Round 11 - Hockenheim (Jun 19th)

Jason White wrote:

It's your home race Michael! Go for it

Martini #31 then, please

Michael Drechsler wrote:

Jason White wrote:

It's your home race Michael! Go for it

Martini #31 then, please

Ok

not present for this race
and for all the rest of the season
The Mac Laren is free

Good race to all of us

Did mistakes in the race where I had never made mistakes in practice. The pressure of racing. Short race. 

The pace was there, but i made a stupid mistake in the infield . After a long pitstop (110s) i put some good laptimes out of the car, but it the end my damaged rear wing and a bump finished my race. Very disappointing race. Even more because of the long break until Austria GP.

Great coverage

Excellent racing Dana & Jan.

Everyone, if you havent seen the race, head to Youtube. The fight between Dana and Jan was the BEST we have seen in the season, respect A true classic

Alberto Ibañez wrote:

Everyone, if you havent seen the race, head to Youtube. The fight between Dana and Jan was the BEST we have seen in the season, respect A true classic

Great race all around!! Good coverage

Results and points are up  

ANTHEM

WINNING DRIVER AND CONSTRUCTOR

They did have a longer time to go for a good battle than me and Matthias at Paul Ricard

But shall be good fun to watch during breakfast tomorrow morning.

Report to come tomorrow evening, too tired now

Well, that race was okay. Not great, but also not all bad all the way, too.

I intended to join the server earlier to do some laps to get a feeling for the car, but the pizza I ordered came a bit later than anticipated. Apparently no one gave the guy paddock access... Joking aside, I joined in the middle of qualifying and had to go out there cold, and at first, the car felt horribly slippery. But the second attempt was already okay, and with some setup adjustments, I was almost able to shave off nearly a second of my personal best. It would probably have been more than a second, if I didn't spun out on my last attempt, but okay.

Then I made a major mistake and applied the changes that made my car handle better in qualifying to my race setup I developed during the week. I did not have a lot of time for testing this week, so I thought it feels better and gives me more control, that should do it. Well, it worked. At least until lap 5, when I lost control in the Motodrom for the first time. Before that, I had a pretty nice start, had some fun fights and the car felt really good. But from that point on, the car was difficult to handle in the Motodrom. The fact my fastest lap was set in lap 13 says it all. I suppose i had too much pressure in the front tires. So I tried to finish and not to stand in the way of the cars lapping me, which mostly worked, I hope.

I had a bit of a scary moment later in the race, as I spun out in the first chicane at some point, and ended up with the floor on the curb. It took me a while to get the car off the curb again and go back to racing. I was able to get a lucky 11th place in the final lap.

Well, let's file this weekend and go on to the next. Congrats to podium and all finishers. I sure had some fun for a while this time around!

It's been a long week, I think my mechanics will want payment for the overtime I made them do. Before the race the car's odometer showed a figure well North of 2000 km, which is about 300 laps. I'll probably have nightmares of this place for a weeks.

On Monday I was lapping in 1.55, and it felt fast. Then I started working on the setup, gained a few seconds. Then I got help from a few people to go faster, much faster. Peter Hlavac showed me I was a still 1,5 seconds off the pace of that car's true potential, but a 1.49.3 was enough for me though.

So, qualifying... And I didn't manage better than 1.50.2, nearly a second slower than what I should have done and what would have placed me 14th instead of 17th. A slightly disappointing performance for me, but Keke Rosberg qualified that car in 19th in 1978 so at least it was historically more or less accurate.

The started scared me. The only way I got the Wolf off the line was rev the nuts off it and bog down in 2nd gear, so that would be the plan. I don't know how I managed, but by the first chicane I was in 8th or 9th place. Needless to stay I was every pleased with that.

Of course that meant I was surrounded by people who could lap a lot faster than me, and I quickly lost a few places. I didn't put up a fight, knowing I couldn't keep them behind me for 45 laps. I got away very lucky when Simon Wattman overtook me and I completely misjudged my braking for the second chicane. It was either the Brabham's back end or the grass. I obviously went for the grass so I'd ruin one car and not two. A quick move to the right, launched it on a kerb, spun around in the air and while waiting for the sound of a smash into the barriers... nothing! It just landed and planted itself into the grass undamaged. A 180° spin back and I could continue to give chase to the Brabhams again, now in 11th.

Then Simon appeared to make an off track excursion and I went up to 9th, chasing his teammate Jason, with Jonatan's BF McLaren close behind. Jonatan overtook the both of us, upon which Jason mowed the lawn at the first chicane and eliminated himself from the battle.

I then made a big mistake of taking it too easily, let the gap with Jonatan grow to 6 seconds and I never recovered. How hard I tried, revving way beyond what should be done to make the DFV last for 45 laps, getting everything out of that car (well, in my own way, because Jan Titz in the other Wolf lapped 3 seconds quicker than me. ), he just upped the pace and went as fast as me. Meanwhile once of the cars in front had retired so we were now in 7th and 8th. I didn't want to take more risks for a non-points finishing position so I slowed down and cruised to the finish, with half a minute gap both to the car in front and the one behind, and making sure I got out of the way of those lapping me.

8th place is a satisfactory result for me. I never liked this track, I'm happier at Zeltweg and that's next. I hope mr Yip will give me the seat again for that race, but I'm open to other offers.

Jonatan Acerclinth wrote:

They did have a longer time to go for a good battle than me and Matthias at Paul Ricard

Screenies up

http://historicsimracing.org/en/resultatscourse/1142

I cheated in two ways yesterday.

First, I was given an anniversary gift by my girlfriend - two 10 mins sessions in a go-kart. I learnt the track in a few laps, finished my stint with an "on-par" laptime and the second stint was as consistent as it gets, all 16 laps within 0,6s difference = confidence boosted

I went straight to quali at Hockenheim. I qualified as expected (bottom of top 10) and joined the starting grid. The second "cheat" is the status bar of engine lifetime, or rather percentage. There were only 25% left at the start. Without this information, i would never make it to the finish and i knew it will be a miracle if i see the chequered flag, anyway.

I started quite well and improved from P9 to P4 by the end of the first lap. Poor starts by Lotus guys helped a lot (seriously, what's up with getting the Lotuses going?). If my engine had more life in it, i could have fought Jan. Unfortunately, i had to shift very early, so i settled down and just focused on bringing my car home. It wasn't easy, though. Jan spun, i moved to P3 and got under pressure from Dana. Trying to hold off her Lotus and not being able to push at the same time wasn't a nice experience. The more i lost on the straights, the more i had to push in chicanes and at the Stadium. Fortunately for me, she kept making small mistakes here and there so she never got close enough to attack. Instead, she got into fight with Jan, which was what i was hoping for, honestly (watching the excellent coverage now, their fight is about to start soon ). Also, i could finally push hard for the last 10 laps, as i saved the engine enough until that point. I just managed the gap and brought the car home on 3rd, which was more than i could wish for.

Great job Richard & Greg!

Looking forward to Oesterreichring, one of my favorites. On the other hand, my Williams should be totally overshadowed by Ground effect cars there. We'll see.

Indeed Alberto, it was a very nice breathless fight. Grats to offer that show, Jan and Dana.
Grats to the podium and all participants.

Quote :

I was given an anniversary gift by my girlfriend - two 10 mins sessions in a go-kart.

Quick, marry her, don't let such a girl escape. She's a long term investment

Unless she was hoping for a romantic evening, and hoped you'd have had enough racing for a day after the kart session.

Petr Hlavac wrote:

Looking forward to Oesterreichring, one of my favorites. On the other hand, my Williams should be totally overshadowed by Ground effect cars there. We'll see.

I just read this. Is there actually a list (or a readme) of which cars have ground effects and which don't? Or another way to spot the difference without driving them?

Juha Bos wrote:

I just read this. Is there actually a list (or a readme) of which cars have ground effects and which don't? Or another way to spot the difference without driving them?

There's some document, for sure. But it's easy to distinguish these two types of cars.

Non-ground effect: Sidepods are getting wider towards the rear of the car, it looks slim and aerodynamic,  like an arrow if you look at it from above. Sadly, no ground effect means less stability, need to add more wings to reach similar level of grip as GE cars = slower on straights and you won't get such kind of grip anyway

Ground effect cars: You can clearly see that sidepods are large and boxy, same width from front wheels to the rear and there's a skirt touching the ground (it works like inverted airplane wing, pushes the car down, instead of up into air). It's a huge advantage in fast corners, as the car is sucked to the ground, cornering speeds are much higher (I was losing up to 0,5s to Dana's Lotus in the Ostkurve alone), stability and drivability is significantly better and you need less wings which makes you even faster on straights. I believe that Oesterreichring and Zandvoort will be perfect examples of Ground Effect total dominance.

Only benefit for the non ground effect cars is they are a lot kinder to their tires, the ground effect cars put massive pressure on the tires and they overheat very easily.

Et encore un départ raté Frustré de ne pas avoir pu participé a la course.Bon j'ai 2 mois pour régler ce problème de départ.
Bravo Richard.

Juha Bos wrote:

I just read this. Is there actually a list (or a readme) of which cars have ground effects and which don't? Or another way to spot the difference without driving them?

I set up a front spoiler 5, 8 back. Qualifying time shown exclusively at the expense of settings. The best results are obtained when I set the differential for my driving style.


Race liked from the beginning.) On the first lap it was quite scary and I do not fit into the rotation.
I use soft tires and on lap 41 the car had become unmanageable, had to make a pit stop and lost a few positions.