RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix Season 7 – Round 7
See? This is nuts. Welcome to the penultimate race, Round 7, of RDHGP S7. Where’s the season gone?
Again, I got no reported incidents, about which I’m going to persist in the opinion that it signifies good clean racing, and a satisfactory event.
Round 7 takes us back across the Atlantic, over 6,200 miles North East, and the A1 ring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria.
Circuit Notes
The town of Spielberg is situated roughly centrally in Austria in the Styria region. The first Formula 1 race held there was run at the Zeltweg Airfield, the idea for this coming from the success that the UK had been having with Silverstone, also an airfield. The surface turned out to be too abrasive, however, and only a single World Championship event was held there in 1964. The airfield track was abandoned in 1969 following the construction of the purpose built Österreichring.
The Österreichring hosted the Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from 1970 to 1987. In 1977, the first corner was changed from a sweeping right hander into a chicane – the Hella-Licht S – before it was shortened by over 1 km and completely altered into the A1 ring in 1997. Unlike our Interlagos version, this shorter track is the layout that we will be driving. This version hosted the Austrian Grand Prix from 1997-2003, as well as rounds of the DTM and MotoGP championships, until the Stands and Pits were bulldozed in 2004. Since then, the venue has metamorphosed again into the Red Bull Ring, although its owner has ruled out any future F1 or MotoGP, concentrating on the DTM & the F2 Championships.
As the A1 Ring only has 9 corners, this will be a bit easier and quicker for me to write than the previous round.
A lap of the A-1 Ring starts on the fairly long slightly downhill sloping home straight, the S/F line about halfway down it, so there will be some fairly high speeds being reached on the first lap, and top speed on subsequent laps. As the first corner is fairly sharp, Lap 1 caution and prudence will be required.
The braking zone for T1R rises sharply to unsettle the cars as the slam on the anchors, the inner kerbs are relatively benign on the inner half, but going in too too aggressively will give you a Cut, and taking liberties with the outer kerb if you stay wide will also give you a Cut. All in all, T1R can be attacked, but it is surrounded by hazards. Risk/reward scenario is very much the in evidence here. Through experience, this corner is only a hazard on Lap 1, until the pack can sort itself out. DO NOT be greedy, selfish or overly aggressive here on Lap1, or you’ll find yourself out of the double point finale without recourse for appeal. I kid you not.
Accelerating hard out of T1R, the track rises gently, and falls gently, and then rises again slightly sharper for the hard braking zone into T2R – Remus. While having a similar feel to T1R, Remus is tighter, has bumpier kerbs, is slippier on exit AND has the added protection of strict but fair cut warnings. All in all, it’s a fairly tricky prospect to get right, but it is important for decent times.
Again hard on the power, you exit onto a downhill straight, over a crest, onto a much steeper downhill slope, under the banner into the downhill braking zone for T3R – Gösser.
The downhill braking into Gösser telescopes the stopping distances, the heavier cars being affected more than the lighter ones, so care will be needed into here depending on what you are in, and what is around you. Gösser starts relatively tight, and then opens out, but the –ve camber means that care is required under acceleration. The track eventually opens into T4R, almost a continuation of Gösser, but crested to make it easily discernable, and the track drops down into a rarity so far – a left hander.
T5L is the amusingly named (to me, even if no-one else) Power Horse. This is a medium speed corner, best taken as a slow in-quick out profile, as you want to get your nose in early. It is all too easy to wash out on the outside of Power Horse and you don’t want to do that, as you are approaching T6L – Niki Lauda. If you can get Power Horse right, you can treat Niki Lauda almost as a second apex, even though there is quite a distance between them, with Lauda just needing a lift induced nose tuck to get across the apex.
Hard acceleration out of Lauda, and if you get it right you’ll be feeling pretty good about yourself, but hold that in for a moment, as probably the trickiest corner on the circuit is looming – T7R.
It’s not tricky because it’s particularly tight or unsighted – it’s not. It’s tricky because it sits in a dip, with a very nasty bump right at the turn in point, that will unsettle your car just as you are on full acceleration, an uphill exit that then immediately crests as you are wrestling you car back into shape, and a very strict (but again not unfair) cut warning on the outside of the kerb that you will be drifting towards. Negotiate this and you are facing a short uphill blast that then crests, and dives away down and right into T8R – Jochen Rindt.
A hard stab of brakes on a wide line, and then a swoop in, attacking the inside kerb on Rindt is a must, as there is another cut warning, and more importantly some nasty to get out of sand, on the outside if you stray over the kerbs, either by circumstance or design.
A squirt of right foot downhill along the short stretch out of Rindt, past the pit entry, and throw the nose at the downhill, -ve camber, blind and protected on the inside by the pit wall T9R – A1.
If you have to compromise your line through A1, take your medicine on entry, not on exit, because it leads into that long straight, and mph lost here are gone. Even the tiniest lift, wobble or correction will have people swarming all over your rear end. From there it’s flat out to the S/F line and another lap of the A1 Ring.
The Race Directors Notes
Please see the track map above (A1 ring in black overlaid onto the 79 Oesterreichring in grey) for location of Race Direction note:-
All Corners Without Exception – The kerbs are not deemed as track, therefore 2 wheels must be within the white lines, on the tarmac, At All Times. Again, there are NO exceptions to this rule at any point on the circuit. Any exception to this rule is deemed illegal, any advantage gained by this method must be ceded immediately. Report people deliberately and excessively cutting.
Racing Room must be given to all drivers – and this works both ways. Divebombing into and across a corner denies people the chance to make the corner correctly just as much as someone obliviously (or deliberately) cutting the nose off of another driver who has achieved partial overlap fairly.
Regain the track safely - If you leave the track, you must rejoin the track safely. If that means losing another couple of places – so be it.
T2R – Remus – As mentioned above, Remus is awkward, the inner kerbs look tempting, but they are much more pronounced that T1R, and will upset vehicles. The other issue it presents is people spinning out under over eager acceleration. Be aware of both of these scenarios.
T3R – Gösser – I mentioned above that it’s heavily downhill on the brakes into here, and that it would telescope braking distances depending on your vehicle. People flying in in heavy cars and taking people out like skittles will not be looked upon favourably.
All points on the track – General Items
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the race.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
There were no reported racing incidents arising from Round6.
2 drivers incurred a “No-Show” infraction:
1 driver has resigned from the League:
No report = no review.
Please try and remember the incident reporting guidelines: review, cool off, review again. Only after following the above process, and if you are convinced you still need to report it, should you let the League staff know. Please give as much information as possible during the report (time of incident, drivers involved etc.) Accident reports made within 24 hours of race completion will be ignored.
Any accusations or complaints aired in the Chat during or after a race will mean a penalty levied on the person complaining or making the accusations, even if a subsequent official complaint gets found in their favour. I simply will NOT tolerate any post race finger pointing.
Liveries
You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHGP event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHGP.
New Driver
Chris Butcher is joining the last 2 rounds of Season 7, and he will have his own livery. I will be posting that in the uploads section. It is a mandatory download, so people don’t have skin checking problems. It will be available for download over the weekend (16/17 July).
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P20 (75% distance completion required) so people can fight for some points no matter where they are on the track, and hopefully have a season long battle with people around them in the League.
The Distribution is as follows for 100km events :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
See? This is nuts. Welcome to the penultimate race, Round 7, of RDHGP S7. Where’s the season gone?
Again, I got no reported incidents, about which I’m going to persist in the opinion that it signifies good clean racing, and a satisfactory event.
Round 7 takes us back across the Atlantic, over 6,200 miles North East, and the A1 ring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria.
Circuit Notes
The town of Spielberg is situated roughly centrally in Austria in the Styria region. The first Formula 1 race held there was run at the Zeltweg Airfield, the idea for this coming from the success that the UK had been having with Silverstone, also an airfield. The surface turned out to be too abrasive, however, and only a single World Championship event was held there in 1964. The airfield track was abandoned in 1969 following the construction of the purpose built Österreichring.
The Österreichring hosted the Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from 1970 to 1987. In 1977, the first corner was changed from a sweeping right hander into a chicane – the Hella-Licht S – before it was shortened by over 1 km and completely altered into the A1 ring in 1997. Unlike our Interlagos version, this shorter track is the layout that we will be driving. This version hosted the Austrian Grand Prix from 1997-2003, as well as rounds of the DTM and MotoGP championships, until the Stands and Pits were bulldozed in 2004. Since then, the venue has metamorphosed again into the Red Bull Ring, although its owner has ruled out any future F1 or MotoGP, concentrating on the DTM & the F2 Championships.
As the A1 Ring only has 9 corners, this will be a bit easier and quicker for me to write than the previous round.
A lap of the A-1 Ring starts on the fairly long slightly downhill sloping home straight, the S/F line about halfway down it, so there will be some fairly high speeds being reached on the first lap, and top speed on subsequent laps. As the first corner is fairly sharp, Lap 1 caution and prudence will be required.
The braking zone for T1R rises sharply to unsettle the cars as the slam on the anchors, the inner kerbs are relatively benign on the inner half, but going in too too aggressively will give you a Cut, and taking liberties with the outer kerb if you stay wide will also give you a Cut. All in all, T1R can be attacked, but it is surrounded by hazards. Risk/reward scenario is very much the in evidence here. Through experience, this corner is only a hazard on Lap 1, until the pack can sort itself out. DO NOT be greedy, selfish or overly aggressive here on Lap1, or you’ll find yourself out of the double point finale without recourse for appeal. I kid you not.
Accelerating hard out of T1R, the track rises gently, and falls gently, and then rises again slightly sharper for the hard braking zone into T2R – Remus. While having a similar feel to T1R, Remus is tighter, has bumpier kerbs, is slippier on exit AND has the added protection of strict but fair cut warnings. All in all, it’s a fairly tricky prospect to get right, but it is important for decent times.
Again hard on the power, you exit onto a downhill straight, over a crest, onto a much steeper downhill slope, under the banner into the downhill braking zone for T3R – Gösser.
The downhill braking into Gösser telescopes the stopping distances, the heavier cars being affected more than the lighter ones, so care will be needed into here depending on what you are in, and what is around you. Gösser starts relatively tight, and then opens out, but the –ve camber means that care is required under acceleration. The track eventually opens into T4R, almost a continuation of Gösser, but crested to make it easily discernable, and the track drops down into a rarity so far – a left hander.
T5L is the amusingly named (to me, even if no-one else) Power Horse. This is a medium speed corner, best taken as a slow in-quick out profile, as you want to get your nose in early. It is all too easy to wash out on the outside of Power Horse and you don’t want to do that, as you are approaching T6L – Niki Lauda. If you can get Power Horse right, you can treat Niki Lauda almost as a second apex, even though there is quite a distance between them, with Lauda just needing a lift induced nose tuck to get across the apex.
Hard acceleration out of Lauda, and if you get it right you’ll be feeling pretty good about yourself, but hold that in for a moment, as probably the trickiest corner on the circuit is looming – T7R.
It’s not tricky because it’s particularly tight or unsighted – it’s not. It’s tricky because it sits in a dip, with a very nasty bump right at the turn in point, that will unsettle your car just as you are on full acceleration, an uphill exit that then immediately crests as you are wrestling you car back into shape, and a very strict (but again not unfair) cut warning on the outside of the kerb that you will be drifting towards. Negotiate this and you are facing a short uphill blast that then crests, and dives away down and right into T8R – Jochen Rindt.
A hard stab of brakes on a wide line, and then a swoop in, attacking the inside kerb on Rindt is a must, as there is another cut warning, and more importantly some nasty to get out of sand, on the outside if you stray over the kerbs, either by circumstance or design.
A squirt of right foot downhill along the short stretch out of Rindt, past the pit entry, and throw the nose at the downhill, -ve camber, blind and protected on the inside by the pit wall T9R – A1.
If you have to compromise your line through A1, take your medicine on entry, not on exit, because it leads into that long straight, and mph lost here are gone. Even the tiniest lift, wobble or correction will have people swarming all over your rear end. From there it’s flat out to the S/F line and another lap of the A1 Ring.
The Race Directors Notes
Please see the track map above (A1 ring in black overlaid onto the 79 Oesterreichring in grey) for location of Race Direction note:-
All Corners Without Exception – The kerbs are not deemed as track, therefore 2 wheels must be within the white lines, on the tarmac, At All Times. Again, there are NO exceptions to this rule at any point on the circuit. Any exception to this rule is deemed illegal, any advantage gained by this method must be ceded immediately. Report people deliberately and excessively cutting.
Racing Room must be given to all drivers – and this works both ways. Divebombing into and across a corner denies people the chance to make the corner correctly just as much as someone obliviously (or deliberately) cutting the nose off of another driver who has achieved partial overlap fairly.
Regain the track safely - If you leave the track, you must rejoin the track safely. If that means losing another couple of places – so be it.
T2R – Remus – As mentioned above, Remus is awkward, the inner kerbs look tempting, but they are much more pronounced that T1R, and will upset vehicles. The other issue it presents is people spinning out under over eager acceleration. Be aware of both of these scenarios.
T3R – Gösser – I mentioned above that it’s heavily downhill on the brakes into here, and that it would telescope braking distances depending on your vehicle. People flying in in heavy cars and taking people out like skittles will not be looked upon favourably.
All points on the track – General Items
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the race.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
There were no reported racing incidents arising from Round6.
2 drivers incurred a “No-Show” infraction:
- Norman Bruce
- Ondrej Kapal
1 driver has resigned from the League:
- Keith Peppiatt
No report = no review.
Please try and remember the incident reporting guidelines: review, cool off, review again. Only after following the above process, and if you are convinced you still need to report it, should you let the League staff know. Please give as much information as possible during the report (time of incident, drivers involved etc.) Accident reports made within 24 hours of race completion will be ignored.
Any accusations or complaints aired in the Chat during or after a race will mean a penalty levied on the person complaining or making the accusations, even if a subsequent official complaint gets found in their favour. I simply will NOT tolerate any post race finger pointing.
Liveries
You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHGP event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHGP.
New Driver
Chris Butcher is joining the last 2 rounds of Season 7, and he will have his own livery. I will be posting that in the uploads section. It is a mandatory download, so people don’t have skin checking problems. It will be available for download over the weekend (16/17 July).
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P20 (75% distance completion required) so people can fight for some points no matter where they are on the track, and hopefully have a season long battle with people around them in the League.
The Distribution is as follows for 100km events :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
