F1 2011 Career new contract question

[Iulian Cezar]

So I've been playing career and I've reached South Korea. With only 4 races to go, got ~80 points in my Williams, the only offers I have received was an extension with Williams and 3 new contracts with HRT, Lotus and Virgin.
Is this game even worse than F1 2010 in terms of contracts offers? Is my best bet to just have to resign with Williams after an awesome season (purely by comparing driver points). I mean I'm 7th with only the 3 big teams in front of me, and all I receive is crappy bottom team contracts?
Was really hoping for a Mercedes sign-up or at least Torro Roso.

 

[Strahil Kotlarov]

Well,i started my career with Williams and by the end of the season RedBull offered me a contract maybe because i won WDC....
Its all about your performance,if you are stuck at the end of the grid you will recieve 3rd-4th Tier contracs.
If you are keeping it up to the Top grip you will recieve from tier 1-3 contracs thats how the game basicly works.
Anyway i driven with Expert settings no assists and with a wheel.

 

[Michael Brown]

If you can beat your rival who is in a better car than you, don't resign with Williams. After the last race you get offered a contract with your rival's team. If you can't beat him, stay with Williams. Next season you'll get offers from the likes of Renault and Toro Rosso.

 

[David O'Reilly]

One slightly hidden factor that impacts your Reputation points and therefore contract offers is the R&D path. You can choose once #1 driver.
If you choose aggressive you will get more updates and the car will get faster sooner BUT the teams expectations of quali and race results go up a lot. In Williams season 3 I am expected to get P4 in quali and P3 in most races. V/hard. Each failure to get such objectives will set back your contract offers.
It makes me think that if you are looking for another year at current team choose Aggresive R&D and get better WDC and WCC results. If you are looking to get head hunted by increasing your rep points choose "balanced" (low) and you will have much easier targets to hit and earn more rep points.

 

[Gareth Jones]

Interesting. I'm currently at Spa and am also in a Williams, 8th in the WDC with 42 points, 3 DNF's. I'm hoping for an offer from Sauber or Toro Rosso for my second season. Who did you pick as your rival Iulian?

 

[Iulian Cezar]

Interesting. I'm currently at Spa and am also in a Williams, 8th in the WDC with 42 points, 3 DNF's. I'm hoping for an offer from Sauber or Toro Rosso for my second season. Who did you pick as your rival Iulian?

My lowest option as a rival was Massa because I was ahead of everybody in points with the exception of the top 3 teams, which have a very big lead ahead of me.

Bassically I'm ahead of the likes of Mercedes or Renault but I cannot race with them because the reputation points is just bad, and rival system does not allow you to pick pilots below your wdc points, unless you purposely throw races just to be behind the team you want to play with

 

[tobylive]

i am with williams in my second season at japan, in 11th on 38 points, beating my rival nick heidfeld by 10 points, i am looking for a contract offer from one of the top 3 teams next season so i can challenge for the title, is this going to be possible? or is there anything i can do to make it possible?

 

[Gareth Jones]

I'm not sure if that will be possible, perhaps if you turn the AI difficulty down to the lowest option, hmm. The best offer I've had so far after just finishing Monza is from Force India, I've got Schumacher as my rival, who, all of a sudden, is amazing.

Does anyone know if Force India are better than Sauber or Toro Rosso?

 

[Victor Ivanov]

Yeah I wanted to ask this too couse my Williams career is kind of boring... I have 11 wins from 12 races so far and I have pole at Monza heading for 9th consecutive win. I have offers from HRT, Force India and Torro Rosso. I don't wan't to take HRT couse there's no challenge to play with them. It's gonna be fight for better place in Q and then lonely 19th without any action around me. So the question is: is Torro Rosso slower than FI?

 

[ENDR]

I think Force India and Williams were in the second lowest tier (that's why they're available at the beginning of the career), while Toro Rosso and Sauber were in a higher one.
BUT - if you're doing so well at Williams, then the team is going to be promoted to the higher tier and replace the team, that ends the season with a lower score. So if Sauber is doing much better than TR and you choose Toro Rosso for the next season, you might end up in the same performance tier you are now...

 

[Victor Ivanov]

In my career TR has 12 poins and FI has 0 so I assume they'll be demoted so I'll take them. I want a team which is slow enough to fight for poins, not for wins... I expected that from Williams but after the start I felt like it's not gonna happen. The only tracks where I was struggling were Spa and Monza and it was because of the engine. I'm taking FI

 

[Metalfreaky]

Srry to bring this thread up again but I'm getting annoyed with the carrer mode.
I started my career with Williams and chose Webber as my rival, which was the lowest option at that point.
I won 4 races and become WDC mainly because of the retirement bug of the top teams (Legend AI, no assists).
I was hoping to get a controcat offer from one of th 5 big teams, so i can start the new season and install some AI mods. But the best offer i got was from Sauber, although I clearly beat Webber. My reputation is 18 or 19 I think.
I'm not really looking forward to drive another season with Williams or Sauber. It took me long enough to finish my first season -.-

Is there any way to "force" the game to get me a contract offer. Maybe with some kind of mod?

 

[ENDR]

Unfortunately it appears that beating a rival from one of the midfield teams gives you his seat next season, but it isn't enough for the top teams. You still need high reputation level.
I finished my first season with lvl25, having beaten Alonso by miles and still the best offer I got was Sauber. Ahh well, at least it's not Lotus

There is a mod that lets you chose ANY team at the beginning of the career. Unfortunately it requires starting the game all over from season 1.

 

[Metalfreaky]

It seems that this happens kind of randomly. I've read some threads in the codies forum where people report contract offers from the top teams after beating their rivals, although they've just got 15-20rep.
Imo winning the WDC in a low midfield team should be enough to get a contract from one of the teams at the upper half.

Thanks for the link, I might give it a try.
Think I'm going to consult my pillow on this one. Maybe I'll just stick with Williams or Sauber and show those teams what they miss

 

[ENDR]

Maybe I'll just stick with Williams or Sauber and show those teams what they miss

That's exactly what I'm doing I've just done first couple of laps of my 2nd season, this time with Sauber. Ohh boy, is there a downforce difference between C30 and T128 Hell, I even decided to finally crank the difficulty level up a notch (to PROFESSIONAL - I know, impressive ), but somehow I still manage to go on primes ~1s faster than Vettel...
Maybe Legend is the way to go...

 

[Peter Hooper]

Maybe I am missing something here but what is so desireable about going up to a better team when you are already doing well in a lower placed one? Surely the challenge would evaporate pretty quickly! I started my career in a Force India with the aim of winning the WDC with them which would be far more satisfying than winning it in a Red Bull \ McLaren, etc.

 

[David O'Reilly]

Good point Peter.
I want a Redbull but only in year 5. Then I want to dominate the WDC.
Ihave just finished yr 3 and have stayed in Willams all career. Early offers were bad teams, later offers included Sauber but I was hoping for a WDC winning team offers via Rival challenge. Managed to take 3rd in WDC ad beat Alonso but no Ferrari offer! By then all other offers werer withdrawn.
My rep is now 30.
So I decided to stay in Williams and choose the lower R&D path but to my horror the R&D choice did not appear. So I am in Williams for a 4th season.
I really did want to win WDC twice in different cars. Have to see if a yr 4 Williams can do the business. It has got quicker each yr.
BTW Expert Mode @ 75% distance. Its a lot easier at shorter distance to do well!!!!

 

[Peter Hooper]

Good point Peter.
I want a Redbull but only in year 5. Then I want to dominate the WDC.
Ihave just finished yr 3 and have stayed in Willams all career. Early offers were bad teams, later offers included Sauber but I was hoping for a WDC winning team offers via Rival challenge. Managed to take 3rd in WDC ad beat Alonso but no Ferrari offer! By then all other offers werer withdrawn.
My rep is now 30.
So I decided to stay in Williams and choose the lower R&D path but to my horror the R&D choice did not appear. So I am in Williams for a 4th season.
I really did want to win WDC twice in different cars. Have to see if a yr 4 Williams can do the business. It has got quicker each yr.
BTW Expert Mode @ 75% distance. Its a lot easier at shorter distance to do well!!!!

So pleased to see you bringing the Williams team up to where it belongs David . So did you have the R&D choice at the start of each previous year since becoming number 1 driver?
I plan on running my second season from that distance.. or whatever distance we set for the League at any rate.

 

[David O'Reilly]

So pleased to see you bringing the Williams team up to where it belongs David . So did you have the R&D choice at the start of each previous year since becoming number 1 driver?
I plan on running my second season from that distance.. or whatever distance we set for the League at any rate.

I made the R&D choice only once when ending my first season as #1. End of S2, end of S3 I have not been given a choice. Maybe at Melbourne in Practice it will happen.
Considering trying to do S4 in the break and time S5 with League

 

[Peter Hooper]

I made the R&D choice only once when ending my first season as #1. End of S2, end of S3 I have not been given a choice. Maybe at Melbourne in Practice it will happen.
Considering trying to do S4 in the break and time S5 with League

Maybe it's a one time only offer then so you're stuck with your initial choice whilst with that team.

Well, I am still someway off that David having not even finished half of season one but hope to do that over the next few weeks, then get season 2 sorted in the break to have season 3 ready and waiting for our League season.