Season 13 - Calendar

[Dennis Phelan]

Check the Race 07 Club Racing schedule later this week. The plan is to run the A-1 Ring next week and to have F3000 as the car for Thursdays 30 minute [one race] event. Not the Presto format, sorry. As always all are welcome.

Dennis

 

[April Dillon]

Will see you there, Dennis

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Would be good practise unfortunately I'm busy Thursday's, setup thread etc will here shortly although not much will change from last season's I assume .

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

What the title says. When do we start, how will we shuffle with F1 calendar, what tracks are available and what will we use when there is not, all that dippiduu.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

F1 Calendar:

Jul 20 German Grand Prix
Jul 27 Hungarian Grand Prix
Aug 24 Belgian Grand Prix
Sep 7 Italian Grand Prix
Sep 21 Singapore Grand Prix
Oct 5 Japanese Grand Prix
Oct 12 Russian Grand Prix
Nov 2 United States Grand Prix *
Nov 9 Brazilian Grand Prix
Nov 23 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

* no track available

Possible replacements for US GP and some comments (please add you won favorites)

Cicada, similar layout: http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=35950
Potrero de Los Funes, very VERY good track, one of my all time favorites: http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=32904
Montjuich, very fast and legendary: http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=28927
Laguna Seca, needs no introduction: http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=18624
Austin GP, conversion is possible if i get permissions, it has been made for GTR2/GTL so.. I try to contact the author (edit: seems that he is still active so there is hope, if he agrees, it'll be ready within a week for testing, which would have to be arranged before season starts).

Russian GP is this, afaik: http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=39153

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Nice to get started early , I think I'd go for Watkins Glen for usa if the cota track isn't going to be aready. I take it this is the track the guy has still to finish converting ?

For Russian GP that Moscow look like a good choice

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I left Watkins out from my suggestion for a reason, it would be nice to have something else that is about equal in length than COTA.

 

[David Turnbull]

watkins has always been our usa gp substitute, dont see any reason to change it, weve always had great races there.

that is unless cota is released, is decent and is usable, then id be all for it.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

watkins has always been our usa gp substitute, dont see any reason to change it, weve always had great races there.

Sometimes change is good I can see few reasons to switch and i have had some of my worst races there (don't really care for that so much, it's ok:ish but not great, races are boring as there is no wheel to wheel racing if both parties want to live..)

Few more: Since the track in Austin was finished and hosted the first F1 race, it was instant classic. Long, elevation changes, varying road width etc. Watkins doesn't have the same atmosphere at all. Just because we have raced there on almost every season is not good enough reason for me. Potrero is amazing track, Watkins is between average and meh. It's short, corners are cambered, very easy. Potrero has butt loads of corners, few that can justifiable be called spectacular, varying road width and elevation changes. And it's somewhat in the same ballpark with lap lengths, Watkins is the shortest track on the calendar (Austin is not a short track). If we want to have cambered high speed corners, Montjuich is better and longer, same era, classic and a legend..

But i hope that Race07 conversion of Austin is finished before the race. That track is an instant classic. And we have ful set of tracks then without substitutions (i'm not sure if that Moscow GP is the one they use for Russian GP).

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

We must differ in opinions of The Glen I see the track as very challenging anything but easy, turns 2 3 and 4 are easy rest of the corners are really tricky. I have had many great races, racing with others and is a great track to drive.

Anyway we can wait and see what happens with Cota if not can put it to a vote for these races, Russia f1 this year is a complete new track I think in Sochi where Olympics was think there's a version for rf1.

 

[David Turnbull]

must admit i do love watkins, the high speed slipstreaming,
its deffo one of my favs, although like i said if a proper cota is released then id be voting for it.

moscow for russiangp would probably get my vote too as it needs the position filled with something and obviously its russian so helps alot.

 

[April Dillon]

I'm with you there, Sean. I really like Watkins Glen. I've done some historic GPs there before which have been great too, and have better stories to tell from Watkins Glen than COTA. Like my first ever race here at Presto, when my race with Kurt Kjellin came down to the last lap.

 

[Bob Miley]

I do like to race over the same tracks as last year so I can compare my pace. The track last season saw a nice improvement of a couple of seconds at most tracks, so looking forward to next season. I should just about be up to single figure place pace by the time you all leave for a more modern sim and I get to relax a bit.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Seems like i'm in the minority when it comes to Watkins... I did use to love it but last time it started to get boring, at the moment not looking for that one at all. Much rather have Montjuich for PROPER slipstreaming But i have learned, PrestoGP is not a place to suggest changes.

I'm a bit 50/50, driving on familiar tracks cuts down practice and one can see skill level changes. But much much more than that, i love to learn... Driving on a brand new track has the most enjoyment, i used to do one-night tracks, quick builds just drawing totally random turns and then learn how to go fast on them. I do have a addiction to learning, it gives me a kind of high...

Apart from few borefests that are there because of F1 calendar, we do have a good selection of tracks. And i guess one new track is enough. Otherwise old brains might overheat with all that new information and some might forget their home address.. (a joke)

I do hope that Russian GP is also ready in time, Moscow raceway is pretty mundane, "mickey mousey", tightly packed track without any real features or highlights.. Maybe we should pick another track for that, then montjuich is out of picture as that would mean two fast slipstream tracks in a row.. Has anyone even tried Potrero?

 

[Reik Major]

But i have learned, PrestoGP is not a place to suggest changes.

LoL Depends on matter and how many changes are suggested.

Running as close to real F1 calender is a very old philosophy. Why change that? On the other hand there were many changes to the format until we found todays one (which seems to work pretty well).

 

[April Dillon]

I always thought the philosophy was typically 80% F1 calendar, and 20% ex GP venues? (Imola hasn't had a GP for a while, but was used in S11. A1 ring hadn't had a GP in ages during S11, and Istanbul hasn't had a GP since '11) but maybe I'm missing something here

I've never driven Potrero, but that's the one that drives around a lake, right? That sounds like fun to me

I'm not too fussed about picking new tracks though. I'm still getting better with the F3000, still trying new things, and beating old PBs can be a nice reminder of the progress I'm making. Will be really pleased to get more single digit finishes in S13. My two in S12 felt hard earned, but were both in the wet. Will be fun to get one in the dry.

 

[Reik Major]

We took other (old) GP venues if we had to fill a gap in the calender, for example due to missing the track in game which was driven at in real life (for example Korea)

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Watkins is done deal for me, no objection for it's use.. For Moscow, well, someone could try it and give their honest opinion. We can increase the fun factor without any need for cutting down realism. Apart from locations, while it's nice to have a track bearby, i don't really think that should play as big part as it does now. Track type and style should be more important, so that if it's street track that we are missing, we drive on a street circuit.

There's tracks in the game itself too that we have not driven on. They should be super easy for all since we have driven on them all. We are missing Hockenheim, why don't we drive that and not the Russian GP? It comes with FormulaRR free package, i think it's default DLC now so it should automatically installed (and thus no one need to download anything...) Good for promotion, we could maybe try get RD Hockenheim week, with one F3000 event that is co-hosted and features lots of PrestoGP drivers? Going for maximum potential element here, extract everything out of that special situation: We have pretty recent official version of Hockenheim that is pretty effing accurate on every Race07 install..

EDIT: Funny how Hockenheim, a track that i have never liked is up there but that actually does sound good and fun place to drive now. It's flat like Sochi at least, about same length, similar layout.. And i used to like places like Watkins.. oh well...

 

[David Turnbull]

so guys calender and dates.

heres what i think we could go with....

10th sept - Monza
24th sept - Singapore
8th oct - Suzuka
22nd oct - Track Vote/TBA
5th nov - Watkins Glen
19th nov - interlagos
3rd dec - Abu Dhabi
17th dec - Hungaroring
--christmas and new year break--
7th jan - Hockenheim
21st jan - Spa Francorchamps


season 11 put us on a slightly diffrent schedule than the past due to it having to run over past the xmas and new year holidays, i propose we do the same this year, gives us a 2 week break between each race and 3 weeks over christmas. the only track i couldnt think of to replace would be the russian gp, im sure we could vote for something that could replace it though.

what do we think of that?

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

I think it looks very good David If anything I would consider swapping round 4 with 10 (unless we get hold of the Russian track), but the reasons for that are more or less insignificant