GPM2 the Chairman Game, 1998 Season

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 05 Oct 2012, 22:08

Autosport wrote:Minardi hails "perfect start"

Giancarlo Minardi has heaped praise on his small team for transforming their fortunes over the course of the winter months into 1998. With the season two races old, his drivers Jarno Trulli and Tom Kristensen have both been challenging for points, and podiums look within Minardi's reach, a feat that has never been achieved for the team, and a result that would be immensely popular throughout the paddock. Minardi himself attributes the team's new-found success down to a number of factors, "the Ferrari engines of course are helping tremendously, but the chassis too is good and there is still more to come." Minardi recently ran a test at Monza, with Trulli and Kristensen joined by test driver Esteban Tuero. All three contributed to some useful improvements to the cars, but it's clear that with what looks to be a very strong package, there's still more to come. 1998 looks set to be a watershed for Minardi, the question remains though, whether they can build on the success for future years.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 06 Oct 2012, 16:38

Montoya takes William's first pole this season ahead of the Ferrari's. Collard splits the two Benetton's and the Minardi's lock out the final points places. Fisichella and Fontana have significantly better sessions around the more technical Nurburgring circuit finishing the top 10. Sauber Alfa Romeo have their best session this year ahead of the dissapointed Mercedes and Chevrolet running teams. Panis in 21st represents Gauthiers worst ever grid posistion. While Alex Wurz lines up plumb last for Arrows following his P13 in Brazil.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 06 Oct 2012, 17:12

What the everloving shite was that!?

pasta_maldonado · Post by **pasta_maldonado** » 06 Oct 2012, 17:17

Alfa Romeo wrote:*Smugger than a petty traffic warden who's just issued a parking ticket for 1mm of the car being in contact with double-yellow lines*

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 07 Oct 2012, 20:46

Juan Pablo Montoya throws away victory, Michael Schumacher wins and takes joint championship lead!
What looked set to be a rather stale race was turned on it's head when Montoya lost victory despite being some 20 seconds in the lead with no traffic in sight.

Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine ran a very heavy fuel load at the first stint and this put them in 2nd and 3rd, promoted to 1st and 2nd because of Montoya's muppetry.
Giancarlo Fisichella drove a fantastic race including excellent pace on high fuel to take a superb 4th place and unrejectification managing to fend off a late challenge from Jos Verstappen in the 2nd Benetton. Tom Kristensen took his 2nd points finish in 3 races with a good 6th place, 1 step towards unrejectification. Montoya managed to eek out a single point as only Herbert was able to clear the stricken Williams before the flag dropped. Sauber were solid the entire race.

It was a day to forget for many teams, the heavy Chevrolet cars could not work around this technical circuit. Jarno Trulli was on course for points before his gearbox went, the Italian though did managed to break the lap record before his car bit the dust. Lola once again had a double DNF, both cars were out with gear box failures. Noberto Fontana looked like an outside bet for points before spinning at the chicane near pit entry, simultaneously Jeff Gordon spun at the beginning of the same straight.
A horrible weekend for Gauthier saw Panis retire after only 6 laps and Greg Moore embarrassingly spin as he left the pit lane. Whilst neither Arrows driver made it to half distance through no fault of their own.

Drivers Championship
1.Michael Schumacher 20 (2 Wins)
2.Mika Hakkinen 20
3.Eddie Irvine 16
4.Jos Verstappen 13
5.Juan Pablo Montoya 11
6=Jacques Villeneuve 5
6=Jarno Trulli 5
6=Giancarlo Fisichella 5
6=Tom Kristensen 5
10=Emmanuel Collard 4
10=Ralf Schumacher
12.Johnny Herbert 3
13.Jean Alesi 3
14.Olivier Panis 2
15.Greg Moore 1

Constructors Championship
1.Ferrari 40
2.Benetton 29
3.Williams 15
4.Minardi 10
5.Sauber 6
6=Jordan 5
6=Champions 5
8.Chevrolet 4
9. Gauthier 3

Let me know your testing plans for before round 4. Next race, Imola.

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 07 Oct 2012, 21:16

The Team Of Champions would like to test in Magny-Cours if that is possible with Alain Prost and Tony Kanaan working on Car Performance and Jacques Villeneuve doing a Race Distance simulation.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 07 Oct 2012, 22:21

Lola would like to do another test at Silverstone with the following drivers:

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

We are also looking for a third test driver for anyone who is interested. If Mercedes would like to offer a driver at a discounted price then that would be OK as well. If the FIA does not allow a third test driver then that is OK as well.

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 07 Oct 2012, 22:27

Arrows would like to go testing at Silverstone again, with Hill, Wurz, Webber and Bourdais all working on car improvement.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 07 Oct 2012, 22:34

So we test the car and it gets even worse? Brilliant.

Alright, let's get Panis, Moore, and Heidfeld testing again, this time at Paul Ricard. All working on Car Performance.

Out of curiousity, what's the staff situation for everybody?

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 07 Oct 2012, 22:36

When can Chevy get the weight of the bloody engine reduced??

the Masked Lapwing · Post by **the Masked Lapwing** » 08 Oct 2012, 00:36

Nissan will test at Silverstone again, with the same plans as last time.

WaffleCat · Post by **WaffleCat** » 08 Oct 2012, 03:24

Mr. Gerald Pereria wrote:
The Alfa engines are functioning beautifully.Everything is just falling in sync for the car and engine and e are scoring points consistently.Just amazing and I hope this run continues even stronger.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 08 Oct 2012, 10:17

the Masked Lapwing wrote:Nissan will test at Silverstone again, with the same plans as last time.

Williams wants to test at Silverstone too.

Montoya: Car Improvements
Collard: Driver Skill
Muller: Car Improvements.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 08 Oct 2012, 16:55

JeremyMcClean wrote:
We are also looking for a third test driver for anyone who is interested. If Mercedes would like to offer a driver at a discounted price then that would be OK as well. If the FIA does not allow a third test driver then that is OK as well.

There is no rule on the number of drivers a team can run, it is up for the chairboard to enforce any rules on that matter. Though I will add that running more test drivers does NOT mean more laps or runs in testing, the workload will just be shared among all the drivers.

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:
Out of curiousity, what's the staff situation for everybody?

Designers:

Ferrari: 47
Williams: 43
Benetton:34
Jordan: 23
Gauthier: 22
Nissan: 10 (I don't get it either as this is the former McLaren team)
Sauber: 9
Arrows: 8
Lola: 6
Chevrolet: 6
Minardi: 5
Champions: 5

Engineers
Williams: 47
Benetton: 37
Ferrari: 36
Gauthier: 21
Nissan: 10
Jordan: 10
Sauber: 9
Arrows: 9
Minardi: 9
Champions: 8
Chevrolet: 7
Lola: 5

Mechanics
Williams: 46
Ferrari 42
Benetton: 30
Jordan: 29
Nissan: 28
Gauthier: 27
Arrows: 8
Chevrolet: 8
Champions: 8
Lola: 6
Sauber: 5
Minardi: 4

So the staff situation seems to be as you would mostly expect, though either the Nissan AI sacked half the staff or on game start they rolled a low number of staff I am not sure. The top 3 teams currently have a monopoly on staff numbers as well. You can hire more staff if you wish, though I don't recommend anyone go crazy with it, I do like to keep a level of realism. (And for the most part I think things are believable enough.)

Currently I am in the process of running the testing.

Post by **tommykl** » 08 Oct 2012, 17:15

Jordan would like to hire five engineers at a reasonable level.

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 08 Oct 2012, 17:27

Arrows would like to hire 2 exceptional designers, 3 exceptional designers and 3 exceptional mechanics please.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 08 Oct 2012, 18:13

Two more mechanics and two more engineers would do just fine

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 08 Oct 2012, 18:43

Hire 5 more top-level designers and engineers. Also, when do the contracts for my chief designer and chief engineer run out?

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 08 Oct 2012, 21:25

Champions

1.Jacques Villeneuve 1:19:253
2.Alain Prost 1:19:506
3.Tony Kanaan 1:21:820

Jacques Villeneuve still tired
Prost found nothing
Kanaan found some impovements

Very little was achived testing today, Kanaan at least got some work in the car and found improvements.

Lola

1.Christian Fittipaldi 1:29:123
2.Luciano Burti 1:35:843
3.Jan Magnussen 1:41:074 (Wet)
4.Al Unser 1:42:019 (wet)

Christian Fittipaldi claims he is still tired after testing
Luciano Burti claims he is still tired after testing but is more confident with the car
Jan Magnussen and Al Unser both found nothing, though Magnussen is clearly the better wet weather driver.

Not a great day for Lola, neither Fittipaldi or Burti made a full distance, though they had been given the cars after Magnussen and Unser.
Magnussen and Unser did not find improvements in the wet conditions, but at least they have some wet weather practice.
Magnussen looks very good in the rain conditions.

Arrows

Damon Hill 1:31:560
Alex Wurz 1:34:103
Mark webber 1:35:440
Sebastian Bourdai 1:37:281

Damon Hill and Alex Wurz both think the improvements look good
Likewise Webber and Bourdais.

Arrows look like they are going in the right direction though not much time was found this test.
Though Webber went faster each time he went in the car shaving nearly half a second.

Gauthier

Olivier Panis 1:19:938
Greg Moore 1:21:026
Nick Heidfeld 1:23:340

Each driver claims to have found an improvement.
Little change in the times though.

On the whole a positive test for Gauthier hopefully the improvements correlate to the race track.

Williams

Juan Pablo Montoya 1:30:966
Jorg Muller 1:32:632
Emmanuel Collard 1:33:923

Both Montoya and Muller consistently saying car upgrades look good.
Emmanuel Collard did not feel his driving improve.

An interesting test at Williams, the car looked very good at the test as the upgrades are clearly working
Collard on the other hand did not have such a great day, getting slower as the day went on and comprehensively beaten by Jorg Muller.

Nissan

Noberto Fontana 1:32:706
Craig Lowndes 1:34:853

A frustrating day for Nissan, Fontana claims to have found one small improvement but aside from that it was a total waste,
Lowndes does not feel his driving has improved.

------------------------------

All those that requested staff additions have had the staff added with no problems. Other than Williams the majority of tests did not produce very much this interval.
I am not sure if Chevrolet wish to test or not so I decided not to run the test in case they were against it, I will leave the option to test open.

The next race is Imola and I plan to run it tomorrow.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 08 Oct 2012, 21:39

Yes! Chevrolet wanted to run that test at Monza as we said earlier! And we need to hire a shitload of staff! What kind of works team has SIX designers?! Disgraceful.

We want 30 more designers, 30 more engineers and 30 more mechanics! The current staffing levels are a disgrace...

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 09 Oct 2012, 00:38

kostas22 wrote:Yes! Chevrolet wanted to run that test at Monza as we said earlier! And we need to hire a shitload of staff! What kind of works team has SIX designers?! Disgraceful.

We want 30 more designers, 30 more engineers and 30 more mechanics! The current staffing levels are a disgrace...

Chevrolet, Monza Testing

Heinz Harald Frentzen 1:28:783
Ralf Schumacher 1:29:518
Jeff Gordon 1:30:009

Heinz Harold Frentzen claims to have found 2 car improvements
Jeff Gordon claims upgrade results look good consistently
Ralf Schumacher is not so sure.

A HUGE performance increase was found by Frentzen, immediatly all 3 drivers improved their lap times by around 0.8 seconds.
The second increase was significantly smaller though Frentzen did improve his best lap by a tenth.

Chevrolet have also increased their staffing dramatically, bringing in nearly 100 top qualified designers, engineers and mechanics from across America and Europe.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 09 Oct 2012, 07:31

8 tenths? In the words of Jonathan Legard; "That'll do."

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 09 Oct 2012, 15:55

Has our testing sanctions expired yet? If so, we would like to test at Imola. And add 5 trainees in all departments.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 09 Oct 2012, 16:19

FMecha wrote:Has our testing sanctions expired yet? If so, we would like to test at Imola. And add 5 trainees in all departments.

The only rule was that you can not test at the same circuit as Wind-Lamborghini
That would be down to FIA president but you can test at Imola no problem as 1) Wind-Lamborghini no longer exist and 2) the former lamborghini team tested at Monza this week anyway.

Any particular area you want to test on the car and do you wish to test all 3 of your drivers or just the race drivers?
The options are:

Car Performance
Car Upgrades
Full Race Simulation
Driver Performance
and Pit Stops

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 09 Oct 2012, 19:00

Schumacher and Hakkinen: Upgrades
Testdriver (Redon?): Driver performance

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 09 Oct 2012, 19:35

FMecha wrote:Schumacher and Hakkinen: Upgrades
Testdriver (Redon?): Driver performance

1.Mika Hakkinen 1:26:250
2.Michael Schumacher 1:26:947
3.Laurent Redon 1:30:422

Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher seem to think the upgrades are on the right track, but not with 100% certainty.
Laurent Redon did not think his driving has improved.

What looked to be a very mediocre test with no real positive results was transformed on Mika Hakkinen's final run, he went from consistent 26:9's to a 1:26:250, maybe Ferrari found something major, they were not even looking at car performance in particular so it is hard to tell, but it look promising. Both Hakkinen and Schumacher are well inside lap record pace!

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 09 Oct 2012, 19:43

Ferrari dominate qualifying in front of thousands of fans, Michael Schumacher making it 3 poles out of 4. Williams and Benetton are squabble after the next 2 rows with Minardi a clear 7th and 8th. Very little separates the Champions, Sauber, Chevrolet, Lola and Gauthier teams as they fight for the the top 10 places as Fontana latches himself to the back of this group. Whilst Jordan may have had a strong Nurburgring grand prix they are stuck at the bottom with Arrows here, Shinji Nakano only just made the grid!

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 10 Oct 2012, 10:54

Al Melling wrote:This Champions team seem to be doing a lot better this season compared to last year. Is that because they replaced our engine, or because they got rid of Giovanni Lavaggi, as I suggested once or twice last year? Either way, grrr...

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 10 Oct 2012, 14:48

Brilliant Hakkinen defeats Schumacher.

Mika Hakkinen made the best of fresh tires and an empty road to deny Michael Schumacher a hat trick of victories and propel the finn to the top of the championship.
What looked like the best strategy for Michael almost went horribly wrong as tire wear was more significant than expected, Michael Schumacher the last man to pit only just emerged ahead of Eddie Irvine. But after some hairy defending, easily cleared the Ulsterman and cruised behind Hakkinen to create a perfect 1-2 finish in front of the adoring fans. Juan Pablo Montoya should have been 4th, but attempting to overtake traffic on the outside of a corner caused confusion for all and he ended up clipping the barrier to retire, After winning the first race of the season Montoya has only scored a single point! Instead consistent as ever Verstappen takes 4th ahead of Collard.

Trulli managed to fend off Villeneuve for 6th, the Champions driver biting at the Minardi's heels for seemingly the entire distance as Jean Alesi took the final point for Sauber.
Jan Magnussen and the Lola team finally finish a race but it was a cruel 9th place! Whilst Damon Hill finished a strong 10th considering qualifying 23rd on the grid. Jeff Gordon logs his first race finish in 11th place a fair if not outstanding result. Herbert and Prost had poor races whilst Giancarlo Fisichella had no chance in the Jordan.

As for the retirees, Lowndes was not all that far behind Prost when he span but the most embarrassing sequence went to Gauthier. Olivier Panis was ahead of Greg Moore when Panis had a poor corner exit Moore dived in to a quickly vanishing gap took to the grass and spun off and retired. Half a lap later Panis's gearbox broke so Moores reckless actions were totally pointless, it seems the war between these drivers has resumed again this season.

Alex Wurz was gone before half distance, Noberto Fontana crashed at the same place Montoya did and Al Unser retired for the 4th straight race. This was an awful performance from Tom Kristensen. The Dane got a stop go penalty for jumping the start then promptly got another one for speeding in the pitlane, this dropped him a whole lap. Whilst trying to recover ground he crashed in to the wholly innocent Shinji Nakano, the first car he came up to "overtake". Ralf Schumacher never got going at all, stalling on the grid, a real shame as he could have been in the hunt for some points.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 10 Oct 2012, 17:54

Autosport wrote:"Kristensen on borrowed time" - Minardi

Following his dismal performance at Imola, it has emerged that Giancarlo Minardi has issued an ultimatum to Tom Kristensen: "get better or get out". After his awful race, Kristensen was seen being berated by the Italian team boss, after teammate Jarno Trulli put in a good drive to finish 6th. Later on Minardi addressed the media on the situation:

"No, I'm not happy with Tom, he's had a very poor race, especially in comparison to Jarno who has done a good job to finish in the points once again. We've made great improvements this year, and we need to capitalise on them, so poor drives like the one Tom had just can't be tolerated. He needs to up his game massively or he'll face the sack. We have young Esteban waiting in the wings, and I think he will be a good prospect for the future. I would very much like to see him in the car at a race weekend this season."

Minardi would like to test at Imola following the race, with all three drivers. Any other teams are welcome to join in. The schedule is as follows:

Trulli: Car performance
Kristensen: Car improvements
Tuero: Driver performance

We'd also like to hire one additional exceptional staff member for each area.

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 10 Oct 2012, 18:30

Edward Restov wrote:I am very impressed with that performance, a marvellous race from Damon and only the low attrition prevented us from scoring. Alex also showed promising pace before his retirement, given that the BMW engines work better on low downforce tracks.

Post by **Nuppiz** » 10 Oct 2012, 19:11

Honda would like to remind everyone that their powerful engines are available for free and with no special conditions for the first team to sign with them.

Ferrarist · Post by **Ferrarist** » 10 Oct 2012, 19:50

Nuppiz wrote:Honda would like to remind everyone that their powerful engines are available for free and with no special conditions for the first team to sign with them.

Mercedes would like to launch a complaint against Honda, because of "damaging price dumping", which might damage engine manufacturers who spend lots of money into developing their engines!

Post by **Nuppiz** » 10 Oct 2012, 21:34

Ferrarist wrote:
Nuppiz wrote:Honda would like to remind everyone that their powerful engines are available for free and with no special conditions for the first team to sign with them.

Mercedes would like to launch a complaint against Honda, because of "damaging price dumping", which might damage engine manufacturers who spend lots of money into developing their engines!

Excuse me, I can't hear you because I'm laughing too hard at that miserable excuse of a car you just introduced. You call it the A-Series but the only A in that car is in it's name.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 11 Oct 2012, 02:25

Yes! Both of our cars survived technical issues!

Anyways, another test at Silverstone will do fine.

Magnussen - Car Performance
Unser - Car Performance
Burti - Driver Skill
Fittipaldi - Car Improvements

Two questions:
1) How does one "build" the chassis for the next season?
2) Are you going to run the game continuously (i.e. through one game) or transfer the data through every year? (i.e. go to different mods for each season)

WaffleCat · Post by **WaffleCat** » 11 Oct 2012, 02:37

Mr Gerald Pereria is happy that Sauber seem to be consistent point scoters in midfield.He would move to the Nurburging to test.

Sauber Nurburgring test

Alesi,Herbert--Car Performance

Salo--Full race sim.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 11 Oct 2012, 12:12

The yanks financing the team have decided the best way to "test" the cars from now on is to deliberately set them on fire. So I don't think IBR will be in a position to go testing this time round.

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 11 Oct 2012, 18:52

Arrows would like to sign Joachim Wincklehock as a 3rd test driver, due to our status as BMWs works team. We would like to test at Silverstone again
Hill, Wurz and Wincklehock- car improvements
Webber and Bourdais- driver improvements

MigelNansell · Post by **MigelNansell** » 12 Oct 2012, 17:49

BMW would like to ask Arrows with only one finish so far and none of the retirements so far caused by a engine just that the hell are you guys playing at?

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 12 Oct 2012, 18:58

MigelNansell wrote:BMW would like to ask Arrows with only one finish so far and none of the retirements so far caused by a engine just that the hell are you guys playing at?

Oh, you've decided to show up? And instead of upgrading your engines, which are easily the least developed in the field, you choose to berate my team for retirements beyond our control?