Smart drivers learn as much as they can about the strengths and weaknesses of their competition in order to exploit them as efficiently as possible. Therefore, I always race with names on.

There are some drivers online who I know I can trust - they're fast and have good car control. They know how to brake. They know how to place their car and leave sufficient space when battling. I know I can send one down the inside and know he'll see me and give me space.

Other guys are much more erratic, so when I come up behind them I have to give them a much wider berth. I make sure they don't brake in the middle of a straight, or half-spin right into my path, or fail to acknowledge the presence of my car alongside and crash right into me. If I attempt an overtake on them, I have to be very assertive and confident. Pull completely alongside or ahead to make sure I'm seen. Don't feint a move and then back out mid-corner, as that will often end in contact.

Some people change skins frequently, so car color alone isn't always a reliable indicator of who's around me. Instead I just turn names on and remember as many as I can. I try to pick out little things about the cars around me. The guy ahead brakes a little early for T4, or takes an unusual line through the final corner. The car behind me seems to be lagging a little, be careful if he gets close to you. I'm constantly looking for these little things and applying them to my current situation in order to maximize it.

Being a fast driver isn't only about minimizing one's own mistakes, it's also about seeing and reacting to the moves of other drivers in order to minimize their impact on one's own race and take advantage of their errors.

Quote from March Hare :

This thread resurrection fails face down on concrete.

Indeed.

Quote from Rdcranno :

How long do you see Massa stopping at ferrari?

What?

Quote from Rdcranno :

Alonso will have been given number 1 status when he joined mclaren no doubt about it

Nonsense. Mclaren simply don't work that way. Alonso definitely assumed he would have a practical #1 status because surely he would blow away anyone alongside him, but the team never declared he was #1 or wrote that into his contract or anything.

EDIT: As an aside, I actually want Alonso to continue in F1 for a while yet just so I have someone to cheer against. Modern F1 is so sterile that the drivers are mostly all likeable. I have my favorites, but only Alonso really on my Dislikes List. More drivers need to do things to make me dislike them so it's more interesting for me.

Last edited by Lateralus, Tue 25 Mar 2008, 19:41.

Quote from Tigershark :

Most if not all teams had/have a big button on their steering wheel commonly labelled OT; Overtake.

From what I understand, the OT button gave the driver full rich mixture (or at least richer) and more revs if he had them. I don't think most teams run their engines right at 19,000 during the race, so they probably have at least a few hundred to spare.

I knew there was a good reason I had you on my ignore list.

I'd put money on Massa staying at Ferrari through 2009. He won't get the axe for a couple mistakes. Remember he had rough form early in 2006 as well, but he turned it around to put in excellent performances in Turkey and Brazil.

He doesn't need to be as flawless as Kimi, because he's the de facto #2. Rubens had his off-days at Ferrari too remember, yet he made an ideal wingman for Michael. As long as he continues to qualify well and push the Mclarens down the grid away from the back of Kimi, he'll have a role at Ferrari. Of course if he drops it in the race six more times this year as he has done for the past two races, that may change. But I really doubt that will happen.

Besides, why would Ferrari bring in Alonso when Kimi is still there? Only if Kimi retired would it make sense to do so. Alonso and Räikkönen would not get on well as teammates and would derail development of the car because their driving styles are very different. Ferrari knows the most efficient way to win championships is to have a practical, if not official, #1 driver and focus the team's efforts on maximizing his points possibilities at every single race.

Quote from samjh :

But last year's stint with STR wasn't anything spectacular (apart from Japan, where he was fantastic!)

...well he immediately trounced his teammate Liuzzi who was a veteran within the team at the time. That seems to say a lot. He was on for a podium in China, which proves the speed and car control are there, along with the obvious impetuousness of youth.

Quote from Mustafur :

Vettel is linked with Ferrari in 09 so if that goes ahead we may see a new youngest world champion maybe?

What are they gonna do, run a third car? Ferrari's seats are full next year. Massa's contracted until 2010, and there's no reason why Kimi wouldn't renew with Ferrari if he stays in F1. There's a small chance he could retire, but that seems less and less likely with each success he has there. He's found a good home at Ferrari, unlike Mclaren.

I think it's funny Alonso keeps getting mentioned as possibly moving to Ferrari in '09. As though the door would be open for him there. Kimi's de facto #1 and Massa is a fast if erratic wingman. Ferrari doesn't need Alonso and all the baggage he would bring.

Hopefully Alonso stays in a decent team, though. I like having someone to cheer against.

Maybe. Let's see how he does over the course of a full season's racing.

Quote from pauliaK :

Actually I don't know any of formula racing leagues, where multiclass racing is allowed (in real life as well) and I see why, it's pointless racing with such a different cars at the same time, doesn't matter that FO8 is restricted, it's still way more faster than FOX and the racing is imposible between these two cars...

Probably none in real life for safety reasons, but the Gentlefoot Formula Challenge runs FO8 and FOX and it works well for us. I drive FOX and I've never made contact with a lapping FO8 in over a season of the GFC and hundreds of laps driven.

Caution is needed, but it's a lot of fun.

Quote from JohnnyFX :

Not trying to pick a fight Lat, as I have a lot of respect for you, but I simply don't get the logic in the idea that going from multi- to single-class would increase the participation on a server.

Personally I like the idea of adding FBMs to SS2.

Two reasons:

1) The FJR is broken and undriveable for a lot of people. Not all, but a significant portion.

2) A lot of people, myself included, join servers based on how many other cars their are in the server to race against. If a population is split evenly between two dissimilar cars, I have half as many cars to race against. If I logged onto SS2 when there were 8 connections, I'd probably have two or three cars to race. That's better than none, but it isn't very exciting either. I'm not always in the mood for that. Some drivers are rarely in the mood for a tiny race like that, and will instead go to a more populated server, even if the combo isn't as good.

All this said, I'll admit the server trend recently has spoken against this. If SS2 continues to have 20+ drivers online during the peak as has been the case on several days in the last week or so, it's working fine and nothing should be done. My arguments were formed when the server was consistently empty.

Quote from deggis :

Amount of crashes doesn't equal to great race. Of course it was enjoyable and good "show", at least there was something going on all the time but not what it should be.

I wasn't talking about the crashes. There were quite a few good overtakes, only some of which were seen on ITV's coverage. And all the minor mistakes which didn't result in crashes and safety cars, too.

I bet SS2 would be active more often and with greater numbers if it were FOX-only. Make SS3 FO8 and BF1.

Quote from deggis :

Modern F1 is so great, isn't it.

If we had a season of races like Melbourne 2008? Yeah.

It has been raining on and off for a couple days now at the track, so there's a strong chance of a wet session and maybe even a wet race.

It will be very interesting to see how they go without TC or other aids in the wet on a track like Sepang. Massa will struggle, I think. Hamilton will surely be very strong again; Mclaren were fast here last year. Hopefully Kovaleinen wills step it up and challenge Lewis more.


Driver's Points after Round 1:


Constructor's Points after Round 1:

Quote from duke_toaster :

It must be a grass is greener thing, what I have seen of SPEED's coverage is actually better than ITV.

How so?

My two main gripes are that SPEED has three commentators, which is too many, and that they have David Hobbs, who sucks.

So I guess just one gripe, really.

David Hobbs is usually completely out-of-touch with what is going on during the race. He can't relate to modern driving at all (only six starts 1967-74), so he's completely worthless in his role as the insight man. Not only does he fill up airtime babbling on about something silly, but SPEED has the resultant poor race analysis. Compare this to Martin Brundle, who often sees things before the director or cameraman does. Brundle's also driven modern cars and so has a much better idea of what its like behind the wheel.

Bob Varsha does a pretty good job, and Steve Matchett is knowledgeable about technical stuff related to the car, so that pair should handle it.

They have a tendency though just to shout "OOOHHHHHHHHH!" into their mikes at the same time when something big happens during the race instead of talking about what is happening. They need to get over that. Dropping Hobbes would at least cut the annoyingness of that by a third though, so its a start.

Quote from Dark Elite :

In the meantime, dip the clutch whilst changing gear, or ease off. Whichever, or both, and it'll shift up without a problem. It's sort of like an FBM in high gears now.

No it isn't. That's the problem, and why this is a bug rather than some people who don't know the proper technique.

For some people, myself included, the car simply refuses to shift into 4th, 5th and 6th correctly. I can manage 4th sometimes, but the amount of throttle I have to use is very precise. It's more than I normally lift for the other cars (especially FBM), but if it's just a tiny bit too much it won't shift either. The range is very very narrow, and gets worse in 5th or 6th gears. This costs me several seconds per lap on the shorter circuits, which pretty much means the FJR is undrivable for me.

This is a pleasure to hear. I "obtain" videos of ITV's coverage even though SpeedTV is available here. ITV's coverage has major issues, which shows just how bad SpeedTV is.

I was really disappointed when I watched Melbourne FP1 to see that ITV had kept that terrible "Lift Me Up" song and a very similar intro theme. It's just awful. Snakes crawling on bared shoulders, what the hell? Seems like they tried to make the whole presentation look as ridiculous as possible.

No more mid-race ad breaks is nice, but not huge for me. I don't mind a few two-minute breaks if the coverage is good, but it seems ITV made it a point to pick the worst possible times to go to a break.

The biggest boost for me will be getting rid of the incorrigible James Allen. He should stick to writing; at least when I read his columns I don't immediately feel ill.

With whom to replace him is a tougher matter though. As has already been said, bringing back an older, rusty commentator will probably not help matters. I like Murray Walker but he seemed out-of-touch 20 years ago.

To be honest I'd most like someone who knows when it's helpful to talk and when he should just shut up. 15-20 seconds of commentary so the audience knows what's going on, then be quiet and turn up the volume on the world feed for 30-40 seconds.

I'm going to go against the general sentiment expressed so far and say that I like Louise Goodman. She knows her stuff and does a really good job of finding drivers quickly after they retire. She's about ready to be put out to pasture though. The BBC should find a woman with her skills and knowledge, but who has the body and age of this fine fine specimen:



Their ratings would triple regardless of how good the racing was. Everybody wins!

Quote from Bob Smith :

No, not as far as I'm aware. TBH that whole paragraph is badly worded and there are other inaccuracies present too.

Indeed, the LFS Manual contains many spelling, grammar, sentence structure and clarity issues. It has been my intention for a couple weeks now to start fixing some of them, but regrettably I have not yet gotten around to it.

It isn't something on your fingers, it's what isn't there that's the problem.

Rain-X is just denatured alcohol. You took off all the oils in the skin of your fingertips.

It'll be fine in a bit. Nothing much you can really do.

Quote from R34king :

first off i just want to say i dont even know why i made this thread lol[...]i dont know why i wrote this thread but yeh

If you have this thought twice, just don't click the Post button. Spare us the spam, please.

IMO they should turn Q3 into a low-fuel, one-lap shootout in reverse order, i.e. the driver who qualified tenth (just making the cut) in Q2 would go out last in Q3 when the track is generally at its best and fastest. The man who was fastest in Q2 would go out first when the track is slower, so it would encourage the fastest cars to lap closer the cutoff point rather than going as fast as possible. This seems like it would tighten Q2 and Q3 times significantly and make it easier for midfield teams to upset the front-runners.

Get rid of having to carry race fuel into Q3 - just put in enough to do an outlap, a hotlap and and an in-lap. Afterwards all teams can put in whatever fuel they like for the race.


EDIT:

After watching quali...

Hamilton will either win it or bin it.

One BMW will be on the podium, one will have a mechanical failure. I'll say Kubica in second. Hamilton wins and Räikkönen third.

Piquet and Glock will move up through the field and challenge the points.

So will Vettel.

Last edited by Lateralus, Sat 15 Mar 2008, 19:58.

I'm not necessarily opposed to the relatively low driving age in most US states, but the tests need to be much more difficult. Starting the instruction process at 15 and getting two years of thorough training for a license at 17 or 17 1/2 seems reasonable, but the whole process needs to be overhauled.

The current system is an absolute joke and the scumbags who passed the legislation saying it is sufficient to produce competent drivers should be removed from office.

My road test took less than three minutes. The instructor told me to get in and start the car, so that I could prove that I knew that the car had to be in Park in order to start (they strongly recommend using an auto for the test. Standard transmissions are too difficult, you see). Then he got out and stood at the back to make sure I knew how to use my turn signals. He got back in and we pulled onto a 45-mph two-lane residential road from the parking lot, then took a right at the next light. On this road I had to brake hard to avoid an imaginary obstacle. The ABS didn't even come on. Then we continued on down this road for two minutes or so until it looped back around to the parking lot, where I had to demonstrate my top-notch parking skills.

That's it. That's the whole driving test.

The written part (actually computerized, just touch a screen) was only 30 questions, and consisted of gems such as "what is indicated by a red octagonal sign with white letters?"

A) Yield
B) Stop
C) Speed Limit
D) No Passing Zone"

The standard of driving for many people in this area is at times just plain scary. Turn signals are used very irregularly and can never be relied upon. A significant portion of drivers don't understand how mirrors function, and so angle them so they can admire their own faces rather than look around. Appropriate following distance? HA! Why do that when I can get to my destination one second faster! I don't need two hands to drive, so I should text and talk on my goddamned phone instead of focusing on the road while drifting across lanes going 50mph in a 35 zone! I don't need headlights when it's dark out either, everyone else should have to avoid my nearly invisible vehicle! I just don't need to pay attention because surely everyone else will take care of it for me. The plastic bullshit I'm about to buy at Wal-Mart is clearly more important than the safety of everyone else on the road. If I am involved in an accident, it's everyone's fault but my own! GO AMERICA!

Last edited by Lateralus, Sat 15 Mar 2008, 20:20.

Try to work on keeping the car balanced and keeping your inputs as smooth and progressive as possible.

If you balance the car correctly, the car just seems to 'float' over bumps and curbs. Doing so means you can carry a higher apex speed by getting off the brakes sooner and back onto the power earlier, while having to apply less lock to get through the corner. Try to keep the car 'flat'. A heavily-loaded wheel does not tolerate bumps and curbs well. Turn into the corner smoothly and decisively to set yourself up properly, then balance the dynamic mass of the car through the apex and exit by subtly manipulating the steering and throttle.

The inside wheels are much less loaded and under less stress than the outside, so they're generally much more tolerant of riding the curbs. Curbs basically extend the useful width of the track, so they should be used whenever it is beneficial to do so. Generally, the more of the track you use and the less lock you apply, the faster you'll be.

Quote from screama :

first lap after i read this thread

Wow your game looks different than mine. There seems to be a groove on the outside part of the tires, and the crowd looks different. You can pick out individual spectators and they all look unique.

Maybe I'm just misremembering though, because I haven't played in a couple days and I'm 200 miles away from my LFS-capable PC.

Quote from DeMS :

...I'm talking about Anthony Hamilton, who did bring up some things over to the FIA that, it seems (at least from what I got from the media here), had to stay internal.

What did he say? Links to articles please? This is the first I've heard of this and it is quite interesting. I wasn't aware that individuals who are not team employees were able to address the FIA and go before them in order to reveal information in this way, but then again I don't have a firm of understanding of how the FIA operates. I'm not even sure the FIA knows how the FIA operates.