F1 2017 How's your career going?

[Giovaneveterano]

This year the career mode is bigger as ever, full of car management features, new R&D system, new larger and faster cars and, of course, the new aggressive AI.

Somehow I find a pleasure to read other career mode stories, understand other people's choices and maybe learn a couple of tricks to improve mine.. this is a community, so it's nice to share with other people our own thoughts.

It doesn't matter if you're dead last on the grid or you're the fastest man on earth fighting for the World Championship on a Sauber, we want to read your story

 

[Coffer]

4th in the Haas after the first race on 110%. Completely legitimate, with Grosjean finishing a full minute behind me while Ricciardo and the other T2s simply couldn't catch me. Verstappen was the only one who stayed with me, but the power difference meant that he had no hope of putting up a serious fight. Massa's pace was crazy, outqualifying the RBs on merit and running 5th after the first stop, but he had a car problem and ultimately lapped 3s/lap slower for the rest of the race, giving me one extra place (with Vettel's engine failure giving me another).

Currently trying to think about how I'm going to allocate my engine components for the rest of the season. My component status is as follows: ICE 11%, MGU-K 5%, MGU-H 14%, ES 8%, TC 16%, gearbox 6%. The CE is at a whopping 27%, but I wouldn't have it any other way as you gain the vast majority of your time in Australia by riding the kerbs.

 

[Giovaneveterano]

Being part of the McLaren family since the beginning of last year as Fernando's teammate, the British Alain Ross #4 renews his 1 year contract with the Woking team.
After a not so competitive 2016, with a bunch of top 10 finishes, the goal for this 2017 is to keep the MCL-32, powered by the crappy Honda engine, consistently into the points.

After the retirement of Fernando at the end of the 2016 season, the development of the car was left to the British driver, coupled with the Belgian rookie: Stoffel Vandoorne #2.

Right at Melbourne it was clear that the boost of permormance expected during the winter wasn't enough: the new 2017 car is a pure beast, but compared to its direct competitors the Honda engine lacks in every department. In addition this year there is the most tough middle pack competition of the last decade, so the achievement seems even harder to achieve.
I left the Australian Grand Prix with a 13th place, thanks to a couple of retirements, starting from P17 and a lot of laps in the bag, but the car was never competitive on the softer tyres.
The development on the engine immediately started with a planned upgrade for Bahrain.

We went to China with a super-low drag aero kit to compensate the lack of power and focusing on race pace. It worked: I started in P18 on Soft tyres, just behind Stoffel, and I managed a quick 1 stop strategy S-M that puts me in P9 thanks to the quick enough top speed that keeps me safe in the 1.2km back straight.

The engine upgrade planned for Bahrain failed, and I had to compensate by driving over the limit.. the Bahrain Grand Prix started in the back of the field and ended into the wall at the exit of turn 2 after 8 laps while I was battling with a Sauber for P19, frustrating. The pace wasn't there.

Sochi was a completely different story: the car, thanks to the new PU and the new gearbox, was competitive enough to have fun. Sochi was under the rain tho and let me unleash a good pace in the wet, with a dry enough racing line to switch for slick tyres in the last third of the race: the green track leveled the performance of the middle-pack cars and let us ended into the points again (P7).

In Spain, as we did in China, we ran with a flat rear wing to be safe enough on the long main straight. It was a 2 stop race, starting on yellow tyres and going for 2 stints of mediums at lap 9 and 21 ended a tight race in P11 after a long battle with both Toro Rosso for a point finish.

Monaco was blessed. I don't know what the hell happened in qualifying: I was really competitive, as expected, passing the Q1 shootout and doing a once-in-a-life lap that let me finish P11 the Q2.
But the strange things happened on race grid: I started the race somehow in P4, behind Massa (!!!), Bottas and Verstappen. I'm not sure if the top drivers crashed during qualifying (I was too focused on my runs to watch other qualifying times) or they decided to change their PU right there in Monaco.
By the way I had the pace to stay right into the back of Massa, the Williams was slow enough to let me keep a comfort pace. As he went into the pits I unleashed my pace for a couple of laps and the overcut worked: I ended in P3.. podium!!

Canada was a similar story: forced in the back of the grid for gearbox change (I lost 3rd gear during qualifying), but with the rain to come I started on Soft tyres while all the grid starters were on US. I managed a single stop strategy till lap 21 on S and I did a quick switch on intermediates as the rain started: I ended in a brilliant P4. All others cars did a 2 or even a 3 stop race.

I'm currently at Baku, with a lot of points into my bag due to awesome race strategy rather than pure speed. I won the rivalry against Stoffel (30 v 23), but we never actually faced each other: he's not aggressive with me and he often let me pass if I'm faster, the same I did it to him in Bahrain when I was slower and in Canada when I was on a slower single stop strategy. We're nice and fair teammates.
The car is not competitive, but the pit wall is.
It'll be an exciting season, I'm sure. The only concern is about engine development: it fails every time and it's so damn frustrating! The Honda engine is so underpowered that I'm a moving chicane in the straights. It needs to improve: I'm spending all my RD points on that.

 

[Giovaneveterano]

I just ended my first season at McLaren. I'm so excited for 2018! The goal is to be consistent into the points

 

[ENDR]

I've only just started the career (with McLaren, obviously ) and I did my first race yesterday.
Everything in the practice program done in purple, estimated qualifying position - 9th, so everything was looking good.
And then came Q1... and it had to rain. So yeah, I barely reached the required 17th position with Fernando in 15th.
Then, the race - still raining heavily. The start was ok and I almost passed Grosjean in front of me, but I had to fall back to 17th. The couple of cars in front of me were held back by Alonso, so I could get into the rhythm, build up the pace and start passing. I got up to 15th, in front of Fernando and two Hass cars, started to pull away and catch up to Ocon.
When the pitstop window opened the engineer said something about the rain stopping soon and it might be a good idea to switch to inters. So I did... Ohhhh boy, was it too soon. My 15-ish second gap kept shrinking with each lap but coming back for full wets wasn't the best idea at that point. My only move was to try and hold my position and wait for the rain to stop, so that the other cars would pit for inters.
I can't remember having to fight both with MY and other cars that much. The Haas cars had way better traction on corner exits and a HUGE power advantage on the straights, so I guess I only have the AI's inability to pass and Hamilton lapping us to thank, cause somehow I held my position for 10 laps. After that the track started to dry and my inters finally came into play. With around 3 laps to go I was ~10 seconds in front and catching Hamilton (still on full wets).
Long story short, I was the last car NOT lapped, in 15th and two places in front of my teammate. All in all, not bad, considering how well I was advised by my engineer...

 

[iZ GunDaM]

It's weird how everything comes back around. About 4 hours after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2014, Kimi Raikkonen suddenly announced his retirement from Formula 1, stating that he had become genuinely disillusioned with racing altogether. And with Charles Leclerc and Antonio Giovanazzi not yet ready for even GP2, Jules Bianchi suffering that monumental accident at Suzuka and Fernando Alonso having had enough and going to McLaren Honda, they had to make a rather out of character choice for themselves and promote the Carnivorous Brit, Ben Chalk, to partner up with the 4 time world champion Sebastian Vettel. Since 2015, Ben has made a name for himself by being an Eddie Irvine Mark 2, being outspoken, and helping out Sebastian when and where necessary.

The SF-16H (which he nicknamed "Kallen" after a character from the anime "Code Geass"), was in his own words, "a piece of junk", and even Sebastian agreed with him that the car was not Ferrari's finest hour. So, for 2017, there's only one objective for Vettel: Be not only the third driver to win 5 drivers title, but also be the first drivers champion for Ferrari since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. For Ben, he's got to try and score wins here and there, and ensure Ferrari win their 1st constructors championship since 2008, on this, the 70th anniversary since the company was first founded.

Melbourne started out okay. I used the practice sessions as a burner to get myself used to the new practice sessions and the new SF70H (Which I’ve nicknamed “Yoko” due to my undying love for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann). Managed to qualify 3rd ahead of my team mate and next to Hamilton in 2nd and Bottas on pole. It was a rather quiet race, aside from Vandoorne’s retirement (typical McLaren Honda stuff), and near the end of the race, I let Seb go, to ensure a Ferrari 2-3 ahead of Valterri.

Off to Shanghai now, and well... Talk about a genuine dream! Not only did I get through to the shootout on the alternate strategy (Verstappen had the same idea as I did), but I once again qualified 3rd, ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with a rather stunning 1:33.901, which astounded even myself. Managed to beat Lewis off the line as well, but didn't have the pace to keep up with Vettel and Bottas. That didn't matter though, as Bottas ended up retiring with a mechanical failure, which promoted myself into 2nd. A late problem for Verstappen meant that for the first time since the German GP in 2010, we scored a 1-2! Forza Ferrari indeed!

Bahrain now and... Yikes. The planned power upgrade meant for this race failed, which meant I had to over drive Yoko to compensate for the weakness she had. Started in P4, and the first half was me essentially trying to drive at every meter to try and keep up with Valterri, but after botching a pit stop strategy in some illogical attempt to get the undercut on him, it guaranteed me outside of the podium. My genuine anger could be heard over the radio, which was summed up like this: "What a [censored by FOM] anticlimax! I'm very sorry guys". It was a gigantic comedown to reality after such a strong 1-2 in China, and I got a rightfully deserved telling off from Maurizio Arrivabene after the race.

Top 10 Drivers Standings after Round 3:

1. Vettel 61
2. Hamilton 60 (-1)
3. Chalk 45 (-16)
4. Bottas 27 (-34)
5. Verstappen 21 (-40)
6. Grosjean 16 (-45)
7. Ricciardo 13 (-48)
8. Hulkenberg 12 (49)
9. Ocon 12 (-49)
10. Massa 10 (-51)

Constructor Standings

1. Scuderia Ferrari 106
2. Mercedes-AMG Petronas 87 (-19)
3. Red Bull Racing 34 (-72)
4. Haas 26 (-80)
5. Force India 22 (-84)
6. Renault 14 (-92)
7. Williams Racing 14 (-92)
8= McLaren 0 (-106)
8= Torro Rosso 0 (-106)
8= Sauber 0 (-106)

 

[Coffer]

Lapped everyone but Bottas at Monaco in the Haas in S1 on 110%. Mostly lost interest as a result of that unfortunately.

I'm 4th in the championship with Hamilton in 5th (two engine failures) about to be my next rival. Ferrari are running away with the championship but Mercedes' development rate is absolutely crazy, with Red Bull already being closer to Ferrari before Canada than Ferrari are to Mercedes.

 

[Giovaneveterano]

Lapped everyone but Bottas at Monaco in the Haas in S1 on 110%. Mostly lost interest as a result of that unfortunately.

You're blazing fast! I'm running 95% and it's a challenge. I never had this type of confidence with the car in Codies games. Some aliens I saw on YouTube (and probably you) can throw the car into the corner with no oversteer, amazing.

 

[iZ GunDaM]

I don't know about Red Bull, but it's fear that gives men wings. After a disappointing outing last time out, we move onto Russia, where coming off the back of a rather disappointing weekend in Bahrain, I needed to respond, and fast, yet I wasn't feeling all of that. The interesting thing was that the first practice session was initially terrible. It was raining out there, and I felt like I was tip toeing on glass. Just garish to be honest. Luckily enough, the conditions did clear up immensely, and it was sunshine as usual. Once again, I did my practice programs (which I have to admit, I am adoring right about now), and in general just continuing to dial in the car. And then something weird happened. The telling off I got from Arrivebene suddenly made me go "Jesus, I better do something". So, just to cover off any potential bad points, I decided to fit in a new power unit for Sochi. And it damn well worked! By the smallest of small margins (Literally .032 seconds ahead of Bottas), I had scored my maiden pole position! The race itself went just as well, too. Bottas once again suffered another mechanical problem which saw him down in 7th, and Lewis Hamilton retired from the race! Which capped off a horrific weekend where he had to start 10th through seemingly no fault of his own. Seb sadly got caught out by the first lap traffic jam, but he nonetheless sliced through the field and slotted himself back into second, ahead of the smiling assassin Daniel Ricciardo, and just 4.6 seconds behind me. But the big news is: At last, I broke the second drivers curse at Scuderia Ferrari and won a grand prix!

To celebrate a genuinely momentous occasion, I got invited to the A1 Ring to drive the McLaren MP4/6, the last of Ayrton Senna's title winners by Jonathon: Relatively fun fact, the car features sponsorship from Shonen Jump, a weekly manga from Japan that's immensely popular. And given the fact that my helmet features the Dai Gurren logo, as well for Russia exclusively, an image of Sir Integra Hellsing and Balalaika from Black Lagoon, well, how could it be anything else? Now, as for the car itself... It's immense. The V12 engine in the MP4/6 is just astonishing. It doesn't have the instant gear change of more modern F1 cars, but my God it hits like the fist of god. It's properly, savagely fast. It's also a proper old school car, so if you take one liberty with it, trust me on this: You're gonna get sucker punched, just like Muhammad Ali sucker punched George Foreman. Overall though, it's a fantastically immense car, and I can see why people worship Ayrton Senna and the old school F1 cars so much.

Top 10 Drivers Standings after Round 4:

1. Vettel 79
2. Chalk 70 (-9)
3. Hamilton 60 (-19)
4. Bottas 33 (-46)
5. Verstappen 31 (-48)
6. Ricciardo 28 (-51)
7. Grosjean 24 (-55)
8. Massa 22 (-57
9. Hulkenberg 14 (-65)
10. Perez 14 (-65)

Constructor Standings

1. Scuderia Ferrari 149
2. Mercedes-AMG Petronas 93 (-56)
3. Red Bull Racing 59 (-90)
4. Haas 35 (-114)
5. Williams Racing 26 (-123)
6. Force India 26 (-123)
7. Renault 16 (-133)
8= McLaren 0 (-149)
8= Torro Rosso 0 (-149)
8= Sauber 0 (-149)

 

[Coffer]

You're blazing fast! I'm running 95% and it's a challenge. I never had this type of confidence with the car in Codies games. Some aliens I saw on YouTube (and probably you) can throw the car into the corner with no oversteer, amazing.

It's mostly just that one track as Monaco, as much as I heavily dislike it, is one of my best tracks in any game. Usually I'm closer to the Red Bulls (or in no-man's land in between them and the T1s), which I'd say is far more reasonable for a Haas given that Grosjean's high stats sometimes even give him the chance to attack them (like he did in Spain for me).

I wouldn't worry about the difficulty too much. The overall experience matters a lot more. Some of my craziest races came when I was struggling, like in Bahrain where Grosjean was so preposterously quick that he matched the tier 1 cars in the second stint and the blue flag bug made it so that I had to fight Hamilton and Vettel from a lap down in order to properly hold Romain off.

Anyone can become that good with a bit of practice, especially in these games, but with the game having a difficulty slider, there's no real point in directly focusing on that. Driving really well feels good, but enjoying yourself matters a lot more. The added skill will come in due time.

 

[iZ GunDaM]

Off to Spain now, and it's not just the 2017 cars that have been given a new makeover, but the drivers numbers, too! This weekend saw the cars get a new car number and name display. Except for Force India, who celebrated the occasion by getting a suspended €25,000 fine after it failed to correctly display its numbers during the Spanish Grand Prix.

New car numbers means new helmet for myself, too! For this race onwards, I'll be making use of the utterly fantastic looking Bell HP7, complete with what I like to call the Supra spoiler, named after the famous Toyota Supra Mk IV. Now as to the actual weekend? It was... Not good, but not terrible, to be honest with you.

I was fastest in the final practice session, and even managed to qualify second, only losing out to Lewis Hamilton. Unfortunately for Sebastian however, while he qualified in 3rd for the Spanish GP, this ended up happening to him:

Yep, an engine failure for Gina, which you have to say, is absolutely unacceptable. From that point on, Yoko and I had to pretty much run our own race. I have to admit however, maybe it's the fact that I think this track with the chicane stinks and ruins the flow of the circuit, but Yoko has been handling terribly all weekend, and I noticed it. Like, I cannot count the amount of times I've snatched my brakes this weekend and the car suddenly going wayward as well. Still, I can't complain about 3rd place in the race, especially when I pulled a pretty f'n tasty pass on Max:

While I finished 3rd, the bigger story of the week was that Valtteri Bottas finally scores his first ever grand prix win (Just one race after I scored my first ever win in Russia). Next time out, we'll be dicing in the streets in Monaco! Should be momentous, given that Alonso will be participating in the Indianapolis 500.

Top 10 Drivers Standings after Round 5:

1. Chalk 85
2. Vettel 79 (-6)
3. Hamilton 78 (-7)
4. Bottas 58 (-27)
5. Verstappen 43 (-42)
6. Ricciardo 38 (-47)
7. Grosjean 30 (-55)
8. Massa 22 (-63)
9. Perez 22 (63)
10. Hulkenberg 18 (-71)

Constructor Standings

1. Scuderia Ferrari 164
2. Mercedes-AMG Petronas 136 (-28)
3. Red Bull Racing 81 (-83)
4. Haas 42 (-122)
5. Force India 36 (-123)
6. Williams Racing 26 (-138)
7. Renault 20 (-144)
8= McLaren 0 (-164)
8= Torro Rosso 0 (-164)
8= Sauber 0 (-164)

 

[Morgiden]

I started my journey in the team of Toro Rosso. The partner was Kvyat. The season ran smoothly, the seats ranged from 12 to 7 to Monaco, where, due to a mistake by Stroll, I flew into the wall and broke the car.

The team reacted with understanding and I continued the fight. Despite all the efforts the car could not compete on an equal footing with top teams and the struggle for the podium remained a dream. Collecting the will into a fist
I decided to go all-in. Thanks to a successful pit stop and the failure of the power plant from Alonso, as well as Vettel's accident, I managed to come fourth in Canada. But this was not enough, like a damned I wound circles in practice, squeezed all the juices from the car in the qualifications and spent days and nights with engineers fighting for the improvement of the car. Each grand prix was like а war I piloted the car as if I have absolutely nothing to lose. For me there was no peace around. It was the track my car and rivals. Adrenaline was boiling in the blood. And finally at Silverton I was lucky

Successfully conducted qualification and also the famous changeable English weather in the set with successfully conducted pitstop and departure from the Hamilton road allowed to come third. But the turn of the turn at the wall of the champions and the departure of four wheels outside the route moved me to the 4th place. But the beginning was laid. I felt a taste of success and continued to gain momentum.
Together with the new improvements, I was able to firmly sit on the tail of Reno and even sometimes kick Force India.

Spa, Monza has come the turn of Singapore and here it is a sharp deterioration of the weather a heavy downpour and I am in a difficult situation again come third. This podium is the first podium in a career. The team rejoiced. Joy was a little upset by a serious Max accident from our senior team, but I looked bravely into the future and I was eager to get the only chance to show myself on a fast car. Races have been replaced by one another work for wear and tear, the full return to oneself of the beloved cause of sweat and blood. And here is the last race of the season all merged into a single stream, the roar of motors squealing brakes driving at the limit of the strength of a man and a car. I finished 6 th in the race and 7th in championship .This is a success for a beginner in the world of royal racing and a big breakthrough for Torro Rosso. Returning from the garage, I saw Emma chatting with the boss of the team. The face of Franz was detached and sad without paying attention to me he went out into the street. My agent finally noticed me and seemed to be a little embarrassed and invited me to her office. - I had a conversation today with Cristian, he is very impressed with your successes as I am like your new fans.

And one more thing, without stopping to talk, Emma took a folder from the shelf and handed it to me. Your lucky lottery ticket only needs your consent and signature. The rest of the formalities I will settle. If you want, you can think.Sitting down I opened the folder in it lay on expensive paper the coveted contract of the first pilot of the Red Bull team. Here it is a fast machine the possibility of a real battle for the right to be the best I could not give up the dream and signed a contract.

Then there were three busy seasons for Red Bull's first euphoria champion title and an offer from Ferrari but that's another story altogether.

 

[iZ GunDaM]

Monaco in the sunshine... There really is nothing much better than that. Round 6 of the 2017 Formula 1 World Championship is also racing on the same day as the 2017 edition of the internationally acclaimed Indianapolis 500, of which Fernando Alonso is participating in, the first Formula 1 driver to do so since Nigel Mansell back in 1993. Monaco is not just the most difficult circuit of the year, but also where Helmet Watch goes into a crazed frenzy. And sure enough, this weekend, I rolled with a special helmet to go with the occasion. There were some differences to my standard helmet, such as the inverted color scheme (The carbon fiber is now red, the outer layer is black, and the inner is red and the fact that the windows are now open, which showcases Dai Gurren's hottie.

Yep, what you do see there is a nod to Yoko (the girl I've named my car after), and the .hack series. Essentially Sword Art Online, only it's better in every single way. And this year, it's celebrating the 15th Anniversary! Where does that time go, huh? In a hilarious bit of irony, 2 weeks after Force India got a suspended fine for failing to display their numbers correctly at Spain, it was my turn to get a suspended fine, after I failed to display my racing numbers on the helmet at all!

Yes, the dinner, in which I had to eat crow, was delicious. But I bet the other people were eating crow on Saturday, too...

Because in Qualifying 3, I had to abandon my first lap after it not only got compromised after I got caught in traffic, but I also got punted into a wall by Max Verstappen just before the tunnel. As far as I could remember, I was damn angry about what Max had done to me, and almost got tilted off the face of the Earth. Happily though, because the front wing wasn't as badly damaged as first feared, it meant I could get my composed for what would turn out to be my only timed lap (and on a track like this, you had best get it right). I guess that incident made me reach enlightenment and also made me metamorphosed into Kimi Raikkonen ala 2005, because goddamn, I turned in a lap that was even better than my first ever pole position in Russia. 1:11.698. Nearly 4 tenths faster than even Sebastian Vettel's!

Gina however was much better in the race than Yoko ever was, because after I made a rookie mistake on the Antony Noghès hairpin early on in the race, Sebastian had pretty much disappeared off in the distance. In-fact, my race pace compared to qualifying in Monaco had dropped off so poorly, I ended up creating a gigantic Trulli train which lasted for the rest of the race, which allowed Sebastian to lap the entire field, even with a 3 second penalty! Still... I'll HAPPILY take it. 2nd place on a track that really is outside my comfort zone. Next time I go to Monaco however, I really will need to work on my race pace...

 

[iZ GunDaM]

...Christ, this weekend.

Canada is the next round of the F1 2017 Championship, and hoooooo boy, everything went wrong on the Sunday.

Qualifying provided a unique challenge for everyone, as it began raining in Q2, which meant it was time for everyone to showcase their wet weather driving skills. I have to admit, driving in wet weather is a real damn blast now. I dreaded these conditions in recent years, but overtime, I've come to love having to control the war machine against both the clock and mother nature herself and it makes me think of when girls do their thing on the stripper pole while the right kind of music plays in the background, you know? Unfortunately, my lack of confidence on the last chicanes before the start/finish line, combined with the track temperature, meant I had to start outside the front row, and in 3rd, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton. (Seriously, what on Earth is going on with that guy? He's supposed to be the king of Montreal, and he seems to be more interested in fuelling his insatiable ego on social media more than actually winning races! He should seriously consider checking himself in the mirror).

Though that being said, this is where it all went wrong. While I didn't get the greatest of starts (I got beaten off the line by Hamilton), the first 11 or so laps were still astonishing. Ferrari and Mercedes was being locked in an epic tussle for supremacy, with Gina hunting down Valterri and Yoko hurrying and hassling Hamilton. I finally got past Lewis at the hairpin, and set about chasing Bottas and Vettel. Then something weird happened. On Lap 13, Lewis Hamilton had his second retirement of the season (first was Russia), which meant the VSC came out. I came into the pits, and dropped down into 5th, but I was safe in the knowledge I could potentially score another cheeky win for myself if I absolutely thumped the laps in. Unfortunately, that plan went out of the window, after I outbroke myself and chipped a bit of my front wing off of Verstappen. And then a little while later, Sebastian ended up retiring out of the race! That was his second DNF of the race (First in Spain). Then after Sergio Perez unlapped himself, I suddenly got tilted off the face of the Earth. I fully broke my front wing exiting the wall of champions, and needed to nurse the car to the pits.
Not long after that though, I ended up crashing into the wall exiting turns 8 and 9 after taking way too much speed. Yes, the radio message contained MANY swear words thrown around, mostly aimed at myself. I was angry at how this entire weekend has gone... But I'm mainly angry at myself, for letting these lapses of concentration getting to my head. Both Ferrari's out of the race, and another visit to Sergio's office for myself. You could say this was a bad weekend in Bosnia...

Which is why Johnathon just about saved my arse. I was invited to have a go with the downright epic Williams FW14B, driven to the '92 Formula 1 Driver's Title by none other "Il Leone" himself, Nigel Mansell around the shortened Bahrain circuit. This car was also the lead role in THAT battle with Ayrton Senna, where no matter what Nigel did for the last 3 laps of the Monaco Grand Prix, he just couldn't get past.

I have to admit, it felt alot like that particular race with me having to hold back the much faster McLaren MP4/13. Albeit, it was a 5 lap exhibition race with priceless race cars (and probably billions of pounds worth of Nostalgia), but a race nonetheless. My thoughts on the car? Well, I must say, I'm pretty damn impressed by this car. I still prefer the V12 noise in the back of the Senna's MP4/6, but man, the active suspension in this car is something else. And, no joke, it really does work, almost as if this car has a secret all wheel drive system running at all time. And ontop of that, the V10 in this car still sounds downright epic. So overall, while the weekend at Montreal was unbelievably bad, the FW14B more than made up for the shortcoming the former had. Onto the track I'm least looking forward too now... Baku.

 

[iZ GunDaM]

Y'know, there's a funny story about Baku. I'll keep it short and sweet, but essentially throughout the race weekend at this circuit last year, I was ranting and whining about the circuit (Not Kallen surprisingly enough, I was restrained about the SF16H even though I know it was never gonna be up there with the Mercedes' and Red Bull cars), saying things like "this track stinks", and all sorts. Poor Geoff, he got so sick of me ranting about this diseased track, he came over the radio, said "Shut the **** up Ben!" and switched my radio off. Which then led to me complaining that I was being turned on by the team! Personally, I was just glad to finish in 5th place. And they say this track will be around for the next decade? Personally, I might end up retiring from F1 out of protest due to this track.

Anyway, enough ranting. New down force package for the rear wing came through this race (unlike the last time in Canada), and a new MGU-K reliability upgrade means we shouldn't have too many more problems that Vettel suffered in Canada (trust me, Ferrari were concerned about having problems and were working around the clock to figure what the problem was). Seems like the downforce upgrade was the wrong direction though, because throughout the entire weekend, Mercedes slaughtered us. It reflected on Saturday as well, as Hamilton is now one off Ayrton Senna's record for most Pole Positions in history (with Bottas completing the lockout front row), with me in 3rd, and Vettel in a lonely 4th place, and nearly a second off pace.

The race however was a whole other story. Bottas had an almost-Mark Webber esque start, which allowed me to pounce up into second place, behind Hamilton. To be honest, I didn't realise just how heated team mate pride was until I decided to follow Bottas into the pits and convert into a two stop, which allowed Vettel to streak away into second place. Near the end of the race, it suddenly began to rain, and rain hard. I immediately (with an almost sixth sense) rolled into the pits and put the intermediates on. Thanks to my quicker outlap, I got ahead of Bottas and set my sights on third. I made quick work of Esteban Ocon and almost made it to Ricciardo, but I sadly ran out of laps. Still, 4th is... Eh, it's no good. It's not bad either. Doesn't matter, this track stinks and I don't like it. The A1 Ring is up next in Austria. Should be a blast, unlike Azerbijan.

Top 10 Drivers Standings after Round 8:

1. Vettel 122
2. Hamilton 118 (-4)
3. Chalk 115 (-7)
4. Bottas 97 (-25)
5. Verstappen 71 (-51)
6. Ricciardo 61 (-61)
7. Grosjean 43 (-79)
8. Ocon 41 (-81)
9. Perez 35 (-87)
10. Massa 32 (-90)

Constructor Standings

1. Scuderia Ferrari 237
2. Mercedes-AMG Petronas 215 (-22)
3. Red Bull Racing 132 (-105)
4. Force India 76 (-161)
5. Haas 71 (-208)
6. Williams Racing 36 (-201)
7. Renault 29 (-144)
8. Torro Rosso 12 (-225)
9= McLaren 0 (-237)
9= Sauber 0 (-237)

 

[MiniHulk85]

Just finished practice 2 at Canada in the 1st season as a McLaren Honda driver.

Capitalised on the slow start by teams around me at Australia, and managed to somehow sneak into top 10 by about lap 3/4. Then my strategy and race pace kicked in. I started the race on the middle compound of the 3, with an extra 3 laps fuel at start of the race. Hello rich mode and foot down time. Took my 1st stop to jump onto the softest compound, and with being out longer on harder tyres managed to hold 5th. I thought I was out of sync... Oh no. By race end I pulled a podium out the bag with being on softest tyres for end parts of the race.

Mixed weather in China. Set car up for rain and it came in last 3rd of the race. Inters and a rain set up, with accidents between both ferrari drivers, red bull deciding that max will have to wait for danny ric to get his inters and bottas not having his car a 1 stop strategy pulled me a 2nd place.

4th in Bahrain. Meh. No power, chassis holding its own if I just overdrive.

Russia and Spain Honda give me some more full engines. Penalties. Joys. Managed to somehow gain 6th place both races.

Monaco. Realising that no one is really developing their cars yet, just the odd minor jump i decide to go for it. Worked it out most top runners due penalties this race, could I be a dark horse. A massive error in qualifying 3 sees me 10th. Love this chassis round here. It works. Penalties means i start 3rd. Wow.. Cracking start in the wet and I'm in the lead. Extends gap to 7 secs, and stuff it. Risk it. Super softs. One stop. Perez catches me by race end, but couldn't pass me. A McLaren Honda has won?!

New contract offer, 1st driver and now the Canadian GP calls. Gonna be hard now as Renault, Williams, Force India and Toro Rosso have made big steps in development. I'm going for grouping of areas for maximum discount and less chance of failure for my spend of resource points. I hope to have some engine development by Japan. Also aiming for alot of the durability ticked off.