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Topic: FAE1 Forum Racing - S24 (8.5€ Prize) [10th Anniversary Edition!] |
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Quote ( Jonathan Beagles @ January 17th 2020,01:51:59 ) Had no idea I was 13th on the all-time races list, or that Super Aguri had done so well since I last played (definitely nothing to do with me - other than maybe for the most races).
Yeah, blame me and Kyle for that Super Aguri one :P
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#32 posted Jan 19th 2020, 19:38:19
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#33 posted Jan 19th 2020, 19:55:54
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Crystal Palace Round..... Huh.... *don't jinx myself, don't jinx myself, don't jinx myself* ...
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#34 posted Jan 19th 2020, 20:29:19
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#35 posted Jan 20th 2020, 02:23:36
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Circuit of Wales, Ebbw Vale... only 20 miles from me... better put on a good show for the home fans :)
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#36 posted Jan 24th 2020, 21:34:00
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So, I always had the idea that Crystal House was based at Crystal Palace Park... Like, genuinely, I'm not just saying that. which also means your track up there is our test track, technically... soo.. hmm.. xD
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#37 posted Jan 25th 2020, 00:00:10
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Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, United States
 The United States Sprint Race begins today at 15:25 CET, lasting two hours.
With the organisers trying to quell arguments over one country getting three separate Rounds with the excuse that they can’t help who was Champion, let’s ponder the entry list as it stands for the first event…
FAE1 Season Twenty-four Preview
Manufacturers
Life
Driver: Marcus Probert
Perhaps the oddities to come should have been expected with this portent. Not the sort of phrase that would ordinarily be associated with the driver still notable as a beacon of sedate reliability in the sport--even if the reigning Champion perches atop an imaginary throne of vanquished mechanical maladies from the last four seasons--but given that the Champion of the first two seasons returned after a three-season and two-year absence without a hint of warning certainly set the tone for the rest of the off-season. It also marked the welcome return of one of the sport’s grandees: though Probert has not managed to hit quite the same heights since his two titles, and has a stronger claim to big points rather than the grandest prizes, he has nonetheless proven an enduring presence in the very upper midfield for almost his entire career, regularly landing on the podium even when in the midst of a five-year victory drought, and to this day has the fifth-highest points tally of all time. Plus, his previous comebacks have proven to be among his best years in the sport, winning three races across his last two seasons, and even steering his reluctant Ligier to fourth overall in Season Eighteen. However, perhaps the biggest splash came in the form of the works team that the Welshman had assembled for this comeback: though they are no stranger to providing customer entries--if only to Probert himself--and have indeed supplied the chassis underneath two of Probert’s last four victories, this marks the first full-bore entry of Life into FAE1. And their tentacled monstrosity of a W12 engine, according to the reports of blank-eyed journalists who spotted the mechanics coaxing it into the back of the chassis. The chassis proved the typical Life fair: pencil-thin nose angling gracefully to meet the front wing at ground level, swept-back sidepods and gaunt rear wing, and air inlets melting into the spot where the drivers shoulders normally rest. And the few onlookers got a good chance to absorb those features as it sat at the trackside, oil drizzling from underneath as the Jaguars stole the top of the timesheets. Probert’s run was curtailed again the following day as the throttle failed, but this time he managed a time reasonably close to the Jaguar’s pace in the cool morning. And with the missing washers finally arriving at the track in time for the next round of testing, the red dragon surged all the way to the podium in Barcelona, before leading the standings for two days in Jerez and another day in Algarve. Life have yet to announce a partner for Probert, so a run at either title looks unlikely for the team, but the veteran should prove discerning and dependable enough to grab some class victories along the way--and maybe even an overall one.
Jaguar (Jaguar-Cosworth)
Drivers: Bálint Turi-Kováts & Shannon Fuerte
In a year where the various faces swirling in and near the FAE1 ecosystem resemble the flakes in a snowglobe, it has fallen to Turi-Kováts to play the part of the central ornament once again. Tortured and mistimed metaphor aside, it is nonetheless true that the Hungarian heads up the Jaguar effort for the third successive year, once again born aloft by French rubber and powered by Northampton’s finest (strong competition, there…). Except that it was not as much of a carry-over as their previous car; their pipping of Williams to the Teams Championship post brought fame, accolades, trophies, and enough money for a new roll of graphing paper. Whereas their first effort hunkered low to the ground, as if meekly reflecting their attempts to shuffle back into the sport, and their revisions to that had sprouted the wherewithal to at least look forward, the newest dark-green Jaguar prowled confidently into the pitlane in Sakhir, prepped and eager for the first day of testing. Building on their successful ‘this actually rode the bumps well’ suspension concept, the new nose jutted high and proud, almost level with the top of the front Michelins, while the taller, flatter-topped sidepods gave the car an oddly square-shouldered profile. Topping off the look was the narrow, three-tiered rear-wing perched high over the rear wheels, a concept not seen for so long that the rule forbidding it had faded out of the book. However, while the revised car had been paid for by the title win, one of its chief architects had not stayed around to enjoy it: keen to dive deeper into the wackier and less predictable elements of exuberance, Toom had slipped out of the back door and off to pastures so new and green that many wondered if they even existed. But that had been some time before the unveiling, and so on the sidepod sat rising hopeful Shannon Fuerte, fresh off the back of two top-six finishes in two of the most recent editions of F1 Forum. Yes: after two seasons, a new rookie joined the series. And before the press-pack could tear into the series’ first Filipino competitor with questions of whether a driver with zero wins in Season 189 warranted a top drive, and if the proliferation of unfamiliar decals on the dark green had anything to do with this, Fuerte answered by topping the timesheets for the whole weekend, while Turi-Kováts did so in Barcelona the following week. As the reigning Champion resumed testing and other leading hopefuls coalesced in the paddock, Jaguar’s hold on the top was less all-encompassing--they in fact slipped off the overall podium at the slower track of Jerez, before a barnstorming final lap by the Filipino took second. But without any other fully-rostered Manufacturers, a slight slip may not be enough to put Jaguar off a run to their second Teams Championship. Or it did, until the final test.
Toleman (Toleman-Hart)
Driver: Jaelan Smith
The return that ended up being the lowest key. Somehow: Jaelan Smith, Lord Protector of the Paddock, Keeper of Racing Lines, and Holder of the Seat of Loop Hole--the driver who, if it were not already clear, announced his entry into the series nearly four years ago by way of attempted hostile takeover--was the returning entrant that somehow ended up being overlooked, even by the series own driver representative at the celebratory marquee. Then again, between the return of the sport’s first Champion, the eventual return of a sporting bastion, and the continuing return of an ever wilder card, it was perhaps understandable. That Smith spent the same evening atop a plinth addressing his people--a murder of interested crows--may have also explained it. A competing theory is that Smith has spent a rather surprising amount of time since his last FAE1 foray out of the spotlight. Though the American had dabbled in F1 Forum alongside his earlier stints, he dropped off the racing map completely once he called time on his last privateer effort, surfacing again nearly two years later to make a full-time return to F1 Forum in Season 187. From low expectations, he turned heads once more by winning the fourth race and ending the season with a small, but clear, gap to his nine-time Champion team-mate. However, since then, his performances have dipped somewhat and his stardom proved shooting, finishing his last two seasons well outside the top-ten overall. With all that backstory as a proviso, however, it would be harsh--and unwise--to rule the American out of strong performances entirely. After all, his entire career has been built on subverting expectations both good and bad. He certainly sounded back to his animated best meeting the press before his first run out, perhaps moreso to drown out the frantic work of his mechanics mere yards away, but the new Toleman at least looked purposeful and prepared. Gone were the rigidly boxy lines and sprouting wings of the Alfa Romeo-derived predecessor; the new red-and-blue machine proved a short, squat machine, seemingly an effort to drive some agility from the warbling Hart turbo, while the wedge-shaped chassis looked to still retain the powerplants most notable feature. For the twelve laps it completed, the Toleman was solidly quickest in the speed traps, and Smith’s idiosyncratic style was able to drag it through the corners quickly enough to at least look respectable. And prove so, even, with the American holding onto fourth even as his oil drained away in the paddock. A single fastest lap in Algarve may have been Smith’s only headline in this testing cycle, but it would be remiss to expect that to be his last in Season Twenty-four.
Super Aguri (Super Aguri-Honda)
Drivers: Jonathan Beagles & Mairo Toom
Humour dictated that ‘second’ in the final sentence of Jaguar’s entry should have cut off and this followed immediately; tradition then reminded humour of its place, and that these Previews have always been done in the order of entry. Besides humour has no place here. Regardless, the paddock was indeed coming together nicely, with the semi-usual blend of seemingly random but entirely welcome returnees from years gone by slotting back into the garage alongside the handful of continuants from the previous season, missing only one or several of the major protagonists from the previous year. And then as the sun set over Dubai on the eve of the final test, a small convoy of bright white trucks rolled into the paddock without flash and with plenty of substance, their paperwork entirely in order to the finest detail and professional smiles all around. And a single figure not seen in this sport since the dizzy days of Season Twelve: Jonathan Beagles. Titan of the sporting realm and legend behind some of the most prominent and well-respected series past and present. And a veteran of the first-ever FAE1 race, who still holds the record for the most races before taking the chequered flag. But he had been a virtual ever-presence for the marque in the sport: it was Super Aguri who her drove for at that first race; it was a Super Aguri that he wheeled to both of his victories, and in doing so doubled the team’s tally at that time. It wasn’t just a favour or an emotional homecoming, either; Beagles may be more associated with organising series, but he has been competing in recent series of F1 Forum, finishing eighth overall in the latest completed standings. And it was only six races ago that he won in FAE1, it must not be forgotten (and seven years, admittedly). Some flash was to be found the following morning in the form of the announcement of their second driver, with Mairo Toom interrupting his own announcement to ponder why it was being treated as a suspenseful moment if he was already sat next to his team principal. In full Super Aguri regalia. Flash levels returned to normal Super Aguri operating levels once the car was given its proper unveiling, it being exactly the same machine piloted by Harding in the latter rounds of the previous year, minus the adjustments to fit in the Cosworth, and also minus one small chunk of the rear wing. But it had already been shown to be a maneuverable machine, comfortable at any speed of corner and forgiving of eagerness to play with grip, as Toom put to excellent use with florid displays out of the final corner. Allied to Honda’s latest V8, with a wider power band than previous variants without sacrificing responsiveness, meant that it was able to keep pace on the simpler sections as well, with the Estonian finishing the day at the top of the standings and Beagles fourth on his return. Beagles joked about claiming the top spot for Super Aguri in the Hall of Fame for Championships, where they are currently tied with McLaren; while Jaguar are likely to be strong, between Beagles’ known consistency and Toom’s sheer pace and increasing focus, if on the spectacular, plus Super Aguri’s legendary organisation, it would be unwise to dismiss them completely. After all: Williams proved us partially wrong, last year.
Independents
Mach One Racing (Mach One-Cosworth)
Chassis: LEC Refrigeration
Driver: Ben Gilbert
Keeping on Chooglin’
Eeveelution GP (Eeveelution-Cosworth)
Chassis: March
Driver: Kyle Morris
One of the early stories in the off-season was the seeming tentativity of the reigning Champion’s commitment to carry on. After all, he had just obliterated most of the long-standing records for individual success in a season, and had maintained an eye-melting standard of consistency in both success and reliability for several seasons in a row. And he had done all of that in a privateer team, hastily assembled to the echoes of screeching tyres and planes taking off overhead, and with a ramshackle car from a Manufacturer that had not been seen since for half the series’ existence. As the second week of testing passed with no sign of the Englishman, perhaps it was the portent of a sabbatical, the leaving of a marker where there was no more world to conquer? A very definitive answer came in Jerez: the number one proudly displayed at the tip of an all-new, black-and-hold machine, with Morris perched on the sidepods in distinct brown overalls. A tip that jutted out below the front wing itself, which took the form of a tea-tray born aloft on a wispy plinth and almost into the driver’s eyeline, and a set of sidepods so tapered, so swept back, and so low that it was less a perch and more a lounge for Morris. No. He wasn’t going anywhere; he was simply looking for a challenge; and if a marque with a history of supplying customer cars returning from a ten season absence wasn’t enough, then a marque returning after seventeen seasons and without a single privateer entry to its name might just be enough. Yes, March were back on the grid, and, with their previous FAE1-spec machines lost to the ether some years prior, they had spent the last two weeks of testing bring tea-tray front wings back along with them. At least the engine cowling and overhead inlets seemed conventional, and the slimline bodywork revealed enough of the suspension for its sophisticated setup to be apparent. It may have looked awkward on track, and Morris’ initial laps were a little steady as he adjusted to the slightly floatier steering, but its low centre of gravity and well-sorted suspension afforded excellent stability enough for the Englishman to rise back to the top of the leaderboard almost immediately, leaving the circuit with the fastest time of the weekend in an all-new car. Algarve’s long straights proved a sticking point as the March seemed to run out of steam earlier than even the other privateers, though Morris was still mixing among the podium times, before a revised nosecone appeared for the final test. The tea-try remained, though angled forwards and lowered to be in front of the leading Avons, slightly flaring at the ends into a slight U-shape. Somehow even more comical, it nonetheless solved the saggy top-speed instantly; while Toom grabbed headlines for Super Aguri, it was Morris who lead two timesheets to the Estonian’s one. Plus March’s rugged simplicity shone through, with Morris never once being stranded on-track or left watching his times tumbled undefended for the entire off-season. Though there is more competition near the front than in that record-breaking year, it would be difficult to not give Morris the favourite tag, and even more difficult to doubt his ability to live up to it.
Remote Countries United (RCU-Cosworth)
Chassis: Honda
Driver: Chew Kai Wen
After only just skating into the entry list in time for the opening Round just in time for a recalcitrant sponsor to force him to miss said opening Round anyway last season, Wen was able to confirm his entry for a seventh consecutive season comparatively early. It still took more than half of the tests to be complete before enough jars of small change to arrive at GBFAER headquarters to clear the entry fee, but progress is progress regardless. Plus the Singaporean’s finances were not dangling above quite the same foggy abyss as they had been the previous season; coming off the back of his best-ever season overall, and with a slightly longer off-season for them to sprout from the woodwork, more backers than even during his winning pomp were willing to sign their logos into the bright-yellow machine. Said bright-yellow machine was still the same Honda as before, still sporting the deep troughs on the top of the sidepods and still with air inlets that jutted sharply out of the front of them. However, the new funding had allowed for the team to expand its backroom staff by a whole third--by way of two graduates, who had set about raising the angle of the front wing and taperin the nose to a finer, if arching, point, in the name of further improving airflow around the front wheels. Said wheels proved to be the final reason for the team’s delayed start: not wanting to miss out on the local bandwagon, Giti offered to supply tyres to the Singaporean team alongside a juicy partnership deal. Though the GBFAER hemmed and hawed their way through the approval, as their participation had otherwise been limited to low-level single seaters and one prestige GT event, eventually the go-ahead was given. Not that Remote Countries United minded too much, as it allowed them time to move into new facilities with a whole second room, and the respective corporate liveries meant that they needed only invest in black decals to show off their newest suppliers. By the final day in Jerez, Wen was finally ready to take to the track in the revised Honda, and the early results were promising; the graduate may have accidentally deleted their first draft of the modifications and then saved the next in a file format entirely incompatible with the rest of the team’s older hardware, but once that hiccup had cleared the actual design itself had proven effective; Wen was able to set the third-best time of the day in Jerez, with the Honda still as nimble as ever, but the proof came in Algarve as the yellow streak sat in the turbocharged Toleman’s slipsteam down the main straight, and was able to pull out into an overtaking position without his speed immediately wilting, slipping past the American into the first corner en-route to the fourth-best time of the day. Though he never managed to top the timesheet--at any point of any session, strangely--and Morris’ presence means that a John Love Cup is unlikely, with increased backing and the slowly building promise of the last few seasons, this might be Wen’s chance to break into the overall podium positions come season’s end.
Crystal House (Crystal House-Cosworth)
Chassis: Trojan
Driver: Gary Harding
Speaking of late entrants, this marks the first time since Season Twenty that Harding has had all his affairs in order prior to the start of a season. It was also, from a standings perspective, his least successful. Despite winning the first race for the fourth time in eight. On a less dolorous note, it also marked the beginning of his three-year dalliance with Trojan, the micro-Manufacturer with a reputation for ruggedly simple machinery overshadowed in the series by their debut in Season Twelve, in which the reigning Champion could barely cobble a win together before withdrawing mid-season. Trojan had also not updated their car for the Englishman’s last season with them--entirely fairly, as it lasted a single afternoon and the Englishman had returned to the sidelines before Trojan heard of their involvement via web-update--and so when Harding’s ego swaggered into the Tel Aviv paddock several minutes before his plane landed, it was joined by Super Aguri’s abandoned chassis and all of its years of development, which Harding made excellent use of by barnstorming his way to victory twice in his first four races back. And so, naturally, with the works team returning, it made more than complete sense for Harding to continue with the Japanese marque, and maybe even make an audacious bid for the JLC. He might even persuade the team to allow his privateer efforts to serve as a test be-- or he could wheel the Trojan out into the Algarve pitlane. And he did. As stated above already; if there was ever a joke in that sentence, it would have been ruined. Not just any Trojan, either; a Trojan which had followed March down the same wormhole back to the future, with a rear wing that looked like a tarred shed roof mounted on stilts over the rear wheels, and a paving slab front wing, so bulbous that it managed to both be flat to the floor and violently steep, rising more abruptly even than the nosecone. And also added their own little touches, like the set of twin air inlets sprouting each side of the rollover point and which looked suspiciously like collapsible dryer tubes. And yet it worked. Just about: Harding’s gloves were practically a blur on his first day as the rear of the car kept mysteriously losing and gaining grip mid corner, while the front never seemed to generate more than would be found on a sticky-note, but it proved rapid on the straights--that wing evidently pushing all the air away from the front wheels, if away from the rest of the car for good measure--and the rear did stay planted better than most under acceleration. Or perhaps that was simply how hard the Englishman was having to thrash it. For all the streaks of burnt rubber and shimmies around simple, one-radius corners, Harding did spend much of the final test second overall. Not a likely title contender--seemingly by design--Harding is nonetheless likely to carry on his winning ways and showcase his blistering, if wayward, pace once more.
CM-Tech Racing (CM-Tech-Cosworth)
Chassis: Porsche
Driver Wopke Hoekstra
In most seasons, this would have marked the most out-of-nowhere return--though it does fit the remarkably consistent pattern of drivers from the pre-GFESSC days suddenly wandering back into the sport after a decade or so out. Except it doesn’t: Hoekstra managed two seasons after the re-launch of the series, nabbing two podiums for Williams in their middle stint, in the season Harding won the title. Even so, that was still a full ten seasons in the past now. And similarly bucking the trend of other recent returnees, the Dutch former-stalwart kept up his career in other series, at least on a semi-regular basis, flitting in and out of F1 Forum every few seasons and being part of the furniture in Beagles-hosted fare in a management role. Granted, his efforts were relatively light on the silverware front, regularly falling out of the top ten by season’s end in F1 Forum. But his recent efforts have seen a turnaround; his BRM outfit in the madcap Formula Generally series has finished in the top four for three of the last four seasons. More pertinently, his most recent efforts in F1 Forum saw him finish fourth overall in Season 189 and sixth in Season 190. When compared with regularly propping up the order, well behind even some Belgian duffer tokenly wandering through the motions, that is a remarkable amount of progress. And so, as the sun once again kissed the horizon and bathed the Dubai skyline in rusty hues, another set of trucks rolled into the pitlane. Not quite as many as earlier that weekend, but these ones countered that by being even more brightly and cornea-dissolvingly orange than the sun itself, and Hoekstra did at least have all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed for his new Independent team. His seventh. Still, the Dutchman’s long history of modest, but evident success, pedigree in this series itself, and his sheer presence were enough to entice a healthy roster of sponsors on board--all willing to have their logos subsumed in lava--that could spring for a prestigious marque to build the team around: Porsche. They had previously been involved in FAE1, with Pedro Filipe almost bringing them to the grid in Season Sixteen, but it was such a fleeting idea that even the GBFAER saw fit to scrub them from that year’s entry list. Still, at least the lethargy of the governing body had some use: the relatively stagnant rule book meant that the team needed only minor adjustments to make their car ready for this season, though the use of a Cosworth may have also allowed them to more easily trim the wheelbase. The result was a compact package that, from almost every angle, had the overall profile of a trapezoid: between the broad, slightly bulging nose that angle steeply over the front axle, the sidepods that seemed to drizzle out from the main body, with sliver-thin inlets, and the engine cowling that almost burrowed back into the track. It was only spoiled by the boxy rear wing; even the airbox barely spoiled the profile, arching around Hoekstra’s helmet. His single run on the final day of testing ended in a cloud of steam in the early afternoon after posting the then-sixth-best time, but the Porsche had looked composed and well-handling in its first outing, especially in the lower-speed corners, even if steady overall. But the Dutchman’s long walk also tallied with the statistic that, even after a decade away, Hoekstra comfortably has the most retirements in FAE1 history. He has always had speed, it has been a question of consistency--and budget--but his recent efforts in other series are at least promising.
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#38 posted Jan 25th 2020, 00:41:06
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Quote ( Ben Gilbert @ January 25th 2020,00:00:10 ) Hoekstra comfortably has the most retirements in FAE1 history
Now this is a statistic I did not know, but am definitely proud of ;)
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#39 posted Jan 25th 2020, 01:23:20
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Quote ( Ben Gilbert @ January 25th 2020,00:00:10 ) still holds the record for the most races before taking the chequered flag
I am the Mark Webber of FAE1 :P
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#40 posted Jan 25th 2020, 15:25:00
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#41 posted Jan 25th 2020, 15:25:02
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#42 posted Jan 25th 2020, 15:25:08
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#43 posted Jan 25th 2020, 15:46:08
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#44 posted Jan 25th 2020, 16:11:19
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#45 posted Jan 25th 2020, 16:14:03
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#46 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:00:18
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Start United States Feature Race
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#47 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:00:56
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#48 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:01:20
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#49 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:01:40
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#50 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:02:04
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My laptop is so slow these days for stuff like this xD
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#51 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:02:23
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#52 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:02:39
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#53 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:02:46
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Quote ( Kyle Morris @ January 25th 2020,20:02:04 ) My laptop is so slow these days for stuff like this xD
I just have ad issues screwing around with my timers
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#54 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:03:35
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#55 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:07:08
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I'm using my phone, I'm hoping I don't lose too much time XD
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#56 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:11:30
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Watch out Marcus, I'm definitely going all-in for that extra point :P
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#57 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:15:57
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#58 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:16:16
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Don't push too hard Balint, you may get penalised :P
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#59 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:16:54
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#60 posted Jan 25th 2020, 20:17:26
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