F1 2010 Should I quit my team and take a new contract?

[questionman1]

As someone who has no clue about Formula 1, except that Michael Shoemaker is supposedly the greatest driver of all time; I have no clue as to why I should leave my team.

I'm about 1/2-way through the season (at Silverstone, no clue if its halfway, it just feels like it), and I'm beginning to get offers from other teams. Why should I go to them? What's the benefit? I'm winning and my team, HRT, is winning the constructor's championship as well (which presumably means that they are making the best car).

Some feedback would be appreciated.


Oh also, how accurate is this game? There's a video fo some guy driving around Montreal in a simulator and it seems to be subtley different than the one I drove (corners seem tighter here). Is that my imagination or are little things changed in the game to make it easier for the general public?
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/...rmula-1-2010-round-8-montreal-track-data.html

 

[Steve Stoop]

Well I don't know how good you are at this game, but if you're winning with a HRT you are either quite a good simracer or you need to increase the difficulty level.

HRT is one of the three rather crappy starter cars (with Lotus and Virgin)

Here's what I believe to be roughly the car's 'ranking' from worst to best:
- 3 starters mentioned above
-Toro Rosso
-Sauber
-Williams
-Force India
-Renault
-Mercedes
-Ferrari
-McLaren
-Redbull

Each team has a required reputation level to get a contract with them (rep increases depending on your performance, the better teams thus have higher rep requirements.)

It must be noted that as you progress through the seasons this ranking does seem to change slightly depending on each team's performance in the season.

As for your 2nd q, I believe the tracks are pretty accurate, wouldn't know 100% ofc since I sadly never raced there myself

 

[Darth-Fluffy]

Ayrton Senna is the greatest driver of all time. Just thought I would share that.

 

[Nick Deeley]

Here's what I believe to be roughly the car's 'ranking' from worst to best:
- 3 starters mentioned above
-Toro Rosso
-Sauber
-Williams
-Force India
-Renault
-Mercedes
-Ferrari
-McLaren
-Redbull

I would place Torro Rosse a little higher up. Its actually a half decent car. Certainly quicker than the Sauber, and feels better than the Force India.

And some circuits aren't that accurate. There was a couple of threads around here about the 'favourite' and 'least favourite' circuits, where some people have posted the flaws. As Silverstone was mentioned - I believe the maggots/beckets series of corners are not accurate in the game.

 

[TR6speed]

Also you will find that the AI's are not exactly perfect. There are some mods that help make the AI's a little more aggressive and one that will do away with their early corner braking. I started with the Lotus and I was always in the back at qualifying as well as the race. I now am in a Williams and I find I am much more in line.

 

[Keith Shew]

I started off in the Lotus 1st season, after the corrupted save bug I started a 3 year carreer with Force India, couldn't believe the performance difference. Time to ramp up the difficulty now because i destroyed the field at Bahrain.

 

[AZZKIK3R]

Interesting to note.. for someone who know's nuts about F1 other than "Shoemaker", you decided to play this game

Ranking wise, Steve Stoop's order is pretty accurate (subject to personal preference). Generally, F1 fans will (I assume) play this game starting from the bottom 3 teams and work their way towards driving for their favorite team. So I see your point on not wanting to move to another team since your team is winning the championship on all fronts, since you don't have a favorite team.

That being said, HRT will probably not be able to satisfy your worth in terms of pay you could command as a Championship (or potential) driver. Other teams will start offering you better pay / contract terms to drive for them. You'll realize their cars handle better and are faster and your lap times will start dropping.

I'm a McLaren fan and hope to drive for them sometime in my career. However, starting at Lotus and working my way upwards towards the bigger teams, I occasionally am flattered by certain offers and choose to accept it. Currently driving for Ferrari (as I was flattered they took interest in me ahead of McLaren lol)... and hope to snub their contract renewal should McLaren offer a contract hehe!

 

[PainlessDocM]

I am having a similar problem I used to be an F1 fan but kind of lost interest around 2003.
Needless to say things have changed in the meantime...

I am driving for Lotus (with the helpful setups I found on this site) with mixed results so I am tempted to restart my career for another team.

What are the major differences between the 'starter teams' which car has the best handling for a rookie driver?

Thanks in advance.


(I am playing the pc version with an xbox controller against 'professional AI')

 

[questionman1]

Thanks for the advice fellas; but as Azzkikr mentioned, (by the way, awesome way to place yourself in the game and speak from that perspective ), one of the advantages is money. That's great, but money really doesn't play any role at all in this game does it? Other than being an arbitrary metric, perhaps a superficial way to keep "score?"

Now what others have said, that other cars are better (this might explain a lot as to why my fastest times are at least 5 seconds slower than the fastest times listed here, as they are in McLarens and other fancy doodads (btw in the setup conversation everyone gravitates towards McLarens. Almost all youtube videos I've seen are of McLarens, which seems to imply that is the best manufacturer. Doesn't that go against Steve Stoop's list that Red Bull makes the best car?), that definitely makes for an appealing argument.

For the record, I'm racing with Medium difficulty settings (I think all assists, corner guides, auto), I've only upped the CPU difficulty to the next level. And in all honesty I don't see that changing; racing with a 360 controller that is the best I can do. Though I will say, I wish they had an option where you could change gears by moving the right-analog stick up and down; that is something I would definitely jump on. But it just feels too weird to change gears via buttons, and furthermore my grip makes it slightly awkward to reach the buttons when the right trigger (accelerator) is pressed down all the way.

"Interesting to note.. for someone who know's nuts about F1 other than "Shoemaker", you decided to play this game "

I have to attribute that to the positive feedback this game got. It was always being promoted on various sites, such as reddit, that when I felt in the mood to try out a racing game, I got directed here. It is not exactly what I expected, because you don't really get the "thrill" of going fast. This game is much more similar to golf; you are constantly pushing yourself towards perfection and that forces you to keep coming back. I still haven't satiated that thrill I want from just driving a car.

 

[James Chant]

TI wish they had an option where you could change gears by moving the right-analog stick up and down; that is something I would definitely jump on.

You can - custom controller setup, you can make any button do anything you want.

In the pause menu, go to options, driving options, control profile : custom (after 1-5), assign your gears to RS. Simples

 

[Rob Stone]

It's also worth noting if you change team, you need to start again with the R&D for that team.

Whilst it's not a major set back, I was a bit gutted that I lost my 'Cruise' & 'Fast' option for the engine mapping when changing teams.

 

[puttyfly]

i have a question about the contracts:

I'm driving my second season with Lotus (first was with Virgin).
Now Lotus offers me a contract at half season. (Same thing last year for virgin, i waited till the end of the season and Virgin didn't want me again, so i had to contract with Lotus)

Now my question: contracting with Lotus would bring me the adavantages of having already the updates for the setup.
This season i started at 0 and i feel that Virgin is quicker through the updates it got last year - could that be right?