Round 4 - Grand Prix de Monaco [Feb 19th]

Good Race.

Great to hear the driver interviews.

Raul Jereb wrote:

Sorry to Yves (I think), i crashed into you.
It was pure mistake by histerics..

J'ai eu peur, mais pas de dommage, ouf !

Grant Riddall, i was behind you when the accident happened at the Portier corner. In my point of view that was an awful move, but not from you..you passed by the corner before.. Pascal was literally slower than you, me, Gerard, etc... and blocked all of us..

Grant Riddall wrote:

Very disappointed with the retirement!

Overall it has to go down as a racing incident, i was a too optimistic into the hairpin and made slight contact with Pascal so apologies for that!

However i felt squeezed out on the following turn which led to me brushing the barrier and retiring. Bit dissapointing as I felt this should have been avoided by simply allowing more room. These things happen so have to accept it for what it is.

Hope to race next time if a car become available! Thanks Guys!

Really sorry about that Grant, I was impressed by the battle between us, however I had a damaged front suspension from the start on because I had a better start than you but I hit your rear there. And in the Portier corners I hit the curb badly and that pushed me to the outside.

My race anyways was great. Crippled car from the start on and the car just not wanting to go in a straight line, I still managed to finish 3rd after a wonderful battle with Michal Janak.
Really sorry for Jan for whatever happened to you.
Don't touch my tires, they're still hot as hell and there's also no rubber on them anymore!

Gabriele Del Piccolo wrote:

Grant Riddall, i was behind you when the accident happened at the Portier corner. In my point of view that was an awful move, but not from you..you passed by the corner before.. Pascal was literally slower than you, me, Gerard, etc... and blocked all of us..

Of course I was slower there, I had a crippled suspension! Also, why do you call me blocking? I'm just defending my position! ...

ANTHEMS

WINNING DRIVER





WINNING CONSTRUCTOR

Results and points are up

I can't say i'm happy with my performance. Way too many small mistakes and a bad tyre choice (medium instead of soft) cost me that one championship point. On the other hand, it's Yves who got awarded with one point for the Minardi gang, so i'm happy for him

Grats to everybody in the finish and hats off to David. No matter which car he drives, he's simply the best

Jonatan Acerclinth wrote:

1st of all, sorry Brian if I didn't leave you enough room at the top of the hill

No, it was totally fair! Just a mistake on my part. We didnt touch or anything. I was only having a look.
Tapped the brakes and it kicked the rear out, then I overeacted.
Super pissed at myself!!!!
really don't know why I didnt move the bias before that...
I then drove back to pits like an idiot, thinking the damage could be repaired. Could've been disaster for D Jaques

after not wel driven 2nd Q session (far behind my best time) i get only 8th position on the grid, so hoping taht the start wil not be like in last race at Imola. The start was OK now, i was on nearly full wings here, brake duct on 7 and carry 205l of fuel

In 19th lap i let by Martin Lacina, because i felt that i cost his time and he was able to fight for much better position after i saw his times in pre race practice session, and i didnt make some mistake by trying hold Him behind me, and from the begining lap i had wheel little to the right after hitting wall too mmuch somewhere. So the patience pay of and gaining some places when other in front end their race by crash or failures, i was on C D strategy (C front, D rear) and plan 1 stop , when Pascal Mikula went to pits and i had about 23s gap to him, i made my pitstop too, went from pits right before him. there iwas only little gap and lately there was 2 backmakers which didn give room to clearly and and fast enough so they cost me the 2,5s of advantage to Pascal. so there was unlear after tunel what the 2nd backmaker will do so i let Pascal by to not take so much unwanted risc of crash. It was my biggest mistake of the race, later i was very comfortable with car and was able much faster laps, but overtake Pascal was impossible because he was little laggy and didn go straight on circuit, so there was very big probability of crash if i try something (and have in mind our last lap from Interlagos)


Anyway, it is my 2nd finished race at Monaco here on HSO, last year in F1 78 (5th place) and I am happy because finish here is twice hard then other clasical tracks

it was my 1st race in F1 with tripple screen config and here at Monaco it helped a lot to go inches side to armco

First of all thanks for the restarted warm up session. I had a CTD and only have solved it during this session.
I have a problem with GID on my new rFactor install. I think the d3d9.dll in rFactor root or the DirectX 9 installation in general is the problem. I turned off GID (Ctrl+Space) during warm up, and reactivate it when going onto the starting grid. It makes only a problem when switching sessions.

Race
After a very good Saturday with being 2nd on the grid, the start went well too. Was lining up behind Eddie Jordans Mr Jaques for the first corner. I took it easy at the first part of the race as i had to get a good rhythm for taking these tight corners. I pitted on lap 26, and lap 52 (both times super softs) to secure maximum grip for the car and not taking any risks. The front tyres went down much quicker than the rears (17 laps until yellow), so i only was pushing hard for last part of the race.
I was really on the limit, sliding the rear around every corner until the barriers. I made a couple of 1.23.7 in a row, only with a difference of .1  within the laps. It was one of my best races i think, never had that concentration and consistency.
But well, with third laps to go (Some commentator was doing the „a 2nd place for him is great after all these problems in the last races“ meanwhile ^^) my engine blew heavily at the piscine, and i could have go to a drink at Rascasse or watching it all from secteur rocher .
Perhaps i should have lengthen my 2nd gear or shift up to 3rd before and after the „piscine“ section. But in replay, i was only up to 13100 – 13200 RPM and have a shift indicator. I was lifting and blipping the entire race. Perhaps the shifting down for chicane du port was a problem or my use of 2nd gear during sector 2.

The championship is not over, so i hope to get close again to David and build a pack with him and Greg for more great coverage entertainment to come.
See you in 2 weeks on David Jaques homeground

Petr Hlavac wrote:

it's Yves who got awarded with one point for the Minardi gang, so i'm happy for him

Merci Petr !

Mis à part la petite alerte au Casino avec Raul qui se rate au freinage et me percute sans dommage à l'arrière, et plus tard une Ligier arrêtée en travers au début de la ligne droite des stands, juste après Anthony Nogues   , une course sans histoire, cool.

Parti en super-soft, je prend mon rythme en allant au bout sans pitstop, ouvrant la porte à ceux qui sont sur une autre stratégie (notamment Alex Riolo avec un ping de folie en début de course, il m'a transpercé plusieurs fois !), bilan : 6ème, pas mal.
Je suis assez content de mon temps au tour effectué en toute fin de course, avec des pneus super tendre qui ont encaissé plus de 70 tours !

On commence à comprendre la Minardi avec Petr.

Patience and awareness  payed off last night

investend more time into race setup then qualify explains my low grid position
and the harsh warnings from the admins for starting procedure benefits
my aim was top 6 for this entire event
getting of from p14 i got myself into 11th at casino already, in my right mirror i saw a plowing williams storm my right so only way to go was  go left and put the brakes on full to avoid contact, which stopped me just in front of the tire barrier and the tiptop bar!
exact the same spot James Hunt retired years ago

put it in reverse and start over but now from all the back p20!
the first laps after Beretta were laggy and very hard to follow but not get stressed by the lost postions i carefully followed his moves and squeezed myself by as i did to many others , you dont want yourself get stuck here so i new to make the passes in one clean move to get out of the traffic and after that i was loose to make up time on the Minardi of Peter
this was the most enjoyable racing i had after long time, realy old school with great sportsman driving

the race progressed during lap 30 into a top 10  and watch the positions i figger many used a 2 stop strategy which they properly would have choosen the supersoft  D compounds which i knew was not the fastest cause they have a much steeper drop off at this track, i was on C  softs and to get a top 6 i MUST pit at lap 40 to keep that chance alive , the  tire dropoff was already going on at lap 31 but i had to stick to my plan
after the pitstop the car had so much grip and ofcourse  much lighter from 180L i went , realy gained to go after the 2nd minardi from Yves, p6 in sight! plan worked, now get it!
this was already a victory but getting p5 is even more rewarding, bad luck for Jan but this mod can be ugly  in terms of reliability

infact my engine was about to seas! the last laps i felt several power drops and with  more laps I'm sure i  could join my great teamate who was already in the tip top bar with Hunt!
first points for Dallara finaly!

grats to all and hope you enjoyed the track with the realistic scene

and speaking of dangerous tracks , mayb the last of the season will have that name
cause , yes its far away but Adelaide was ........... WET!

the highlight of last night in one shot , TUNNELLING with 250kph!

congratulations to all finishers, monaco is a tough circuit! special note to mick, you practiced hard and it paid off, great result! Michal Janak also well done, seems like the new triple screens and wheel configuration are working a treat, looking forward to seeing your progress the rest of the season.

Jan, what a race. i know we weren't in direct contact, but it felt like we were racing each other the entire race. constantly watching the timing, seeing your different tire strategy, and counting down at the end to your charge and how long it would be before you caught me ;P at the end there, it seemed like it was about 9 laps to go, you were catching about a second a lap, and the gap was 9sec. that last lap was going to be exciting, but unfortunately the ilmor had other plans ;P i think i had a little pace left in it, but i didnt want to push and make a mistake that would let the gap close a lot, but even more forward in my mind, was the wec at monza, and i wanted to give my car every possible chance to finish.

next race, canada! after the event, everyone come on down to my place for some drinks, then i'll take everyone to sight see Niagara Falls! ;P

best,
dave

François Remmen wrote:

first points for Dallara finaly!

Embarrassing that I had to score the first points for the team though


@Michal: Are your comments about "backmarkers" partially aimed at my Lambo?

Pascal i've just watched your broadcast and not to happy to be honest.

Never raced against you before but i've raced against many in the past to know what i am saying.

So what im not happy about is this...

You launched it off the start. Brake heavily for the March which sends your car into the front of mine. In your broadcast you then state " Thanks Grant" "Thanks for that" in a sarcastic way. To then go on and i quote " I hope you don't finish this race"... Not being funny but that is just pathetic.

After our incident which reuslted in my retirment you then say you can already hear "Grant blaming me saying i pushed and blocked him".. Again you presume. I came onto here to say it was a racing incident... if you want to know my true view im more than happy to elaborate, i actually thought you was defending rather well to be honest....  I strongly suggest you review the replays before throwing your reviews around.

Some advice from me would be if you didn't have so much HUD you might have more spacial awareness....

Sorry i'm not one to sugar coat things. I just happened to find your choice of wording and quick judgment very disrespectful

Grant Riddall wrote:

Pascal i've just watched your broadcast and not to happy to be honest.

Never raced against you before but i've raced against many in the past to know what i am saying.

So what im not happy about is this...

You launched it off the start. Brake heavily for the March which sends your car into the front of mine. In your broadcast you then state " Thanks Grant" "Thanks for that" in a sarcastic way. To then go on and i quote " I hope you don't finish this race"... Not being funny but that is just pathetic.

After our incident which reuslted in my retirment you then say you can already hear "Grant blaming me saying i pushed and blocked him".. Again you presume. I came onto here to say it was a racing incident... if you want to know my true view im more than happy to elaborate, i actually thought you was defending rather well to be honest....  I strongly suggest you review the replays before throwing your reviews around.

Some advice from me would be if you didn't have so much HUD you might have more spacial awareness....

Sorry i'm not one to sugar coat things. I just happened to find your choice of wording and quick judgment very disrespectful

Understandable, during the race after you retired I also had the thoughts that my words from the start and the incident weren't appropriate at all. I wasn't happy about you having hit my rear though, however it was partly my fault too as I braked not to hit Jan Kowalski.
Looking at the incident at Portier, it was just because of incidents in the past where I was involved in accidents where I have been blamed for those accidents, so it's nothing against you personally. I was more angry at myself for having thrown you out of the race but I failed to bring that to the audio, if that makes sense.

I saw it and tbh its just how you are now which is  very bad
what you need is a mind reset like i did
from last years debacle or take a half year brake its refreshing I can tell you

Well, that was a very tiring and frustrating event...

During Practice the understeer of the AGS chassis made for a good base for the DFR Cosworth power plant in the rear but it was a bit too much of the good. In the end, after the 1st Qualy session I found what I was doing wrong which made the car nice to drive, very understeery early on in the race.

Qualifying 1 and, as I mentioned, the car was a bit of a handful understeer wise and a bit of snapping to go with it but a decent time either way.

Qualifying 2 and the car felt much more hooked up and I posted, for me, a great time. Was off Thiago by 0.5s but he is a better open wheel driver so happy with it


The Race got underway and it got hectic. Almost broke too late into t1 and made slight contact with one of the blue and white cqrs, Williams or Brabhams, sorry for this. Also got a hit in the right side as drivers behind looked for the middle line.

Got out of t1 and kept out of trouble on lap 1 but was under pressure from faster cars. A few laps in a Williams past me into the chicane and the dirty air caused me understeer at the following lefthander and I brushed the wall causing damage to the right rear making the car veering to the left.

Did my best to hold on but Francois made his way by and I then came under fire by Janik, Swindells and Beretta, the last of whom barged his way past going up the hill, unfortunately deranging my cars rear end even more.

A few laps later and lapping went wrong as Alessandro out broke himself and gave me a shove into T1 where I just managed to avoid hitting the tires or stalling the engine. But the rear end unfortunately got further deranged by the contact.

With 20 or so laps to go I clauted the wall at the same place and truly broke the rear right and the car became very close to unprovable so from that point onwards I only tried to stay out of the way and avoid causing trouble.

But finished I'm the top 10 so I suppose I'm happy with it but frustrated as well...