              1:39.477
08    Gwendolyn Hertzberger       (Morgan)               1:39.697
09    Elena Lana                  (BMW)                  1:39.744
10    Leilani Münter              (Lotus)                1:39.912

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11    Collete Davis               (McLaren)              1:39.921
12    Molly Taylor                (BMW)                  1:39.944
13    Natalia Kowalska            (Lotus)                1:40.119
14    Gaby Dela Merced            (Maserati)             1:40.132
15    Mishael Abbott              (Morgan)               1:40.194
16    Elena Myers                 (Audi)                 1:40.206
17    Alexandra Asmasoebrata      (Bugatti)              1:40.398
18    Kazumi Mikami               (Bugatti)              1:40.652
19    Hiromi Kajikuma             (Jaguar)               1:40.908
20    Amber Anderson              (Toyota)               1:41.120

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21    Courtney Force              (Jaguar)               1:41.128
22    Alison MacLeod              (Dodge)                1:41.306
23    Marika Diana                (Chevrolet)            1:41.361
24    Emilee Tominovich           (Chevrolet)            1:41.661
25    Carmen Jorda                (Maserati)             1:41.832
26    Ramona Kiss                 (Toyota)               1:42.020
27    Sarah McCune                (Nissan)               1:42.086
28    Vicky Piria                 (Nissan)               1:42.380

105 % = 1:45.558

Race

Weather: Cold, dry, overcast

The Circuit Park Zandvoort is not like any other circuit, and I don't mean that its layout is different from others, because that's a no-brainer. Zandvoort loves eating tyres. And since the rules to the Women's GT Junior Cup forbid tyre changes during a race, the ladies will get into a lot of trouble around the halfway point of this round, especially if they should be too aggressive on the rubber in the early phase.
Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky shot into the lead immediately, followed by Alessandra Neri and the Mercedes-Benz duo. Veronica Valverde was able to get past Tiffany Chittenden on the run towards Sheivlak, while BMW youngster Elena Lana was already fighting for positions against Shannon McIntosh in seventh.
A strong wind blew rain clouds across the beach of Zandvoort, but it remained dry throughout the race. Alessandra Neri was eager to win this round, just to remove any doubt, she was only able to win at Brands Hatch because of the heavy rain and the constant safety car phases. But in this early stage of the race, Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky was simply driving in a completely different league.
This however changed at the halfway point of the Zandvoort round, when Ferrari, like so many other teams, encountered dissolving tyres. That was on lap 35, and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky started to fall behind. Her tyre performance was so discouraging, that her crew already wanted to call it a day, but Mikaela begged them to go on.
She was passed by Alessandra Neri on lap 40 and was about to be overtaken by Hillary Will on lap 44, when suddenly Leah Pruett took her chance to get past both her own teammate and the struggeling Ferrari in one clean swipe. This maneuver not only left Ahlin-Kottulinsky in fourth place, but also demoted Hillary Will to third.
With her strongest opponent gone, Alessandra Neri decided to take it easy. She carried on with slightly reduced pace, saving her tyres as best as she could, cruising home unchallenged.
The Ferrari crew had a shock moment on lap 65, when Veronica Valverde's front right tyre blew at Tarzanboocht and the Ferrari slid into the sandtrap, where a disappointed Valverde retired. Ahlin-Kottulinsky managed to travel on, although her tyres also were in a horrible condition.
Behind the leading pack, Elena Lana had the better of her battle with Tiffany Chittenden and now inherited fifth place. Lap after lap Lana got closer and she would have caught up with Ahlin-Kottulinsky in fourth, but then the BMW also encountered signs of dissolving tyres and Lana had to back down in order to secure a fine fifth place.
Rain began to fall shortly after the final lap, first a drizzle, but during the presentation ceremony the rain slowly turned into snow.
Another victory for Alessandra Neri and Audi, this time without the aid of heavy rain or the safety car, which ultimately proved Neri's dominance at this point in the season. Only one round left until the short winter break around Christmas, and then there's still the long anticipated Race of Champions, organized by Michele Mouton at Interlagos...

Code: Select all

01    Alessandra Neri             (Audi)                 74 Laps
02    Leah Pruett                 (Mercedes-Benz)        +  1.724
03    Hillary Will                (Mercedes-Benz)        +  3.188
04    Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky   (Ferrari)              +  4.100
05    Elena Lana                  (BMW)                  +  8.019
06    Tiffany Chittenden          (Dodge)                + 12.157
07    Gaby Dela Merced            (Maserati)             + 14.246
08    Molly Taylor                (BMW)                  + 16.733
09    Gwendolyn Hertzberger       (Morgan)               + 18.222
10    Leilani Münter              (Lotus)                + 20.955

Code: Select all

11    Courtney Force              (Jaguar)               + 22.902
12    Elena Myers                 (Audi)                 + 25.854
13    Amber Anderson              (Toyota)               + 29.460
14    Vicky Piria                 (Nissan)               + 31.371
15    Sarah McCune                (Nissan)               + 32.432
16    Kazumi Mikami               (Bugatti)              + 36.837
17    Marika Diana                (Chevrolet)            + 37.044
18    Emilee Tominovich           (Chevrolet)            + 39.814
DNF   Veronica Valverde           (Ferrari)              65 Laps    Tyre Damage
DNF   Collete Davis               (McLaren)              57 Laps    Accident

Code: Select all

DNF   Ramona Kiss                 (Toyota)               45 Laps    Tyre Damage
DNF   Shannon McIntosh            (McLaren)              39 Laps    Accident
DNF   Alison MacLeod              (Dodge)                36 Laps    Accident
DNF   Carmen Jorda                (Maserati)             34 Laps    Accident
DNF   Mishael Abbott              (Morgan)               27 Laps    Accident
DNF   Alexandra Asmasoebrata      (Bugatti)              18 Laps    Gearbox
DNF   Natalia Kowalska            (Lotus)                12 Laps    Accident
DNF   Hiromi Kajikuma             (Jaguar)                9 Laps    Electronics

Driver's Championship

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01    Alessandra Neri            (Audi)                 215 Points
02    Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky  (Ferrari)              170 Points
03    Leah Pruett                (Mercedes-Benz)        166 Points
04    Hillary Will               (Mercedes-Benz)        131 Points
05    Tiffany Chittenden         (Dodge)                116 Points
06    Veronica Valverde          (Ferrari)               90 Points
07    Leilani Münter             (Lotus)                 79 Points
08    Elena Myers                (Audi)                  44 Points
09    Alexandra Asmasoebrata     (Bugatti)               40 Points
10    Hiromi Kajikuma            (Jaguar)                35 Points

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11    Gwendolyn Hertzberger      (Morgan)                34 Points
12    Elena Lana                 (BMW)                   33 Points
13    Vicky Piria                (Nissan)                31 Points
14    Molly Taylor               (BMW)                   27 Points
15    Courtney Force             (Jaguar)                25 Points
16    Shannon McIntosh           (McLaren)               22 Points
17    Gaby Dela Merced           (Maserati)              21 Points
18    Natalia Kowalska           (Lotus)                 18 Points
19    Sarah McCune               (Nissan)                13 Points
20    Collete Davis              (McLaren)               12 Points

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21    Kazumi Mikami              (Bugatti)               10 Points
22    Mishael Abbott             (Morgan)                 9 Points
23    Carmen Jorda               (Maserati)               9 Points
24    Emilee Tominovich          (Chevrolet)              5 Points
25    Marika Diana               (Chevrolet)              5 Points
26    Amber Anderson             (Toyota)                 3 Points
27    Alison MacLeod             (Dodge)                  1 Point

Constructor's Championship

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01    Mercedes-Benz        297 Points
02    Ferrari              260 Points
03    Audi                 259 Points
04    Dodge                117 Points
05    Lotus                 97 Points
06    BMW                   60 Points
07    Jaguar                60 Points

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08    Bugatti               50 Points
09    Nissan                44 Points
10    Morgan                43 Points
11    McLaren               34 Points
12    Maserati              30 Points
13    Chevrolet             10 Points
14    Toyota                 3 Points

Reject of the Race: Nothing here this time, sorry...

The Race of Champions

Despite the fact, she was pretty occupied this year with the Women's GT World Championship as well as the Junior Cup, Michele Mouton still found time to organize the traditional Race of Champions, but this time with a slightly different concept.
The Race of Champions 2014 at Interlagos, Brazil will feature LMP (Le Mans Prototypes, for those of you who don't know) cars only, in a race of 120 laps with three driver changes per team. Right now we already have an all-star cast with Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Mario Andretti, as well as Rahel Frey, Danica Patrick, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Jean Alesi, Yvan Muller and many many more.

Because each manufacturer has already sent two or more cars to this non-championship event, the only thing you (the players) can do now, is post real drivers (male or female, but no fictional ones!) you would like to see participating in this event. I will post the current RoC line-up and the vacant seats right after the next Junior Cup round in Belgium, since the Race of Champions is supposed to take place after that as a closer to the 2014 season.

Next: Round 06 - Belgium up on Friday the 18th (CET)!

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 15 Apr 2014, 12:46

I for one would like to see Pippa Mann, Susie Stoddard/Wolff and Katherine Legge together in one of those LMP/RoC cars.

Post by **Londoner** » 15 Apr 2014, 12:47

OK, I'm slightly bored of Nissan being so mediocre. Set both drivers to AGG for the next race and beyond.

AustralianStig · Post by **AustralianStig** » 15 Apr 2014, 12:49

Disappointing to see Myers drop back so much, lets put her on AGG for the next round to see how she handles things, and put her on notice that she has two rounds to impress or she'll lose the spot to Hayley Swanson.

Hermann95 · Post by **Hermann95** » 15 Apr 2014, 16:08

Nice to see Toyota scoring points.
I would like to see Sebastian Loeb, Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen at the RoC.

go_Rubens · Post by **go_Rubens** » 15 Apr 2014, 20:42

I nominate Pippa Mann and Cyndie Allemann for the RoC.

mike robers · Post by **mike robers** » 15 Apr 2014, 21:14

First, why are we CRASHING EVERY RACE????????????????
Second, I nominate Ashley Freiberg, Helio Castroneves, Kyle Busch and Simona de Silvestro for the RoC.

V8fan12 · Post by **V8fan12** » 15 Apr 2014, 22:06

Well at least Tiffany is consistent!

Shame the gamble with McLeod didn't pay off. She is qualifying way worse than Chittenden though. Dunno what's going on there.

Turbogirl · Post by **Turbogirl** » 15 Apr 2014, 23:04

mike robers wrote:First, why are we CRASHING EVERY RACE????????????????
Second, I nominate Ashley Freiberg, Helio Castroneves, Kyle Busch and Simona de Silvestro for the RoC.

Your drivers are not crashing every race. They've scored some points, remember? When you had set them to MOD. The problem with young and (basically) inexperienced drivers is, that they're not too capable of going full limit in cars they're not really familiar with. Some of the ladies have never driven a GT car before the beginning of this season.

In short: While experienced drivers have less problems with the AGG mode, inexperienced drivers sometimes have less than a 50-50 chance of surviving a race when set to AGG, thus their high "crash-rate". The problem in this game (and I wholeheartedly admit that) is that, besides the level of aggressiveness, players don't have many tools to fix an underperforming team, because most of the drivers, race engineers and Technical Directors featured here have very similar stats.

I've noticed this problem right after the pre-season tests, to be honest, and I'm still wondering, if my often addressed Formula Female wouldn't have been better as a game system, since there players have at least the option to upgrade chassis, engine and everything else (just like in the Women's GT World Championship from next season onwards). If we'd introduce all these tools in the Junior Cup as well, there wouldn't be any difference between the two Women's GT serieses left...

But then again, there are WAY too much single-seater serieses floating around on this forum, that I'm still not sure, if a Formula Female would be such a brilliant idea, although it's the main reason I signed up on f1rejects in the first place. And I have so many nice templates to use...

Anyway, I think we should discuss this further at the end of the season. Although not really being able to improve my team in any way would make me frustrated pretty quickly, now that I think about it...

AustralianStig · Post by **AustralianStig** » 16 Apr 2014, 02:46

Just out of interest, is is possible to offer a contract to a driver that is already contracted by another team or is that not allowed?

Turbogirl · Post by **Turbogirl** » 16 Apr 2014, 11:02

AustralianStig wrote:Just out of interest, is is possible to offer a contract to a driver that is already contracted by another team or is that not allowed?

Well, to be honest, I have a rule for that one since I've started working on my RPG system years ago, but until now I didn't want to include it, because I fear some players might get pissed off at others for "stealing" their staff and drivers, even if this rule would be done by RNG (like I planned it).

So for now, it's not allowed, but I'd like to talk about this further in our usual rules discussion at the end of this season. I think, such a rule could be a very interesting addition to this game, but if too many of you get easily aggravated about other players stealing your personnel, we'd better not include it, because if this happens, it could kill off the game entirely.

Turbogirl · Post by **Turbogirl** » 17 Apr 2014, 14:15

Race of the Champions (provisional) driver line-up

Okay, here is the driver line-up for the upcoming Race of Champions. If you see a team, that could be improved in either way (by making it more awesome or more rejectful, whatever you like best), please let me know.

But please note, that not all teams are going to make it into the RoC. There will be a pre-qualification on Saturday before the main event. So don't make a line-up too rejectful, if you want to see them make it into the race!

#0 Acura ARX-02A
Takuma Sato, Kazuki Nakajima, Keiko Ihara

#2 Acura ARX-02A
Hideki Noda, Yuji Ide, Ukyo Katayama

#3 Alpine A450
Vincenzo Sospiri, Riccardo Rosset, Domenico Schiattarella

#4 Aston Martin AMR-One
Damon Hill, Bruno Senna, Nicolas Prost

#5 Audi R18 e-tron quattro
Rahel Frey, Vanina Ickx, Cyndie Allemann

#6 Audi R18 e-tron quattro
Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen, Andre Lotterer

#7 Bentley Speed-8
Juan-Pablo Montoya, Valtteri Bottas, Danica Patrick

#8 Bentley Speed-8
Katherine Legge, Susie Wolff, Pippa Mann

#9 BMW V12 LMR
Nick Heidfeld, Bruno Spengler, Joey Hand

#10 Caddilac LMP 02
Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti, Marco Andretti

#11 Courage LC70 AER
Augusto Farfus, Jamie Green, Martin Tomczyk

#12 Courage-Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet
Max Chilton, Charles Pic, Adrien Tambay

#14 Creation CA07 AIM
Alex Yoong, Michelle Bumgarner, Jutta Kleinschmidt

#15 DBA4 03s Zytek
Jenson Button, Andrea Bertolini, Ashley Freiberg

#16 Dome S102/5 Judd
Toranosuke Takagi, Shinji Nakano, Kosuke Matsuura

#17 Embassy Racing WF01 Zytek
Jacques Villeneuve, Paul di Resta, Kimi Raikkonen

#18 Embassy Racing WF01 Zytek
Giancarlo Fisichella, Gabriele Tarquini, Milka Duno

#19 Epsilon Euskadi EE1 Judd
Amber Cope, Angela Cope, Niclas Schönström

#20 Ferrari 333 SP
Jean Alesi, Fernando Alonso, Rubens Barrichello

#21 Ginetta GZ09s Zytek
Nigel Mansell, Greg Mansell, Leo Mansell

#22 Lavaggi LS1 Ford
Giovanni Lavaggi, Jean-Denis Deletraz, Luca Badoer

#23 Ligier JS-P2 Nissan
Alain Prost, Yvan Muller, Laurent Aiello

#24 Lister Storm LMP Hybrid
Roberto Moreno, Jarno Trulli, Giedo van der Garde

#25 Lotus B12/60 Toyota
Vitaly Petrov, Davide Valsecchi, Vitantonio Liuzzi

#26 Lotus B12/60 Toyota
Romain Grosjean, Beitske Visser, Edoardo Mortara

#27 MG-Lola EX265C (yup, this one's for the Japanese fans in reminiscence of the 90s' Brabham line-up plus one more name that sounds alike :lol:

)
Mark Blundell, Alex Brundle, Henry Arundel

#28 Morgan LMP2 Nissan
Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves, Kyle Busch

#29 Nasamax DM139 Judd
Riccardo Teixeira, Brendon Hartley, Adrian Sutil

#30 Pescarolo 03 Judd
Olivier Beretta, Mikko Hirvonen, Jules Bianchi

#31 Peugeot 908
Sebastien Loeb, Sebastien Bourdais, Sebastian Vettel

#32 Peugeot 908
Natacha Gachnang, Simona de Silvestro, Marguerite Laffite

#33 Porsche RS Spyder Evo
Mark Webber, Mika Hakkinen, Daniel Ricciardo

#34 Radical SR9 Judd
David Brabham, Gary Brabham, Geoff Brabham

#35 Toyota TS030 Hybrid
Ashley Force, Courtney Force, Brittany Force

#36 Toyota TS030 Hybrid
Christophe Bouchut, Nicolas Lapierre, Alexander Wurz

An important rule change for the Junior Cup

Since the beginning of the Women's GT World Championship (and also during the Junior Cup), I've noticed a lot of players having trouble with the current concept of race engineers. That actually didn't surprise me, because race engineers are like the drummers in a rock band. They're important, but fans only know the singer and lead guitarist (metaphorically speaking).

Therefore I think it might be best to replace the two seperate race engineers with one Chief Engineer. Why? Simple: The Chief Engineer is responsible for both drivers at the same time, minimizing the unwanted side-effect of your drivers qualifying at opposite ends of the grid, which is pretty common in the Junior Cup at the moment.

There will still be differences in the performance of your drivers, depending on the capability of the drivers themselves, but not as much as right now. Also, if your drivers underperform without it being their fault, you'll only have to fire one Chief Engineer instead of two race engineers. Right now it won't effect your management too much, because unfortunately the Junior Cup isn't such a big challenge for managers at all, but you will thank me for this new rule once the much more demanding Women's GT World Championship starts again.

Since I'm already calculating Round 6 - Belgium, this rule change will come into play from Round 7 onwards. But it's not mandatory! If you feel comfortable with two seperate race engineers, you can keep this constellation until the end of this season. If you like my idea, because it'll make things easier for you to overlook, please let me know which one of your current race engineers you'd like to promote to Chief Engineer.

In case you're wondering: All current race engineers will be promoted to Chief Engineers in the near future, so nobody needs to worry that I'd be coming along with even more names most of you have never heard of.

Also...

I'm going on a small vacation from tomorrow until Tuesday, which means I will post Round 6 - Belgium tomorrow as planned and then I'll be on my way. This gives each of you ample time to figure out the Chief Engineer stuff. Need to start packing my bags now. So, until tomorrow for Round 6!

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 17 Apr 2014, 21:18

Turbogirl wrote:Race of the Champions (provisional) driver line-up

Okay, here is the driver line-up for the upcoming Race of Champions. If you see a team, that could be improved in either way (by making it more awesome or more rejectful, whatever you like best), please let me know.

Aston Martin AMR-One
Damon Hill, Bruno Senna, Jonathan Adam

Bentley Speed-8
Katherine Legge, Susie Wolff, Pippa Mann

Peugeot 908
Sebastian Loeb, Sebastien Bourdais, Christophe Bouchut

Love having the three ladies together in a Bentley.

I was thinking replacing Jonathan Adam with maybe Nicolas Prost, because then all three will be sons or nephew of multiple WDC winners. Plus Damon would have been teammates to both Senna's uncle and Prost's father, both of whom were also famously teammates.

And maybe replace Chrisophe Bouchut with Sebastian Vettel - then you would have three Sebs together, all of whom have won multiple consecutive titles in their main championships...

Turbogirl · Post by **Turbogirl** » 17 Apr 2014, 21:37

dr-baker wrote:
Turbogirl wrote:Race of the Champions (provisional) driver line-up

Okay, here is the driver line-up for the upcoming Race of Champions. If you see a team, that could be improved in either way (by making it more awesome or more rejectful, whatever you like best), please let me know.

Aston Martin AMR-One
Damon Hill, Bruno Senna, Jonathan Adam

Bentley Speed-8
Katherine Legge, Susie Wolff, Pippa Mann

Peugeot 908
Sebastian Loeb, Sebastien Bourdais, Christophe Bouchut

Love having the three ladies together in a Bentley.

I was thinking replacing Jonathan Adam with maybe Nicolas Prost, because then all three will be sons or nephew of multiple WDC winners. Plus Damon would have been teammates to both Senna's uncle and Prost's father, both of whom were also famously teammates.

And maybe replace Chrisophe Bouchut with Sebastian Vettel - then you would have three Sebs together, all of whom have won multiple consecutive titles in their main championships...

That's a great idea, actually. Bouchut will trade seats with Vettel then, so that we won't leave him behind like Larrousse did in 1995.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 18 Apr 2014, 08:48

As the resident PMMF BMW stooge, I do not approve of this lineup. Therefore, I would like to see Nick Heidfeld, Bruno Spengler and Joey Hand drive the BMW instead

Turbogirl · Post by **Turbogirl** » 18 Apr 2014, 11:10

Wizzie wrote:As the resident PMMF BMW stooge, I do not approve of this lineup. Therefore, I would like to see Nick Heidfeld, Bruno Spengler and Joey Hand drive the BMW instead

Fine by me.

Turbogirl · Post by **Turbogirl** » 18 Apr 2014, 11:22

6th Round of the Women's GT Junior Cup

7th December 2014

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

46 Laps / 7,004 km (4,35 mi)

Qualifying

Weather: Cold, dry, sunny

The final round before the winter break and the long anticipated Race of Champions in Brazil. This time around Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky had the upper hand in qualifying, besting Leah Pruett's fastest lap time by three tenths of a second. Both BMW drivers were very strong once again and were definitely hot contenders for Championship points, if everything went according to Michael Bartels' plan. Turning the table in almost a single event, catapulting the team from the rear end of the Constructor's Standings straight into the top ten. Quite an accomplishment.
A rather disappointing qualifying for Chevrolet, with both drivers at the back of the grid. But Carmen Jorda was also underperforming once more, clearly outpaced by her own teammate and eleven other participants. That's not a very good way to get into the top league...

Code: Select all

01    Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky   (Ferrari)              2:19.322
02    Leah Pruett                 (Mercedes-Benz)        2:19.654
03    Alessandra Neri             (Audi)                 2:19.727
04    Veronica Valverde           (Ferrari)              2:19.868
05    Hillary Will                (Mercedes-Benz)        2:19.918
06    Tiffany Chittenden          (Dodge)                2:20.085
07    Shannon McIntosh            (McLaren)              2:20.311
08    Elena Myers                 (Audi)                 2:20.319
09    Leilani Münter              (Lotus)                2:20.446
10    Collete Davis               (McLaren)              2:20.555

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11    Elena Lana                  (BMW)                  2:20.678
12    Molly Taylor                (BMW)                  2:20.878
13    Kazumi Mikami               (Bugatti)              2:21.025
14    Gaby Dela Merced            (Maserati)             2:21.039
15    Mishael Abbott              (Morgan)               2:21.201
16    Natalia Kowalska            (Lotus)                2:21.326
17    Gwendolyn Hertzberger       (Morgan)               2:21.351
18    Alexandra Asmasoebrata      (Bugatti)              2:21.431
19    Courtney Force              (Jaguar)               2:21.607
20    Alison MacLeod              (Dodge)                2:21.715

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21    Hiromi Kajikuma             (Jaguar)               2:21.807
22    Vicky Piria                 (Nissan)               2:21.871
23    Sarah McCune                (Nissan)               2:21.977
24    Amber Anderson              (Toyota)               2:22.053
25    Carmen Jorda                (Maserati)             2:22.453
26    Ramona Kiss                 (Toyota)               2:22.841
27    Emilee Tominovich           (Chevrolet)            2:22.922
28    Marika Diana                (Chevrolet)            2:23.062

105 % = 2:30.288

Race

Weather: Cold, dry, sunny

I think, an apology is in order, since Carmen Jorda clearly is the driver of the day! Starting on the 13th row and finishing ninth, even ahead of the much better performing sister car, that is something you have to pull off to get everyone's attention! But let's start from the beginning...
Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky won the start outright, leaving Alessandra Neri and Leah Pruett to do battle for second place. But her luck didn't last very long. Already on the 13th lap she crashed her Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 at Raidillon, ending her race for good. It was clear to see, Ahlin-Kottulinsky overdid it, going flat out where you simply can't.
This overly enthusiastic maneuvre left Leah Pruett in the lead, but with Alessandra Neri still shadowing her. It's worth mentioning, that "heroine-of-the-race" Carmen Jorda had already worked herself up to 20th position by that point. On lap 24, Alessandra Neri passed Leah Pruett down Les Combes, taking the lead.
Veronica Valverde retired the second Ferrari on lap 33, crashing at La Source. Valverde was pressured by Hillary Will the entire race up to this point, defending fourth position as good and as desperate as possible against the much faster Mercedes-Benz. With Valverde out of the picture, Hillary Will now inherited third and immediately started making up ground.
Aided by the retirements of Mikami, Kajikuma and Valverde, Carmen Jorda had already entered the top 15 on lap 36, when Natalia Kowalska crashed her Lotus. This in turn caused Mishael Abbott to slow down in order to avoid the spinning wreck, so that Carmen Jorda was able to get into the Morgan's slipstream, passing Abbott downhill to Eau Rouge, taking 12th place in the process.
On lap 38, the duo of Jorda and Abbott passed Gaby Dela Merced, who had encountered trouble with the tyre wear, which meant 9th place for Jorda and 10th place for Abbott.
Five laps before the end of the race, Elena Myers finally got past Shannon McIntosh to grab fourth place from the McLaren driver. After some mediocre showings, Myers once again earned some valuable Championship points for herself and Team Audi, which shortened the gap to Mercedes-Benz in the Constructor's Standings to 33 points.
With another victory to her name, Alessandra Neri was still heading the Driver's Standings, now by 59 points over Leah Pruett and already 95 over Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky in third place.

Code: Select all

01    Alessandra Neri             (Audi)                 46 Laps
02    Leah Pruett                 (Mercedes-Benz)        +    1.129
03    Hillary Will                (Mercedes-Benz)        +    3.886
04    Elena Myers                 (Audi)                 +    7.245
05    Shannon McIntosh            (McLaren)              +    8.921
06    Leilani Münter              (Lotus)                +   14.277
07    Tiffany Chittenden          (Dodge)                +   19.973
08    Elena Lana                  (BMW)                  +   20.249
09    Carmen Jorda                (Maserati)             +   28.555
10    Mishael Abbott              (Morgan)               +   29.939

Code: Select all

11    Gaby Dela Merced            (Maserati)             +   31.100
12    Molly Taylor                (BMW)                  +   33.838
13    Collete Davis               (McLaren)              +   35.133
14    Courtney Force              (Jaguar)               +   43.154
15    Vicky Piria                 (Nissan)               +   49.556
16    Amber Anderson              (Toyota)               +   51.677
17    Marika Diana                (Chevrolet)            +   57.119
18    Sarah McCune                (Nissan)               +   59.542
19    Ramona Kiss                 (Toyota)               + 1:04.202
20    Alexandra Asmasoebrata      (Bugatti)              + 1:08.450

Code: Select all

DNF   Alison MacLeod              (Dodge)                39 Laps    Accident
DNF   Gwendolyn Hertzberger       (Morgan)               37 Laps    Accident
DNF   Natalia Kowalska            (Lotus)                36 Laps    Accident
DNF   Veronica Valverde           (Ferrari)              33 Laps    Accident
DNF   Emilee Tominovich           (Chevrolet)            32 Laps    Accident
DNF   Hiromi Kajikuma             (Jaguar)               28 Laps    Brakes
DNF   Kazumi Mikami               (Bugatti)              20 Laps    Electronics
DNF   Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky   (Ferrari)              13 Laps    Accident

Driver's Championship

Code: Select all

01    Alessandra Neri             (Audi)                265 Points
02    Leah Pruett                 (Mercedes-Benz)       206 Points
03    Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky   (Ferrari)             170 Points
04    Hillary Will                (Mercedes-Benz)       166 Points
05    Tiffany Chittenden          (Dodge)               134 Points
06    Leilani Münter              (Lotus)               101 Points
07    Veronica Valverde           (Ferrari)              90 Points
08    Elena Myers                 (Audi)                 74 Points
09    Elena Lana                  (BMW)                  48 Points
10    Shannon McIntosh            (McLaren)              48 Points

Code: Select all

11    Alexandra Asmasoebrata      (Bugatti)              40 Points
12    Hiromi Kajikuma             (Jaguar)               35 Points
13    Gwendolyn Hertzberger       (Morgan)               34 Points
14    Molly Taylor                (BMW)                  32 Points
15    Vicky Piria                 (Nissan)               31 Points
16    Gaby Dela Merced            (Maserati)             28 Points
17    Courtney Force              (Jaguar)               26 Points
18    Carmen Jorda                (Maserati)             21 Points
19    Natalia Kowalska            (Lotus)                18 Points
20    Mishael Abbott              (Morgan)               18 Points

Code: Select all

21    Collete Davis               (McLaren)              15 Points
22    Sarah McCune                (Nissan)               13 Points
23    Kazumi Mikami               (Bugatti)              10 Points
24    Emilee Tominovich           (Chevrolet)             5 Points
25    Marika Diana                (Chevrolet)             5 Points
26    Amber Anderson              (Toyota)                3 Points
27    Alison MacLeod              (Dodge)                 1 Point

Constructor's Championship

Code: Select all

01    Mercedes-Benz        372 Points
02    Audi                 339 Points
03    Ferrari              260 Points
04    Dodge                135 Points
05    Lotus                119 Points
06    BMW                   80 Points
07    McLaren               63 Points

Code: Select all

08    Jaguar                61 Points
09    Morgan                52 Points
10    Bugatti               50 Points
11    Maserati              49 Points
12    Nissan                44 Points
13    Chevrolet             10 Points
14    Toyota                 3 Points

Reject of the Race: The Ferrari drivers for this unnecessary double DNF. And if I would nominate an IIDOTR, it would definitely be Carmen Jorda!

And with this, I wish you all a Happy Easter, while I'm on my way now. Next up will be the Race of Champions, soon after I'm back. Maybe I'll even get time to think about how to improve the gameplay of the Junior Cup for next season, because right now it's a "jump in the car and step on the gas" type of series, which is perfect for spotting talented young drivers, but is one of the most disappointing types of game to play. We really need to fix this, if we want the Junior Cup to survive this season...

Anyway, that's it from me! See you all on Wednesday!

Hermann95 · Post by **Hermann95** » 18 Apr 2014, 12:51

I like the idea of chief engineers so i would like to promote Amber Anderson's race engineer as new chief engineer.
I have one question: will it still be possible to test 4 engineers during one test like it is now? It would be easier for the managers who don't have an idea of race engineers to find a good one(especially if they are RNG decided.)

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 18 Apr 2014, 13:32

Could Kowalska be adusted to DEF for the next few races please? Thanks!

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 18 Apr 2014, 14:38

We are pleased with 2nd and 3rd. Gotta keep that P1 in the WCC. We also are content with our two engineers and would like to keep them.

I too will be nipping out for Easter, I'm off to run in the Easter Weekend double race. Happy Easter all!

mike robers · Post by **mike robers** » 18 Apr 2014, 15:59

Good showing by Shannon today!

Colette also scored points too!

We would like to have Shannon's engineer be Chief Engineer for the team.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 18 Apr 2014, 18:21

I don't quite see the logic that 'not testing' means 'improving performance'. Guess the girls just needed some time off?

go_Rubens · Post by **go_Rubens** » 18 Apr 2014, 20:53

How about Ferrari drivers for ROTR?

V8fan12 · Post by **V8fan12** » 18 Apr 2014, 21:40

Another consistent performance from Chittenden

As for McLeod, I'm seriously considering giving her the boot...

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 19 Apr 2014, 01:39

This wrote:I don't quite see the logic that 'not testing' means 'improving performance'. Guess the girls just needed some time off?

If more than one team tests at a time, they might be able to see what the other team's doing. You can keep stuff hidden if you don't test!

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 19 Apr 2014, 16:28

Onxy Wrecked wrote:
This wrote:I don't quite see the logic that 'not testing' means 'improving performance'. Guess the girls just needed some time off?

If more than one team tests at a time, they might be able to see what the other team's doing. You can keep stuff hidden if you don't test!

But even following that logic, that couldn't suddenly make Carmen Jorda a competitive driver?

Unless of course, Maserati uses... magic! Fairies! :twisted:

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 19 Apr 2014, 18:20

This wrote:But even following that logic, that couldn't suddenly make Carmen Jorda a competitive driver?
Unless of course, Maserati uses... magic! Fairies!

Carmen Jorda's just riding around as the attrition withers away the field. She's an inferior driver in a decent car who has abundant luck.

go_Rubens · Post by **go_Rubens** » 19 Apr 2014, 19:37

This wrote:
Onxy Wrecked wrote:
This wrote:I don't quite see the logic that 'not testing' means 'improving performance'. Guess the girls just needed some time off?

If more than one team tests at a time, they might be able to see what the other team's doing. You can keep stuff hidden if you don't test!

But even following that logic, that couldn't suddenly make Carmen Jorda a competitive driver?
Unless of course, Maserati uses... magic! Fairies!

Wait, do you use Artemis Fowl?

In all seriousness, Jorda would be good to get to the end in a race, and score if there is high attrition. But the WGT series isn't really high attrition, unless it's wet.

AustralianStig · Post by **AustralianStig** » 21 Apr 2014, 06:57

Vanina Ickx wrote:Another faultless race from Alessandra, congratulations to her and a deserved result. Very impressed to see Elena take the race by the scruff of the neck today, and we look forward to more of the same.

Let's keep Myers on AGG for another round, please.

Turbogirl · Post by **Turbogirl** » 22 Apr 2014, 11:23

Hello everyone, I'm back from my short Easter vacation (sooner than I planned, because there was less traffic on my way back than expected), and I've also brought some ideas for improving the Junior Cup with me! But first let me answer the currently unanswered questions in this thread:

Hermann95 wrote:I have one question: will it still be possible to test 4 engineers during one test like it is now? It would be easier for the managers who don't have an idea of race engineers to find a good one (especially if they are RNG decided.)

Yes, this is still possible for the exact same reason you gave.

go_Rubens wrote:How about Ferrari drivers for ROTR?

Well, if you insist. I wanted to categorize it as "things happen", because it was Ferrari's very first double DNF this season, but ROTR it is...

And now let's get back to business!

As I once mentioned, the Junior Cup is currently a "jump in the car and step on the gas" type of game, which is absolutely perfect for spotting young, talented drivers, but you can't really call it a management series. Right now it barely offers any chance for players to influence the performance of their team. This needs to be fixed, because otherwise I could run the whole series myself with you guys just telling me what drivers to pick. I can do this for a one-off event like the Race of Champions (coming up soon), but not for a serious development series.

So here is my plan for next season: The Junior Cup will adapt the same rules and regulations as the World Championship, only for GT3 cars. This way players can also test constellations in the Junior Cup, which might be useful for the World Championship. I know, I once said, that adapting the same rules and regulations would make the Junior Cup indistinguishable from the World Championship, but after taking my own statement into consideration again, I changed my view of things.

The Junior Cup, even when run with the same rules, still features different drivers, cars, Chief Engineers, Technical Directors, circuits and so on. Plus, having the same rules as in the World Championship will help new players easing their way into the big league without being thrown into the cold water right away.

I have some additional features for the Junior Cup as well:

1.) Each team can sign one driver with a WDA World Championship Licence as a "gentlelady"-driver, giving this series a slight touch of the Dunlop Series, Wizzie has pointed me towards.

2.) The same variety of tyre and fuel suppliers as in the Women's GT World Championship.

3.) An upgrade system like in the World Championship, so that players can upgrade the cars too.

4.) From next season onwards all races will be held outside of Europe, so the European winter won't affect the events with constant heavy rain anymore.

Of course we will have a proper rules discussion at the end of this season, because there is still more to talk about (race calendar, etc.).

But why am I bringing this up right now then?

Because I think, we could introduce a few of these new rules for the second half of this season already. Not too many, because changing the entire concept halfway through the season isn't a very good idea, but at least one or two little changes to spice things up a bit won't hurt.

So here is my suggestion:

Let's put rules #2 and #3 (see above) into action for the remainder of this season.

Since my upgrade system works with so called "upgrade points" drivers receive by finishing under certain circumstances, I would grant each team the full amount of upgrade points their drivers had already scored, if this system would have been in use since the beginning of this season.

As for the tyre and fuel suppliers: I'm willing to grant you all an additional test session right before the next round to give each team ample time to test certain combinations. Because the teams are currently stationary in Belgium, let's simply move to Zolder, which is a perfect test track.

And to everyone who might be worrying about getting screwed over: The current suppliers of the Junior Cup, Goodyear and Shell, won't be restricted to supplying only 3 teams at maximum, so anyone who wants to keep everything as it is right now (because it works for his/her team), can do so. All the new tyre and fuel suppliers can only supply a maximum of 3 teams each season.

All these changes might not affect the current standings too much, but you will definitely notice them once the second season of the Junior Cup has started. Then again, it's all up to you. Tell me, what you think about these possible rule changes and if we should introduce two of them right now.

You can choose between:

A - Introduce both rules from Round 7 onwards
B - Introduce only new tyre and fuel suppliers from Round 7 onwards
C - Introduce only the upgrade system from Round 7 onwards
D - Keep everything as it is and introduce all new rules for the new season, but not now!

AustralianStig · Post by **AustralianStig** » 22 Apr 2014, 12:06

I'm not too upset if things are changed, but I'd prefer if they stay the same for this season, just because it's more realistic. But at the end of the day it's your series and I'll fit in with whatever is chosen

pasta_maldonado · Post by **pasta_maldonado** » 22 Apr 2014, 12:09

Morgan elect to wait until the new season before bringing in major rule changes.