Hello All!
I'm going to make a post again detailing the events that led to
"~ @RedPartyhat strike for contact with Lancer +10 sec penalty."
Firstly, I don't want this to turn into the **** show flame war banter like the last time I was involved in stewarding. I think Furi was professional in how he handled this incident and how he reviewed it and came to his conclusion. But I do feel he is still wrong and the penalty was too excessive for what it really was.
Furi uploaded the incident on Youtube, clip here:
Incident occured on Race 1 Lap 4 for those who wish to view it on their system.
In the clip, we see me attempt to overtake Lancer in the double-apex hairpin and battle it out on the straight approaching the final turn. Then an incident occurs and Lancer is in the wall.
I was penalized for this. According to Furi,
Jon turned in as normal. I had no right to the corner, were not even alongside to claim the corner. AT THIS POINT - It's on me, any consequences are on me. You try and take the corner like no-one is there on the outside. If you were further alongside, it would have been a different story.
I think Furi and the stewards who made this ruling have a point here, to an extent. But this ruling is very one-sided and fails to look at all of the factors that led to the incident.
Jon turned in as normal. AT THIS POINT - It's on me, any consequences are on me
I don't need to go too much into detail here, but how is this my fault? No matter what you say, I was there. If Jon turned in as normal and did not acknowledge that I was contesting him, then that's on him. I have a right to exist. If the precedence of this series is, "You can approach the turn as if no one is there if there is even a slight a debate whether or not another car should even be there," then there will be chaos (not that it there isn't already). You can debate whether or not I should've been in that position, but even if I had
100% no right to be there, Jon still cannot use that as an excuse to turn into me, cause an incident, and use FRL stewarding to penalize me for that. My entire experience with this series has many instances where drivers stick their nose where it shouldn't be causing a disadvantage to both drivers, but I still respect their presence and alter my line to accommodate them, as much as I hate doing so. But that brings me to the second and most important point.
I had no right to the corner, were not even alongside to claim the corner.
This was brought up because I am being made to be the over-aggressive driver going for moves that I shouldn't be going and showing general lack of racing awareness. The reality is, yes I know I'm not supposed to try to make a move for that corner. Yes I know that corner is cancer and should never be taken 2-wide. The point Furi is making here is completely irrelevant because that's not what happened.
In the clip, we see a 4-wide at the first hairpin, and a 3-wide at the second hairpin. Obviously, I'm going to gain lots of ground, and I do. During the 3-wide, slight contact between Niop, Rob, and Jon opened a clear gap that I took. I even overtook Jon for a second but his straight-line pace got me heading towards the next turn.
So now, here's what it all boils down to. What should i do? Jon clearly regained the position and is ahead of me heading to the turn. So I should let off. Ok! But wait, where exactly do I go? We see at 0:22 of the clip, it's at this point I need to make a decision. And i wanted to let off. But fellow racer Rob closed the gap. I was trapped with literally nowhere to go. Can someone look at this image and tell me what exactly I should've done?
Should I have shoved Rob off the track to slot in behind Jon? Should I have just slammed the brakes and let all the cars go? (lol). Should I have just drove into the wall? I asked Furi but he hasn't give me a proper answer. No matter what, I was going 2-wide. Either with Jon, or with Rob. No this isn't Rob's fault for closing the gap. But Furi doesn't understand that because the door was closed by Rob, I had no choice to but to be in the situation he thinks I should've avoided.
No I didn't have a right to the corner in a racing sense. But I also have a right to exist.
You try and take the corner like no-one is there on the outside.
Total BS. I took the corner and anticipated that Jon would respect my presence. Instead, Jon took the corner as if I wasn't there. Or I should say, he took the corner assuming I would back off. And I think Jon is fair to assume that, and I'm glad Jon respects my awareness enough to think I would do that. And believe me when I say I *wanted* to. But, the problem is, I literally couldn't. So now from my perspective, I took the corner assuming he would respect my presence. That didn't happen so the incident occurred. It's also contradictory to say that I took the corner like no-one was there after just saying "Jon turned in as normal". Pick one Furi, either Jon turned early into me, or I didn't give him enough room. Seeing you said he turned "anticipating" that I wouldn't be there, then we can automatically conclude that Jon also turned in early.
I'm not trying to say that Jon is in the wrong here, or Rob is in the wrong here. I don't think anyone is in the wrong here. This was simply an unlucky racing incident.
If you were further alongside, it would have been a different story.
In Furi's clip, Furi showed an angle from Jon's perspective showing my nose aligned with his rear tires at 0:51. I think Furi has some point here assuming that was actually the case. However, he did not bother looking at it from my perspective, from my replay. Here's what I saw at the moment, from my perspective.
Right before Jon turns in, we see from my perspective (this is the camera view I use when I race), that my side-views are aligned with his spoiler. Meaning, the front of my car was aligned with his driver. The picture clearly shows that I was only behind half a car length. So when Furi says "If I was further alongside, it'd be a different story," well I clearly am further alongside.
I would say that from this perspective, that I was at least fair in assuming Jon would respect my presence. So saying I had absolutely no right to be there is BS. I admit that the replay doesn't show the same perspective that I saw, so I do wish Furi would look at it from the driver's POV. Nevertheless, even if I didn't want to be there, which i didn't, I had no choice but to be there. And saying anyone is free to turn as they want without respecting others as the one behind will always get penalized would probably lead to everyone losing half their points assuming consistent stewarding.
I know everyone is thinking I'm just some drama queen cry-babe writing this all up again, but all I'm doing is stating the facts. I'm sure people are going to counter everything I said and they may be right, but I don't see how anyone can justify the actual penalty that was handed out for what this incident really was. An unlucky ******** racing incident where no on was at fault. Jon told me before that TOCA on GtSport is not going to be the same as it was on GT5. If we want it to be different, it starts with the stewarding. Right now, the stewarding is horrible. I'm getting handed the largest penalties for no logical reason. And in this case, I got a penalty for an iffy incident at best and that penalty ironically only benefited the three stewards in the points. Right now, I don't see how TOCA is any different.
