Helli's F1 career

Thanks Owen. Yes I will be moving up a level for the next race. This wasnt intended to be a perfectly sim deal or anything or proving anything to anyone just having fun and I like logging this kinda stuff especially when in the game a race is literally history once its over. The menus are horrible just nothing there. This game is several notches ahead of the last one I played with regards to graphics and lighting but totally inferior career mode guts

Keep blogging it mate, it's entertaining.

I think all race directors should do a write up on the races in their series as well (hint hint October / Rowdy)

Lol. Not really that journalistic my friend but I will give it a whirl after Canada.

I practice starts. Over and over again. lol.

Clark gets first win of career at Spanish GP



Now obviously I shoudln't have been playing on intermediate but hey it was fun to get a win and I'm not apologizing! What's more, this was a crazy race. Started on pole, and even managed to get a great start and therefore hold the lead into the first turn and through the first couple laps where I drove really well.

However, Fernando Alonso was a man possessed as he simply caught me and went by, and then proceeded to continue setting new fastest laps the rest of the race, with a few fastest laps by Vettel and Hamilton mixed in. This was clearly Alonso's race to lose, 20 seconds ahead of us. Our problem became Raikkonen as we began focusing on just keeping a podium finish.

Raikkonen was extremely fast in in the first two sectors and reeled us in most laps but we'd get just enough of a lead in the third sector to hold him off the DRS zone. He kept pushing though and between him, my faltering driving, and the english bloke telling me "don't let him past" and "he's gaining a half a second per lap" in my ear I really started to feel the pressure!

All race long I just kept trying to remain consistent despite massively building stress and fading tires... And as I managed to hold him off and began celebrating my 2nd place finish... It said 1st. I have no idea what happened to Alonso thanks to the fact that there's no presentation in this game, thanks to the fact that the interaction with the garage is so weak, thanks to the fact that there's no post-race or adequate news summary afterwards or anything else that would be a RUDIMENTARY ADDITION TO ANY GAME WITH AN INTELLIGENT GAME DESIGNER.

Oh well, first win. Sure the second will be long way off going to Pro.


P1 Clark - Caterham
P2 Raikkonen - Lotus
P3 Vettel - Red Bull
P4 Webber - Red Bull
P5 Hamilton - McLaren
P6 Vergne - Toro Rosso
P7 Kobayashi - Sauber
P8 Schumacher - Mercedes
P9 Button - McLaren
P10 Maldonado - Williams
P11 Perez - Sauber
P12 Senna - Williams
P13 Hulkenberg - Force India
P14 Di Resta - Force India
P15 Massa - Ferrari
P16 Rosberg - Mercedes
P17 Kovalainen - Caterham
P18 Pic - Marussia
P19 Ricciardo - Toro Rosso
P20 De la Rosa - HRT
P21 Glock - Marussia
P22 Karthikeyan - HRT
P23 Alonso - DNF - Ferrari
P24 Grosjean - DNF - Lotus

Excellent result! In my career I have struggled to best my teammate, but so far I have on hard difficulty. If you are 2-3 seconds in front of the field, you should probably be mid pack on the next level. Don't forget, when you are racing in career, a Caterham is supposed to finish lower than 18th or so. So to get a win is fantastic. Shows how much you have remembered how to ride the bike. Of course, being a Forza track doesn't hurt but Del and others say this layout is not like Forza. Your thoughts?

OctoberDusk06 wrote:Excellent result! In my career I have struggled to best my teammate, but so far I have on hard difficulty. If you are 2-3 seconds in front of the field, you should probably be mid pack on the next level. Don't forget, when you are racing in career, a Caterham is supposed to finish lower than 18th or so. So to get a win is fantastic. Shows how much you have remembered how to ride the bike. Of course, being a Forza track doesn't hurt but Del and others say this layout is not like Forza. Your thoughts?

There are certainly big differences in terms of the kerbs and the layout of the forgiving "green stuff" outside them for one, I don't know if that is just specific to when they run these cars here. And following the La Caixa corner that little left hander that leads into the right hander has an unusual bump that I don't recall being that drastic in Forza.

Biggest difference if you ask me is in how you drive the cars, and the pressure to be perfect in very difficult sections. To me the hardest turn on the entire track from an F1 standpoint is after the Seat corner, the fast left-hander which has to be taken in 4th with perfect timing in this game is much more of a sweeper in Forza.... Developing a strategy in my mind to take that corner well, and thus carry speed into the 5th gear blind right-hander at Campsa and down that straight is what improved my lap times.

One thing I love about F1 is how the graphics are clear enough for me to eyeball corners and eventually get them right with no line, that's a huge deal to me.

You took the words right out of my mouth regarding that sequence. I thought the high speed uphill blind at Campsa was mapped a bit differently too. Then again, maybe the WAY you have to drive them, in comparison, causes some perception of difference.

Regarding driving with the line, having gotten used to the clear picture and memorization of the tracks in F1, it becomes super-distracting if I turn it on in Forza. I think Forza obscured some cockpit views too much. That said, I'm glad they kept it, unlike GRID2.

Hellisan , I'm missing your reports!!! They were a good read, hopefully you'll continue???

Owen, yessir, I plan to continue.  I have been in Los Cabos, Mexico for approximately 8-9 days drinking Pacificos and watching the ocean.  

refreshed and ready for work and (gaming) play!

Nice! Sounds like you had a good time. But back to your career now. I'm going to restart mine - about time I finished it!