Round 1: Mexico - Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (06Apr17 @ 9pm EDT)

[AaronWebb85]

Pre-Race Interview:
1) Welcome to another season of F1 2016!  What is your goal for this season? Fun? Scoring Points? Winning A Championship??
2) We will be at Mexico for R1 this year instead of Australia?  How do you like this track and shortened schedule in general?
3) As for Real Life F1, Sebastian was able to get a win for Ferrari?  In General what are your predictions for the 2017 season and can Ferrari take the fight to Mercedes for the rest of the year?

 

[nickthequick]

The Pre-race interview is up!!!!!

 

[nickthequick]

Also thank you Majacko for the sponsorship!

 

[Hootius]

1) Welcome to another season of F1 2016! What is your goal for this season? Fun? Scoring Points? Winning A Championship??
I had a few decent showing, then fell off at the end of last season due to more focus in another racing series. I want to definitely improve on that this year. I am feeling for comfortable on the wheel now, and will try to battle for a point or two each race. Aiming higher than that is just unrealistic without a ton more seat time that I don't have at the moment.

2) We will be at Mexico for R1 this year instead of Australia? How do you like this track and shortened schedule in general?
This track is middle of the road for me as far as style. I definitely hope to avoid the pass thru bug I had last time and will try to compete for a point. I like the shortened season due to that it will force me to stay on top of practicing since there will be few chances to shine.

3) As for Real Life F1, Sebastian was able to get a win for Ferrari? In General what are your predictions for the 2017 season and can Ferrari take the fight to Mercedes for the rest of the year?
I think Ferrari can be competitive, but Mercs probably will still run away with it. I hope Red Bull completely wipes Australia out of their memories and comes back swinging to make it more fun. I am looking forward to the next 2 circuits to see just how capable these cars are at overtaking on circuits that are more overtake friendly than a street circuit.

 

[El_Majacko]

Also thank you Majacko for the sponsorship!
My pleasure.

1) Welcome to another season of F1 2016! What is your goal for this season? Fun? Scoring Points? Winning A Championship?
All three suggestions sound good to me, scoring points is essential for the championship, which, in my case, is the sole goal and source of enjoyment.
2) We will be at Mexico for R1 this year instead of Australia? How do you like this track and shortened schedule in general?
This track has quickly become one of my favourites due to my track record here to date. The shortened schedule is not to my liking as I prefer playing the long game so to speak, but thats the way it is, so I'll play along.
3) As for Real Life F1, Sebastian was able to get a win for Ferrari? In General what are your predictions for the 2017 season and can Ferrari take the fight to Mercedes for the rest of the year?
I predicted Ferrari to be strong this year, but was still surprised to see how close the battle in Melbourne was. Mercedes are obviously still strong, I just hope Kimi and Valterri are able to stay with their teammates to provide us with compelling viewing.

 

[Dubzzy__]

1) Welcome to another season of F1 2016! What is your goal for this season? Fun? Scoring Points? Winning A Championship??

ofcourse winning a championship would be number 1 goal, merc also looking competitive this year to take out the constructors so that will be my 2nd
2) We will be at Mexico for R1 this year instead of Australia? How do you like this track and shortened schedule in general?

to be honest im fast here but my setup for the race last season was pretty bad and it didnt match my qually pace, i prefer australia over mexico aswell as i probably have had more running on it overall
3) As for Real Life F1, Sebastian was able to get a win for Ferrari? In General what are your predictions for the 2017 season and can Ferrari take the fight to Mercedes for the rest of the year?

honestly i think hamilton will still win, he still looks incredibly fast and its sad to see redbull not up there as they are a clear 3rd, but im keen to see how the scrabble plays out as vettel is within that 2-3 tenths margin i would say and anything is possible as we saw in australia

 

[nickthequick]

1) Welcome to another season of F1 2016!  What is your goal for this season? Fun? Scoring Points? Winning A Championship??
Of course for me running clean and having fun are always the top priorities.  Of course I always like to finish well and getting on the podium is my normal goal and being consistent.  Want to repeat the constructors for sure, but it will be difficult.
2) We will be at Mexico for R1 this year instead of Australia?  How do you like this track and shortened schedule in general?
I am starting to like this track as well, I like the first few corners, and then the highspeed before the stadium section.  I do not like the end of sector 3 and the few really slow corners that is like a rectangle.  I feel like thats for go-karts and not F1 cars.  I do not really like the shortened schedule because I don't think this game will be out before September.  Surprise me codies.  Too many new things with the vehicle specs.
3) As for Real Life F1, Sebastian was able to get a win for Ferrari?  In General what are your predictions for the 2017 season and can Ferrari take the fight to Mercedes for the rest of the year?
I hope they can keep it up, but Seb did get some help from Max.  I think in the end Hamilton will get his championship but I think Ferrari could win maybe 5 races... we will see.  I hope Renault get's their act together as I would like to see Dan and Max in the battle as well!

 

[porq_chopz]

[font=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1) Welcome to another season of F1 2016!  What is your goal for this season? Fun? Scoring Points? Winning A Championship??[/font]
I'd say for me personally, my goal is to have fun and hopefully score some points. I think a championship is out of reach for me so points would be a nice victory.
[font=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]2) We will be at Mexico for R1 this year instead of Australia?  How do you like this track and shortened schedule in general?[/font]
Seems like all other leagues start out with Australia, so it is kind of a nice little change to be starting somewhere else. This track is fast, I'm confident in certain areas, whereas other areas of the track, if I get one little section wrong you can stick a fork in me for the rest of the lap. Well this is my first season with you guys so I don't really have much knowledge to your "regular" schedule length compared to this. But having a shortened schedule will just mean each race means that much more.
[font=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]3) As for Real Life F1, Sebastian was able to get a win for Ferrari?  In General what are your predictions for the 2017 season and can Ferrari take the fight to Mercedes for the rest of the year?[/font]
I think Ferrari will give Mercedes a real fight this year but I think the team of Hamilton and Bottas will be just a little too much for the constructors title. I think that Vettel has a solid shot to take the drivers championship though. I'm just really hoping to see Haas not get stuck in the sophomore slump season and finish better than what they did last year.

 

[AaronWebb85]

1) Welcome to another season of F1 2016!  What is your goal for this season? Fun? Scoring Points? Winning A Championship??
I am always in this for the fun of it. I wouldn't want to put in so much of my limited personal time if it wasn't fun! I do hope to be more competitive this season. Last season was by far the worst I've had with APSC, had some better finishes at end of season and hope that carries over.

2) We will be at Mexico for R1 this year instead of Australia?  How do you like this track and shortened schedule in general?
This is a different feeling for sure, I even said I'll see you guys next week at Australia last week. The track is growing on me, though I am not a fan of sector 3 at all. The shortened season I don't like, but with the next game pending release we wanted to give ourselves more flexibility. Expect this season to be longer than the original 9 scheduled races though, as I doubt we will see the game release early this year.

3) As for Real Life F1, Sebastian was able to get a win for Ferrari?  In General what are your predictions for the 2017 season and can Ferrari take the fight to Mercedes for the rest of the year?
It was nice to see Seb up there with the Mercs, I don't think it will continue that way though. Mercedes was still the fastest car on track, and I felt they didn't manage the race well. I think it will be closer than last year, but the gap is still evident.

 

[AaronWebb85]

Q: 9th
Not a great lap, but wanted to start on Softs.

R: 4th
Not a bad finish after starting as far back as I did. It was looking like I would have a good shot at finishing on the final step of the podium, but 2 mistakes cost me that chance. Here were my highlights of the race, including a nice back and forth with nickthequick through the whole middle part of the race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXhWzXfg__k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXA4ULVUxng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6df2PN6O2vY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KUscPF3kx8

 

[Dubzzy__]

Q 4th:
Set a decent lap on softs and wanted to stay on the set, ideally i wanted to stay on the front row and i went for a SS run at the end and went purple heading up to the final corner but was still in p2 so i decided to not finish the lap, but the 2 cars behind me went quicker and over took me so i should of finished the lap

R:1st
had a really good start as i was able to somehow get to 1st from the restart as gordow was caught sleeping and i overtook him after VSC, and from there on out it was a strategy battle with my team mate, which i ended up winning in the end, entertaining race looking forward to japan

 

[El_Majacko]

Q: Pole
Set pole, but once I noticed I had a warning I set out again to beat it so no-one would be angry. :S

R: 2nd
Made a decent start but was spun under VSC. Profited from Ferrari issues to move back up to P2. Undercut Dubzzy twice, but in the end, the loss of time in the first stint and subsequent traffic in later stints meant the gap wasn't big enough by the time Dubzzy emerged from the pits on supers. Congrats to him and mebbe for completing the podium.

[youtube]upHGnI1McGI[/youtube]

 

[porq_chopz]

Q: 11 - Was up in the top 10 until near the end of qualifying and was bumped to 11. Which I was ok with because I was hoping to adjust my strategy and start on Softs instead of SuperSofts. But didn't really get to adjust much and ended up starting on the supers which was a bummer.
R: 10 - Had a pretty decent start. (No turn 1 disaster from me this time haha) But had the VSC not come out I think I could've been in a few better spots after turn 1-3. But with the VSC coming out I had to return some spots or I would've gotten some penalties. Throughout the race I felt confident in every spot except those damn "S" curves at the end of section 2. I'd hit them nice for a couple of laps then have a total mental lapse for a few laps. Had an incident with brian around the last corner. Not sure if I came down into him or if he bumped me (i'm chalking it up as just a racing thing no-one at fault fully) But that put me in the wall and busted my front wing. Thankfully I was right next to the pits. However, I entered the pits at around 51-53 mph and got a speeding penalty. That ended my chances of much better of a finish than 10th. Overall though, I'm happy with where I ended up as being my first official F1 race with you guys and it ended with me in the points.

[youtube]8RNOdnShzaw[/youtube]

 

[El_Majacko]

[youtube]8RNOdnShzaw[/youtube]

Oi! I'm number 43. Naughty man!

 

[nickthequick]

Quali P2 - Managed to put down a decent time although I messed up S1 a bit and didn't get the max through the highspeed S turns.  Solid effort definitely will take a P2

[youtube]hMrNhfRvA7A[/youtube]

Race P5 - As the lights when out it looked like I did not rev my engine high enough and it bogged down.  Also it seemed like the sync was off a bit.  Going into turn 1 I was in the middle 3 wide.  In the braking zone, the VSC came out and luckily I did not run into anyone.  Majacko's car was ghosting everywhere and it looked like it hurt him this time and he spun.

When the VSC resumed, I was in P4 staying a safe distance away from Majacko because again his car kept warping.  This time Gordow got the band end of it and got punted off.  From there Mebbe was pushing hard, but I was still in DRS range of Majacko and think I may of had lower wings.  Regardless both of us were catching the leaders however now I was in the lag danger zone.
On lap since we caught right up.  Majacko teleported this time severely and his car appeared stopped dead in front of mine.  I couldn't do anything and my wing got busted.  This also cause Mebbe to run into me thus hurting both of us.  This was really disappointing because we looked to have the pace and for Mebbe this ruined his strategy because he was on the softer tire.  For the next corner I needed to take it cautious missing half a wing and maybe I took it a bit too cautious as Mebbe hit me.  I think I am partially to blame for that.  Either way he spun but both of us had to pit.

From there it was about trying to gain back what we lost.  I ended up making it back up for a long battle with Aaron which was very enjoyable.  I think at points I may have been holding him up as my tires were going off.  Finally he got a good tow and managed to pass me.  I did not want to fight but because the slipsteam was so strong I had to keep backing off.  So I decided to pit to try and get an undercut.

As the last 8 laps started to unfold it looked like I was back in P3 but Mebbe was on the softer tire trying to catch me up.  The gap was coming down a few tenths a lap and then I made a mistake in the braking zone going into the stadium section.  I was positioning my car inbetween the entry curb to get a better angle in, however this time I got my tire directly on the curb and also applied too much brake.  This cause my tires to lock up(no assists) and I went straight on to the wall.
This meant that I would have to pit yet again.  So now I am in p6.  I made one overtake and into P5.  I was trying to catch Aaron back up but he ended up being to fast.

I don't want to sound salty but right after the race I was a bit peeved with the lag ruining the race.  What can you do though, racing is racing and online has some different obstacles.....

The track was fun and at times the car felt great with a lot of pace.  Had some good battles with Mebbe and Aaron so those are the positives to take away

 

[porq_chopz]

[youtube]8RNOdnShzaw[/youtube]

Oi! I'm number 43. Naughty man!

LOL. Whoops. guess I'll have to change that for the next thumbnail. haha.

 

[Hootius]

Q: 12
While this time around I was several seconds faster than in S7, I know I was still around 10th place speed at best. I laid down a lap on softs and waited to see if I should have gave it a shot on supers. Realizing I would only get 10th a best, I decided to hang in 12th and be able to start the race on fresh softs to help with my 2 stop strategy.

R: 7
Off the bat, I went ahead and fell safely to the back to avoid the turn 1 chaos, that ultimately didn't happen due to the VSC. From there, it was a matter of hitting my marks and being smart on when to overtake and trying to avoid danger. Caught a break on Lap 3 when Kwp and Bubba touched, and Kwp's car ghosted immediately to avoid any carnage. Was able to overtake both McLarens on L4 and get some clean track in front of me to lay down some laps. At the end of Lap 6, I was also fortunate not to have my front wing taken off when Porq went wide in the final turn and then moved it back over to get onto pit lane. Pitted at the start of Lap 12 (got up to 3rd during the first pit cycle and immediately started praying for a random hurricane to pop up and end the race lol) and had a good stint on the mediums to get me to supers with 7 laps to go. I came out of the pits in 7th, and tried my hardest to get up to Jdub for 6th. I got within 1.5 secs of him, but I just didn't have the tyres left to make it realistic. My LF was 74% when I crossed the finish line, so I had no room to spare lol I know I only had a 10th place car and that other's bad luck got me up to 7th, but hey... that's racing and I am very pleased on how this race went. Hope you all enjoy your Easters and catch you guys in a couple weeks.