1. We're a third of the way through the schedule. How has your season gone so far?
I got so burned out with all the racing I was doing a few years ago, that I wasn't sure I'd ever come back, and I'm not quite sure what made me, but here I am, and no regrets. I wasn't expecting much when I signed up, but then had more fun practicing than I thought I would, and soon saw that I hadn't lost all my pace. This meant that I was more competitive with the rest of the field than I thought I would be, so my expectations were suddenly a bit higher than originally planned. However, results wise, I'm behind where I thought I'd be for sure, and besides two unavoidable DNF's, most of that is from my own mistakes (rusty I guess). It took until the last race, round 7, where I was actually happy with a race for once. The two DNF's have hurt; one caused by PC issues, and the other just an incident I couldn't avoid. I technically didn't finish Baku either, crashing on the last lap, but at least I was still classified to grab 2 points. For sure there's a chance to be way higher up in the standings, but I didn't really come back to worry too much about that. Just wanted to get back into sim racing and have some fun, and I've certainly had that.
2. What do you love and hate the most about this game? Bonus points for a top 3 list for each!
This game is certainly a mixed bag when looking at it in a vacuum, but it's an overall positive, just because of the experience of racing with you all each week, and the competitive and unpredictable elements which that brings to the table. Both love and hate are probably too strong of words, because I don't think this game draws that much emotion out of me, but let's roll with it....
Love
[ul]
[li]Besides our France Pre-Season Race, massively improved netcode from my last full season here (can't believe I'd ever list Codemasters netcode as a positive)[/li]
[li]New features. For me, there's lots of new aspects to this game that weren't here when I last raced, including: 20 player grids, ERS management, differential adjustment, manual starts, pit limiter, optional front wing replacements.[/li]
[li]Cars are generally fun to drive, including the management of ERS, fuel, tires etc.[/li]
[/ul]
Hate
[ul]
[li]Can't practice with equal cars in single player (I've already stated on the CM forum that I'm not buying the next game if we can't do this). [/li]
[li]Track Limits are terribly defined. You can be way inside them and get a penalty, or way outside them and get no penalty. Then sometimes, when you'd typically get a penalty, you can have a little lift of the throttle and not get the penalty. It blows my mind that they can't get this right after all these years. It's simply the detection of one line (the outside of the tire contact patch) crossing the white line on the track. Didn't pong get this right in the 1970's?!?!
[/li]
[li]Despite saying the cars are fun to drive above, this game still leans too much toward arcade with subpar handling, force feedback, and nonsense setup values (1-11) which don't impact the cars as they should. I will say there is improvement in this area from the last time I raced here at least, but still some ways to go.[/li]
[/ul]
3. What are your season goals & targets, and have you identified a particular driver as your rival for the season? Who, and why?
I'm currently 10th in the Standings. With some clean races, no more DNF's, and good attendance, I could see myself moving up. Best case is maybe 6th, but I could see myself finishing the season anywhere between 6th and 10th, and not be surprised. I'm reluctant to say 6th is the target, because I feel like I'm probably not going to be practicing as much for the remaining races as I was for the early part of the season (blame Elite Dangerous VR).
I think Renault can finish the Constructors Championship in 3rd.
Rival wise, I had decided quite early on that it was Megaman, because we always seemed to be close to each other on the TT leaderboards, qualifying, and then we'd find each other on track pretty regularly. After Bobino's recent results, and after seeing his McLaren multiple times at Canada, I'll be keeping an eye on him too. Then also just my teammate, iceman. We've qualified next to each other in 3 out of the 4 races he's done. Fairly sure I've practiced a lot more than he has, and I feel like that's going to make me faster than him, then he shows up with little to no practice, and he's already matching me on lap times! Not cool!
Qualifying between us is probably very close at this point in time, but his race pace is still better than mine. My DNF's and his DNS's have evened each other out, but his results have been much better to date, including his 2nd at Monaco which was nearly a win.
Other than that, I'd like to achieve a podium before the season is out. Close at Spain with a 4th, and then Monaco might have been my best chance pace wise, but hopefully there will be other opportunities.
