I have (with mixed feelings) taken advantage of the rival system, Im going to be in a Renault as 2nd Driver in my second season (i beat Kubica by 2 points to come 10th in the championship). first season in a HRT. i made the decision that if i beat him over the season (which i was highly dubious of) i would drive for them, my other choices for a rival were Massa and button, so i feel i chose the slowest car of the 3 in order for it to still be challenging for me as Renault are not ferrari or Mclaren in my eyes. if i didnt win, i would look at whatever was available (as i liked the idea of being in a STR) but i got no offers (notoriously bad answers to the press seemed to have put people off) and i had upset HRT which left me with a choice of Virgin, Lotus or Renualt, the other two seemed like backward steps to me.
I do have the game on legend A.I. with auto gears,TCS, ABS and fuel sim off. the only knock being due to my lack of knowledge of the tracks and speeds that F1 can get to i have racing line on in corners
). I will do this year, and if i walk it and win the WDC, i will probably not get a contract offer from Renault anyway (being level 17 now) and will probably/hopefully get an offer i hope from maybe Foce India or Williams and race for them. (i dont want to be in the top tier teams until the final season). another reason is as I am not as quick as some, the achievements that some drives on RD reach in career mode, i do not think i would manage unless in a quicker car earlier, so im using the Renault in order to build my rep up quicker to possibly get a mid table drive to then stay at until season 7 (although in about 8 weeks the new game comes out and will be unlikely that i will get to this point anyway).
also from early reports i've read/watched on the Codies site/blog/video, there is going to be an even bigger gap between cars and their speed than in this years, im sure i heard that even if you nail a lap in a HRT you will still be behind by about 6 seconds.. which is true to F1 at the moment, i mean just the other week, the Mercedes was over a second and a half off the pace.. and they are considered the 4th best team! but i think this means that it will be very interesting to see how the progression is going to be tracked in this game and the focus must really be on beating your team mate to be even noticed i guess.. i know this doesn't have alot to do with what we are talking about but im excited for the new game and will be interested to see how this goes.