Alright, it is now time to begin work on the hydrogen fuel cell motors for the 2022 season.
For that purpose, you send your testing team out for two testing days (respectively two for the weeks after the Hungarian and Île-de-France Grands Prix) and have them work on one of four things:
motor power, which is the base BHP output of the motor;
qualifying mode, which describes how much quicker your motor can go if fuel consumption is raised to the maximum;
car failure probability, which states how likely it is for your motor to blow up or adversely affect other parts of a car and
motor mass, which is the weight of your motor and how it negatively affects cornering speed.
To see how that looks in detail, I have provided this handy graphic. To reflect previous design philosophies, teams were granted four levels based on their current motor:
Basically, you can add two "levels" every Grand Prix from now on (except after the season finale, where you will be able to add four levels (we'll get to that after the Chinese Grand Prix)). Each test day costs
€1,000,000. Regardless of how many test days you use, you must have at least Lv. 1 for every aspect before the beginning of next season.
You are free to write in-character reports on your testing prowess without any limitation except maybe common sense. Those in-character reports will not affect driver ability or future RNG odds.
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FIA president Alekos Kalogeropoulos has invited the 12 team principals and representatives of the 13th team (ooc: I mean miguel98) to a meeting on August 20 regarding two key issues.
Topic A - Bridgestone Tyres
Formula One fans have been complaining about some boring races caused by the fact that Bridgestone's 2022 tyre suffers from significantly less wear than their former Continental counterparts. It is in particular complained that there are fewer pitstops mixing events up and that there is little strategy left in the sport unless the weather interferes with races or the surface is particular abrasive such as in Bahrain. Bridgestone is willing to do what they can to help, but their board of directors has been emphatic in refusing to produce intentionally overdegrading tyres. Therefore, the Formula Committee has drawn up three options
Option A: No Changes - while some fans have complained, more than enough are happy with the racing as it currently is.
Option B: Mandatory Pitstops - to add the spice of pitstops to the mix, an old rule from the early two-race format is adapated and cars must make two pitstops per race.
Option C: Qualifying Tyre - Bridgestone would be willing to supply an ultrasoft qualifying tyre that would only last around 30 km at race speeds. An additional rule change forcing cars to start on the tyre they set their best qualifying lap on would ensure pitstops around lap 4-6 at every race.
Topic B - Paris Replacement
While the official vote in the national assembly has not yet taken place, it is expected that the decision to cut state funding for the Grand Prix d'Île-de-France will be nearly unanimous. We have prepared an unofficial agreement with the respective officials that will let the FIA save and get us at least a few cents. However, the Formula Committee will have 19 Grands Prix as is agreed on with our commercial partners. Mr. Kalogeropoulos has four contract offers on his plate and wishes for the Formula One teams to decide which venue will be given the privilege. Regardless of which track is chosen, the date set for the first outing would be September 10, 2023.
Option A: Grand Prix Circuit of Zarqa (3-Year Contract) - while Mr. Kalogeropoulos has used an exit clause to abandon the track last time around, the royal house of Jordan still wants Formula One to return to increase touristic revenue. To entice teams to agree to this option the government, each current team will be given €6,500,000 as an immediate payment. The only risk is that the other Middle East venues have legal clauses that can block the addition. The chance of this happening is quite high (OOC: if this option has the majority, an RNG for the veto is run with the chance of a veto happening being set at 80%, which is why you will be asked to also pick Option B or D as a reserve).
Option B: Aftokinitodromio Serron (2+1-Year Contract) - based on the success of the Cyprus Grand Prix, Greek investors have arranged backing from the OTE Group, owners of Greek Formula One broadcasters Cosmote Sport for a race at the Serres Circuit and have promised each current team will be given €3,000,000 as an immediate payment. Skeptics on the Formula Committee have pointed out that the investors have little history of successful investment and that the OTE Group's backing is only guaranteed for 2023, but there is little risk of that posing a problem (OOC: if this option has the majority, there will be an RNG run after the 2024 race with a 20% chance of no prize money being awarded for that race)
Option C: Red Bull Ring (2+1-Year Contract) - while the Red Bull Ring still hosts the AutoGP Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull's recent success has made Dietrich Mateschitz willing to spend on a Formula One race. The race would officially be the Sytrian Grand Prix because of trademark issues. The offer is time-limited, so if the vote decides to pick option A instead, by the time any potential vetos would be resolved, it would be off the table.
Option D: Hockenheimring (Rolling Contract) - an interesting fourth option has emerged. While a bit of the old post-2002 rebuild Hockenheim has been reforested, the majority of the old venue has been preserved as part of state cultural heritage management and would be available for sale at the right conditions. It would take quite a bit of money to purchase and restore the venue, amounting to a one-time payment of €4,500,000 per current team. However, Formula One teams could save a lot of money on hosting fees and traveling expenses for pre- and in-season tests (OOC: a session in the mid-season test would only cost €2,000,000, depending on game balancing considerations, costs for motor development could also be reduced). Instead of hosting fees, the Hockenheimring would finance itself by directly funneling all ticket expenses.
Topic C - Chassis Development
OOC: this is a purely advisory poll, its results are explicitly non-binding. The current chassis system is a system I like and want to go with for the foreseeable future (at least until the likely game switch for 2026), but I feel there is a risk that it will create an even bigger field spread if we get less lucky with the RNG rolls with teams like Sauber reflecting more realistically the expected performance of poorer teams. To solve that issue, I am considering replacing the formula of "number of engineers * 240 grip" for permanent employees with a logarithm formula. That would reduce field spread, but massively complicate the calculations for expected performance, making things (even) more complex for players. Therefore I would like to hear your opinions.
Option A: Keep the system as is
Option B: Use more complex formula for increased field equality
Option C: Keep the system and find other solutions for teams that are below a certain grip level to get closer to the pack
Works teams must fill out this formula
Code: Select all
Development Week 1
User:
Manufacturer:
Test Day #1: Motor Power/Qualifying Mode/Car Failure Probability/Motor Mass Lv. x
Test Day #2: Motor Power/Qualifying Mode/Car Failure Probability/Motor Mass Lv. x
Development Week 2
Test Day #1: Motor Power/Qualifying Mode/Car Failure Probability/Motor Mass Lv. x
Test Day #2: Motor Power/Qualifying Mode/Car Failure Probability/Motor Mass Lv. x
Voting
Topic A - Bridgestone Tyres: A/B/C
Topic B - Paris Replacement: A/B/C/D (if A, which option should be taken if A fails: B/D)
Topic C - Chassis Development: A/B/C
Customer teams and miguel98 must fill out this formula
Code: Select all
User:
Team:
Voting
Topic A - Bridgestone Tyres: A/B/C
Topic B - Paris Replacement: A/B/C/D (if A, which option should be taken if A fails: B/D)
Topic C - Chassis Development: A/B/C
Please do so until
August 4, 1:00 a.m. CEST.
