General Information

Chris · May 12, 2015

Sim Required: Assetto Corsa
Car: CTDP 2009 International Formula Master (version 1.3 DOWNLOAD)
Rounds: 5 (+1 preseason qualification)
Grid: Maximum 24 drivers.

Welcome to the first ever season of the Thrustmaster Australian Formula Master. The premier open-wheeler series for Oceania-based racers on RaceDepartment. This season will consist of a preseason qualification session followed by five official rounds, with each race being held on a Saturday evening. You will be fighting for a Drivers Championship and a Teams Championship. Thanks to our partnership with Thrustmaster for this series, the winner of the Drivers Championship will be rewarded with a Thrustmaster TH8A shifter!

General Information:

Race Distances are determined by the first lap to exceed the 120 kilometre mark. This should equate to approximately 35-45 minutes of racing.
Participation is mandatory for all official events, unless a legitimate absence report has been filed.
Pit stops are not mandatory, however can be utilised should the driver deem it necessary.
Drivers will be competing for a drivers championship, and a teams championship. The teams championship is determined by the combined points total of both drivers within the team.
Track conditions:
- At the time of writing Assetto Corsa only supports a single weather condition (26C & Clear) in multiplayer servers.
- Should developments take place during the season, meaning that such parameters can be altered, then races that take place after the updates will be configured to a more realistic weather condition based on the country in which that track resides.
The scheduled timeline of events will be strictly adhered to. Drivers who fail to book in to the server during the allotted time frame may be subject to penalty or suspension from future rounds.
Drivers must complete at least 90% of the race distance to be considered as a classified finisher.

League Entry and Eligibility:
When signing up to this league, you are agreeing to participate in every round, and abide by the RaceDepartment League Regulations. Absences must be reported at least 24 hours in advance of the commencement of the booking session, and must be of legitimate reasoning. RaceDepartment league directors reserve the right to remove drivers from the league if they fail to provide notice of absence and/or fail to follow RaceDepartment League Regulations.

To gain entry to this league, drivers must meet the following requirements:

Must have a Premium Membership. (Purchase here!)
Must have a stable internet connection.
Must meet the requirement of the Preseason Qualification.

Season Calendar:
The season will kick off at the end of May, and will finish at the beginning of August.

Preseason Qualification: Saturday, May 30th - Silverstone National - 72hrs
Round 1: Saturday, 13th June - Silverstone GP - 21 laps (123.7 km)
Round 2: Saturday, 27th June - Nurburgring GP - 24 laps (123.5 km)
Round 3: Saturday, 11th July - Autodromo Nazionale Monza - 21 laps (121.6 km)
Round 4: Saturday, 18th July - Spa-Francorchamps - 18 laps (126.0 km)
Round 5: Saturday, 1st August - Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari - 25 Laps (122.7 km)

Event Schedule:
Each round of the RDAFM will commence at 19:00 Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), on Saturday's.

Booking: 30 minutes
Practice: 45 minutes
Qualifying: 30 minutes
Race: ~120km.

Points System:
Points will be allocated as follows:
1st = 25pts
2nd = 18pts
3rd = 15pts
4th = 12pts
5th = 10pts
6th = 8pts
7th = 6pts
8th = 4pts
9th = 2pts
10th = 1pt

Drivers who finish outside 10th position will receive zero points but will still be ranked according to their best finishing position. In the event of an equal number of total points for two or more drivers, a count-back will take place, and the positions will be determined by:

Highest number of first places.
Highest number of second places.
Highest number of third places. etc. etc.

Liveries and Driver Numbers:
All drivers must download and use the skinpack created for this league at all races, and must use the skin they are assigned with for the entire season. Drivers who use a different skin from the one they were allocated will receive a back of the grid penalty for the following race. Teammates will have identical skins with the exception of car number. Driver numbers and liveries will be allocated according to the preseason qualification ranking.

Special thanks to ML2166 for all his hard work in creating incredible skin designs!

Teams:
A "team" consists of two drivers. Your teammate will be determined from the result of the Preseason Qualification session. Teams are required to create a team name, which must be submitted to the league director one week prior to the commencement of round one. Only the two official drivers from each team will be able to score points for their respective teams. Reserve drivers cannot score points for any team.

TeamSpeak Channels:
Drivers must create a sub-channel in TeamSpeak, and it must be titled according to their chosen team name.
Drivers are free to talk as little, or as much as they like when within their respective team's channel.

To set up your teams' Sub-Channel:

Right click on the Assetto Corsa channel, and click "Create Sub-Channel".
Under the "Audio" tab, set the Codec to "Speex Ultra-Wideband" and the Quality to 7. Then click OK.
Your Teams' sub-channel is all set!

Jamie · May 12, 2015

Brilliant Chris. Well done mate

Looking forward to some great fun and tight racing

Aidan Keranen · May 12, 2015

So teams are a thing that exists this season?

EDIT:
@Chris Stacey

Chris Stacey said:
I need a teammate!
Don't worry, you're not required to find a teammate. The teams will be allocated according to the standings of the final result of the session. The driver with the fastest average time during the 25 lap run will be paired with the slowest. The second fastest with the second slowest, and so on, and so forth. With this system, the teams will have an equalised balance of performance by pairing stronger drivers with weaker drivers. This ensures that no team is overwhelmingly top-heavy, and thus cannot runaway with the Constructors Championship.

So this is coming from the Qualifier event. Is this the only way that we can get teams together?

Matt · May 12, 2015

Does this mean no custom skins?

Chris · May 12, 2015

Matt Bailey said:
Does this mean no custom skins?

You're not required to create your own custom skin as we have a skin pack for the league which will be available for download once the Pre-Season qually is finished and sorted and drivers are paired.

Aidan Keranen said:
So this is coming from the Qualifier event. Is this the only way that we can get teams together?

It's not the only way, but it's the way we've decided to do it.

Aidan Keranen · May 12, 2015

ahh, I see how it is getting done now... I am happy to go with it for this season, but both the teams and the skins discussion I would like to see more open next season (as I was working on a skin for this series, so that'll be on the backburner for a while now)

Chris · May 12, 2015

Aidan Keranen said:
ahh, I see how it is getting done now... I am happy to go with it for this season, but both the teams and the skins discussion I would like to see more open next season (as I was working on a skin for this series, so that'll be on the backburner for a while now)

It looks more professional if team mates have identical skins (i.e. Formula One, GP2, GP3, Euro F3 etc. etc.). That's the reason we decided on this approach

It's also easier to tell who the driver is if you've got the name tags turned off

Aidan Keranen · May 12, 2015

Chris Stacey said:
It looks more professional if team mates have identical skins (i.e. Formula One, GP2, GP3, Euro F3 etc. etc.). That's the reason we decided on this approach
It's also easier to tell who the driver is if you've got the name tags turned off

Naturally, never said that I wasn't go to make the skin twice either mate

Sun Levi · May 15, 2015

Hey @Chris Stacey What grip level will the session start with? 93%? And what level will it be at the race start?

Chris · May 15, 2015

Sun Levi said:
Hey @Chris Stacey What grip level will the session start with? 93%? And what level will it be at the race start?

TBD.
At this stage I'd say it'll probably start practice at 91-92, and then the race will finish with it at approx 95-96.

Sun Levi · May 15, 2015

Personally, I'm fine with the grip being that low, I'm just a little concerned about the slower guys. The tyres seem to fall off pretty quick, and with the combination of low track grip + tyre degradation some might find it abit tricky to actually have a race with someone...Especially at a later stage of the race, or even half way, I just fear that people won't have enough grip to push forward, or have a battle.

Sun Levi · May 15, 2015

Keep in mind that I actually haven't done more than like 10 laps in this car, so I actually don't know how the car feels like after doing a full race length, but I guess it's something to consider

Matt · May 15, 2015

My opinion is that 91 is artificially too low and makes the game not realistic. I agree with Kunos, the people who made the game and are experts, who say that 95% is the best starting grip for a weekend (their green setting) and finishing at 98% (their fast setting).

But of course I have no say in the matter. If I don't like it what choice do I have? Go along with it or miss out on events in the AU club?

Chris · May 15, 2015

I'm not getting into this discussion again. I've made my feelings very clear several times before. 91-92% is a perfectly acceptable level of grip to start a practice session at.

Niki Đaković · May 15, 2015

For sure there is testing to be done. From my experience a GT3 car is giving second to none feel back from it's tires until the track grip has hit at least a 95% margin. There is no tire bite. No brakes. No steering feel. It's obvious car was designed for race track. Not public roads.

Then again a BMW m235i Racing seemed completely fine on 93% and unrealistically bouncy on 98% and higher. Ring car. Ring is traditionally greasy and slippery in real life.

Chris · May 15, 2015

Anything greater than 97% grip is boardering on drag strip levels of rubber, the track is pretty much more rubber than Tarmac at that point. No race track in the world becomes this grippy.

Kunos's green setting is 93%, so it's not as if it's some undriveable mess to go down 1%. I really don't see why this is such a big issue. Its about adapting to the conditions at hand, 92% is almost no different to 93, it's more than manageable.

Ugh. Maybe I should just give up and put the club events to 100% grip the whole time, damage off, penalties off, no tire wear, no fuel consumption, and turn on tyre blankets for every race.

Sun Levi · May 15, 2015

Chris Stacey said:
Ugh. Maybe I should just give up and put the club events to 100% grip the whole time, damage off, penalties off, no tire wear, no fuel consumption, and turn on tyre blankets for every race.

Obviously nobody wants any of that... Like I said, I can 100% handle the current grip level. It isn't an issue for me at all, I honestly didn't know you felt this way about it. I just simply wanted to give a suggestion based on the slower guys.

We know you want the racing experience to be the best it can be, and for me it has been, and I'm not suggesting crazy grip levels like 98+, but something like start at 93 then finish at 97. You do bring up a great point though that 92 & 93 isn't really all that different.

Chris · May 15, 2015

Sun Levi said:
It isn't an issue for me at all, I honestly didn't know you felt this way about it.

It's only because it was brought up multiple times last season, and now again here. Grip levels between 92 and 97% are realistic levels of grip for a dry track. So I try to work within that window as much as possible.

The guys who want the races to start at like 98% and above, I don't really know what to say other than it's just not realistic, so it won't be replicated in a league environment. End of.

Sun Levi said:
93 then finish at 97

That to me is perfectly reasonable and realistic.

Aidan Keranen · May 15, 2015

Personally, as I feel as one of the 'slower' guys, I see no problem with 91%. This being that it is harder, I have to concentrate, feel the car, make sure I am smooth in applying throttle and brake. As the 'weekend' progresses I feel more in tune with what the car is doing, I throw it into a corner, I gain confidence in the car and find the limits that can be pushed for me. Come race time it feels easier and I feel like I've learnt something due to the evolution of the track. Not to mention that everyone else has to do this, it comes down to not just who has speed, but who has control.
That's why I like racing at lower levels of grip, if I muck up I know to work on it, if I do well it is all the sweeter.