Here's a technical question which I've been pondering for a while and can't seem to find a satisfactory answer to (including on f1technical.net):

What was the rationale behind re-introducing in-race refuelling in 1994?

It seems to have hurt the quality of the show more than help it. Pit stops are now rarely deciding factors, since the fuel hose is usually on for much longer than it takes the guys to change the tires. Eliminating refuelling would put the focus back on the speed of the mechanics. Secondly and more importantly, it has reduced so many races to a procession of cars waiting for the car in front to pit only to blast in a few hotlaps in order to overtake in the pitlane. Overtaking in the pitlane is not exciting. In 2006, tital rivals Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso didn't go wheel-to-wheel on track until the thirteenth race of the season, thanks largely to overtaking in the pitlane.

So why doesn't the FIA simply require teams to make fuel tanks big enough for a race distance and only allow them to put in their race fuel before the race? Keep the three-part quali but make Q3 on low fuel like Q2 instead of this burnoff phase BS. Give them very soft, wide slick tires that burn out easily so they have to stop two or three times over a grand prix to change them.

Quote from Lateralus :

What's the weather forecast like for tomorrow over in the Ardennes?

Wow. For some reason I thought this weekend's race was in Spa, despite the thread title and all the websites indicating otherwise.

What's the weather forecast like for tomorrow over in the Ardennes?

Don't skip 4th gear. This will unsettle the car less upon entry. Come off the brakes smoothly and carry them toward the apex(i.e. trail-brake). Blend your corner phases into one smooth motion. Use more of the track so you don't have to turn so hard. You weren't on the white line when you started your turn-in, you didn't touch the apex curb, and you didn't go onto the exit curb or green astroturf at all. The astroturf is very wide there which makes the exit forgiving.

Road America at Elkhart Lake. Or maybe Road Atlanta.

Hmmm... maybe I'm just ignorant but I don't understand how this type of look-ahead could be an advantage. Of course in real-life racing turning one's head is beneficial, but in LFS one's looking at a monitor. Turning one's head would mean moving one's eyes in response in order to keep looking at the screen. I have look-ahead set to my wheel input, which works quite nicely. The sharper the bend up ahead, the more I have to turn the wheel. More input = more look-ahead so I can see the apex and exit clearly.

Does anyone else focus intensely while driving LFS? I definitely do, more so than any other game I've played in my life. Someone in the other room will have to call my name three times before I even realize they're doing so. I've missed phone calls because I never heard it ringing. I've been late for work because "just a couple more laps" quickly turned into ten more because I was only a tenth off my pb and wanted to break it.

One of the things I love most about LFS is that it almost forces you to find "the zone", where everything else falls away and it's just you and the car. You feel the tiniest of bumps, sense keenly the dynamic weight of the car as it shifts during cornering, feel the ebb and flow of the moment as you flirt with the limit. Ayrton Senna described it beautifully:

Quote from Ayrton Senna :

Suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel. Not only the tunnel under the hotel but the whole circuit was a tunnel. I was just going and going, more and more and more and more. I was way over the limit but still able to find even more.

I've definitely gotten into this trance state occasionally while driving this sim; fortunately it never frightened me because I'm never in any real danger. I remember distinctly during a few races in the past in which everything has clicked wonderfully and I'm suddenly right near my pb pace. And I'm catching the guy in front of me for 3rd place at over a second a lap. I push a little more. I catch the T1 curb beautifully, the car feels glued to the circuit as I fly out of T1 with more speed than I ever have before. I carry that speed through the lap. The barriers seem to move back. The circuit seems twice as wide as it actually is. Time seems to slow down. Thoughts of making a small error or spinning are nonexistent. This car won't spin, it can't spin, because I am in complete control of my own destiny. Faster. Smoother. More precise. For five laps in a row I break my own pb, often by less than a tenth. And I don't even realize it. I'm so focused on the moment that I don't notice until the checkered flag. What a fanstastic feeling. Riding that wonderfully subtle, elusive wave. So fleeting that by the time you realize it, it's already gone. Feeling the limit. Touching it. Knowing it's there. Daring to push right to the edge and stand on the precipice of disaster. Living it. Living for Speed.

Quote from DrDNA :

If someone else were to jump in an STR car tomorrow and start belting out faster laps then believe me, I'd be the first one to negotiate my foot past my lips .

Bourdais was faster than either race driver the last two times STR gave him test time.

Quote from vellanet :

It is set to be longer when the field is larger. It gives the server a chance to cleanly add everyone in and have their FPS settle down before the race starts.

Ah, makes sense.

And now a follow-up question? Why is it sometimes two red lights and a green, and other times three red lights and a green?

The smaller the field, the more quickly the light turns green. Why is this? Doesn't seem as though it should be.

Quote from Forbin :

Not my words.

That is irrelevant. You chose to post them in this thread in order to troll.

Take your trolling and stuff it man. Say something productive or insightful, otherwise keep quiet.

Quote from Forbin :

NASCAR ~ Pro Wrestling

Shut the hell up will ya? I don't follow NASCAR either but to post such asinine comments in order to get a rise out of people is incredibly childish. What are you, nine years old?

Quote from jayhawk :

Bingo.I am a bit biased, but probably the best permanent road circuit for F1 cars in America would have to be Road America. It has two long sections, and the corners are for the most part straight out of a textbook. The only downside is that Road America can only handle about 100,000 people.

I agree, Road America is a fantastic circuit. The facilities and safety could be built up to F1 standards, but it would be difficult to do without changing the character of the circuit. So I wouldn't want it done unless they could keep the circuit's character intact.

But it's in too remote a location I think anyway, as far roads to and from the nearest international airport. And commercial infrastructure in the immediate area (hotels, restaurants, gas stations etc.) couldn't handle an F1-size crowd.

Quote from Taavi(EST) :

Which F1 isn't, right?

Anyway, watching the USGP live yesterday, i have to admit, the stands were like half empty, in which place in the world do you see that happening?

The stands at Indy are gigantic. This year had probably the biggest single-day turnout of any GP except Barcelona, but they're spread out over much bigger stands than at other tracks. Everyone can spread out rather than having to be shoulder-to-shoulder.

Quote from srdsprinter :

Utter nonsense, we get Every GP live on Speed (minus 4 we get live on broadcast tv, Fox).

Wrong. FOX has a contract for four races this year. Canada was shown live. Indy will be shown live. Silverstone and Magny-Cours will be shown on tape-delay. The rest of the races are live on Speed.

No time will be alotted for pre-race buildup or post-race interviews/podium/etc.

FOX can DIAF.

Quote from Lato :

and why don't make a regular pit crew visible to all other racers? U would recive a penalty if u hit a crew guy. Just like with the marshals.

Because that would involve rendering 3-D models of all pit crew members for each driver. That's a lot of drawing and probably a lot of slowdown. I suggested basic 2-D sprites, or just a simple pit board, to minimize the performance hit.

Quote from Gabkicks :

lol. people are too lazy to use the search button. maybe if the search button looked like jessica alba, people would click it.

I'd click it.

Quote from The Moose :

Well, it's ok if you can stomach that complete cock James Allen talking shite for two hours. and the obscene amount of advert breaks (3 in the first 20 laps yesterday)

The BBC loosing the coverage to ITV was a sad day for F1.

Yeah I know. James Allen is a fool. So is Steve Rider. Mark Blundell is a moron but the way he speaks is hilarious, there are some real gem lines of his. Martin Brundle's good though, he alone makes the coverage worth watching.

But it's still way better than Speed, much less FOX which Canada was on along with the next three races (Silverstone and Mangy-Cours won't even have live race coverage at all here). They only scheduled two hours for Canada so there was no build-up at all and they cut to golf just after the cars crossed the line. No interviews, nothing. It seems like FOX tries to **** with F1 and make it look as bad as possible - incomplete coverage, tape delay etc. In some ways it's competing with NASCAR so they're trying to kill it off, it seems.

EDIT: This forum censors language? That is lame.

Quote from _rod_ :

Im still getting this in a few servers

So am I. Still.

I'd rather go back to W than deal with half the servers being inaccessible.

Fix soon?

Go to torrentspy.com and search for 'F1'. The user Darmeth there uploads the complete torrents of qualifying and the grands prix within several hours of broadcast. From ITV as well, which is nice since Speed sucks so much.

Here's qualifying from Montreal:
http://torrentspy.com/torrent/ ... V_UK_Eng_XviD_DaRmEtH_avi

And the grand prix:
http://torrentspy.com/torrent/ ... V_UK_Eng_XviD_DaRmEtH_avi

If you don't have torrent software then get µTorrent.

Last edited by Lateralus, Mon 11 Jun 2007, 00:49.

Damn this error. It's preventing me from racing a 32-car grid of FO8s and FOXs, and I only have another hour to drive.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Also getting it on the [DSR] server, which is nowhere near full, and NOT on the ConeDodgers servers, which are.

Yup exact same for me too. I guess it isn't to do with being nearly full.

Strange error.

I'm getting this too. Only on nearly-full servers though it seems.

I'm trying to connect to Gentlefoots Formula Racing right now but failing.

It was happening on another nearly-full server last night as well, but I could connect to other servers just fine.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

He slammed on the brakes, which decelerated us fast enough that the kid flew all the way into the dashboard!

Someone should have told his fool ass to belt the kid in so such a thing would have been prevented.

Quote from MAGGOT :

I'll probably buy a low-mileage Cavalier since it will be cheap, reliable enough, and cheap to repair compared to a german or japanese import.

How do you figure? In my experience late 90s-early 2000s Japanese cars like Honda and Toyota are built solid as hell and parts are as cheap as they come. I can't imagine parts for a Cavalier would be much cheaper than a late 90s Civic, of which there seem to be droves on the road these days.

This thread is now thoroughly off-topic.

Just installed W40 and got a 'could not connect to master server' error. Is this just unfortunate timing (i.e. the server is actually down) or did something mess up with the install?