RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix Season 7 – Round 6
Welcome to back to Round 6 of RDHGP S7.
After an intense Round 5 we again got no reported incidents, which can only be viewed as a good thing.
There isn’t really too much to say about Ricard, to be honest – the track didn’t really allow too much cheating on the kerbs – certainly not as much as at Singapore, and so the race was pretty much won and lost within the confines of the circuit, like it is meant to be.
Round 6 takes us back across the Atlantic, over 5,600 miles South West, and the 1979 layout of the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace – known to all and sundry as Interlagos – in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Circuit Notes
One of the great natural sporting amphitheatres, Interlagos combines gradients with high speed sweeps and a technically demanding infield sections. The circuit that the RDHGP is running is original 7.9km, 16 turn circuit, rather than the current one that was reduced down to 4.3km in 1990. It is also our second anti-clockwise circuit of the season (Singapore is the other).
The first Brazilian Grand Prix was run at Interlagos, on this layout, in 1972, and ran there until 1980 (with a break in 1978). South American drivers had a virtual stranglehold on the event from 1972-77, Reutemann (2 wins), Fittipaldi(2) & Pace(1) only broken up in 1976 by Niki Lauda. Rene Arnoux won the final Brazilian GP on the full layout in 1980 in his Renault. The Brazilian GP relocated for a 9 year stint at Jacarepagua, before returning to the newly shortened Interlagos in 1990, Alain Prost’s victory maintaining the French success.
Those drivers familiar with the modern Interlagos corner names will need to consult the map, as there are a few current naming conventions on the 79 track, but in different places, so confusion is a possibility here. As an example, on the 79 layout, Juncao (where Hamilton took Glock to win his title) is not the corner that starts the climb to the S/F line, in 79 it is the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] turn that marks the track’s first time it folds back into the infield section.
On a positive note, Ferradura makes more sense on this layout when compared to the modern circuit, because the profile actually looks like a horseshoe.
A lap of Interlagos 79 starts with a very high speed section (as opposed to the current Senna Esses), and on all laps after the start, you will be approaching this at top speed. A breathe of accelerator or a tiny dab of brakes for T1L Curva 1, a high speed turn that drops away down and left onto a short downhill blast before T2L – Curva 2, another very high speed bend, also left and flattening onto the long Retao Straight.
At the end of the straight we approach T3L – Curva 3, a medium speed corner that requires some pretty heavy braking, which again drops away left, but once out of there, we are had on the gas again for the squirt downhill to T4L – Juncao. T4L is shallow, and you can attack it quite aggressively, opening out onto the uphill straight before the heavy uphill braking zone for T5L – Ferradura (the Horseshoe).
Ferradura is essentially a wide radiused hairpin, requiring balance on the car, good grip and a lot of patience to not let your right foot get you out of shape. The apex is the highest point of the turn, and the exit is downhill. Successfully negotiating Ferradura it’s a short blast downhill to our first righthander of the lap, T6R – Subida do Lago.
Wide radiused and climbing on exit, it is another test of patience and setup, exiting onto the Reta Opsota uphill straight. Some braking and setting the car up nice and early for the huge T7R – Curva do Sol. This huge radiused 180 turn can be taken fast if you get the nose in tight and provoke a little drift from the rear, but that’s a risk/reward strategy that you will have to balance depending on your car choice and confidence in your setup.
Out of Curva do Sol, it’s a short downhill straight for T8L – Curva do Sargento. A virtual mirror image of Ferradura, it’s a relatively wide hairpin, with its apex at the lowest point of the turn and an uphill exit.
A short uphill straight takes you to T9R – Estacionamento. From this point on, the circuit drives very similarly to the current layout, Estcionamento opening onto a short section behind the pits before getting hard on the brakes for T10R – Laranja.
Laranja is a tight entry with an exit dropping away downhill, not really allowing much time before the entry to T11L – Pinheirinho. Getting the nose in early here is vital for a decent exit, letting the car drift to the right, across the slight kink before standing on the anchors for T12R – Cotovelo.
Easily the tightest corner on this layout, it is a double apexed turn, not always readily apparent when you are approaching it, but the ideal line for exit of the second apex could leave space for a dive up the inside, and as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, that’s my cue for a Race Directors Note lower down. Leaving Cotovelo there’s a surge of acceleration, throwing the nose at the inside apex of T13L – Mergulho, avoiding the car destabilising inner kerb as much as possible, heading downhill before again hard braking as the track bottoms and starts to climb for the unnamed T14L.
T14L is the corner now called Juncao on the current layout, and despite its lack of title, it’s just as vital that a good exit is made from here. The difference here is that T14L is much shallower than the modern Juncao, so rather than a “brake, throw it across the apex, stamp on the gas” approach, it’s a longer, more deliberate balancing act to get the correct exit.
From there, it’s all flat out accelerating uphill, taking T15L - Subida dos Boxes flat out across it’s gentle apex, negotiating T16L – Arquibancadas – also flat out – with its pit entry line and sudden pit wall end, still racing uphill before we reach the highest point on the track at the S/F line, and a nother lap of this fearsome circuit begins.
The Race Director has some notes for drivers. Please see the track map above for location of Race Direction note:-
All Corners Without Exception – The kerbs are not deemed as track, therefore 2 wheels must be within the white lines, on the tarmac, At All Times. Again, there are NO exceptions to this rule at any point on the circuit. Any exception to this rule is deemed illegal, any advantage gained by this method must be ceded immediately. Report people deliberately and excessively cutting.
Racing Room must be given to all drivers – and this works both ways. Divebombing into and across a corner denies people the chance to make the corner correctly just as much as someone obliviously (or deliberately) cutting the nose off of another driver who has achieved partial overlap fairly.
Regain the track safely - If you leave the track, you must rejoin the track safely. If that means losing another couple of places – so be it.
General Corners - The 79 layout, like the real life state of the tracks, had very few concrete or grippy run off areas when compared to the modern layout. It is pretty much a Track -> Grass proposition, and at the speeds we are going, recovery might be more of a hope than a likelihood. There are a lot of wide sweeps, dependent on chassis grip, tyre wear and throttle control, and all of these variables will change based on period of the race, damage incurred, type of vehicle etc. Be aware and ready for things to get a bit hairy in these corners suddenly an seemingly out of the blue.
T12R – Covotelo – As mentioned above, the only real corner of concern for me is T12R. Covotelo can be taken wide on entry to lessen the compromise on the exit, but this is NOT an excuse for a reckless lunge up the inside of the first part. Visibility is almost non-existent, and the people taking the wide line will be turning in early to maximise that wide entry they took. Just parking your car on the inside apex is not winning the corner, and is not going to win you any friends on the track, or in the Drivers panel if you get reported for contact due to this sort of dive.
All points on the track – General Items
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the race.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
There were no reported racing incidents arising from Round4.
2 drivers incurred a “No-Show” infraction:
1 of these drivers are now removed from the League for 2 consecutive No-Show:
No report = no review. Please try and remember the incident reporting guidelines: review, cool off, review again. Only after following the above process, and if you are convinced you still need to report it, should you let the League staff know. Please give as much information as possible during the report (time of incident, drivers involved etc.) Accident reports made within 24 hours of race completion will be ignored.
Any accusations or complaints aired in the Chat during or after a race will mean a penalty levied on the person complaining or making the accusations, even if a subsequent official complaint gets found in their favour. I simply will NOT tolerate any post race finger pointing.
Liveries
You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHGP event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHGP.
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P20 (75% distance completion required) so people can fight for some points no matter where they are on the track, and hopefully have a season long battle with people around them in the League.
The Distribution is as follows for 100km events :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
Welcome to back to Round 6 of RDHGP S7.
After an intense Round 5 we again got no reported incidents, which can only be viewed as a good thing.
There isn’t really too much to say about Ricard, to be honest – the track didn’t really allow too much cheating on the kerbs – certainly not as much as at Singapore, and so the race was pretty much won and lost within the confines of the circuit, like it is meant to be.
Round 6 takes us back across the Atlantic, over 5,600 miles South West, and the 1979 layout of the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace – known to all and sundry as Interlagos – in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Circuit NotesOne of the great natural sporting amphitheatres, Interlagos combines gradients with high speed sweeps and a technically demanding infield sections. The circuit that the RDHGP is running is original 7.9km, 16 turn circuit, rather than the current one that was reduced down to 4.3km in 1990. It is also our second anti-clockwise circuit of the season (Singapore is the other).
The first Brazilian Grand Prix was run at Interlagos, on this layout, in 1972, and ran there until 1980 (with a break in 1978). South American drivers had a virtual stranglehold on the event from 1972-77, Reutemann (2 wins), Fittipaldi(2) & Pace(1) only broken up in 1976 by Niki Lauda. Rene Arnoux won the final Brazilian GP on the full layout in 1980 in his Renault. The Brazilian GP relocated for a 9 year stint at Jacarepagua, before returning to the newly shortened Interlagos in 1990, Alain Prost’s victory maintaining the French success.
Those drivers familiar with the modern Interlagos corner names will need to consult the map, as there are a few current naming conventions on the 79 track, but in different places, so confusion is a possibility here. As an example, on the 79 layout, Juncao (where Hamilton took Glock to win his title) is not the corner that starts the climb to the S/F line, in 79 it is the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] turn that marks the track’s first time it folds back into the infield section.
On a positive note, Ferradura makes more sense on this layout when compared to the modern circuit, because the profile actually looks like a horseshoe.
A lap of Interlagos 79 starts with a very high speed section (as opposed to the current Senna Esses), and on all laps after the start, you will be approaching this at top speed. A breathe of accelerator or a tiny dab of brakes for T1L Curva 1, a high speed turn that drops away down and left onto a short downhill blast before T2L – Curva 2, another very high speed bend, also left and flattening onto the long Retao Straight.
At the end of the straight we approach T3L – Curva 3, a medium speed corner that requires some pretty heavy braking, which again drops away left, but once out of there, we are had on the gas again for the squirt downhill to T4L – Juncao. T4L is shallow, and you can attack it quite aggressively, opening out onto the uphill straight before the heavy uphill braking zone for T5L – Ferradura (the Horseshoe).
Ferradura is essentially a wide radiused hairpin, requiring balance on the car, good grip and a lot of patience to not let your right foot get you out of shape. The apex is the highest point of the turn, and the exit is downhill. Successfully negotiating Ferradura it’s a short blast downhill to our first righthander of the lap, T6R – Subida do Lago.
Wide radiused and climbing on exit, it is another test of patience and setup, exiting onto the Reta Opsota uphill straight. Some braking and setting the car up nice and early for the huge T7R – Curva do Sol. This huge radiused 180 turn can be taken fast if you get the nose in tight and provoke a little drift from the rear, but that’s a risk/reward strategy that you will have to balance depending on your car choice and confidence in your setup.
Out of Curva do Sol, it’s a short downhill straight for T8L – Curva do Sargento. A virtual mirror image of Ferradura, it’s a relatively wide hairpin, with its apex at the lowest point of the turn and an uphill exit.
A short uphill straight takes you to T9R – Estacionamento. From this point on, the circuit drives very similarly to the current layout, Estcionamento opening onto a short section behind the pits before getting hard on the brakes for T10R – Laranja.
Laranja is a tight entry with an exit dropping away downhill, not really allowing much time before the entry to T11L – Pinheirinho. Getting the nose in early here is vital for a decent exit, letting the car drift to the right, across the slight kink before standing on the anchors for T12R – Cotovelo.
Easily the tightest corner on this layout, it is a double apexed turn, not always readily apparent when you are approaching it, but the ideal line for exit of the second apex could leave space for a dive up the inside, and as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, that’s my cue for a Race Directors Note lower down. Leaving Cotovelo there’s a surge of acceleration, throwing the nose at the inside apex of T13L – Mergulho, avoiding the car destabilising inner kerb as much as possible, heading downhill before again hard braking as the track bottoms and starts to climb for the unnamed T14L.
T14L is the corner now called Juncao on the current layout, and despite its lack of title, it’s just as vital that a good exit is made from here. The difference here is that T14L is much shallower than the modern Juncao, so rather than a “brake, throw it across the apex, stamp on the gas” approach, it’s a longer, more deliberate balancing act to get the correct exit.
From there, it’s all flat out accelerating uphill, taking T15L - Subida dos Boxes flat out across it’s gentle apex, negotiating T16L – Arquibancadas – also flat out – with its pit entry line and sudden pit wall end, still racing uphill before we reach the highest point on the track at the S/F line, and a nother lap of this fearsome circuit begins.
The Race Director has some notes for drivers. Please see the track map above for location of Race Direction note:-
All Corners Without Exception – The kerbs are not deemed as track, therefore 2 wheels must be within the white lines, on the tarmac, At All Times. Again, there are NO exceptions to this rule at any point on the circuit. Any exception to this rule is deemed illegal, any advantage gained by this method must be ceded immediately. Report people deliberately and excessively cutting.
Racing Room must be given to all drivers – and this works both ways. Divebombing into and across a corner denies people the chance to make the corner correctly just as much as someone obliviously (or deliberately) cutting the nose off of another driver who has achieved partial overlap fairly.
Regain the track safely - If you leave the track, you must rejoin the track safely. If that means losing another couple of places – so be it.
General Corners - The 79 layout, like the real life state of the tracks, had very few concrete or grippy run off areas when compared to the modern layout. It is pretty much a Track -> Grass proposition, and at the speeds we are going, recovery might be more of a hope than a likelihood. There are a lot of wide sweeps, dependent on chassis grip, tyre wear and throttle control, and all of these variables will change based on period of the race, damage incurred, type of vehicle etc. Be aware and ready for things to get a bit hairy in these corners suddenly an seemingly out of the blue.
T12R – Covotelo – As mentioned above, the only real corner of concern for me is T12R. Covotelo can be taken wide on entry to lessen the compromise on the exit, but this is NOT an excuse for a reckless lunge up the inside of the first part. Visibility is almost non-existent, and the people taking the wide line will be turning in early to maximise that wide entry they took. Just parking your car on the inside apex is not winning the corner, and is not going to win you any friends on the track, or in the Drivers panel if you get reported for contact due to this sort of dive.
All points on the track – General Items
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the race.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
There were no reported racing incidents arising from Round4.
2 drivers incurred a “No-Show” infraction:
- Carlos Diaz
- Neil Tasker
1 of these drivers are now removed from the League for 2 consecutive No-Show:
- Neil Tasker
No report = no review. Please try and remember the incident reporting guidelines: review, cool off, review again. Only after following the above process, and if you are convinced you still need to report it, should you let the League staff know. Please give as much information as possible during the report (time of incident, drivers involved etc.) Accident reports made within 24 hours of race completion will be ignored.
Any accusations or complaints aired in the Chat during or after a race will mean a penalty levied on the person complaining or making the accusations, even if a subsequent official complaint gets found in their favour. I simply will NOT tolerate any post race finger pointing.
Liveries
You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHGP event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHGP.
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P20 (75% distance completion required) so people can fight for some points no matter where they are on the track, and hopefully have a season long battle with people around them in the League.
The Distribution is as follows for 100km events :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
