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Sujet: Quixotic Press |
1199 réponses
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A great interviewer and a great noob being interviewed. :) Thank you both!
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Thanks Max and Jan..it is a great read and gives really good insight into the game..this interview helped me in some way to understand the game better and plan better :)
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again a very good one .
I eagerly wait for Thursdays these days earlier I just hated them :P
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Congratulations,Jan...... Meet you in elite:-p
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Great interview. Another good read. Definitley looking forward to future interviews :)
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Very refreshing to see a noob perspective on the game for a change ;)
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Very nice interview Max and Janoob, well done!! :)
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Superb conversation, thanks to them both :)
Quote ( Max Watson @ March 3rd 2016,11:26:37 ) It's often dance on thin ice and you could easily end up swimming in the cold water :)
This summed-up GPRO in its entirety.
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Great interview to you both and I want to say congratulations once again to Jan for such a dominant season - more to come? I hope so :P
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Fantastic interview, thank you both :)
Also, to read that the insights of the champion about randoms, overtaking and such can be coincidential with those of some of us, bothering the same, and yet he has reached the top, I think it's very ecouraging towards building the patience and recovering the motivation to keep on sticking to the game.
I'd love to see more of these interviews /magistral lessons more often ^^
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haha nice interview mates!!
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#138 Posté (le) 10 Mars 2016, 09:23:23 (dernière édition (le) 18 Mars 2016, 08:25:58 par Max Watson)
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Hello once again, and welcome to another instalment of the Press. Last week we polished off S51 via an incredible conversation with Jan Pavlicek, our newest champion. Now, however, it's time to look forwards (and a bit upwards, and quite far to the left), as we shift focus to the forces preparing their assault on the bastion of elite!
Welcome, Mark. Tell us about yourself, and your life outside GPRO.
Fleeting 29-year-old civil engineer is what I am. Well, my job says I'm a rail & transit specialist but that's pushing it. I moved to Toronto Canada in January last year with my partner from Scotland and I just accepted a job a couple of weeks ago that will take me out to Vancouver in April or May. Between that, applying for permanent residence in Canada so I never have to go back to the UK, sitting professional exams in less than a month and recording a music album with a couple of friends, I'm very busy at the moment.
Any other spare time I get, I help my partner run her business and we also are keen outdoors people and like to head into the more remote parts of Canada to do wildlife photography. Here's a link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/beaniebat/
You've once again entered the elite division at the start of S52, having had a titanic battle in your master group last season. Tell us a bit about the trials and tribulations of your promotion season. Did you expect such a tough fight?
Um... Yeah. It was probably the hardest promotion season I've had. I honestly thought I would breeze it because my preparation had been just about perfect to that point. I really struggled with DE's [driver errors] and qualifying at the start. It was after Race 10 that I had my "Oh, crap" moment. I diverted away from my training plan to train motivation for a couple of races to fix the Qualifying issues and from then on I was running a mix of L6 and L7 parts which I didn't expect to have to do. All in all, I'm maybe $40m lighter than I was hoping because of that and a couple of training sessions lost on my driver. But that's the game, sometimes you're in a tough group. M5 was ridiculously fast at the front last season. There were times where we'd lock out 5 or 6 of the top 8 qualifying spots and then in the race, we'd have things like this almost every race:
/gb/RaceSummary.asp?group=Master&Season=51&Race=16 6 of top 10 masters in M5 for race pace
/gb/RaceSummary.asp?group=Master&Season=51&Race=14 6 of top 7 Masters in M5 for race pace
If I can sum up the season in one word, it's sponsors. I pulled in over $90m of sponsor income last season. Without that, Krisztian [Veinperl] would be in Elite.
How are your finances looking? Your sponsor situation seems to be healthy, but the magnitude of the scrap last season must have consumed a lot of resources?
Could be better as mentioned above, but I'll have 4 sponsors on my car for most of next season (provided none cancel on me), maybe 5 if I win the battle for a good sponsor I just picked up in M5 a couple of races ago. My cheapish driver helps, but the expensive test track next season is going to be the real test.
You've promoted with a L10 car and a highly developed driver. What are your objectives this season, and how do you rate your chances?
Kick Elite's ass! But seriously, Evaldas is the strongest promoter so he's a shoe-in for the top 10 if he goes for it. I was closely following Joaquin's pace last season and I was generally faster than him so that was positive. I'm going to struggle to do much in Elite but I'll give it a shot. I've learned my lesson from last time so hopefully this time I can do better. I've already chosen my tyres for next season (I had them chosen since about R15 if I was going to make Elite) so it'll be sign a TD, then just get it done.
Speaking of your driver, you've had Brian Kerr under contract for eight seasons now. What are your views on training a driver versus hiring a new driver in each division? Is the game well balanced in this respect?
My views are mixed. I've got to Elite both with a trained driver and with signing drivers. There's benefits and disadvantages to both. Training drivers is probably harder. The tricky bit is promoting from Pro with 0 aggression throughout the season, and giving yourself enough room to drop down to 160OA before contract renewal. A lot of people fail there. For me it was ok and I could spend an extra season in Master as I didn't overtrain my driver concentration. After that final 160OA base renewal you then pump the aggression to whatever you can get it before Elite. It's worked largely. If my driver was fully motivated I'd be a couple of OA higher than I am now (I'm writing this pre-reset).
With signing drivers, you never need to trash races, but the big gap is Master to Elite. Maybe thre's an optimal solution where you just sign drivers up until Master, then sign a 160OA base one there and get them ready for Elite, but it largely depends on opportunity and you generally pay more too, which is the downside of that. In the end it depends on the manager. Micro-managers will probably do better training, People taking control of the non-driver elements of the game will prefer the latter.
Let's talk tyres. Without giving too much away to your rivals, could you discuss the tyre situation in elite? Do any changes need to be made to provide greater balance?
A lot of tyre choices are good from a personal point of view. Every tyre has a purpose these days.
Want to retain in Pro or Master, while putting everything into testing? Avonn
Have you a good package and want to promote in Pro, or retain on a decent consistent tyre in Master? Yoko.
Promote in Pro or Master? Dunno is a good place to start.
Want to use a modified OBP in Master for hot races, while putting everything into testing? Conti. I had 2 good conti seasons in Master there.
Want to OBP in rain races in Elite? Bad Year.
Want to use a modified OBP in Elite, while trying to hold motivation? Hancock (Although it is a little expensive right now, but if you make them too cheap then the top Elites might pick them. Maybe a little balancing work to go on here.)
Michi and Bridgies obviously for Elite, but Masters who maybe lack a good driver or car, but have the money and sponsors to support the tyre choice. Also, those who just want to make Elite can give these guys a shot.
Opinion on the decision to hide elite tyre choices before the first race?
X marks the spot! It's a great addition IMO. I like to think I can take a little credit for introducing the private driver/TD offer thing (Vlad can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I suggested not long before it was implemented). It's the same principle here. When I move to Vancouver in May, deadline for Q/tyre choice etc. will be 9:30am. I'll be at work!
You're currently part of reAnimate, a team that – by its own admission – caters for managers who are losing their passion for the game. Does this still describe you? What's the atmosphere like within the team?
We need to change that description... =P
We're a very social team. We don't do much research unless a new track comes along. We all have our own tools from previous teams that we're all comfortable with and we just share as necessary. Most of us are part of our whatsapp group as well, which is where we basically talk shit about each other and the rest of GPRO. Some people come up fairly regularly. =P
I'm really happy with the team we have now. I came back to reAnimate after leaving when Dave Rolleston told me he was joining and Luke Frost had left. Hesketh wasn't the team for me, I didn't fit in but I learned a few things there. When we had a spot free I knew I wanted to bring Kevin over as well. He was clearly one of the most important members of Hesketh and in my opinion the most. Hesketh's mini-implosion made that one easier and the guys here are all really easy-going, so it was a natural fit I think. Without wanting to shade my old teammates, there was too much drama in Hesketh. I think it's different now though. They're a very insightful team. A lot of excellent data there. I got that benefit and I gave them some new ways of thinking to hopefully help them move up the groups.
Back to ReAnimate, when we knew Polly left; I dropped Lee's name into the mix kind of haphandedly. He's an excellent manager and good guy to boot, but I didn't think we could convince him to come. The other guys were up for it and made it happen though so for that I'm grateful. Why Lee has been in the same team as me 3 times now is anyone's guess. I just say he's a glutton for punishment.
Talk a little about the other teams you've been in: you were an integral part of both Jaguar and Edifice. How do you feel about the records of these teams? Are there any aspects of these teams (or others) that you miss?
All the other teams I've been in, I wouldn't say I was the integral part. No chance. In Jaguar, it was Chinmay. In Edifice it was Sion. When he left it was kind of the beginning of the end for phase 1 of Edifice. Then after a while we had our kerfuffle and I and a few others left. Toygun said it best: "Sion was important".
It's funny because I'm actually quite like this offline too. I'm now onto my 4th employer since graduating in 2009. I'm great at starting things, terrible at finishing them and loyalty doesn't factor in when it comes to getting what I really want.
I'm really happy for the success Jaguar have had, Jan covered that well in the last interview. I don't think I miss anything about other teams because I'm happy with where I stand now. I've definitely got to the stage now where GPRO is just a passing thing. Hell, this is the first season I've done that I did a season plan for since, what, Season 31?!
You've been a controversial figure on the GPRO forums at times, never afraid of saying what you think. How do you feel about the forums these days? Are there steps that could be taken to make it a better place?
To be honest with you, I had one of those "self-realisations" about 3-4 months ago. I had just finished a book (Dead Girl Walking by Chris Brookmyre) and it made me realise how much time I've wasted doing things I don't particularly enjoy, or doing things I didn't finish. That combined with the "Never read the bottom half of the internet" philosophy... Well, I haven't read them much lately. I only really post in group forums now and I rarely read the threads that are going on. So the honest answer is I don't know. In the past, it was heavily over-moderated in my opinion. A generational difference between the admins/mods and the users is what I put it down to. There's a big difference between Millennials, Y'ers and X'ers.
It's been like this since I came to Canada. It was a huge personal step for me, I managed to leave behind a lot of baggage back in Scotland; something I really needed. I've talked before about how some of Jack Wemyss' comments made me essentially stop playing music for the best part of 2, maybe 3 years. I was in a bad place mentally then, but I'm back into it now and going through recording my next EP (first time with a vocalist - really excited!).
Any predictions about the outcome in elite in S52?
Sorry, not really anything groundbreaking! I think the top will be the top. If I break the top 8 I'll be delighted, as would 15 other Master promoters and the rest of the mid-Elites!
Any final words for the community?
Other than the above, Don't Waste Time Doing Things You Hate. That's a good motto for life I think. Stand up for what you believe is right.
I think in a previous interview, an AMA with experienced managers was talked about? Am I making that up? I'm sure I read it somewhere. It's a great idea, and if someone wants to do it then go for it and count me in, happy to help. FOBY doesn't really work in the game any more due to so many people having all the data, and the fact you can buy all the tools you need for 20 Euro.
Mark, thank you very much for your time, and best of luck in the coming seasons.
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Interesting one. Again, good job Max. Bravo!
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Another great interview with someone who has contributed a lot to GPRO.
Thanx
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Nice interview Max, good luck in your new venture Mark :)
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Quote ( Max Watson @ March 10th 2016,09:23:23 ) M5 was ridiculously fast at the front last season. There were times where we'd lock out 5 or 6 of the top 8 qualifying spots and then in the race, we'd have things like this almost every race
Agree :P
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Good interview and good luck Mark!
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very nice interview and some nice info .
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Quote ( Max Watson @ March 10th 2016,09:23:23 ) It's been like this since I came to Canada. It was a huge personal step for me, I managed to leave behind a lot of baggage back in Scotland; something I really needed. I've talked before about how some of Jack Wemyss' comments made me essentially stop playing music for the best part of 2, maybe 3 years. I was in a bad place mentally then, but I'm back into it now and going through recording my next EP (first time with a vocalist - really excited!).
I know this is the bottom half of the internet and all but please send me a copy :)
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Great Interview again. Keep them coming mate. I look forward to read these and many more to come :)
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Gr8 interview with some helpful tips. Good luck Mark
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Nice interview! Good read and some very helpfull tips in there.
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