2014 Division Structure

[John-Eric Saxén]

As was mentioned in my campaign document, the divisions and race format will undergo some changes for 2014, which after discussions in the Club Board have been summarized in this pdf file.

The most visible change will be the renaming of World Series into ACE and World Trophy into PRO. The idea behind this is to replace the rather vague WS/WT identifiers by names that better indicate the level of competition: World Championship - ACE - PRO.

A second idea with the renaming is to emphasize the "ladder" approach. PRO and ACE should be seen as steps on a ladder in the simracer's career, where the goal is to reach WC. As in the iRacing series format, the best drivers will be promoted to an upper category for the next season and offered free/deduced license prices.

Thirdly, we will trial a new race format for the 2014 ACE series, which includes both a regular and a sprint race. The idea behind this is to differentiate ACE from WC, to prevent it from becoming a WC mirror series.

 

[Javier Alvarez]

This is a good step forward for FSR as a top sim racing league. Congratulations.

 

[Mark Aalberts]

From a personal point of view i still think that these changes is not going to affect the outcome on the attendancy of drivers from lower categories to fill in WC seats. You will Always keep having this problem wich we have year in year out. Time will tell though.

2ndly i advise to held a survey (about the big changes) amongst the drivers that are planning to race ACE PRO this year and see what they want. As a driver im not even interested to do sprint races and that kind of stuff, im racing F1 to simulate a F1 race and like in WT 75% distance last few years that is kinda the max for me personaly.

Now im not racing anyway, but i can image that with this kind of format wich will be a huge change it is better to held a survey or poll about it and not just push it trough.

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

We have bad experiences of making surveys in the past in public forums, where we cannot verify the person who voted or even if the person has any intentions of racing with us. The only way to do this is to have everyone who paid for their ACE license stating their opinion, but even this is open to issues.

These changes were really something that the Club Board and most team owners who voted for my presidency felt a necessity. The other option would have been to use GP2/GP3 style car physics for ACE and PRO, but this option got less support.

 

[Chris Knight]

will there be a public vote for days of the different divisions?

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

Once the WC teams have voted for WC racetime internally, we could give the public a few options for ACE and PRO yes, depending on which times is available for the director.

 

[Nick Rowland]

I've got to be honest I really do not understand the new 'ACE' concept. I can see it it has been built to a GP2 style event but I really see little point to it.

All you're doing is setting up racing that is closer to Touring Car level than development of drivers in to the main WC level. Not only that it will be the same mod.

WC bosses will have no real gauge either of who is good or not cause the race is split in two therefore you could have a guy that rips through tyres in a 30% race distance and someone who is easier on tyres in the feature race. So when the managers are evaluating they have little to go off until a private test... so, what's the point?

I don't buy in to the racing spectacle aspect either cause WC is most watched so for WS/ACE makes no difference. It's purely development/feeder league and should provide WC managers with best possible pool and knowledge to promote a driver. Splitting the races does not achieve this.

 

[David Dominguez]

I've got to be honest I really do not understand the new 'ACE' concept. I can see it it has been built to a GP2 style event but I really see little point to it.

All you're doing is setting up racing that is closer to Touring Car level than development of drivers in to the main WC level. Not only that it will be the same mod.

WC bosses will have no real gauge either of who is good or not cause the race is split in two therefore you could have a guy that rips through tyres in a 30% race distance and someone who is easier on tyres in the feature race. So when the managers are evaluating they have little to go off until a private test... so, what's the point?

I don't buy in to the racing spectacle aspect either cause WC is most watched so for WS/ACE makes no difference. It's purely development/feeder league and should provide WC managers with best possible pool and knowledge to promote a driver. Splitting the races does not achieve this.

Do you really think a team manager can't see the potential of a driver that is using the same car, same physics, just because the races are a bit shorter? Do you think it was hard to spot in 2011 that Eduard, Ivar, Petar etc were going to be successful drivers in FSR moving into WS or even WC, with longer races? Or Zoltan, Ville, etc etc

Funny thing is that you mentioned on that facebook post that you'd change cars instead ("like GPVWC", textually), isn't that a bigger change than just having shorter races with the same car physics? Doesn't make any sense at all for me, sorry. And it also brings more problems, having different cars would give more technical problems (from team liveries to car physics related stuff).

On the other hand, with the new format the top drivers will have to prove other skills that they didn't need to show in the past, so if anything it gives even more info to team managers.

 

[Nick Rowland]

Think about what you are trying to achieve here. You are trying to breed drivers in to a World Championship level and standard. Guide them through a ladder that seems them reach the pinnacle of online Sim-Racing and the proposal is to throw them in to two sprint races... The actual driving level and standard will just plummet.

No. Car physics and liveries is an absolute non-issue. More technical problems, what build another mod?

Eduard, Ivar, Petar, Zoltan, Ville ALL had longer races in WS therefore PREPARED themselves for WC. With this you have 60% (PRO) to 60%+30% (ACE) to 100% (WC)? You would be better off with 60%, 80% to 100% a steady graduation for development rather than some mickey mouse 30% race distance that will have more crashes than the M25 on a Friday evening (British joke, most will get it) cause it's open wheel. Just seems completely pointless.

PRO I could understand for the new drivers LEARNING but ACE you need the longer race to DEVELOP.

I don't think people realize and appreciate the mentality people gain in short races. It's a free-for-all, punch up, fist fight for lesser points and reverse pole position.

It is purely for a broadcast/entertainment purpose and serves no place in trying to feed a World Championship level.

If you want F1 with short races (hour long) look to SRZ.

 

[David Dominguez]

Think about what you are trying to achieve here. You are trying to breed drivers in to a World Championship level and standard. Guide them through a ladder that seems them reach the pinnacle of online Sim-Racing and the proposal is to throw them in to two sprint races... The actual driving level and standard will just plummet.

That's an opinion, but not a fact. Winter series are also short races, yet I haven't seen anything different than what we have seen in the past with longer races.

No. Car physics and liveries is an absolute non-issue. More technical problems, what build another mod?

Car liveries are a problem for teams running in more than 1 division, it means you have to make x2 more liveries, or even x3. And about technical issues, considering the actual development plus the collision system etc, will be easier to fix potential issues if we all use the same cars.

Eduard, Ivar, Petar, Zoltan, Ville ALL had longer races in WS therefore PREPARED themselves for WC. With this you have 60% (PRO) to 60%+30% (ACE) to 100% (WC)? You would be better off with 60%, 80% to 100% a steady graduation for development rather than some mickey mouse 30% race distance that will have more crashes than the M25 on a Friday evening (British joke, most will get it) cause it's open wheel. Just seems completely pointless.

Some of them jumped straight from WT for WC and still performed really well. On a second note, most of their races were on the lead, or quite close, pulling away on the first laps and racing alone, with the new format they have to deal with mid pack guys as well (which is also a good preparation for WC, isn't it? They won't be leading in WC most likely).

Regarding crashes, that's what penalties are for. I hope new rules will punish contacts more than in the past. I have already heard some nice ideas about this, we will see

 

[Kris Cobb]

I like it though I wish we would use different cars for each of the WS/ACE and WT/PRO.

Basically the team managers will have to do the same thing the current real life F1 teams do.

Maybe for 2014 mid-season or 2015 pre-season have an FSR organized Young Drivers Test in the WC cars with WC race length. This would help the team managers for the upcoming season.

 

[Nick Rowland]

We are going to have our opinions and differences. But quite honestly I can only see this being a negative and backwards step for the league.

It's bad enough that TOA chose a 12 race calendar and that rF2 was the selected Sim. Fully well knowing that it is not ready for open wheel and trying to bat round issues that will be multiplied in a competitive environment.

I respect JES in the direction he wants to take the league and bring it forwards. I, personally, do not believe this is the way though.

 

[stop]

Like this, The ACE is like GP2

 

[David Dominguez]

We are going to have our opinions and differences. But quite honestly I can only see this being a negative and backwards step for the league.

It's bad enough that TOA chose a 12 race calendar and that rF2 was the selected Sim. Fully well knowing that it is not ready for open wheel and trying to bat round issues that will be multiplied in a competitive environment.

I respect JES in the direction he wants to take the league and bring it forwards. I, personally, do not believe this is the way though.

And fully well knowing that it brings new (good) elements that rF1 doesn't. It has to be said, too

Everybody has its own opinion and that has to be respected. I think we should move TOA/Club forums here and make them public, so people would at least know the reasons behind the decisions.

 

[Nick Rowland]

Everybody has its own opinion and that has to be respected. I think we should move TOA/Club forums here and make them public, so people would at least know the reasons behind the decisions.

I agree with that...

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

The goal with these changes is to avoid two prime-time races with same format, same rules and same cars. The feedback I got from introducing different physics to ACE/PRO was quite negative, both internally and externally. Drivers want to compare their laptimes against Bono.

I can understand that not everyone is happy about the shortened race length, it's the compromise for having a different format. The sprint race format idea reads exactly in my campaign document which I published two months ago, but I guess most people didn't bother reading this through.

 

[Nick Rowland]

Oh I read it then and hated it then. I just was not sure if it was final so did not question it.

 

[Chris Knight]

am i missing something people saying no car liveries??? what about us guys with sponsors?? how can we show individuality?

 

[David Dominguez]

I think you have to read again.

 

[Javier Alvarez]

I think there is too much discussion on WS/WT while FSR must be focused on placing WC as the top sim racing championship in the world... From this point of view, I think JES, David and FSR are moving in the right direction.

I could see some details from a different point of view, but I think the main decisions are being taken in the right direction.