Intro:
First of all, the way PrestoGP is meant to work every single one of you could do what I am doing now, making this topic etc etc. Iow i do this in the power of being a PrestoGP member
therefore I hope that as many as possible of you contribute with your view, because this is just mine, and the majority is what should count. You can also add topics, disagree with me etc.
Main stuff:
All in all I think we all can be proud of how well our racing works. Considering how much effort and skills it takes from every single member to create a successful event I think the level we are on today is pretty amazing.
However, there will always be room for further improvement. Reading your race and incident reports, and also through my own experiences in the races, I have identified a few areas that I think needs a closer look.
-Dave and maybe other's race start/first lap
-Procedures when lapping/being lapped
-Level of competitiveness vs. safety among the fastest drivers
-The need of no pit speed limit
Now, remember that one of the major strength of Presto GP is that we are able to discuss stuff like this openly and constructively, even mentioning names, without anyone being insulted or anything like that. Doing stuff like this openly allows everybody to take part of the learning and is crucial for moving forward.
Dave and maybe other's race start/first lap
From just a brief look at some of your race starts I feel almost certain that the problem is that you are not in sync with the other drivers in terms of "competitiveness vs. safety" on lap one. The fact that you, the least experienced PrestoGP league racer, gain many positions each race is a sign that you are way more optimistic than most others, and that usually leads to an incident.
Normally the more experienced and skilled you are, the smaller margins you are able to operate under maintaining the same level of safety. If you look at the replay from the races and compare your starts with other members/drivers on the grid (e.g. me), you will notice a huge difference. I will make a video to demonstrate.
Rule of thumb though, pretend it is real, and each time you crash it costs you lot's of $$$ and you also risk personal injury.
Procedures when lapping/being lapped
The question here is how much time the fast guy behind can expect to lose, and how much of an effort the slow guy ahead has to make to avoid the fast guy losing time.
Personally I think the best solution is that we allow the slow car ahead "all the time he needs" to allow for a safe pass. As long as the slow car does not favor anyone, but always does his best, lapping cars is just another element to the competition, and that way can be regarded as fair. It can also be a spice to the front fight.
In my race at Interlagos I was right at David T's tail fighting for 7th I think it was when I go a blue flag and Sean and a string of cars in my mirrors in the start of the twisty part of the track. I made a small mistake in one of the turns (losing a few tenths), not enough to allow Sean past, but I felt compelled to move off track to let him past, not to interfere with his/their race. It was impossible for me to know who the 3 other cars were, so I had to let them all past . Obviously 1 or 2 of them were my competitors, and I lost hard earned places. This happened a second time some laps later, and again I lost a couple of places.
My point is that I was so afraid of holding Sean up that I partly destroyed my own race to avoid it. If the consensus was what I proposed above, I would have thought, "this is part of the race, he'll have to wait until after the last turn, and then I can more controlled let past those who are ahead of me (but not the rest)."
Obviously he (the fast guy ahead) have the option to make a pass on me earlier if he manage, if I see him up my side I will let him past.
I feel sorry for the slower guys who have to deal with this much more than me. Also, the way it tend to work now, the slower guys are likely to be lapped more when they lose so much time letting others past all the time.
Level of competitiveness vs. safety among the fastest drivers
I think this is more for the front drivers to discuss, but I will be glad to participate. I can see from Tim and David's posts, and also from earlier incidents by others that we might gain on discussing when one should go for a move and when it is to risky.
Some times we get great boarderline examples on this dilemma (when one should go for a move and when it is to risky), but usually we do not dear to discuss it because the incident has already caused negative emotions. This is a great loss for us all, because it prohibits us from improving much in these areas.
I have not seen any of the David/Tim situations myself yet, but I am delighted to see that they are able to deal with it without aggression. It would be very educational for all if the video's were posted and discussed by all (or am I expecting too much from those involved?)
Imagine an incident where the two involved disagrees about if it was right of one of them to try a move on the inside. If we then had the opinion from every single driver in the league (yes I think it is ok to go for a move in that situation or not) we all would learn a lot. Perhaps 18 sais it is not ok and 4 sais it is ok, then it would seem that the 4 guys were slightly out of sync with the rest and would have to adjust their style slightly. If the opinions was more 50/50 we can see it as a boarderline situation, also very helpful to know.
The need of no pit speed limit
This was originally installed to make 1 and 2 stop strategy more equal (or making 2 stops more favourable than it used to be, everybody were on one stop).
For some reason though it seems 2 stops are way faster than 1 stop, and we see little variety of strategy. So the no pit speed thing is working against it's purpose
To get technical; the time you save on one stop without pit speed limit contra with pit speed limit is the time that will favour one stop if we reinstate the pit speed limit. At Interlagos it would probably be 5+ sec or so, mening 2 stops would still be faster, but it would not hurt so much if one tried 1 stop.
Should we reinstall the pit speed limit?
First of all, the way PrestoGP is meant to work every single one of you could do what I am doing now, making this topic etc etc. Iow i do this in the power of being a PrestoGP member
therefore I hope that as many as possible of you contribute with your view, because this is just mine, and the majority is what should count. You can also add topics, disagree with me etc.Main stuff:
All in all I think we all can be proud of how well our racing works. Considering how much effort and skills it takes from every single member to create a successful event I think the level we are on today is pretty amazing.
However, there will always be room for further improvement. Reading your race and incident reports, and also through my own experiences in the races, I have identified a few areas that I think needs a closer look.
-Dave and maybe other's race start/first lap
-Procedures when lapping/being lapped
-Level of competitiveness vs. safety among the fastest drivers
-The need of no pit speed limit
Now, remember that one of the major strength of Presto GP is that we are able to discuss stuff like this openly and constructively, even mentioning names, without anyone being insulted or anything like that. Doing stuff like this openly allows everybody to take part of the learning and is crucial for moving forward.
Dave and maybe other's race start/first lap
From just a brief look at some of your race starts I feel almost certain that the problem is that you are not in sync with the other drivers in terms of "competitiveness vs. safety" on lap one. The fact that you, the least experienced PrestoGP league racer, gain many positions each race is a sign that you are way more optimistic than most others, and that usually leads to an incident.
Normally the more experienced and skilled you are, the smaller margins you are able to operate under maintaining the same level of safety. If you look at the replay from the races and compare your starts with other members/drivers on the grid (e.g. me), you will notice a huge difference. I will make a video to demonstrate.
Rule of thumb though, pretend it is real, and each time you crash it costs you lot's of $$$ and you also risk personal injury.
Procedures when lapping/being lapped
The question here is how much time the fast guy behind can expect to lose, and how much of an effort the slow guy ahead has to make to avoid the fast guy losing time.
Personally I think the best solution is that we allow the slow car ahead "all the time he needs" to allow for a safe pass. As long as the slow car does not favor anyone, but always does his best, lapping cars is just another element to the competition, and that way can be regarded as fair. It can also be a spice to the front fight.
In my race at Interlagos I was right at David T's tail fighting for 7th I think it was when I go a blue flag and Sean and a string of cars in my mirrors in the start of the twisty part of the track. I made a small mistake in one of the turns (losing a few tenths), not enough to allow Sean past, but I felt compelled to move off track to let him past, not to interfere with his/their race. It was impossible for me to know who the 3 other cars were, so I had to let them all past . Obviously 1 or 2 of them were my competitors, and I lost hard earned places. This happened a second time some laps later, and again I lost a couple of places.
My point is that I was so afraid of holding Sean up that I partly destroyed my own race to avoid it. If the consensus was what I proposed above, I would have thought, "this is part of the race, he'll have to wait until after the last turn, and then I can more controlled let past those who are ahead of me (but not the rest)."
Obviously he (the fast guy ahead) have the option to make a pass on me earlier if he manage, if I see him up my side I will let him past.
I feel sorry for the slower guys who have to deal with this much more than me. Also, the way it tend to work now, the slower guys are likely to be lapped more when they lose so much time letting others past all the time.
Level of competitiveness vs. safety among the fastest drivers
I think this is more for the front drivers to discuss, but I will be glad to participate. I can see from Tim and David's posts, and also from earlier incidents by others that we might gain on discussing when one should go for a move and when it is to risky.
Some times we get great boarderline examples on this dilemma (when one should go for a move and when it is to risky), but usually we do not dear to discuss it because the incident has already caused negative emotions. This is a great loss for us all, because it prohibits us from improving much in these areas.
I have not seen any of the David/Tim situations myself yet, but I am delighted to see that they are able to deal with it without aggression. It would be very educational for all if the video's were posted and discussed by all (or am I expecting too much from those involved?)
Imagine an incident where the two involved disagrees about if it was right of one of them to try a move on the inside. If we then had the opinion from every single driver in the league (yes I think it is ok to go for a move in that situation or not) we all would learn a lot. Perhaps 18 sais it is not ok and 4 sais it is ok, then it would seem that the 4 guys were slightly out of sync with the rest and would have to adjust their style slightly. If the opinions was more 50/50 we can see it as a boarderline situation, also very helpful to know.
The need of no pit speed limit
This was originally installed to make 1 and 2 stop strategy more equal (or making 2 stops more favourable than it used to be, everybody were on one stop).
For some reason though it seems 2 stops are way faster than 1 stop, and we see little variety of strategy. So the no pit speed thing is working against it's purpose
To get technical; the time you save on one stop without pit speed limit contra with pit speed limit is the time that will favour one stop if we reinstate the pit speed limit. At Interlagos it would probably be 5+ sec or so, mening 2 stops would still be faster, but it would not hurt so much if one tried 1 stop.
Should we reinstall the pit speed limit?
