S16 - General Discussion

[Martin Oconnor]

hi guys is there any chance of changing the races from timed to laps'
laps is whats in real life races.im no big part in this league butg i always thought it wasnt right

 

[David Turnbull]

we would need to work out how many laps for each track due to the fuel capacity of the r3.5 but it should be easy enough to do if everyone would like to move to laps instead of timed races?

 

[April Dillon]

I'd like that, makes race distances a bit more predictable. Especially when it comes to working out fuel, which I know someone here has had issues with... *Cough*

As for what the actual distances are, it's usually done by KMs in real life. A full GP is 300km + the rest of the lap (except Monaco, which is shortened). GP2 sprint 120km, GP2 feature 180km.

Just going through S14's data to see how far the lead lap drivers in each race covered, remembering these were 60 minute races...

Malaysia - 193.3km
Shanghai - 186.8km
Bahrain - 192.2km
Melbourne - 201km
Monaco - 147.9km
Montreal - 183.6km
Red Bull Ring - 207km
Silverstone - 210.4km
Hockenheim - 196.2km

Around 180-200km seems like a good area to aim for if we want hour races, and we can run shorter for Monaco (150km?). As for if we want to go with a feature-sprint format, a split like 120km / 70km (90km / 60km for Monaco) would probably work well.

 

[David Turnbull]

We will be going back to 60 mins races again with R3.5, the feedback I got from veteran members was that 2 race format wasn't what they wanted so we'll go back to what worked before

Interesting data though, I think a nice number would be 190km, so if we stuck to that distance for every race, we'd just take the distance of 1 lap and divide then we get amount of laps for the race? ( maths ain't one of my strong points), which would be safely within the range of the R3.5's fuel tank.

 

[April Dillon]

Yup, basically that. Divide the race distance by the lap distance and round up. So in the case of Silverstone, which is 5.891km long, that would be 190 / 5.891 = 32.252~ laps. And when we round that up, we get 33 laps.

 

[David Turnbull]

im in favour of that plan, looks good to me.

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

in short, we complicated life with mathematical accounts to arrive at the same place as before always 32 laps or something like that instead of dividing the time now divide the Km
anyhow its ok for me, accounts to prepare for the race setup we have to do

 

[Jonas Lex]

Do you really want to have a 4 month long break starting from now till season start?

 

[David Turnbull]

yes, unless you can find us plenty of drivers to finish our season

right now im sick of trying to find drivers who just hang about for a race then leave or sign up then dont turn up, im also not going to be sitting around waiting every second week for the same guys to turn up and i need to tell them its cancelled, this break is needed as much for me as it is for presto.

 

[MOOOOOOOOOSCHT]

I think in paradisiac conditions we have a full grid and everyone have the chance to win the race and the championship.

A full grid is a reachable realistic target.

That everyone can win the race or reach a good position in the championship with the formats we used in the past, because of lack of time for practice, no pace, or for whatever other reasons, not.
But this is in my opinion essential to keep the thrill, motivation and finally the drivers over the whole seaon.

One solution for this could be to balance the differnet paces of the drivers, howsoever.

I think the 2-race-format with reversed grid we tested is a good approach.
I know not all are in this opinion, but I like shorter races, so from me we also could do a 3 or even a 4-race-format, so more starts, more reversed grid, more overtaking manouvers, ...

Another balacing procedure could be a start grid penalty in connection to the championship.
So the better you are in the championship, the more penalty you get for the start grid.
But I don`t know if this is easy to implement.

Maybe other possibilities could be choosing a mod with weight or other penalty functions,
stop&go penalty for leading the champioship, ...

What do you think ?

Martin

 

[Ron Squire]

Avid Sports are still able to broadcast PrestoGP for the Restarted Season 16, will update the Recruitment Thread to try and strengthen the Box

 

[David Turnbull]

Thanks Ron, we deffo will be back and hope to have more numbers for the broadcast as it really started looking good when youd sorted it out just a pity numbers declined at the wrong time

Thanks for the input Martin, I too would like the 2 race format but its trying to find a balance for the guys who like to drive fast and the guys who like to do longer distances, with the R3.5 the max we can have is 60 mins races, my first idea of having a 20 mins sprint race and then a 50 mins feature could still work as it caters for both.

I dunno if penalties for being fast and consistant are fair, but I also understand what you mean about giving people opportunity to win/score good points, the 2 race format could allow this too, 2 chances to get good points rather than 1 and with the 2nd race its also not as big a deal if you crash out, you get another chance, we can also reverse top 5, top 10 or the whole grid so that would make it intresting too. I'd also like (if we go 2 races) that the 20 mins sprint race is always dry and is about all out pace, and that the 50 mins feature race includes variable weather so on any given night we could have a dry and wet race or both dry who would know.

plenty time to get things sorted as if we did restart our season now the usual summer break would get in the way and we'd only have like 4 races before then, i dont think thats the best idea and would rather just have this break with fun races and maybe some test races before coming back for a fresh start in a few months.

 

[David Turnbull]

another thing to look at with 2 race format is we would have 1 qualifying session, the guy on pole position might go on and win race1 so takes however many points (say half points) but he then starts 10th or at the back of the grid in the feature race which would be full points this then means his chances of maximum points and winning both races are seriously reduced and someone who puts in 2 decent races takes just as many points over the 2 races.

you could decide to sacrifice qualifying and race1 to an extent and try make sure you get a good position in race2 to start from, so it opens a bit of strategy element to the overall event as well. Also with x2 tyre wear we could still push for the full 20 mins race but in the 50 mins we'd need to be extra carefull on the tyre but most likely is that 1 stop would be needed so we'd keep the pit stop element to the racing.

heres an example of how the night would go with 2 race format.........

19:00pm Practise - 1hr
20:00pm Qualifying - 10 mins
20:10pm Warmup - 3 mins
20:13pm Practise start x1 - 3 mins
20:16pm Race1 - 20 mins, Dry, x2 Wear
20:36pm Warmup - 3 mins
20:39pm Race2 - 50 mins. Variable weather, x2 Wear, Reverse grid (top10 or full)
21:29pm Post race discussion

me personally i like the look of that and think it would make for an exciting nights racing where you know you have a couple of chances at a good race.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I probably can not commit fully in any case, like we saw last time, something always comes up at the last minute.. Also the raceday does cause problems at times, it's midweek and if there is any reason i need to wake up early, it's a bit too late.. It's quite traditionally a hectic day (plus i really like to enjoy sauna and i can use it twice a week, happens to be wednesday, it's free, belongs to rent as usual and good quality but is too costly if people just warm it up willy nilly, landlord rules..and it takes the energy out of you so, you are already once overheated, before the race not good..).. When the moon is in right position, i can join.

2 race format would make it easier, one wouldn't necessarily need to practice other than safety and basic training in order for to race. In 1h practice session you can do everything needed for 20 min race and if it's new car, well, then it's basic new car accustomization, not the first time this happens to any of us... Selfish position cause i know i'll get quite close to final speed and track learning is not a problem. I agree with Kimi, simulations don't matter, you learn so much faster when the full grid is on track Less practice people get, the better i'm off. Unfortunately, the same is for a lot of guys after lap 10...

It still means to get good position you need to put in the effort as usual but us "grid fillers" could enjoy one shorter race. I can easily drive even poorly setup car to finish and still enjoy it, make changes to second start if needed and give myself quite nice chance to fight for some points.

 

[MOOOOOOOOOSCHT]

You won`t believe what I got for birthday

I got some labs with a F3000 (replica) driving on a real track in europe of my choice

The nearest track to me is Salzburgring.
I was allready on it with the motorcycle.
Cool track ... not long ago also bought from Red Bull.
Maybe this will be the choice.
Another track would be the F1 Red Bull Ring,
but it´s quite far away from me ...

It would be great to have a fun race on the Salzburgring with FR3.5 to get some practice (for me),
if possible

Cyas
Martin

 

[David Turnbull]

sounds great Martin very jealous

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

nice one Martin, you are all us so throttle at floor, you know how do it

 

[MOOOOOOOOOSCHT]

nice one Martin, you are all us so throttle at floor, you know how do it

Throttle at floor only

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Just wanted to say hello

Nice to still see some familiar names still actice I must admit I never managed the transition to rf2 combined with a more busy rl.

However I started thinking of you all recently when I tried a few laps online with Assetto Corsa with Oculus Rift. It felt a bit like back in the old days when I started racing Race07 I really do miss our league at its peak

Big thumbs up to David for leading the league And nice to see Vale still here, and Moooscht, April, Jonas, Kennett and Ron as well

 

[David Turnbull]

Helloooooooo

Good to hear from you, its been far too long. We are in a period of inactivity/transition ourselves at the moment, online numbers have dwindled to around 10 or so regulars who still love to race and keep up the Presto traditions but it just isn't enough to keep the league going full time like it was for so long, we will try though

Our next step is to go back to Renault 3.5 with a slightly diffrent format to add more fun and excitement, if this doesn't work then a change of game (maybe AC, AM) will be in order or Presto dies, which obviously none of us want to happen.

Before the transition period we are in now we were using ASR F1 mod which I'm sure you'd have liked Nico but we just couldnt attract numbers for long enough although we still had some great races in the 2 seasons we used it, I dont know if you are aware but we had broadcasting sorted with Rons help, we had servers sorted with Peters help and also results were taken care of by April, things really started to take shape with the league and rFactor2 and then we entered crisis point with attendance so it has set us back a bit.

My biggest hope for Presto is to find a Mod or game that people like enough to stay with us, something that nowadays is very hard, Race07 had both numbers and longevity which we will struggle to find. I'd also love to have alot of the past members back in action with a game they enjoy and are able to play on their currant hardware, maybe good to ask all past members what they are playing now and if it would make a diffrence to their participation if Presto used something else other than rFactor2.

There are fun races being organised with diffrent content in rFactor2 every week or two, if you fancy some close racing with some old friends then your more than welcome to pop by and if you find the sim bug again with AC and Oculus then you can look out for the next game vote and maybe we will see you back in league action before long

P.S There are many more old faces around than you mentioned, Tim, Sean, Artyom, Nic Rouge, Bob laube still pops by, theres a few of us who have stuck it out and hopefully will in future too