F1 2011 Season 2 single player career mode advice and questions

mynameissport · Apr 6, 2012

Having finished Season 1 in my F1 2011 career mode on single player, I am going to start season 2.

As a reminder I play 50% race distance, long race weekends, Legend AI, Expert difficulty and using Williams F1. I passed every R&D objective, got most of the qualifying and race objectives and scored in the points for the whole season with no podiums or wins and the best place was 6th in the British Grand Prix. For the rivals from Belgium I had in order at the time was Buemi (Toro Rosso), Sutil (Force India) and Kobayashi (Sauber). I picked Kobayashi since I did not feel confident at the time to beat the higher ranked drivers and managed to beat my rival in the end.

For the constructors it ended up in order as McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, Renault, Mercedes, Williams (US), Toro Rosso, Sauber, Force India, Lotus, HRT and Virgin. The contract offers I had were HRT, Virgin and Lotus with Williams renewal. I resigned as Williams due to not having good contract offers from the mid teams and have already been promoted to 1st team race driver thanks to my results.

Therefore for season 2, I have a some questions to ask.

1) I realised that the F1 2011 is based on tier system so am I right thinking with the constructors results listed above for season 1 would season 2 at the beginning be the tier system of this below:

Tier 1 - McLaren, Red Bull and Renault, Tier 2 - Ferrari and Toro Rosso, Tier 3 - Mercedes and Williams (US), Tier 4 - Sauber and Lotus and Tier 5 - Force India, HRT and Virgin

2) I already been promoted to first team driver and selected my R&D which set it as "Intermediate." Is there any advantages in become first team driver and does your objectives get slightly harder compared to being 2nd team driver of a team

3) If you resign for the team you started in Season 1, does your car usually get stronger compared to the first one so meaning you can handle higher rival teams

4) I heard your team-mate ends up becoming like a real rival to you so was wondering whether it's true

5) Is there any other tips or advice in Season 2 can anyone give their guidance on or anything would like to share I need to be aware of

David O'Reilly · Apr 9, 2012

1) Williams should go up a level in performance.

2) The higher your R&D setting the higher your race and quali challenges become. So intermediate is a good choice for getting better rep points. I went Agressive and the targets were Q 8 and race 5 in Williams!!

3) Yes, see 1 above.

4) In season 3 Williams Rubens has been very competitive and has outqualified me and done more fastest laps. I have more points and more wins/podiums. When you are qualifying he is s good target.

5) . The car will be more competitive but to beat front runners you will need pace and good tyre strategy. Consider in Q3 doing no laps sometimes to start on 100% tyres or maybe primes. Often using up your tyres will get you P9 or P8 on grid. May as well be P10 and 100% tyres.

The rival sytem did nothing in season 3. I beat Alonso and got no offer, had ignored Sauber, F/India and Renault. So had to re sign with Williams for S4. But I dont mind too much.

David O'Reilly · Apr 13, 2012

It was a pleasure helping you buddy.

mynameissport · Apr 14, 2012

@David O'Reilly - Thanks for the advice and taken on board. Apologises for not getting sooner just been busy.

From the first two races I have done in Season 2 seems to me your points are right so here is so far.

The Williams is more competitive as a "Tier 3" car that is slightly easier for me to get into Q3 compared to last season where I was struggling to get out of Q2. I followed your advice for Q3 and did not bother setting a lap time and did a test run and could only muster 9th place even on Options in the first race in Australia. For both races, I can only go on Prime, Prime, Option to get two stops strategy but do have reasonable pace to make the tyres last and make up places.

I managed to get both qualifying and race objectives. For Australia it was 10th Q and 8th R and finished 10th and 8th respectively and was the same objectives for Malaysia and was the same outcome for the 2nd race. It looks like the title race will be between McLaren and Renault with both of them picking up one win a piece from the first two races whereas last year it was just between the McLaren team-mates. You are right about Rubens, he struggles to get out of Q2 but looks like he has got good race pace that he finished in the points in both races getting 10th and 9th respectively.

I have decided my overall objective which is to win the driver's world championship with Williams and maybe even win the constructors so basically turning them from Tier 4 to Champion Tier team. Probably will not happen for Season 2 so looks like just score points and be consistent and try and give it a stab for Season 3.