Preseason Race 2: Belgium - Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (13SEP17 @ 9:00pm EDT)

[AaronWebb85]

Pre-Race Interview:
1) How was your first pre season race at Monza?
2) We are going to Belgium for the 2nd pre season race. How do you like this track?
3) Do you think that 12 minutes of qualify is enough?

Lap Guide Video:
[youtube]xkegbM-_n7Y[/youtube]

Time Chart:
Alien 1:43.5   (top 50)
Fast  1:44.3   (top 250)
Good  1:44.8  (top 500)
Comp  1:45.6 (top 1000)

 

[AaronWebb85]

Thanks Zephyr for sponsoring this race!

 

[LAcadien]

Pre-Race Interview is up

 

[nickthequick]

1) How was your first pre season race at Monza?
I had a bad T1 but it was fun to battle a bit which is what I would rather do in a preseason race. 

2) We are going to Belgium for the 2nd pre season race. How do you like this track?
This is one of my favorites and a pleasure to drive. 

3) Do you think that 12 minutes of qualify is enough?
I wish codemasters gave us more control over this option but it is possible at most tracks to get in 4 laps (2 per stint) so it's an adjustment for everyone to make. 

 

[nickthequick]

I posted the Time Chart and Lap Guide Video. One thing to note there is no braking for Pouon, just slight lift/downshift to 7th then back to 8th gear

 

[DEADZERO]

1) How was your first pre season race at Monza?
I did rather well finishing 4th but for about 70% of the race I was driving alone and didn't see much excitement. I did however have a really nice overtake on Falco.

2) We are going to Belgium for the 2nd pre season race. How do you like this track?
Its not a bad track, I can see why so many people like it. I need to work on my pace before the race.

3) Do you think that 12 minutes of qualify is enough?
It does seem kinda short. Its fine for the shorter tracks, but then again, shorter tracks mean a more crowded field while on Spa, you'll only be able to get 2 good laps in, maybe 3 if everything goes perfect for you.

Nice video Nick. Can't wait to go try Spa now that I know the proper braking points. And I guess I'll give your setup a try. Normally I don't even bother trying your setups but if you say it's stable, I'll check it out lol

 

[Zephyr]

1) How was your first pre season race at Monza?
I did rather well finishing 495th but for about 70% of the race I was driving alone and didn't see much excitement. I did however have a really nice overtake on Falco.

2) We are going to Belgium for the 2nd pre season race. How do you like this track?
Its not a bad track, I can see why so many people like it. I need to work on my pace before the race.

3) Do you think that 12 minutes of qualify is enough?
It does seem kinda short. Its fine for the shorter tracks, but then again, shorter tracks mean a more crowded field while on Spa, you'll only be able to get 2 good laps in, maybe 3 if everything goes perfect for you.

Nice video Nick. Can't wait to go try Spa now that I know the proper braking points. And I guess I'll give your setup a try. Normally I don't even bother trying your setups but if you say it's stable, I'll check it out lol

I hope you do better this race. I DNF'd and got 17th. It must be terrible to finish in 495th place.

 

[DEADZERO]

Haha I essentially came last place in every race for the next few seasons. Auto correct needs to stop messing with me

 

[Zephyr]

[deleted]

 

[patlessard]

Pre-Race Interview:
1) How was your first pre season race at Monza? Qualifications went good , but in race it's a bit harder to be constant 
2) We are going to Belgium for the 2nd pre season race. How do you like this track? It's good track with rythm 
3) Do you think that 12 minutes of qualify is enough? No , not sure what they were thinking  ...I think it would have been better to have the 2nd quali session time (15 Min )since it's usally this one the defines what tires you'll be using in race not the 3rd one ... I wouldn't be against going full quali but we would have to start earlier to get everything done .

 

[piboye]

Pre-Race Interview:
1) How was your first pre season race at Monza?
As shown in the video I posted, it was the best qualifying I've ever had, but the shortest race. I saw that DeadZero had a similar moment through Ascari, I was just unlucky to have someone right behind me and take my wheel off while I was regaining control.
2) We are going to Belgium for the 2nd pre season race. How do you like this track?
I like this track, but I'm not quite as fast or consistent as at Monza. It's not hard to lose half a second in each turn from really minor mistakes.
3) Do you think that 12 minutes of qualify is enough?
No, but I thought qualifying was longer than it needed to be before. 15 minutes would be the sweet spot.

I love your hot lap video and your commentary. Slowing it down really helps. With some more practice today, I dropped my fastest lap by another half a second, but I'm still over a second off of your pace.

 

[piboye]

Also, Nick, what do you mean by a Comp time? (Competetive? Comparable? Compatriot? Composition? Comprehensive? Compromised? I'm not sure I'm thinking of the Comp word.)

 

[nickthequick]

I was going for competitive but the damn word is too long and did not have a good abbreviation. Feel free to recommend a better one

I put that as a goal that you should be getting close to so you can gage how much to practice.

 

[Megaman]

Pre-Race Interview:
1) How was your first pre season race at Monza
     Pretty happy with my 2nd place but without the incident between Tron and Bobino, Nick been put in sandwich, piboye crash on me, it would not have been the same result.
2) We are going to Belgium for the 2nd pre season race. How do you like this track?
     This track is in my top 5. I really like the fast corners here. In real life F1 it's not a track that have good overtakes possibilities but for us, mistakes can be made everywhere and it makes it special..
3) Do you think that 12 minutes of qualify is enough?
     Well no not really... last game was 18 mins... before that we had 15mins... but no, 12 mins is very short.. but i guess it's the same for everybody. The only thing is free space on track but we will get use to also.

 

[MBr]

1) How was your first pre season race at Monza?
It wasn't any good, actually. I had set up my camera with the Mercedes in mind but when I got in the Haas it was different. I could barely see my own mirrors. Then I jumped the start, started on mediums, and ended up spinning on Parabolica's exit and crashing out.
This race should be different. I've been experimenting with more options and I have been working on my own setup in Australia that feels like it fits me. Plus, I have wheel settings I'm comfortable with so I can feel the grip limit better. It just comes down to lots of laps and tweaking. 
2) We are going to Belgium for the 2nd pre season race. How do you like this track?
It's one of the best. I love the second sector, and I'm debating a low downforce or high downforce setup. 
3) Do you think that 12 minutes of qualify is enough?
I think so. We don't need long qualifying sessions, and we don't need one-lap qualifying, either.

 

[John Bell]

1) How was your first pre season race at Monza?
crashed out in 2nd lab 

2) We are going to Belgium for the 2nd pre season race. How do you like this track?
It's one of my favorite tracks.

3) Do you think that 12 minutes of qualify is enough?
Yes.

 

[Zephyr]

[deleted]

 

[Zephyr]

[deleted]

 

[Tron4949]

I'm soooooo sorry, I had setup teamspeak about 10 min before the race and I didn't hit 'apply' on push-to-talk, won't happen again.

 

[Fruitsalsa]

This race was quite entertaining (on my end at least). I had a great deal of fun racing with you tonight and at least I feel like I am getting a bit more competitive! I have uploaded my 1st lap below, not because it is a great piece of racing anthology that will stay in humanity's collective memory for centuries, but because it can provide a different angle on all the action that happened on lap 1.

Mostly, I tried to keep it clean the whole race (often to the detriment of my competitiveness), but still there is some battles with L'Acadien to spice up the video a bit...We did some contacts, albeit minor ones, so I hope I have not caused too much frustration to L'Acadien...

Also, we can hear a sample of Tron's theatrical performance that lasted the whole race   (no, the shifter clicks are not mine Tron...).

[youtube]leV1q_gvOAU[/youtube]