F1 2012 My full F12012 season, lights finally go out on the grid

[driveroz247]

Between the time I will continue to spend modding different aspects of this game and the time I am doing things in my life away from this game, I will be (finally) getting around to starting my F1 2012 season in full.

I now have my laptop hooked up to my television and my racing wheel connected and working. So with the current range of mods released for this game, together with my current set-up at home, I believe the time is right to begin this season (finally) just in time before the 2013 F1 season is upon us....

Mods I will be playing with:

• SC mod (fix) RC1 (the mod I was involved with creating, along with Willsb3, remy and roberto )
• Realsim Mod version 2.4 (Thanks Demy)
• Competitive braking mod (Thanks hill)
• Realistic Damage mod (level 5) for AI and player (Thanks Cromiel)

All races will be full race weekends (Practice, 3 qualy sessions and 50% race)

All race weekends will be staged in quick race mode, where I will have dynamic weather at all tracks except for Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, India and Valencia where it will be 100% dry weekends, as per their climates/rainfall in real-life.

I will race in a different car at each track. This way it will give me variety, different objectives and targets depending on where each driver and team are in the points table at the time. I will be keeping score on my own self-made points tables for drivers and constructors chamionships in excel. 4 cars will be not be raced in (1 from each tier) as I have used these cars all the time in my mod and track testing. These 4 cars/drivers who I won't be racing as are Charles Pic, Lewis Hamiltion, Michael Schumacher and Nico Hulkenberg. The remaining 20 drivers will be drawn randomly by me before each race weekend. I will put the 20 remaining driver names into a bag and pick them out randomly before eah race weekend, the one I pick out being the driver I will race as for that weekend.

Car status will be disabled for each race, to enable more driver realism, as a driver wouldn't have this information readily available to him in-race. He would only go on his race engineer's advice and his gut feeling about how the car is handling.

No flashbacks will be used - If I crash the car, I retire!

I will be racing with reduced penalties only.

I will post regular updates/screenshots/videos from my racing in this thread after each race weekend.

EDIT: It will all be raced in TV Pod camera, no mini-map, no proximity arrows, no car status, intermediate difficulty level for AI.

 

[driveroz247]

Here we are in Catalunya for the first GP in Europe on the 2012 calendar. With McLaren Mercedes achieving a podium 1-2 lockout in Bahrain, expectations were once again very high that the team could perform well here at the Spanish GP. Christian Horner at Red Bull has said that his drivers and cars haven't shown their full potential yet for 2012, and claimed that what we saw in Malaysia was only a hint of what the Red Bull Racing Team could achieve in 2012. So the stage has already been set for an exciting season fight between McLaren and Red Bull, and the rivalry looks to be heating up as we move to Europe for the next couple of races.

Upon arriving in Catalunya, the teams and drivers were made aware of the weather forecast for the race weekend:

So it looked likely that almost all drivers would go with a dry set-up, as there was only a minimal chance of rain during the race.

Practice was no real surprise as we saw Jenson Button and Mark Webber post the fastest two lap times, with their teamates Hamilton and Vettel also amongst the top 10 fastest. But the biggest talking point in practice was the slow times set by both Ferraris. Alonso and Massa only managing the 17th and 18th fastest times. Stefano Domenicali was a disappointed Team Principal after practice, and expressed that his drivers and their car will need to show much improvement for qualifying and the race. Truth is Ferrari have been underperforming all season so far, and the best result the team could manage from the first 4 races was a 2nd place to Alonso in Australia. Domenicali hinted that this is a totally unacceptable result for a team which sets such high standards and is held in such high regard in F1 racing.

Onto qualifying, and out in Q1 went the usual suspects - Caterhams, Marussias, HRTs and the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo, who is yet to finish a GP this season, having scored 4 DNFs from the first 4 races. His luck has to change at some stage this season. Q2 results went as follows:

And after Q3, the top 10 on the grid shaped up as follows:

Vijay Mallya expecting better things from Hulkenberg on race day in Spain
After putting his Force India on the front row of the grid in Bahrain, Nico Hulkenberg could only manage a disappointing 11th place finish in the race. Vijay Mallya stated after the last race that whilst Hulkenberg was able to put his Force India on the front row of the grid in Bahrain, a disppointing race cost the team some major points and even a podium finish. He lamented that whilst Hulkenberg put it all together so well in qualifying yet had a poor race, the opposite could have been said of Hulkenberg's teamate Paul di Resta, who gained 10 places to finish in 12th, after having a poor qualifying starting 22nd on the grid in Bahrain. Mallya joked that if he could've he would have just run one driver in the last race, with the qualifying speed of Hulkenberg and the race ability of di Resta. Consequently, none of their drivers scored points, both finishing just outside the top 10. Hulkenberg has a major chance to redeem himself on race day in Catalunya, qualifying his Force India on the second row of the grid. We are now set for hopefully another exciting race in Spain!

 

[driveroz247]

Race day in Catalunya. The story told from the eyes of Kimi Raikkonen:

I started from a disappointing 17th on the grid.

Here is what I decided on my race strategy to be. I admit it was a little bit risky considering how far back I had qualified:

After lap 1 I was down to 18th, all cars got through the 1st lap without any retirements, except a couple of broken wings on the track

Lap 2 saw me sweep past Pic, Kovalainen and Karthikeyan to move into 15th place.

After a few cars had pitted for new tyres, I remained on my primes, and by the beginning of lap 10 out of 33 I had moved up into 10th, only 1.3 seconds behind Schumacher.

I pitted at the end of lap 11 for a new set of prime tyres. It was a relatively quick pit stop of 3.88 seconds. When I rejoined the track on lap 12, I found myself back where I had started the race in 17th position, and around 2.6 seconds down on Paul di Resta.

After a couple more pit stops from other drivers, I was up into 15th on lap 15, but I soon dropped back to 16th at the beginning of the next lap, as Nico Rosberg went past me using his DRS on the start-finish straight.

By lap 23 out of 33, I was told that all 24 cars were still racing. There had been no accidents or reliability issues so far in this race. By this stage I was in 15th place, and had come in on the previous lap to pit for my first set of option tyres in this race.

By the start of lap 24, I was still 15th, with just a slim 0.60 seconds lead over di Resta in the DRS zone on the start-finish straight.

Let's see how I went in the remainder of the race action here, at the beginning of lap 24, then onto the final couple of laps....

 

[driveroz247]

So let's now see how the F12012 Championship is shaping up after 5 races:

In The News

Vettel happy with his consistency: Two time defending world champion Sebastian Vettel has stated that he has been happy with his consistency over the last few races, where he has been able to finish 2nd, 2nd 4th and now 1st in Spain. The World Champion also said that he is relieved to have finally won his first race in 2012, and he hopes this will be the start of many more for this year. He also added that he aims to keep the pressure on Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, as he sees both McLaren drivers as his main threat to winning a 3rd World Drivers Championship in a row.

Ricciardo relieved to just have finished a race: Daniel Ricciardo said he was just happy to finish a race for the first time this year, after finishing the race in Catalunya. Ricciardo has had 4 DNFs in his first 4 races and was relieved to finally be able to finish a full race this year. The driver admitted a change in fortune was well overdue, now he says he wants to focus on getting a few points for his team.

Di Resta lays blame on Raikkonen: After Paul di Resta's race in the Spanish GP was cut short on lap 24 by an incident with Kimi Raikkonen, di Resta said after the race that he lays th blame on that accident fully on Raikkonen, and claimed it was an incident which was "avoidable". Raikkonen defended himself, saying it was just down to and error he made on that turn, and it was completely accidental. Raikkonen added that the fact the race stewards didn't award him with a penalty for that incident clearly proved that he was not at fault, and that maybe di Resta should have "backed off" when he noticed I made a slight error of judgement in the turn.

Ferrari continue to disappoint: We are only 5 races into the season, and Ferrari already sit a massive 93 points away from Red Bull in the Constructors Championship for 2012. Team Principal Stefano Domenicali admitted this is a major cause of concern, and said it is now up to his drivers to improve their results on race day to lift the team back up to where it deserves to be. Domenicali layed the blame solely on his drivers for underperforming, saying that he and the whole team believe that they have the car to compete with likes of Red Bull and McLaren.

And now to the driver draw for the grand old street circuit of Monaco.....

would you believe it? This must be fate, surely! I'll be driving the famous Monaco street circuit as:

My good mate, Mark Webber.

Mark loves driving around Monaco, so it will definitely make for some good viewing.

See you soon at the jewel in the F1 crown - the grand old Monaco street circuit.

 

[driveroz247]

Onto Monaco, the grand old street circuit, the most famous race on the F1 calendar. Every driver loves to say that he won here, it is the most prestige event on the F1 calendar. It is also the most toughest and unforgiving circuit in F1, any little mistake is punished severely by the barriers which always feel too close for comfort.

Ferrari have said they are looking for more improvement from their drivers for this race. Reliability has not been an issue for them.

Qualifying is so important at Monaco, as overtaking during the race is near to impossible, unless you can jump your rival through good pit strategy and fast pit stops, or unless you have a few caution periods under safety car and a lot of retirements. Thus it is vitally important to qualify your car as far up the grid as you possibly can, in order to give yourself the best possible chance of finishing in the points at the end of the race.

The weather forecast greeted all drivers and teams upon arrival at Monaco:

A dry weekend forecast at Monaco was good news to everyone.

Onto Practice at Monaco. Surprisingly, the Saubers were the fastest cars on track during practice, with Perez and Kobayashi setting the 1st and 3rd fastest times of the session respectively, much to the delight of Team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn. Ferrari defenitely found the improvement they were looking for and Masa responded, splitting the 2 Saubers for the 2nd fastest practice time. Button posted the 4th fastest time, whilst Hamilton was 6th fastest. The day was not Red Bull's however. Vettel was only capable of the 10th fastest time, whilst an overly-confident Mark Webber saw his practice session come to an early conclusion with 25 minutes remaining, sticking his car into the barrier after the swimming pool chicane and this accident ended his session. He was thus not able to improve on his time, and finished practice with the slowest time of the session. It was clear that Newey and Horner were both not too happy with Mark after Practicce, and wanted a major improvement for qualifying and race.

Let's move on to Q1, and the results were in: Out went both HRTs, Marussia's and Caterhams along with Sergio Perez, who was bitterly disappointed with his efforts, especially after being the fastest driver in Practice. He was clearly expecting a better result, and it will be a tough race for him tomorrow as he'll need a lot of luck starting from 18th. Both Red Bulls however turned around their poor practice, setting the fastest two times in Q1.

On to Q2. We are onboard with Mark Webber:

So it looks like Mark will need some luck to get into the points tomorrow. But it is possible, anything can happen at Monaco. Disappointing, as Mark had set the second fastest time in Q1, only behind his teammate. The good news is because he went out on scrubbed tyres, he's saved a couple of sets for tomorrow's race. He'll just have to hope for a few retirements and maybe a caution period or two under SC and points may be possible, providing he drives cleanly, stays out of trouble and has a good pit strategy.

Q3 results as follows:

And the usual suspects at the top of the pecking order. Kaltenborn has said she is expecting big things from Kobayashi in tomorrow's race, as he was one of the fastest cars in practice and has put his Sauber on the 2nd row of the grid.

We'll be back tomorrow with all the highlights and news from the Monaco GP. Stay tuned!

 

[driveroz247]

Race day in Monaco has arrived under overcast skies. One of the most anticipated race days on the F1 calendar is now here!

Questions remain unanswered. How will Alonso and Webber go in the race after starting further back than they're used to? How will the rivalry between Vettel and the McLarens continue to unfold here? Will Kobayashi deliver a good finish starting from 4th as per Monisha Kaltenborns expectations?

Just before the race started, Mark Webber decided on the following tyre and fuel strategy for the race:

Could Mark sneak into some points starting from 17th at Monaco, with enough sets of new tyres in the pit?

We'll be back shortly with a short race review, F1 2012 Championship Standings and any further developing news stories...

 

[driveroz247]

A round up of Monaco:

Webber Pleased with race result:
Mark Webber told the press today that he was pleased to have driven into the points after starting from a disappointing 17th at the 2012 Monaco GP. He was also delighted at being able to own the fastest lap of the race, even though it was still not enough to land him onto the podium.

F1 2012 Championship standings after round 6:

Kaltenborn delighted with overall performance this season:
Suaber Team Prinicipal Monisha Kaltenborn is said to be delighted with her team's overall performance and consistancy in 2012, which has seen her driver Kamui Kobayashi land 2 podium finishes, and her Team Sauber sit in 3rd poistion on the 2012 Constructors Championship. Certainly no-one had predicted that by after round 6 of the 2012 F1 Championship that Sauber would be sitting in 3rd place in the Constructors Championship, and this comes as a shock to many F1 followers. Kaltenborn however has put this down to a lot of hard work in the Sauber garage, and some brilliant driving from the team drivers, especially Kamui Kobayashi. Kaltenborn added that her next priority for the remainder of this season would be to ensure that her drivers turn those podium finishes into race victories. Though it would be tough to beat the likes of Red Bull and McLaren on race day, most in the team are very optimistic that their drivers can take that next step.

Webber apologises to Alonso after the race, complains to stewards about penalty:
Mark Webber was seen wandering over to Fernando Alonso after the race to apologise to him after an incident at Sainte Devote on the final lap, which brought an end to the Spaniard's race on the last lap. Alonso accepted Webber's apology, adding that sometimes "these type of incidents just occur in our sport, and no-one can really be blamed for it". Despite not finishing the race, Alonso still managed to secure a point for himself and his team, which by their own high standards are having a below average 2012 Championship. Webber was also said to be unhappy about a penalty he received for illegal blocking on lap 1 in the race entering the Monaco hairpin, stating to officials that if he was illegal blocking into the hairpin on lap 1, then all other drivers should have been given penaltys for it as they were just as guilty. The stewards overturned his protest, saying that time penalty was still going to stand.

Button continues to shine:
Jenson Button won his 3rd race of the 2012 Championship in Monaco yesterday in convinicing style after starting 3rd on the grid. The McLaren driver is having a season much to remember like his 2009 season so far. With his current good form he sits on top of the Drivers Championship, and many are already starting to predict another Drivers Championship for the Briton this year.


See you in Montreal, Canada for the next race, the first of 3 races this year to be held in the Americas, where I will be getting into a Caterham for the first time this season. I have drawn to drive as Vitaly Petrov for the Canadian GP 2012.

 

[driveroz247]

So here we are in Montreal, Canada, for Round 7 of the F1 2012 Championship. Usually the weather in Montreal serves-up a little bit of a mixed bag over the race weekend, let's have a look at the forecast for this year:

Apart from a small chance of rain during practice, the weekend was forecast to remian dry for qualifying and race day.

Onto Practice, and the fastest lap time in practice was set by Kamui Kobayashi, following up his excellent podium finish in Monaco. Sauber have definitely got a fast car this year, and this shows by their current third place on the WCC 2012. No doubt they will once again be up there matching the likes of McLaren and Red Bull on race day. The Marussia's HRT's and Caterhams were predictably the 6th slowest lap times of the practice session, but not that much faster than them were both Toro Rosso's, a team which has been disappointing so far this season. An overly aggressive Vitaly Petrov in practice saw him come to grief with Sergio Perez, and was given a 20 place grid penalty for the race. Rumour was that he would sit out qualifying because of this penalty, and save his tyres for the race.

So onto qualifying, and Petrov did sit out qualifying because of the 20 place grid penalty and decided to save his all of his tyres for the race. Out of Q1 went all the usual cars (Caterhams, Marussias and HRTs) along with Jean Eric Vergne. By the end of Q3 the front 5 rows of the grid shaped up as follows:

A McLaren lockout of the front row, with Vettel a disappointing 6th fastest time. Nico Hulkenberg has once again shown some real good qualifying form by putting his Force India onto one of the front two rows of the grid for the third time this year. But would the McLarens be able to convert this excellent Q3 into many points in the race? Let's see how the first 26 laps of the race unfolded:

The next post will include the remainder of the race, and any news stories developing in the world of F1 after the conclusion of the Canadian GP. Stay tuned!

 

[driveroz247]

We now pick up the remainder of the race from lap 27. Lap 27 saw the first safety car deployment of the 2012 Championship after this incident:

An understandably shaken, but luckily not injured Vitaly Petrov jumped out of his wreck after hitting the Wall of Champions hard on lap 27, ending the drivers race and bringing out the first safety car for the 2012 F1 Championship.

That brought to 9 the number of retirements in Montreal, the most so far in any race in 2012. Once the SC went back into the pits after the debris was cleared by lap 30, the remaining few laps passed without any further incidents or retirements. The final standings at the end of the Canadian GP were as follows:

Hamilton winning after starting from pole, totally dominating the race, and now into 3rd in the WDC 2012. Vettel had an excellent race, driving from 6th into 2nd, the big loser however was Championship leader Jenson Button, who had a poor race finishing with only 6 points, after starting on the front row alongside his team-mate. Both Nicos also having good races. Paul di Resta still an unhappy man after not being able to finish a race now since Bahrain!

Standings in the F1 2012 WDC and WCC now looks as follows after round 7 in Montreal:

Vettel closes the gap to Button at the top of the WDC and Hamilton into 3rd after his pole to victory race in Montreal.

No news stories after Montreal. All is quiet on the news front.

Next race heads back to Spain, for the European GP in Valencia.

The driver draw for Valencia has been completed. I will race as the following driver in Valencia:

See you all in hot and sunny Valencia for Round 8 of the F1 2012 Championship.

 

[driveroz247]

During the week leading up to the European GP formula1.com did an interview with Felipe Massa. Here is part of that interview:

Q: Felipe, would it be fair to say that Ferrari haven't had the start to 2012 you would've been hoping for?
A: Yes, this is correct. But the positive news is that we still have another 12 races to turn this all around, starting with the upcoming race at Valencia.

Q:What do you believe needs to happen to see those better results both you and the team are after?
A: Score some more points. Well, obviously the team needs to work harder as a whole, including Fernando and myself. Stefano and the rest of the team still have a lot of faith in both Fernando and myself, and the car itself. We believe we will turn our season around soon!

Q: There are rumours your seat is not safe for 2013. It is rumoured Ferrari are looking at a replacement for you next year if things continue this way. I've heard names such as Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg thrown around, even Jules Bianchi. Do you have anything to say about this?
A: Well, firstly they are rumours only, not facts. The team still has faith in both me and Fernando and our abilities to turn things around. Nothing more than what I've already said before.

Q:What happened in Montreal? It appeared that you just ran straight into the back of Petrov.
A:Yes, I made an error under brakes, but he was in a much slower car. By the time I tried to move across to avoid him, it was too late. You saw what happened after that, I won't say any more about it.

Q:What are you expecting to achieve in Valencia?
A:Hopefully a lot of points and a podium would be nice.

Now onto Valencia. The weather forecast was for a warm and sunny weekend, not a sign of any rain. Onto Practice, where Fernando Alonso topped the timesheets, his teammate Felipe Massa going 6th fastest in the session. Jenson Button went second fastest, and both Red Bull were in the top 5 times for the session as well. Lewis Hamilton could only manage the 16th fastest time for practice, it looks like he was having problems with the set-up of his car here.

Let's see how Q1 went:

A real shock result with some of the drivers from top teams not getting through, including Senna, Hamilton and Grosjean. Tony Fernandes was overjoyed seeing both his Caterhams make it into Q2. After Q3, the top 10 drivers on the grid had sorted themselves out:

Mark Webber a delighted man. Pastor Maldonado has already expressed his liking to street circuits, and he showed it here in qualifying, with his first front row of the year. Once again the Saubers look fast here, both drivers into the top 10, and Perez on the second row. This has got the making of an interesting and exciting GP, with some good drivers in faster cars starting much further back than they had wished.

Onto the race, which took place under a typically hot and sunny Valencia sky

Massa's strategy was as follows:

**The Valencia race - An action packed race not to be missed, safety cars, surprises and more...**

We'll be back later with a roundup, lots of news stories, and an fully updated 2012 Championship table. Stay tuned!

 

[Dan Hawkins]

Hi mate,

I just want to say - you really do some quite good reports. Excellent detail and It makes me want Valencia to hurry up!

Keep up the good work.

 

[driveroz247]

European GP 2012: A GP of firsts:
First ever GP podium and win for Sergio Perez
First ever GP podium for Pastor Maldonado
First ever Constructors Points to Caterham and Marussia teams

And a second ever win for Sauber in F1, their first win of course coming in Montreal in 2008 when Robert Kubica guided his Sauber BMW to an unexpected victory that day.

3 native Spanish speakers on the podium together in Spain.

A recap of the race results:

In the news...

Perez and Kaltenborn "jubilant":
Sergio Perez was jubilant after his first ever GP win in Valencia. The driver could not contain his excitement and happiness after the race. He partied on hard into the night. Team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn was equally as delighted with this performance of her winning driver, saying that this comes as no surprise to her as she always beleived their team had the car to match the pace of the other front-runners on the grid. She added that's been a while coming, but all the hard work and effort by the team through the off-season and during the first part of the season has finally paid off into "the most rewarding result of her career".

Maldonado pleased to have finally made a podium:
It is no secret that Frank Williams believes that Pastor Maldonando has a lot of talent as an F1 driver, and this showed through in this year's European GP. In the post-race interviews, Maldonado stated that it has been a great result due to the hard work the team has put in this year, and he couldn't be happier to be standing on the podium for the first time in his F1 career, and hoped for many more. His liking to street circuits certainly showed today, in a wonderful driving display.

Tony Fernandes "delighted" to see Caterham score their first points:
No doubt it was a topsy turvy race, but Tony Fernandes was delighted to see his Caterham Team (previously Lotus for 2010 and 2011) take it's first ever points in F1 racing. Tony paid credit to his driver Heikki Kovalainen, who drove a steady race, after both Caterham drivers put their cars into Q2 for the first time this year. The whole team partied hard into the evening. Tony said getting the 2 points was unexpected, but a result he hopes to see a lot more of for the remiander of the year.

John Booth was "ecstatic:
Marussia Team Principal John Booth was said to have been "ecstatic" with Marussia's first ever point in F1. He payed tribute to his driver Timo Glock, but admitted that the team got lucky, with Kobayashi crashing out of the race on the third last lap. Had Kobayashi not crashed, he admitted that the team probably would still be looking for their first point, but he added that sometimes you can just get lucky in our sport, and today was one of those days for Timo and the rest of team.

Hamilton crashed out after a disappointing weekend:
Lewis Hamilton was left lamenting a poor qualifying which put him near the back of the grid in the European GP, and consequently led to his lap 1 incident with Massa which put him out of the European GP. Hamilton understood it was toally accidental, as he was given a little nudge by what he thought was one of the Caterham cars on lap 1, which led to Massa running into the back of him under brakes and destroying his car in the process. But he also suggested that he wouldn't have been put into that position in the first place if he'd qualified on the front row of the grid.

No points for Button, 8 points for Vettel:
Jenson Button's failure to score any points in Valencia, coupled with the 8 scored by Sebastian Vettel in the same race, has cost Button the lead in the WDC 2012. Button had been leading the WDC 2012 since round 1, and has won the most GPs in 2012 so far, but Vettel's superior race consistency and his ability to score points more regularly has allowed the 2 time German World Champion to move to the top of the WDC 2012, a place where he is all too used to being.

Result and points table 2012:

See you in Silverstone where the 2012 F1 Championship moves to for round 9.

I have been drawn to drive for Lotus for a second time in this Championship, where I will hop into the Lotus of Romain Grosjean. See you there!

 

[sigge71]

Superintresting thread. Very nice post race interviews. I would like to know Kobayashis thoughts about Massa hitting him and ruined his race. Keep up with this thread, i love reading stories like this.

Edit: Have you thought about do a career mode with this kind of detailed info?