Grand Prix 4 Formula One Career Season 2003

[Diehl]

FIA Press Conference​

@Diehl: Your last race today after 10 years, full focus on FFG from now on?

I'm happy for ending my career in the points...

And, answering your question, I don't know. I've been really busy, and don't know if I'd be able to keep racing on FFG as well.

 

[kedy89]

Team season summaries

Minardi
The small Italian team dominated the season, taking both titles. Goddard set a new record for wins in a season with 8, which was key to winning his first drivers' title. Also he more than doubled his previous total of wins (6). Teammate Rinneaho didn't do much worse, finishing 10 of the 11 races he made to the end on the podium, and taking his first career win at the European GP.

Sauber
Solid points finishes throughout the whole season allowed them to take 2nd in the constructors' championship. Up to the British GP both Said and Kederer were pretty much equal on points. Kederer then had a streak of 3 race wins, profiting from Minardi's reliability issues at that point. Political reasons forced Said to end his career, returnee Graham took the seat, finishing in the points in 2 of 3 races.

Jordan
An up-and-down season for the defending champions. Brugman had a stellar start with 3 consecutive podium finishes, one of those being the win at the Brazilian GP. What followed were a series of rotten luck and bad strategy calls, resulting in only 3 more points results. Teammate Engberink had a horrible first half, but managed to turn things around in the second with 2 podiums and 4 further points finishes.

Renault
Probably the best car on one lap, underlined by 7 pole positions (6 Utzer, 1 Martins). However they clearly lacked the race pace, and especially reliability. 5 of the 7 poles ended in retirements, in total they had 12 over the whole season. Utzer and Martins were pretty much equal on pace, while the German was more consistent (8 of 10 finishes in the points), Martins had the better single results, with a 3rd place and the win at the San Marino GP.

Ferrari
Not quite as good as last season, but that was mainly down to the frequent issues with Black's car. While Buurlage finished every single race, Black suffered 6 retirements, the cruelest one being at the season opener where he lost an almost safe win. Buurlage too had an almost win at Spain, where he was forced to make an unscheduled stop from the lead.

Toyota
An incredible 2nd season for the Japanese team. Young Belgian Matteo Heymans regularly drove the car into the points. At Monaco he scored his and the team's first win, crossing the line only just ahead of the Minardis and Engberink. Mishra too showed a good pace, but he often was unlucky to run into problems while running in the points.

BAR
A difficult season for the Brackley outfit. The car certainly had the speed for top 8 results, but too often they encountered troubles during the races. They lost a lot of points this way, especially Diehl had to suffer a lot. Lintner had a bit more luck, a couple of good results almost put him in the top 10 of the drivers' standings.

McLaren
With two former champions behind the wheels the hopes were high, but once again it turned out different than expected. Laad managed only 2 points results, which made it even more surprising that he signed for another year. Except for the San Marino GP, Hunsley too had a difficult start to the season. Just when things started to look better for him he announced his retirement, having just finished his home GP on the podium. Ancevski returned, but with only 5 races left there wasn't much he could do to help the team.

Williams
The fall of the former champions continued. Sigoulakis and Harvey did the best they could with the rather poor material they had, the highlight being the 3rd place for Sigoulakis at the Austrian GP. The major issue remained the reliability, while it was improved compared to last season, it still cost the team, especially Harvey who suffered 5 in a row.

Jaguar
Like last season, it first looked like Jaguar might be one of the teams to challenge for the titles. But again it lasted only for the flyaway races. 2 fastest laps in the first 2 rounds, on top of that the win for Keranen at the Malaysian GP. But then the struggles began. Reed took only one points finish with 4th at Germany, Keranen suffered a total of 9 DNFs, 7 of them in a row.

Arrows
14 DNFs were too much for the small team, especially since they often happened when they had the chance to grab some points. Noack got only 2 of them, Laskey took the majority of the team's total with 12. Impressive his performance at the British GP, where he almost snatched a podium finish. Due to financial issues it's not yet sure whether the team will return to the grid in 2004.

 

[kedy89]

So, unfortunately Donald just informed me that he no longer has the time to commit to this game. Also I still haven't heard back from Josh if he wants to continue playing. Means that currently we're either down to 9 teams, or 10 teams with one having an empty seat.

So yeah, unless new people join or old ones return, I might stop this after next season...

 

[kedy89]

CoF-value development

Current 2004 lineups

With things as they are right now, @Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham would move to Sauber, taking my seat. @airutonpurosuto8912 would be moved to Jordan. Both Arrows and Jaguar would be out.

 

[Mane Goddard]

Ouch, dat CoF

 

[Milos]

so @Timmieturner12 was just 30 minutes of patience away from not only getting Ferrari but also 1000 cof less

 

[Tim.E]

...

 

[the_sigman]

...

 

[the_sigman]

Btw, the fact that the McLaren Mercedes MP4-19 will be the most reliable car on the grid is

 

[kedy89]

Btw, the fact that the McLaren Mercedes MP4-19 will be the most reliable car on the grid is

Nothing beats the MP4-18 though, which broke so often in tests that it was deemed too dangerous to be raced.

 

[the_sigman]

Nothing beats the MP4-18 though, which broke so often in tests that it was deemed too dangerous to be raced.

#NeweysUnreliableCars

 

[Tim.E]

#NeweysUnreliableCars

What a marvel-ous word joke

 

[the_sigman]

What a marvel-ous word joke

It's not a joke, Newey is traditionally designing fast but unreliable cars (other designers build the body around the engine, Newey designs the body first and then squizzes engine, fuel tank, gearbox, etc in there)

 

[Tim.E]

It's not a joke, Newey is traditionally designing fast but unreliable cars (other designers build the body around the engine, Newey designs the body first and then squizzes engine, fuel tank, gearbox, etc in there)

But RB have been pretty reliable cars with Newey designing them so what's the logic in that.

 

[the_sigman]

But RB have been pretty reliable cars with Newey designing them so what's the logic in that.

Were they? Think about it.

 

[Tim.E]

Were they? Think about it.

2011/2013 - okay that's maybe two years but those are the ones that are well known to me. I know 2012 and 2014 were quite unreliable though.

 

[kedy89]

2011/2013 - okay that's maybe two years but those are the ones that are well known to me. I know 2012 and 2014 were quite unreliable though.

He's been designing F1 cars since '88 I think. Often going extreme ways, which occasionally caused problems. None as extreme as the MP4-18 though.

 

[Milos]

yeah, the Leyton House/March in 1988 was his first car indeed

 

[Jimlaad43]

Could more people please tag and PM people to try and get them to join.

 

[Milos]

who to tag though? We've tried everyone.
It's not just this game that's struggling for signups. It's basically all games apart from FFG.