Needed to get this out there before the forum shutdown.
Round 16: Pacific GP(Ignore the Japanese title at the top)
There are some things that bring the sport into disrepute. Telling your driver to intentionally crash so your other driver can win the race brings the sport into disrepute. Spying on another team's data brings the sport into disrepute. Having alleged Nazi themed (wait, the court said it wasn't Nazi themed) sado-masochistic sex with five prostitutes in a dingy London dungeon while you're the president of the FIA brings the sport into disrepute. That said, the events at this weekend's Pacific GP have gone
one step beyond. The F1RGP2C is now the laughingstock of the entire racing community. Yes, it was that bad...
It didn't start out that badly. Zimmer went into the lead followed by Moreno and the rest of the field. No one retired or spun for the first ten laps. Then, on lap 11, Poppy Whitechapel went off at Turn 10 and hit the wall, immediately knocking off a wheel and going out of the race. From that point on, it was
MADNESS! Pieter Kickert followed into retirement with a suspension failure on Lap 13. Then, the championship was decided on Lap 15 (more on that in a sec), George Tramontani had a spectacular engine failure and Padraig O'Connell spun out of third place at Turn 10. The Ferrari driver was followed by everyone who remained in the field as they all spun off at the same spot! Then Davies broke his front wing at a different corner, Takagi spun off and spent the better part of three minutes to get back onto the track (not helped by Max von Hegel, who rammed straight into him, breakin). Zimmer did the same thing and got tangled with Tom Douglas in the process, leaving Jorg Scrattenheim in the lead by a massive margin. He was using his Formula Nippon experience to full effect, even though he did spin off in front of the pits.
A few laps later, the second event that I'll get to later occurred so Scrattenheim was basically free to win the race without any interruptions (other than a second spin in front of the pits). O'Connell retired with an engine failure and Takagi was forced to drive his way through the field after his spin. Scrattenheim won by over a lap, the largest margin of victory in F1RGP2C history and his first career victory. He was followed by McAllister, who secured McLaren's position in the Constructors' with a brilliant drive, Takagi, Reiko Megumi, Leonhard von Gottorp and Davies. Now, who finished in seventh place? Oh, Douglas Mann, how are you feeling? For rage-quitting from his team, watching Scrattenheim take his deserved win, betting on the Renault to fail and being relatively anonymous,
Douglas Mann wins
Reject of the Race.
After watching, I finally determined that the problems at Turn 10 were caused by tyre wear which meant that whenever a driver came in for a stop he spun off at the turn and speared sharply right due to a glitch in the game. That meant that almost every driver threw the car off the road at least twice. Compounding this was the odd behavior of some drivers, who decided that they would drive into the pits at 100mph and promptly spin it at the entrance, wasting even more time. This basically meant that pit stops took anywhere from normal time (Samael Meerwick was the only driver who didn't spin) to almost three minutes (as in the case of Kaz Takagi). Other than the fact that this is extremely dangerous, it is really stupid. Who designs tyres that can't make a corner at one of the circuits? Who designed this race course?
Reject of the Race for
TI Aida and
Goodyear.
READ HERE FOR CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTHas anyone noticed that Pablo da Silva is having a terrible season? He keeps getting outqualified by Kickert and seems to have totally regressed from last year, a la Tiago Monteiro. However, he hasn't done anything stupid, he's just been a bit slow. At least, that was before the Pacific GP. I now refer to the
video.
I suppose Pablo wasn't content with knocking Moreno out of the race and ruining his championship dreams so he took out Zimmer too. Tom Douglas was disqualified and banned for one race for crashing into one leader while being lapped at the Canadian GP. Since Pablo took out three cars who were trying to lap him (von Gottorp actually came back and passed Davies on the last lap), Pablo will be banned for three races, including next season, and he has already been disqualified from this race. He will also receive a suspended one-race ban for ramming aside John Zimmer's car while it was being removed.
Reject of the Race for
Pablo da Silva. Speaking of John Zimmer's car, what the hell was the track marshal doing by moving the car
onto the circuit while cars were circulating? Adding to general incompetence and the incident that occurred earlier, the
Pacific GP Marshals win
Reject of the Race, as well. In fact,
Tristan Jung's ridiculous plan to put Formula Nippon drivers in the F1 cars deserves
Reject of the Race.
TL;DR So, in conclusion, IIDOTR and race win for Scrattenheim, Zimmer clinches the championship, TI Aida, Douglas Mann, Goodyear, Pablo da Silva, Tristan Jung and the Pacific GP Marshals all win a shared ROTR, everybody spins at Turn 10 and Rory McAllister is a boss. Constructors' title still in reach for Williams.
Drivers' Championship
1. John Zimmer - 96 (7 wins) CLINCHED TITLE
2. Daniel Moreno - 84 (6 wins)
3. Padraig O'Connell - 53 (1 win)
4. Kazuhiko Takagi - 44 (1 win)
5. Douglas Mann - 33
6. Tom Douglas - 21
7. Rory McAllister - 20
8. Leonhard von Gottorp - 14
9. James Davies - 12
10. Jorg Scrattenheim - 10
11. Damon Cannon - 8
12. Pieter Kickert - 7
13. Pablo da Silva - 4
=14 Dennis Mignolet - 3
=14 Gio van Dycke - 3
=14 Reiko Megumi - 3
17. Poppy Whitechapel - 2
18. Miko Fakkinen - 1
Constructors' Championship
1. Benetton - 140
2. Williams - 127
3. Ferrari - 74
4. McLaren - 32
5. Jordan - 22
6. Sauber - 11
7. Ligier - 6
8. Tyrrell - 5
9. Minardi - 1
Forti, Pacific, DAMS, Simtek and Footwork all have 0 points.
