Yug Desai Career start: S28; Retired S50-55 Elite since: 67 Current standing: 39th S70 final standing: GPRO champion with 91 points
Nuvolari Predators Established: S1 Best finish: 3rd (S48) Top ten finishes: 11 (S1-2, 8-9, 13-14, 46, 48-49, 66, 70) Cup championships: 1 (S48) S70 final standing: 9th Current Standing: 37th
Yug Desai—India’s first GPRO champion and the 28th unique winner in game history. How does all that sound?
Sounds like a fluke! :P
You had some very stiff competition early in the season (most notably from AlpoandTomek)but in the end you proved to be the most consistent manger. Did you believe all along you had the best package to outlast your peers?
I did not believe that until the last lap of R16 when I finally had secured the championship :)
I am sure that I did not have the best package. Goal for the season was to be consistently in the points and try to make some money. I realised I may have an outside chance at the championship, which is why I signed a TD without trophy bonus, but I gave up that thought in the first few races seeing how fast Alpo, Roland and Tomek were.
It wasn't until that freak race at Bremgarten, where I got a win and found myself in the championship lead, when I thought that I may actually make it. The trick was to maintain a low profile and not force Tomek into action too soon :P
Did you struggle with your tyre choice at all or was it always going to be Michelini? Did the increase in a bar of durability make BRs any more attractive or was the cost effectiveness of Michis too great?
Since championship was not the focus, I didn't consider BRs at all. But even if it was, I think I would've still picked Michis. The money is better spent elsewhere, especially in the current meta where PHA matching is so significant.
Although you are not the first to win a championship with a driver first signed in Amateur it is not the most common path. Could you carry us through the process of training a driver from embryo all the way to the top of Elite? What are the biggest challenges with this approach?
The decision to take this route depends on your management style. I prefer to plan way ahead time so it was the best for me.
I think it is important to have a clear idea about exactly what your driver will look like at any point during the journey and have milestones for the rest of the package. Then you need the restraint to not deviate from it too much.
In terms of challenges, flexibility is limited. So if you make a mistake or get hit by bad luck it may be difficult to recover. Then the best you can do is cross your fingers and take some risks. It helps to think about all that could go wrong and try to think of contingencies in advance.
Also, you know your results will be bad when you have to lose driver motivation after promotion and you can't expect great results right off the bat in the season after that. So managing sponsors around that can get very complicated, especially if engaged in several negotiations at a time.
In the upper tiers things get a bit tricky because if your group is tough you may have to compromise by running either a higher level car, a pit TD, expensive tyres, doing Spa or some combination of them. None of which are optimal so having a good read of your group is important to avoid failure as well as overkill.
Elite was a completely different story since it was uncharted territory for me and I had no idea what package is needed to retain or to get into the top 10 or to fight for the title. I just kept training the driver every chance I could find and hoped for the best.
It is unusual to see a Pipi relegation in the season following a championship. Is this a result of overextending in the push for the championship or did you see this coming in advance?
It was neither overextension (there was some overspending but nothing crippling), nor preplanned. In fact, I had already signed a pit TD for this season fully expecting to go for one of the expensive tyres. But I ended up replacing it in the first staff market this season in what was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
I had too many options to choose from and if the goal is to win championships, I don't think I'm particularly disadvantaged by relegating. It just suits me personally at this juncture and I still have my war chest for later.
For now it is time to take it easy and play sidekick to people who've helped me achieve this :-)
I believe you are the first manager I have interviewed who has experienced retirement from GPRO. So just what the hell were you doing with your life in S50-55? :-p
It was a mistake! I had to get my ass kicked by life many a times in that period to realise I need GPRO, haha.
It should be a rule that Elite champions must have a profile pic. The people demand to see your face so why have you stubbornly denied them?
Since I'm wanted by Interpol I better not attract too much attention :P
Big thanks to Yug, who, barring capture, will no doubt soon be back in Elite fighting or another title.
For Elite Press, I’m Brad Marshall hoping you always outpace the police.
It should be a rule that Elite champions must have a profile pic. The people demand to see your face so why have you stubbornly denied them?
If I am not mistaken, the interpol suspect used to uploaded a photo in this site, but he quickly erased it. Agent Mairo and/or Agent Max could be able to trace that if I did not over estimate their skill :)
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