GPM2 the Chairman Game, 1998 Season

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 30 Sep 2012, 16:57

Well judging by those testing times, Arrows' aim for the upcoming season is to get both our cars to qualify for the majority of the races this season.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 30 Sep 2012, 17:20

Nuppiz wrote:Additionally, because you've technically started a new game, the ten-year limit has been nullified so in practice you can run this up to and including 2007, instead of 2006 as what would've been with the 1997 Mod. If we do this at regular intervals, we can theoretically run this game for as long as we like.

I was thinking along these lines. I am tempted to move up to the next mod each time.

It has it's own Pro's and Con's though.

Pro:
No 10 year limit
Unlimited changes to the calender (Not stuck with the same 20 circuits)
Modernised Graphics and feel
Engines (at least for me!) are much easier to edit (No hex editing needed).

Con:
Team progress is effectively erased each year
Data has to copied over from one mod to the other
The Non-Nuppiz mods may prove tricky

takagi_for_the_win wrote:Well judging by those testing times, Arrows' aim for the upcoming season is to get both our cars to qualify for the majority of the races this season.

Whilst the times may be on the low end of the grid, everyone is very comftably within 107%
The reason why you are so low is because Minardi ditched their Hart engines and The Champions team ditched The Al Melling engine and also the useless Lavaggi.
Also remeber that Nissan have the McLaren and Jordan as their base cars and you have an Arrows. Though as you would expect the engine is not quite on Mercedes level yet!

With that, the first Qualifying session of the season and Ferrari take a 1-2 with Michael Schumacher the pole man. But they certainly do not have the dominance they seem to have had in testing, with Irvine clining on behind them in 3rd place. 4th and 7th is a better performance from Williams though they do seem to be a little behind Benetton at this stage. With Collard in 7th the top rookie and looking a little better for his debut race.
The surprise of the season so far is the pace of the Champions team with Villeneuve and Prost a fantastic 6th and 8th.

It was not a good session for Mercedes as Greg Moore in 9th is the engine supplier's soul runner in the top 10. The big talking Chevrolet team who claim to be in the hunt to win every race this season look a little sheepish in 11th, with Jarno Trulli in the Minardi outqualifying them!
Towards the back of the grid sit the Nissan, Sauber, Arrows and Jordan teams who are all of a high standard in what is a very high quality grid all around. Shinji Nakano who qualified 24th and last was over 2 seconds within the 107% rule, if we are lucky no cars will fall at this hurdle at all this year.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 30 Sep 2012, 17:37

I for one am in favour of moving to the next mod each year

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 30 Sep 2012, 17:41

JeremyMcClean wrote:I for one am in favour of moving to the next mod each year

Whereas I am not. It makes developing a new car a complete waste of time.

Post by **Nuppiz** » 30 Sep 2012, 18:47

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:
JeremyMcClean wrote:I for one am in favour of moving to the next mod each year

Whereas I am not. It makes developing a new car a complete waste of time.

Oh, I think I can figure out ways around that...

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 30 Sep 2012, 19:28

Juan Pablo Montoya wins intense Australian Grand Prix.

The very first race of the 1998 Formula 1 season was an absolute cracker!

The start of the formula one season came fractionally too early for Emmanuele Collard and Jarno Trulli, they both jumped the start and were hit by drive through penalties that dropped them way down the field. The opening laps saw all the cars maintain posistion with the two ferrari's two benetton's and Montoya reamin close together for the opening laps. Whilst the drive through penalty was like a death sentance for Collard, it took him a long while to regenerate heat in the tires and he and the cars stuck behind him (Johnny Herbert down) lost a lot of time. Al Unser Jnr had the misfortune of being the first retirement of the season, bursting his tires on the kerbing of turn 3 and promptly spinning out of the race.

Lap 10 came along and the first wave of pitstops began, Mika Hakkinen, Alain Prost and Olivier Panis pitted in for a refueling and fresh tires. Hakkinen emerged in P6 just behind Jaques Villeneuve and the Finn is clearly on a 3 stop strategy. 2 laps later, Montoya P3, pits and the few laps Hakkinen had struggled on cold tires had allowed the Colombian to emerge ahead less then a second ahead of Hakkinen. Meanwhile Olivier Panis was having a horrible time getting his tires up to temperature, so much so that he was easily the slowest car on the circuit and very soon a train of 10 cars were stuck behind the Frenchman. This is about the same time that the race leader Michael Schumacher came across the traffic and as a result the front 4 cars were severly slowed.

By the time they eventually pit at around lap 18 Montoya had taken the overall lead of the race! Things were not going so well for the jump starters Trulli and Collard, Trulli suffered a puncture on the same spot as Al Unser and a lap later Collard somehow managed to spin off on his own on the pit straight, both of them were out on the spot.

During the next period of the race the field had started to spread. Montoya and Hakkinen were never seperated by more then 2 seconds whilst Michael Schumacher and the Benettons were maintaing the gap and looking to make ground with one fewer pit stop. Jaques Villeneuve was very much driving his own race in 6th place with nobody around him, Ralf Schumacher had established a clear space ahead of the rest of the field in 7th whilst a huge battle was taking place for P8. The Gauthier of Greg Moore in peak conditions is very fast but it appears the car takes a while to heat it's tires and also had a tendency to wear it's tires very quickly once up to temerature was in P8, right behind him was Tom Kristensen in the very quick in a straight line minardi car, behind him was Jan Magnussen in the generally all round car of the Lola and right behind him was Jean Alesi in the Sauber. It appears the Sauber is much quicker in race trim then in qualifying which will no doubt please Alfa Romeo. Alain Prost was also in this fight in the champions car, his early pit stop strategy did not pay off and though in the slightly faster car he could not get by, then on lap 29 his Suspension failed and the Frenchman was forced to park the car.

Hakkinen was the first of the front runners to stop again and the Fin emerged still in 2nd place, though not very far ahead of team mate Michael Schumacher. The fin did not take long at all to get his tires up to temperature as within 2 laps of stopping he set the fastest lap of the race! Montoya had to react and promptly pitted, Williams performed a lightning pitstop and Montoya emerged just ahead of Hakkinen, yet the Colombian had to hurry to get temperature in to the tires. Mika Hakkinen made attack after attack on Montoya, including pulling right alongside on the pitstraight yet Montoya managed to just hang on. During the battle Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine closed right up on the pair and it looked like a 4 horse race with Verstappen a further 10 seconds back.

Meanwhile Jean Alesi's impressive race pace was confirmed as the Sauber had been the highest fueled of the drivers fighting for 8th, so much so that he emerged in 8th place comftably ahead of 9th placed man, Tom Kristensen, Greg Moore was 10th and Magnussen 11th. The buch still have room to fight among themselves though Jaques Villeneuve and Ralf Schumacher are over half a lap ahead of them and look safe to finish 6th and 7th should things remain as they are.

Mika Hakkinens fastest lap performance seems to be down to a case of low fuel as the Finn is making his 3rd pitstop of the race on lap 38 and what is this!? Michael Schumacher pits on the same lap, the pair were only a few seconds apart! Schumacher and the pit crew wave furiously at each other and Michael drives straight through the pitlane and has to eek out one more lap on the fuel. His self imposed drive through penalty will drop him behind Irvine who also pits on lap 38, but does not have to worry about his team mate sitting there! Michael did manage to limp back to the pits but has lost a lot of time and he emrges just in front of Jos Verstappen, the dutchman having pitted already. On cold tires Michael has his mirror full of the Benetton that the German does not pay full attention to what is happening in front of him... Chevrolet's Jeff Gordon ,who is not having the greatest of debuts, is limping around in last place in a car that is clearly not working properly when shortly after crossing the start finish line his car electrics give up all together and the American finds himself with no power riding what is essentially a barge, he had just began to pull of to the side when WHAM! Michael Schumacher's scarlett Ferrari smashes in to the back of him sideways, Michael had just had enough time to jerk the wheel and slam the breaks in avoidence before he crashed heavily putting him out of the race. Both of the drivers escaped without injury.

Jos Verstappen can laugh his way home as he takes P4 whilst the whole mess promotes rookie Tom Kristensen in to the points with no more pitstops to go. Montoya has managed to stretch a very large lead now he has no more pressure from Ferrari. So much so that on the final pitstop he emerges nearly half a minute ahead of the rest of the field and looks set to take victory.

Irvine on the other hand is now right with Hakkinen and as they are lapping traffic has the misfortune to encounter Johnny Herbert's Alfa Romeo engine detonate on itself and lose all purchase on the race track, Irvine had quick enough reaction to avoid smashing in the stricken Sauber but unforutunatly took himself out of the race. It seems Benetton's missfortune has carried over to this season too. So this leaves the final podium spot to be taken by Jos Verstappen on his return to formula 1 and this is how the race ended.

Juan Pablo Montoya naturally takes the lead of the drivers championship in a Williams that is nowhere near as dominant as last years car, this really is a race Ferrari should have won. The final point went to the Gauthier of Greg Moore so the top 8 finishers, indeed top 9, were all driving for different teams. Whilst Ralf Schumacher's 5th place along with his 2 points for IBR Yameha last season means that Ralf is no longer an F1 reject. The Champions team record by far their best result with 4th place in a race where Jaques Villeneuve was pretty much on his own from the onset. Of course this is a debut points finish for Chevrolet and Chevrolet engines and Alfa Romeo score points on their F1 return.

RoTR Michael Schumacher, from pole posistion to pitstop mishap and silly crash. Collard is a close second.

Ralf Schumacher is reportedly unwell and will miss the next round at Interlagos, Chevrolet have no test/reserve drivers so a driver needs to be chosen ASAP

Drivers Championship
1.Juan Pablo Montoya 10
2.Mika Hakkinen 8
3.Jos Verstappen 6
4.Jaques Vileneuve 5
5.Ralf Schumacher 4
6.Jean Alesi 3
7.Tom Kristensen 2
8.Greg Moore 1

Constructors Championship
1.Williams 10
2.Ferrari 8
3.Benetton 6
4.Champions 5
5.Chevrolet 4
6.Sauber 3
7.Minardi 2
8.Gauthier 1

pasta_maldonado · Post by **pasta_maldonado** » 30 Sep 2012, 19:34

Today was a mixed blessing. It's fantastic to see the engines having the pace in the rac, but Herbert's engine failure concerns us and it is something we will be taking a close look at.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 30 Sep 2012, 20:12

"We have every reason to believe that the tyres affected our pace today. Nonetheless, we are pleased of our performance today considering the circumstances involving the off-season."

Also, who is Emanuele Collard? And who owns Champions again? Why did they hire Jacques Villeneuve??

Also, how can I upgrade the car again? I'm a bit rusty on this :lol:

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 30 Sep 2012, 20:30

JeremyMcClean wrote:"We have every reason to believe that the tyres affected our pace today. Nonetheless, we are pleased of our performance today considering the circumstances involving the off-season."

Also, who is Emanuele Collard? And who owns Champions again? Why did they hire Jacques Villeneuve??

Also, how can I upgrade the car again? I'm a bit rusty on this

Klon owns the Champions team and they hired Villeneuve on a pre conditioned deal, Williams announced they would sack Villeneueve if he did not win the '97 championship, The Champions team agreed a deal with Williams saying they would take Villeneuve if Jaques did not win the title. Jaques did not win the title and Champions got their driver.

Collards unlikley path to F1 started as a test driver to the planned Prost team, Gauthier brought out the team and Alain Prost fled to the Champions team. Collard was immediatly removed from Gauthier/Prost and replaced with Nick Heidfeld, so Gauthier could seal the deal with Mercedes. Meanwhile at Williams the original line up was Jaques Villeneuve, Heinz Harold Frentzen and Juan Pablo Montoya. Frentzen was poached by Nissan and this promoted Montoya to the 2nd driver seat at Williams, they had no reserve drivers so Emanuele Collard took the seat and since Villeneuve left the team and Williams have not signed anybody else Colllard is now the number 2 driver. As for who is Collard in real life? He is a driver that seems to specialise in endurance racing taking part in every Le Mans 24 hours since 1995.

As for upgrading the car, this will come in private testing that I will begin just before the European season which will be just before round 3 at the Nurburgring.

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 30 Sep 2012, 20:49

Edward Restov wrote:On the whole, I am very satisfied with events from this race. Before the season, I stated that I would be happy if we managed to qualify for the majority of events. Here, not only both cars qualified, and qualified comfortably, but both cars ran faultlessly to the end of the race, which I see as a massive achievement, not only for BMW, but for our own engineers.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 03 Oct 2012, 06:48

That's quite disgraceful drive from Schumacher. But perhaps he's too over-confident.

Meanwhile, I just created the wiki pages for this series: 1997 and 1998.

WaffleCat · Post by **WaffleCat** » 03 Oct 2012, 10:19

Mr Gerald Pereria wrote:Wow.Alesi really pulled a great performance out of the bag,to climb all the way to sixth!However, these new engines are not that good in quali trim and Herbert's explosion was horrific to see,but in a quicker time,these engines could get the job done.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 03 Oct 2012, 11:27

Shadaza, please tell me which drivers are available to hire for the test driver role (I sense Collard won't be much longer in the main seat). Also, I want to upgrade the engine. How can I do that?

BTW, I feel a bit guilty for being AWOL in this thread...

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 03 Oct 2012, 22:22

DanielPT wrote:Shadaza, please tell me which drivers are available to hire for the test driver role (I sense Collard won't be much longer in the main seat). Also, I want to upgrade the engine. How can I do that?

BTW, I feel a bit guilty for being AWOL in this thread...

There are a number of good drivers available with plenty of top line experience, most notably David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello and Heinz Harold Frentzen.
There are also a number of promising rookies such as '97 F3000 champion Ricardo Zonta, '96 champion Jorg Muller and a whole host of other drivers. Not only that but test drivers from other teams may be willing to step forward to the 2nd seat at Williams if you would so wish, of course this depends on whether or not their manager would allow it.

Engine upgrades can only be controlled by whoever owns the engine, Renault is not currently owned by anybody and as Benetton currently also run Renault engines it won't be easy to automatically take control of the engine.

you shouldn't feel guilty about being AWOL considering how long I put this thing on delay.

Ralf Schumacher is Ill for the Brazilian GP and needs a replacement, Kostas!

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 03 Oct 2012, 23:15

Christ, um, don't I even have a test driver? If I don't I'll have to hire one! Regardless, seeing as he's currently a free agent I'll stick Frentzen in for the next race.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 03 Oct 2012, 23:31

How does one upgrade the car again? I've forgotten :oops:

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 03 Oct 2012, 23:42

JeremyMcClean wrote:How does one upgrade the car again? I've forgotten

By testing. I will run private testing just before the European window, which as it so happens is round 3 the Nurburgring.

So the next race is Brazil which I will run tomorrow and then testing will be open.
You can also ask me to change parts on your car, by default I have left the AI to manage the parts but they might not have the best parts equipped, the main reason you may want to change car parts is if you have continued part failures.

Heinz Harold Frentzen will be the stand in driver for the sick Ralf Schumacher. Frentzen is keen to show what he can do after being turfed out of Nissan.

As for the Wiki, I would love to fill it in but I have no idea how to do the F1 style tables.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 04 Oct 2012, 12:22

I will hire that Jorg Muller bloke. He seems to be talented. Also, I want to improve my drivers.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 04 Oct 2012, 14:20

DanielPT wrote:I will hire that Jorg Muller bloke. He seems to be talented. Also, I want to improve my drivers.

Williams have signed Jorg Muller to take the reserve seat at Williams. It is believed that this signing puts added pressure on Emmanuel Collard to perform. Jorg Muller was Formula 3000 champion of 1996 and was in line to be test driver at Arrows only to be replaced by Alex Wurz.

Heinz Harold Frentzen is making a one off return, replacing the sick Ralf Schumacher for Interlagos.

Michael Schumacher makes it 2/2 for pole positions for team and driver as the field is near enough in car order the entire length of the grid! Benetton come next over half a second behind Ferrari. Collard takes his best ever grid slot of 6th place just behind Melbourne race winner Montoya. Minardi look strong here with Kristensen having the upper hand on Trulli. Gauthier round off the top 10. The Champions team are a little behind from where they were last race though the big gainers in qualifying were Arrows. In Melbourne Wurz was 23rd, here he lines up 10 places further up the grid! Lola are left scratching their heads in 19th and 20th but is has been a disaster of a session for the Nissan teams, still lacking power on this low downforce circuit.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 04 Oct 2012, 18:31

Michael Schumacher wins, Hakkinen takes championship lead.

It may look like Michael Schumacher dominated this race, with pole position, victory and fastest lap with it, however he did face a stern test.
As soon as the race started Mika Hakkinen swooped in to the lead from Verstappen, Irvine, Collard, Montoya and Trulli. Tom Kristensen was handed a stop go penalty for jumping the start, rather harshly as he had lost out to teammate Trulli anyway.

Heinz Harold Frentzen's one off return to F1 was very brief indeed as only 8 laps had passed when a puncture took him out of the race, a few laps later Jan Magnussen also picked up a puncture. There have been to many puncture related dnf's already this season! Chevrolets day would only become more miserable as Jeff Gordon's car ground to a halt with less than 1/3rd of the race run. 2 electrical faults in a row for Gordon.

Jos Verstappen was the first driver to make a pit stop, such was the pace of the top 7 cars that he emerged still in the points as the Gauthier, Champions and Arrows cars were left to duke it out for the scraps. Hakkinen and Collard came in the next lap and Collard emerged ahead of Verstappen. Schumacher, Irvine, Montoya and with the exception of the Italian came out ahead of all the others, Trulli was behind Collard but ahead of Verstappen.
It was clear the later the stop the better it turned out to be.
This turned out in Arrows favour as they ran much longer then anyone else, pitting laps 20 and 21. However over the next few laps their race fell apart with a 3rd puncture of the race taking out Wurz and Damon Hill was given a drive through penalty for speeding in the pitlane, dropping him well down the field with a heavy car and cold tires.

The same pattern continued to play out though with Verstappen flying, briefly the Dutchman was challenging for the lead after climbing 4 places in 3 laps, however it became clear he was running very low fuel and was on a 4 stop strategy!
Gauthier were not having the tire wear problems they had at Melbourne but their pace was nowhere near that of the leaders, Alain Prost and the Sauber team were challenging them for the minor points. Sauber's pace seems to come from nowhere as at race start they were very slow and losing ground to the Arrows team, yet over half distance they became the quickest car outside the top 7 and Tom Kristensen, the Dane had the pace to match the leaders only it took him a long time to recover from the penalty, he had just about passed the Nissan, Jordan and Lola cars when his gearbox broke. Al Unser had an electrical fault on the very same lap and ended a miserable race for the Lola team and their 2nd double DNF.

Whilst Alain Prost was fighting for points, Jacques Villeneuve was anonymous all race. In the end it did not matter which was faster as both of them finished their races in the kitty litter after some very unprofessional spins. After another Alfa Romeo detonation, this time taking out Alesi, a key moment in the race and perhaps the championship occurred. Juan Pablo Montoya was having a fine race at what is his "home" circuit (or at least closest to Colombia) and was fending off Hakkinen for 3rd when he came to lap Greg Moore. Greg was perhaps more concerned with catching his team mate Panis when he did not see Montoya behind him, nor the blue flags, and the pair collided taking them both out of the race on the spot. Williams were livid as the crash has cost them the lead of both championships!

There was even more possible late race drama as Ferrari seem to have miscalculated their fuel, Michael Schumacher had slowed down dramatically on the final laps and had Irvine all over the back of him and Mika Hakkinen pitted for a splash of fuel right at the death, though he was still clear enough ahead of Trulli who had just overtaken Collard for 4th. The Ferraris did managed to hold it together for 1st and 3rd and Eddie Irvine came home in yet another career 2nd place, he looks set to win a race sooner or later!

Rotr:Greg Moore, there may well be a stewards inquiry and further sanctions for his Montoya crash.

Unrejectification Jarno Trulli
First Points Emmanuel Collard

Drivers Championship

1.Mika Hakkinen 14
2=Juan Pablo Montoya 10
2=Michael Schumacher 10
4.Jos Verstappen 9
5.Eddie Irvine 8
6=Jacques Villeneuve 5
6=Jarno Trulli 5
8=Ralf Schumacher 4
8=Emmanuel Collard 4
10.Jean Alesi 3
11=Tom Kristensen 2
11=Olivier Panis 2
13=Greg Moore 1
13=Johnny Herbert 1

Constructors
1.Ferrari 24
2.Benetton 17
3.Williams 14
4.Minardi 7
5.Champions 5
=6.Sauber 4
=6.Chevrolet 4
8.Gauthier 3

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 04 Oct 2012, 18:37

New parts for Gordon please. Hopefully that solves these electrical issues...

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 04 Oct 2012, 18:53

kostas22 wrote:New parts for Gordon please. Hopefully that solves these electrical issues...

Done, refit Gordon with a slightly heavier electrical system.

I have 2 orders of business.

1) What do with Greg Moore taking out a car lapping him, more to the point what shall be done about lapped traffic interfering with the leaders in general.

2) Private testing is now allowed and therefore teams can plan one private test before the next race. (Testing shall be an equal number of laps divided among the number of drivers a team brings to a test.)

As a reminder, the focus areas for testing are:

Car Performance
Driver Skill
Pit Stops
Full Race Simulation
Car Improvements

Choose one per driver.

pasta_maldonado · Post by **pasta_maldonado** » 04 Oct 2012, 19:20

Alfa Romeo politely inquire if there is any way that we can improve the reliability of our engines

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 04 Oct 2012, 19:31

"Yes!" five times, that's the only worda Stefano says when Schumi wins and Mika went to podium position again.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 04 Oct 2012, 19:50

Chevrolet will go testing. Jeff Gordon will work on Driver Skill and Ralf Schumacher will work on Car Performance, plus with no test driver currently hired, we're picking up Heinz-HARALD Frentzen full-time as test and reserve. He will work on Car Improvements. However, if Schumacher is still taken ill by the time the test begins, Frentzen will swap to Ralf's testing schedule and Improvements testing will be canned.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 04 Oct 2012, 20:07

Lola would obviously like to test before the next race. The following drivers will do the following:

Magnussen - Car Performance
Unser - Driver Skill
Fittipaldi - Pit Stops
Burti - Full Race Simulation

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 04 Oct 2012, 20:56

JeremyMcClean wrote:Lola would obviously like to test before the next race. The following drivers will do the following:

Magnussen - Car Performance
Unser - Driver Skill
Fittipaldi - Pit Stops
Burti - Full Race Simulation

Where would you like to test? Silverstone? Otherwise this is fine.

kostas22 wrote:Chevrolet will go testing. Jeff Gordon will work on Driver Skill and Ralf Schumacher will work on Car Performance, plus with no test driver currently hired, we're picking up Heinz-HARALD Frentzen full-time as test and reserve. He will work on Car Improvements. However, if Schumacher is still taken ill by the time the test begins, Frentzen will swap to Ralf's testing schedule and Improvements testing will be canned.

Schumacher has recovered for testing and Heinz-Harald Frentzen is fine to take on the test driver role. I am assuming you want to test at Imola?

pasta_maldonado wrote:Alfa Romeo politely inquire if there is any way that we can improve the reliability of our engines

The problem with the engine is overheating and that problem is more likely to do with Sauber's cooling, or lack thereof, rather than the engine itself. Though when the next batch of engine upgrades come, you may want to consider this (more power=harder to cool)

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 04 Oct 2012, 21:01

Shadaza wrote:
JeremyMcClean wrote:Lola would obviously like to test before the next race. The following drivers will do the following:

Magnussen - Car Performance
Unser - Driver Skill
Fittipaldi - Pit Stops
Burti - Full Race Simulation

Where would you like to test? Silverstone? Otherwise this is fine.

Silverstone will do as long as it is cheap!!!

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 04 Oct 2012, 21:30

Shadaza wrote:
kostas22 wrote:Chevrolet will go testing. Jeff Gordon will work on Driver Skill and Ralf Schumacher will work on Car Performance, plus with no test driver currently hired, we're picking up Heinz-HARALD Frentzen full-time as test and reserve. He will work on Car Improvements. However, if Schumacher is still taken ill by the time the test begins, Frentzen will swap to Ralf's testing schedule and Improvements testing will be canned.

Schumacher has recovered for testing and Heinz-Harald Frentzen is fine to take on the test driver role. I am assuming you want to test at Imola?

Yeah okay.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 05 Oct 2012, 14:08

Also as a reminder, take times with a pinch of salt. Drivers with less than 3 star experience are slower when human controlled/testing.

Testing Silverstone

1.Christian Fittipaldi 1:29:125
2.Al Unser JR 1:32:070
3.Jan Magnussen 1:32:333
4.Luciano Burti 1:34:613

Al Unser did not feel his driving had improved.
Jan Magnussen claims car performance improved from his first run, could not improve any further.
Pitstops look sharp
Burti's race simulation had to be shortened by 8 laps because of EMS problems (53/61 laps)
Burti however has improved his stamina and feels more confident.

Overall a successful test for Lola though reliability concerns are still an issue.

Testing Imola

1.Heinz-Harald Frentzen 1:30:224
2.Jeff Gordon 1:31:154
3.Ralf Schumacher 1:31:353

Frentzen claims upgrades are working and managed to work his time down considerably.
Jeff Gordon claims he has not improved his driving, though did improve his times after each run.
Ralf Schumacher claims not to have found any extra performance in the car, but improved considerably from shakedown.

All drivers report the car needs more testing, which suggests the car has a lot of potential.
The engineers and drivers know how to set up the car better if little else.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 05 Oct 2012, 14:17

Gauthier would like to send Panis, Moore, and Heidfeld to Jerez, with the singular goal of figuring out how to fix this goddamn mess of a car, or if that's even possible (car performance/car improvements).

EDIT: Actually, no, make that Silverstone.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 05 Oct 2012, 14:35

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:Gauthier would like to send Panis, Moore, and Heidfeld to Jerez, with the singular goal of figuring out how to fix this goddamn mess of a car, or if that's even possible (car performance/car improvements).

EDIT: Actually, no, make that Silverstone.

Silverstone it is!

1.Olivier Panis 1:30:201 (Car Performance)
2.Greg Moore 1:32:049 (Car Performance)
3.Nick Heidfeld 1:35:052 (Car Improvements)

Olivier Panis claimed to have found improvements on 2 of his runs
Greg Moore found a further improvement on one of his runs.
Things were more inconclusive with the car upgrades as Nick Heidfeld claims more testing is needed.

Overall Gauthier should be satisfied with the test, Panis especially seemed to lower his time quite significantly (over a second) Moore found time but not as much (0.3 seconds) how this converts to the races is yet to be seen of course. Unfortunately Nick Heidfeld's testing was fruitless.

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 05 Oct 2012, 16:35

Arrows would like to send Hill, Wurz, Webber and Bourdais testing at Silverstone. Hill will work on car improvement, Wurz will work on car performance and Webber and Bourdais will work on driver skill.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 05 Oct 2012, 17:19

Can IBR go testing again at Monza? We will use the same three drivers, but a different programme;

SCHUMACHER // Car Improvements
GORDON // Car Improvements
FRENTZEN // Car Performance

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 05 Oct 2012, 17:26

kostas22 wrote:Can IBR go testing again at Monza? We will use the same three drivers, but a different programme;

SCHUMACHER // Car Improvements
GORDON // Car Improvements
FRENTZEN // Car Performance

You can test again after the next race. I know we are in an historical era of unlimited testing but I feel one test between individual European races will prevent things from getting out of hand, sorry.

takagi_for_the_win wrote:Arrows would like to send Hill, Wurz, Webber and Bourdais testing at Silverstone. Hill will work on car improvement, Wurz will work on car performance and Webber and Bourdais will work on driver skill.

Silverstone, Arrows

1.Damon Hill 1:32:146
2.Alexander Wurz 1:34:205
3.Mark Webber 1:36:463
4.Sebastien Bourdais 1:37:466

Car improvements seem to be working though more testing is needed
Alex Wurz found an improvement in the car on his final run
Neither Mark Webber or Sebastien Bourdais improved their driving ability.

A mediocre session for Arrows, they did find some improvement though it was only a small gain.
Webber and Bourdais may not have improved but this was their first drive of the car and they are both young.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 05 Oct 2012, 18:27

kostas22 wrote:Can IBR go testing again at Monza? We will use the same three drivers, but a different programme;

SCHUMACHER // Car Improvements
GORDON // Car Improvements
FRENTZEN // Car Performance

Minardi will join IBR at this test if possible, with the following schedule:

Trulli - car performance
Kristensen - car improvements
Tuero - car improvements

WaffleCat · Post by **WaffleCat** » 05 Oct 2012, 19:47

Mr Gerald Pereria would like Sauber to test at the Nurburgring to focus on car improvements with all three drivers.

the Masked Lapwing · Post by **the Masked Lapwing** » 05 Oct 2012, 20:33

Nissan will test at Silverstone with Lowndes working on driver skill and Fontana on car performance.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 05 Oct 2012, 20:49

I'd like to have new parts put in for the team, if it's possible.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 05 Oct 2012, 21:23

Monza, Minardi

1.Jarno Trulli 1:28:619
2.Tom Kristensen 1:29:200
3.Esteban Tuero 1:29:550

Jarno Trulli found an performance improvement on one of his runs
Tom Kristensen consitently gave good feedback about the car improvments
Esteban Tuero also claims the car improvements look good.

An excellent test session for Minardi, the development of the Minardi looks spot on
Trulli found performance on his last run and went half a second quicker than his previous best.
The team still feel the chassis needs more testing.

Nurburgring, Sauber

1.Johnny Herbert 1:24:218
2.Jean Alesi 1:24:233
3.Mika Salo 1:24:741

All 3 drivers report that the results look good and that the chassis no longer needs testing.

Sauber have achieved all they have set out to accomplish today with both Herbert and Alesi working down to consistent 24.2's.
Salo is a little behind but this is the first he has driven the car.

Silverstone, Nissan

1.Noberto Fontana 1:33:015
2.Craig Lowndes 1:34:215

Noberto Fontana finished several runs claiming car performance has improved.
Craig Lowndes does not feel his driving ability has improved.

A confusing day for Nissan.
Fontana was consitently doing low 33's, continually claiming the car had improved but this was not evident on the time sheets.
Lowndes on the other hand set his best lap on his first run and went slower each time out after! Though both drivers say the chassis feels good.

JeremyMcClean wrote:I'd like to have new parts put in for the team, if it's possible.

All worn parts have been replaced and car is running best possible parts (supposedly).