Quote from RasKK :

errrm, dude .. the people that watch f1 in front of the screen are definitly spectators, and if there wouldnt be any spectators at all, it wouldnt make sense for sponsored advertisement, and tv wouldnt also pay if noones gonna watch it ?!?

If you read my post, notice that I made a distinction on the first hand between track spectators, and on the second with "spectators". Dude.

Quote from Becky Rose :

So you must force them to spectate and let them rejoin and then restart the race? Or you do this on the /end race screen? Please forgive my slowness, i'd just like to know exactly what to do so I dont have to experiment live.

Have your grid order written down, then 'end race' to go back to entry screen.
Clear the grid, then call each driver in turn to join the race - which is not as easy as it sounds when they're all chatting at the same time, some asking questions, some gone to the toilet.
Remind them to check their fuel loads etc. then off you go

Quote from Becky Rose :

I love the new system, it's like the original qualifying system was before they screwed it up - except that now they've got next to no time to get out there and set the lap so we actually get some action, the problem is session 3... They had a good formula for the 1st two sessions, so why did they change it for the third?

Dont know if anyone has heard, but it was decided today that from the French GP qualifying will change. The last 20 minute session will be reduced by 5 minutes to become 15 minutes also.

Quote from Becky Rose :

So you must force them to spectate and let them rejoin and then restart the race? Or you do this on the /end race screen? Please forgive my slowness, i'd just like to know exactly what to do so I dont have to experiment live.

Its not hard with a process in place, erm, I have a document the CRC uses for this format, may explain things a little more, email me if its wanted. [email protected]

Quote :

The last 20 minute session will be reduced by 5 minutes to become 15 minutes also

Which is a shame and a demonstration of the FIA missing the point again! I feel that out of the existing 20 minute session over 10 minutes are dull - they need to get rid of the fuel tokens and let them run light - then it would work. Taking 5 minutes off isn't going to do everything needed because it'll still have a fuel burn session... It's this that is wrong, I believe.

About to send you that eMail btw, thank you very much,.

Quote from Gunn :

Yes ITV gets purchased, but they don't show anything except for highlights and the race, then the podium and interviews in English. Instead we'll be stuck with re-runs of bloody NCIS or some other generic rubbish.

Yes, built in to LFS or into the dedi version I would like race and season management options. Or alternatively, a seperate application that gathered the info and processed it into a file that could be used to set up a race, throughout a season, and have the results collected and accumulated.

I don't know where you are, but both practice and full qualifying does get shown in the US and Canada. I think it is a great show and the back marker teams also get air time.
The extra time on the track does very little for the better teams. The extra telemetry gained in those sessions is minimal. Plus, the faster teams don't do hardly any track time in the first session, and as little as possible in the second. The slower teams spend the full 15 minutes in both if possible.
The only way a faster team does not make the final grid is if they get blocked by a slower car. This has happened, but you have to blame the team for that. They should be setting up their hot laps for the driver to try and insure a clear track. This problem also occurred with the original qualifying format. The only format that does not have this problem is the single lap system.
I think Becky hit the nail on the head, the fuel credit system is the problem. Let them run what they want, that is my opinion. But the league is trying to force the cars to be on the track for the majority of the time. In the old system, cars would just sit in the garage until the last possible moment, and then go out. This system insures that the cars are on the track.
If they got rid of the stupid two race rule for the engines, you would see even more cars on track because then they wouldn't be worried about the 10 slot penalty for replacing an engine.
Totally off topic, sorry

I think it would be nice just to have 3 people on the track at a time, with 2laps each. On a server with 20 people, qualifing would only take 14 laps. That comes out to be about 25 minutes or so on blackwood.

Quote from Becky Rose :

So you must force them to spectate and let them rejoin and then restart the race? Or you do this on the /end race screen? Please forgive my slowness, i'd just like to know exactly what to do so I dont have to experiment live.

p1lot answered it better

Quote from p1lot :

Have your grid order written down, then 'end race' to go back to entry screen.
Clear the grid, then call each driver in turn to join the race - which is not as easy as it sounds when they're all chatting at the same time, some asking questions, some gone to the toilet.
Remind them to check their fuel loads etc. then off you go

I still take my arguement that any championship that has to run anything other than a straight timed session with all cars on the track, or a system of heats for big (40+) entries has got a serious problem.

Quote from GWADanny :

Yeah i thinks its gay that they have restricted the engines to give the lower budget teams a chance. But the good teams are still battering them. The cars are faster than last year and they are restricted so that has done nothing

If anything, the Super Aguri cars aren't NOWHERE as slow as the Minardi or the Arrows compared to the competition.

fascinating but totally irrelevant to the thread.

Quote from Hallen :

In the old system, cars would just sit in the garage until the last possible moment, and then go out.

Well that is untrue. Often it may have seemed that the cars were waiting until the last minute when in fact the engineers were working frantically to implement changes and improvements, something they aren't allowed to do any more. Cars would go out at different times depending on traffic, track conditions, weather etc, but practice/qualifying were times where the car could be developed. There was little strategy in those old qualifying sessions but there doesn't need to be any.
Today's system is a reaction to their own stupid restrictions and surely will not last.

Quote :

There was little strategy in those old qualifying sessions but there doesn't need to be any.

I'm not sure if your memory is being a little rose tinted there Gunn . There is a huge advantage to going out late in most qualifying sessions because of track temperature, so that's what most of them did. The last 10 minutes or so would get interesting. Ayrton Senna would always go out and start his flying lap with seconds to spare, having only put in a banker lap in the whole hour long session.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Which is a shame and a demonstration of the FIA missing the point again! I feel that out of the existing 20 minute session over 10 minutes are dull - they need to get rid of the fuel tokens and let them run light - then it would work. Taking 5 minutes off isn't going to do everything needed because it'll still have a fuel burn session... It's this that is wrong, I believe.

I quite like this years qualifying system as I find it quite exciting. As a fan of Button, it's currently quite dicey that he even makes it through the first session, lol.

I only think the last session needed rework. Cutting it down by 5 minutes is the right way to go IF they also were running on low fuel. I've never been a fan of qualifying on race fuel.

The difficulty (if you really must have them qualifying on race fuel loads) is that if they don't get a fuel allowance back for each qualifying lap completed, they'd all just sit in the garage and then do one (or possibly 2) fast laps at the end of the session. If (like now) they do get the fuel allowance, they just do fuel burn laps to get the weight down for the last 1 or 2 flyers. Either way, the first 2/3rds of the last session are pointless.

For me session 3 should follow the format of the first 2, and dump the race fuel thing. But I'm a big believer in getting rid of refueling in races anyway....