FIA Events '18 - World Finals Monaco Finished! Congrats to Team Lexus and Igor Fraga for Brazil!

[rono_thomas]

I think all previous events had slipstream set to real and boost set to weak. I assume this wasn't different.

Really disappointed if thats the case.

 

[JayOTT]

Boost is never turned on in actual competition. The only thing that changes is whether the slipstream is set to Real or Weak, and I couldn't tell you for sure what setting they ended up going with in Manufacturers because the long final straight makes even the Real slipstream strong.

 

[zzz_pt]

We couldn't see the tire's waste but in lap 3 i'm sure he have to do miracles to stay on track in front of medium fresh tires. I think the gasoline problem is his fault , if i'm not wrong he sit just after the entry in the pit and himself decide when to stop the refill. He did a wondefull job anyway in my opinion.

2 more seconds (6liters) would be enough he would probably have an easier time on the back straight.

He stopped at 75l which would be enough if he had more time going on the draft of another car. But as he drove on clean air for so long, 80, 85l would be the ideal.

In retrospect is easy to say all this ofc. I agree with you though, he still did an amazing stint.

Really disappointed if thats the case.

Yep, it was for me too. But to be fair, it makes the race more exciting. Maybe a bit artificial but it gives a better chance for everyone, especially those on the mid pack and at the back.

Edit: @JayOTT I though boost was weak and slipstream real. OK. Slipstream weak is higher than real, I guess. Still a bit artificial.

 

[Cuber Tom]

Slipstream was actually on real. We voted before the race and they changed it for weak to real

 

[zzz_pt]

Slipstream was actually on real. We voted before the race and they changed it for weak to real

That's good. But on the back straight still looked a bit too strong (check last lap fight between 2nd to 6th place).

No boost then?

 

[Azerach]

If boost was on we wouldn't have seen 10+ second gaps like Igor was facing at the start of last lap. He brought that gap down with tyres and pace.

 

[DaigoD]

That's good. But on the back straight still looked a bit too strong (check last lap fight between 2nd to 6th place).

Slipstream is extremely overpowered in this game. They should rename weak slipstream to real and real to high.

 

[kjeldsen]

*EDIT*

 

[Doodle]

No boost then?

Correct. No event has ever had boost and I’m 100000000% sure that PD would never turn it on for the FIA championships.

 

[zzz_pt]

Correct. No event has ever had boost and I’m 100000000% sure that PD would never turn it on for the FIA championships.

Ufff... Than I mistakenly took the weak slipstream as being the week bost. I though slipstream would always be real. 👍

That makes me give more credit to every driver at live events.

 

[Loverson]

Can't wait to watch the broadcast i missed.
Grats to everyone in advance.

 

[Krypton78]

The 5.9s penalty for Kokobun is a joke as it can be. Never ever in relation to punting BMW out (=5s).

The penaltiy system is still a joke after all. Off topic, but matches perfectly with this fact: after a long time I just did a weekly race. I punted the guy in front of me and he spoon. If you ask me he braked to early. But nevertheless it was my fault, I do such mistakes very seldom, but it happened.

And: I did get no penalty! Nothing! Not even the orange arrow displayed!

In the end of the race we met again and he was behind me. Of course he revenged himself by raming me from behind during braking. But this time: I got the orange arrow displayed! I did nothing wrong, not braked to early or to late or been in his way or whatever, and I got penalised, but when I ram somebody I get away with it! After the race I got the blue S anyway. What to say about that.

 

[SAMHAIN85]

Does PD ever upload the replays of these events? It would be nice to watch it back since the 'camera man' at times cut away from some great action and you're left wondering what happens

 

[Tou2istTrophy]

There were a lot of guys using hood cam. Doesn’t it bother them that there’s no rear view mirror (and those blindspot shadows) in an FIA world final?

 

[FitzyWATP]

Given it was live stewards couldn't Subaru have been ordered to wait and concede their position to BMW?

Wouldn't have helped BMW but it would have been a more fitting punishment for ruining their race.

 

[ASH32]

There were a lot of guys using hood cam. Doesn’t it bother them that there’s no rear view mirror (and those blindspot shadows) in an FIA world final?

Bumper and Hood allow you to drive faster, hood has no mirror and with bumper it doesn't let you know exactly where your car is, especially the front, so it's a case of taking one flaw whichever you chose. Hood should have a mirror though if clean racing was prioritised as much as it should be.

 

[VFOURMAX1]

Given it was live stewards couldn't Subaru have been ordered to wait and concede their position to BMW?

Wouldn't have helped BMW but it would have been a more fitting punishment for ruining their race.

I agree that Subaru at a minimum should have received a penalty that at least damaged their race as much as the punt damaged the race of the car that they hit and as a result been placed behind the position of the BMW.

 

[bduddy]

As a BMW fan, have to say I'm very disappointed in their strategy. You're on pole, you have the fastest driver, put on softs and build a gap like the rest of the frontrunners. Instead they tried to be cute and it cost them. Yeah, they got punted, but they shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.

 

[Tou2istTrophy]

Bumper and Hood allow you to drive faster, hood has no mirror and with bumper it doesn't let you know exactly where your car is, especially the front, so it's a case of taking one flaw whichever you chose. Hood should have a mirror though if clean racing was prioritised as much as it should be.

They all have their thing, but I don’t think it’s fair. Cockpit can have no visible mirror inside, and the look back button just shows you a rollcage, yet that has no rear view mirror.

I’m not going to try persuade anything, but I would have thought the drivers of this event would care more.

 

[VFOURMAX1]

As a BMW fan, have to say I'm very disappointed in their strategy. You're on pole, you have the fastest driver, put on softs and build a gap like the rest of the frontrunners. Instead they tried to be cute and it cost them. Yeah, they got punted, but they shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.

I do not know what their strategy may have been but apparently they felt they could run the mediums and stay in contact with the leaders on the track even though they may lose a few initial positions and then the main competition say running in the top 5 or so would not have the fastest tire compounds in their arsenal to use later in the race.

Not a bad strategy that may have worked out if they had not been punted. Even though they were a little slower than the Subaru it is still the Subaru drivers responsibility to make a clean pass which of course did not happen.

If the BMW had not of been punted and then won the race everyone would be saying how smart their strategy was. Cannot blame it being a poor strategy choice on getting punted off the track and ending up last in the field through no fault of your own.

 

[ASH32]

They all have their thing, but I don’t think it’s fair. Cockpit can have no visible mirror inside, and the look back button just shows you a rollcage, yet that has no rear view mirror.

I’m not going to try persuade anything, but I would have thought the drivers of this event would care more.

I'd be surprised if they have not mentioned these issues, I'm sure they'd rather have a mirror available for instance. Whether we ever see a change I don't know.

 

[Auditore]

I hope they are reviewing each event especially the stewards,it's clear that after the Asia Oceania event they decided to hold back on penalties and it kinda worked for the Madrid event because it had some mindblowing battles but things got out of hand at the Americas Regionals and yesterday the lack of punishment might've send home one of the drivers.

If they listen to the complaints in this forum the events would be much better.

Put the Daihatsu Midget in the game PD,listen to me a GTPlanet user.

I do not know what their strategy may have been but apparently they felt they could run the mediums and stay in contact with the leaders on the track even though they may lose a few initial positions and then the main competition say running in the top 5 or so would not have the fastest tire compounds in their arsenal to use later in the race.

Not a bad strategy that may have worked out if they had not been punted. Even though they were a little slower than the Subaru it is still the Subaru drivers responsibility to make a clean pass which of course did not happen.

If the BMW had not of been punted and then won the race everyone would be saying how smart their strategy was. Cannot blame it being a poor strategy choice on getting punted off the track and ending up last in the field through no fault of your own.

I'm not a expert in tire strategy in this game but wouldn't the Mediums strategy work better if the race was longer?

 

[VFOURMAX1]

I'm not a expert in tire strategy in this game but wouldn't the Mediums strategy work better if the race was longer?

As long as the laps are on this track from a mileage standpoint, as hard as it to pass because the track is so narrow and the difference in the lap times capable of being turned on the different compound tires this was an excellent track to use such a strategy in my opinion.

The top runners on the softs and mediums should have pulled a decent gap to those on the hards before the first stop.

If the BMW stayed out one extra lap on the mediums as compared to the front runners that started on the softs then they could see what compounds the other front runners took on the second stint if they wanted and could have then decided whether to use the softs in the second stint or use the hards and save the softs for the last stint.

As long as they could maintain a reasonable on track position and stay within a few seconds contact with the top 5 or 6 racers and if they had of even saved the softs for a last stint charge with the pace Nico was laying down on the softs the strategy would have been solid.

It was a strategy that gave them options depending on how the race was unfolding.

I would guess that Nico was their soft tire stint driver regardless of which stint they used them on. I actually like that line of strategy if that indeed was their plan, they could then control when to use the strength which plainly was the soft tires with Nico driving.

I say that because I am sure all the teams used the driver they felt was the fastest on soft tires for their earlier qualifying runs in the car they were driving.

The only place and time the BMW looked dominate in the race was on the soft tires with Nico driving which matched the performance he laid down in qualifying.

But the Subura punting them where they went from 2nd to last place threw any real strategy of a win pretty much out the window.

 

[Sean Renon]

I do not know what their strategy may have been but apparently they felt they could run the mediums and stay in contact with the leaders on the track even though they may lose a few initial positions and then the main competition say running in the top 5 or so would not have the fastest tire compounds in their arsenal to use later in the race.

Not a bad strategy that may have worked out if they had not been punted. Even though they were a little slower than the Subaru it is still the Subaru drivers responsibility to make a clean pass which of course did not happen.

If the BMW had not of been punted and then won the race everyone would be saying how smart their strategy was. Cannot blame it being a poor strategy choice on getting punted off the track and ending up last in the field through no fault of your own.

In real life, being on the harder tire starting in front is a huge advantage.
Real life drivers take passing cleanly a lot more seriously. The Lexus pass was bad, and obviously the Subaru pass was awful. Both wouldn't have been attempted in real life as it likely would've damaged the passing drivers car for the race as well.

Unfortunately sim racing isn't nearly as safe.

 

[zzz_pt]

I would guess that Nico was their soft tire stint driver regardless of which stint they used them on. I actually like that line of strategy if that indeed was their plan, they could then control when to use the strength which plainly was the soft tires with Nico driving.

Probably. And Nico had just come out of an intense qualifying session, so he probably was not in the best shape to start the race (?) and wanted to rest for a bit. When I saw he was not driving the first stint I acctually commented on the PT stream that the M tires would be a good strategy. But unfortunately their race was ruined.

I wouldn't say the same on any other track (not even Bathurst). But around Nurb, track postition is very important. Being on a slightly slower tire compound is not as bad because overtaking is so hard.

Around Lake Maggiore, normal Nurb GP, or any other track, starting on softs would be mandatory.

 

[Krypton78]

I do not know what their strategy may have been but apparently they felt they could run the mediums and stay in contact with the leaders on the track even though they may lose a few initial positions and then the main competition say running in the top 5 or so would not have the fastest tire compounds in their arsenal to use later in the race.

Not a bad strategy that may have worked out if they had not been punted. Even though they were a little slower than the Subaru it is still the Subaru drivers responsibility to make a clean pass which of course did not happen.

If the BMW had not of been punted and then won the race everyone would be saying how smart their strategy was. Cannot blame it being a poor strategy choice on getting punted off the track and ending up last in the field through no fault of your own.

Correct. Buuuuut, it was a really high risk strategy. We don't know what they judged about themselfs regarding the pace of each of them, Der_Heizer and the asian guy. Perhaps both or one of them had a quite a lack of pace there, so they saw themselfes having to use that strategy.

But, as it mentioned, normally they should have used the advantage of having Nico and also Pole to escape the battling on soft tires.

 

[VFOURMAX1]

Correct. Buuuuut, it was a really high risk strategy. We don't know what they judged about themselfs regarding the pace of each of them, Der_Heizer and the asian guy. Perhaps both or one of them had a quite a lack of pace there, so they saw themselfes having to use that strategy.

But, as it mentioned, normally they should have used the advantage of having Nico and also Pole to escape the battling on soft tires.

What had the chatter been for the last several weeks leading up to this event as to who would be the hardest to beat and most likely winner of the event?

It was not BMW and their driver line up who were the favorites.

Again you have 3 young men that are facing a team that consist of the top drivers from every region and trying to figure out in their opinion what gave them the best chance of beating them.

Q difficulties for Nissan was a gift that started them further back and then to be on pole was another advantage. I still like the concept and even if they were basing some of their decisions on staying ahead of what they felt was their main competition which figuring that would be Nissan would not be a stretch then saving the softs until the stint Nissan used theirs to keep them more on a level field still was not a bad strategy.

Using your softs up early while all the leaders were bunched up and on softs may not gain much of an advantage when cars are battling to gain that advantage they needed to gain on the softs and you are dealing with 15 of the 45 top drivers in the world as your competition in each stint.

I think they ran what they thought was the smartest and again if they had of not been punted off the track we may well be saying that their choice and strategy was one of the reasons they won the race.

 

[redhed17]

I thought that was a great race. 👍 Special mention to the BMW and Nissan drivers for pushing the excitement levels up, and showing that you can pass on that track. More than once.

I agree that it would be nice to be able to download the replays to your own machine to re-watch from the different driver's views. It would be a big download though, and I doubt few would have the space. Maybe if PD gave those that wanted it extra allocated memory to save it. 💡

Looking forward to the great racing tomorrow and what surprises they may have as well. At least one new car and track rumoured so far.

 

[GumballCGT]

Had a great time running as a team for Mercedes. @force ewerby (Ed) and CLS63AMG-sc (Nakao) were mega quick and did a great job but we just caught a little bad luck in the end.


Qualifying I think Ed got all he could out of the car and at the absolute limit maybe there was a second, two at most left in it but too risky to go for it 100%. Pace wasn’t much quicker than what we could manage in practice simulations but I was definitely surprised to see we were 2 seconds off of top 6. Mercedes doesn’t have outright pace but during a race it’s fantastic so qualifying is so-so with it most days. Not sure if the result would’ve been different, but we decided to waste fuel on out lap and then get two flyers in to have one for insurance instead of running an out/in lap and then getting one flyer at the end. At the end of qualifying we were 12th.


With it being such a long race I knew our Merc could get up the grid if we were patient and smart but it was gonna be incredible tough. We decided to start medium tires, hard, end on softs to make up time once the field spread out.


Driver of the day for me was definitely Ed even though the broadcast didn’t show much of us but I was impressed. He managed to be incredibly smart and stayed out of trouble but kept great pace to pick up spots one by one. At the end of the first lap we were already 7th and on the 2nd lap he put us 6th only 10 seconds off the top 5 all on soft tires. We were first place of the medium tire group which meant we were in the fight.


I jumped in and came out of the pits in P7 with a 4 second gap in front to the Dodge (on mediums) and a 5 second gap to the Aston behind me. My stint on hard tires was to keep it on track and do my job to hand it over to Nakao to push us to the end. Other than bumping a wall and nearly going off (I thought I was going to throw it away), it was relatively drama free as I pit in P7 keeping the gap close to 4 seconds with the Aston.


Nakao went out to run the final 3 laps on softs while the others ahead only had mediums and hards left. The Aston now 6 seconds behind on the same strategy. We were in the money now. Unfortunately, Nakao grabbed one of those over the top 6 second penalties on his out lap for apparently abusing the computer set track limits at the fast chicane on the GP circuit before getting on the Nordschliefe (since when does barely cutting a chicane net you a 6 second penalty yet punting someone off track only a 5 second penalty?!). Still, after serving the penalty we remained just a little ahead of the Aston and charging Nissan but they were right behind us. After the pit cycles we sat 6th with a shot now chasing down the leaders.


It became a soft tire battle between Mercedes, Nissan, Aston, Mitsubishi, and Dodge or Corvette. Somewhere in the battle which I didn’t catch, we managed a 2 second penalty for a collision with Dodge which put us outside of the fighting group that ran for the podium at the end.


At the end of the day I’m proud of Ed and Nakao to help us get P6. Something I’m really happy about considering our starting position and bad luck. Had a great time competing with everyone in Manufacturer and want to give a big congrats to my good friend Tyrell on the win and the Lexus team as a whole. They were the best of the best this weekend.


Can’t wait to try and do it all again next year!

 

[SlipZtrEm]

Sorry for the slight delay on the race recap, folks: between a mad dash to get as many interviews with the teams as possible post race, and then dinner right after, we weren't even back at the hotel until over three hours after the chequered flag. Monaco is utterly stunning, but the internet connection here is not very conducive to us streaming video for screenshots. Or uploading our own videos — stay tuned for the interviews in the AM!

The final 2/3 of the race was a great bit of entertainment, and that final run down the straight really got the crowd going. Congrats to all of the drivers, and thanks to each of you that had to deal with me asking you a bunch of questions after such a tense race. Special thanks goes to all of the Japanese drivers, who were very kind and understanding with our language barriers. Oh yeah, and Igor, for acting as in-team translator.

The hardest part about meeting so many of the drivers is trying to root for all of you at a race like this.