'Christmas time, time to share our love
Come and join the tidings to the world
Christmas time, the best time of the year
Yes, it's christmas time'
From Christmas Time by Backstreet Boys
I am going to my hometown for a week. Wishing all
the fellow F1Time Managers a happy and nice holidays.
The Useless Stats - Part 2 poke into the dreaded DNFs.
Most DNFs
1. c2g2 - 139 DNFs
2. c4g6 - 131 DNFs
3. c2g1 - 120 DNFs
4. c1 - 118 DNFs
c3g1 - 118 DNFs
Least DNFs
1. c3g2 - 58 DNFs - Cool!
2. c5g7 - 60 DNFs
3. c5g4 - 66 DNFs
4. c5g2 - 69 DNFs
5. c5g6 - 70 DNFs
Most Unlucky Group (In Terms of Engine Explosions)
1. c1 - 76
c2g1 - 76
3. c4g1 - 69
4. c3g4 - 63
5. c3g1 - 61
Least Engine Explosions
Mebbe the lesser number of races done is the real reason.
1. c5g5 - 19
2. c5g2 - 24
3. c5g7 - 25
4. c5g4 - 26
5. c5g6 - 27
Poor Repairers (DNFs due to used parts)
1. c3g1 - 8 DNFs
c4g2 - 8 DNFs
3. c3g2 - 7 DNFs
c4g6 - 7 DNFs
c4g8 - 7 DNFs
Out of Fuel Problems
1. c2g2 - 43
2. c3g1 - 25
3. c2g1 - 21
4. c3g4 - 18
5. c1 - 17
Bad Tyres
1. c2g2 - 29 Tyre Explosions
2. c4g6 - 22 Tyre Explosions
3. c4g5 - 20 Tyre Explosions
4. c4g3 - 15 Tyre Explosions
c4g7 - 15 Tyre Explosions
Dangerous Groups
1. c4g6 - 42 Accidents
2. c5g1 - 34 Accidents
c5g5 - 34 Accidents
4. c5g3 - 28 Accidents
c5g8 - 28 Accidents
Safest Groups
1. c3g2 - 4 Accidents
2. c2g1 - 6 Accidents
c2g2 - 6 Accidents
4. c4g4 - 8 Accidents
c3g1 - 10 Accidents
Cheaty Pants
Its interesting to note that all c5 groups had managers trying their
luck to cheat :).. A couple of c4 managers too tried..
1. c5g3 - 4 Times
2. c5g1 - 3 Times
c5g5 - 3 Times
c5g6 - 3 Times
c5g7 - 3 Times
DNFs per track
1. Interlagos - 161
2. Mexico City - 157
3. Spa - 151
4. BrandsHatch - 146
MagnyCours - 146
6. Hungaroring - 128
7. Sakhir - 125
8. Monaco - 120
Kyalami - 120
10. Istanbul - 118
11. Barcelona - 116
12. Indianapolis- 112
13. Imola - 110
14. Suzuka - 109
15. BuenosAires - 108
16. Anderstorp - 96
17. Melbourne - 93
Here are some useless facts of Season 20.
Most Active Groups with respect to Number of races
1. c1 - 500 races - Obvious
2. c2g1 - 491 races - As Expected
3. c3g4 - 469 races - Hmm! Interesting
4. c4g6 - 465 races - Wow!
5. c4g2 - 457 races - Good too
Least Races done
1. c4g3 - 352 races - Hmm!! Less than c5..
2. c5g7 - 356 races
3. c5g6 - 373 races
4. c5g8 - 375 races
5. c4g5 - 386 races
Favourite Tracks (Most Races done by Managers)
1. Melbourne - 598 Managers Raced
2. Indianapolis - 586 Managers Raced
3. Hungaroring - 582 Managers Raced
4. Brands Hatch - 579 Managers Raced
5. Monaco - 578 Managers Raced
Least Favourite Tracks
1. Suzuka - Just 524 racers
2. Interlagos - Just 539 racers
3. Mexico City - Just 541 racers
4. Anderstorp - Just 546 racers
5. Istanbul - Just 551 racers
Suzuka was the last stop for the F1Time Managers in S20.
The Promotion spots have been taken in most of the groups,
but the relegation battle continued. It was more evident
in my group c2g1.
We saw Irman rising back to the top spots after a poor
season so far. Clearly his Ferrari was no match to the
rivals when fully loaded. He powered to a BIG win, by
over a minute's margin to the second placed woodi. Woodi
by that win climbed to the second spot, which effectively
gave a 1-2 finish to the Barbeque Team and to Sweden.
Joe Himeji also seemed to have found his form, when he
finished third.
The Relegation battle got to many managers and most of them
went flat out this race. That saw a whopping 12 managers
in a time gap of just .425 secs. The list included the
promoters Tej, Thomas and Petri as well. Everyone was keeping
a close eye on Vaidas Navickas, ex-c1, but more known for his
team with Arus. He was determined to stay back in c2 and that
paid off. After an engine failure in the last race, this
was his one and only chance. And he signed off the season
with a Win, which should be the start of many more in the
coming seasons. edi was second and Mik put a superb show
to come third. Xtra came fourth. The man who lost out
was Bendoraitis, who went to the relegation zone, though
he came fifth.
The way at which the current forum goes, i feel, its not the way to go. From
a friendly meeting place, it seems to have grown into a battle field. As
George pointed out, there always will be difference of opinions and its our
character to cope with it. And the assumptions, as one aptly pointed out,
can cause a great deal of hurting. I really donno who is wrong as i cant
judge people by their threads, but one thing is for sure.. This is NOT for
the good of the game.
Cheers mates.. Cool Down a Bit...
Lets have a party here instead of 'Leg Pullings'.
Game Over!!
All season fight finally coming to an end in most of the classes.
It was celebration time in F1Time. The penultimate race in this
seasons calender saw many managers sealing their DC/TC titles
including the Elite C1. Eld got his second Golden Star which
at the start of the season seemed impossible. But the new
(old it seems.. but everyone noticed only this season) staff
retiring policy hurt Arus the most as he had to sign an average
CD for an enormous amount. Well.. there is always a next time and
Arus wont be as easy then.
Though the battle for DC is over, the fight for final DC positions
still continue. Most notably between Sow and Woodi. I thought
champ RC would race in his Home GP. But he didnt even race and so
did Lex. Woodi won from Sow after a close battle. That puts both
of them at parity and the last race would be crucial. Two positions
are at stake, when we realise that Arus is just a point ahead of
them. Rui came fourth and Eld** came fourth. M Assad scored the lone
point for the hosts.
C2G1 was won by Petri from his teammie Thomas. That effectively sealed
the Cup fight too as the Blue and White teammates were the only one
left in the cup. Tej came third. Friedenberg had a solid fourth place
finish followed by Kondrat. And most importantly, i came seventh to
add another two points to my tally. I couldnt have scored these valuable
points if not for some help from Tej, who blocked Cisko for sometime,
and an unforunte drop for Luis Rocha, 3 laps from finish. Also my driver
did a pretty good defensive race. Overall i feel my strategy wasnt good
enough as i was too slow in the rainy part of the race. But now i feel
that i will stay back in c2. Vaidas raced for the first time this season.
He has secured a Good Driver (but expensive) and a decent CD in the last
market. But a 35M Upgrade/Repairs couldnt help him much. He was
running 9th, about to take my points, when he retired with a blown
engine. Now staying back in c2 would be a difficult task for him, if
not impossible.
TaBu has come up with the Tracks, Suppliers for the next Season.
S21 would be starting only on the NewYear. That means an effective
2 weeks for celebrating Xmas and NewYear. woohoo!!
Following are the tracks for the Season21.
1. Monza - Italy
2. Old Hockenheim - Germany
3. Silverstone Great - Britain
4. Shanghai - China
5. A1 Ring - Austria
6. Suzuka - Japan
7. Spa-Francorchamps - Belgium
8. Melbourne - Australia
9. Montreal - Canada
10. Barcelona - Spain
11. Sakhir - Bahrain
12. Magny Cours - France
13. Indianapolis - USA
14. Interlagos - Brazil
15. Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia
16. Kyalami - South Africa
17. Cancun - Mexico
Regular F1Time track of Monaco is missing this time and a new one
comes for the F1Time-rs in the form of Cancun.
I will never forget this Mexican race. Not only did i miss the race, but also it harmed my hopes of stay in c2. Office hours finally are getting into my head. One look at the watch would have helped i guess. But it didnt happen!..
For a change, there was a different winner in c1 this time. Nuno Mendes,
who had a terrific season, is doing his finishing touches with a win atlast. Starting only in the fifth row of the grid, he drove a tremendous race to
win the Mexican GP. He showed what defensive racing is all about when
he held an attacking Eld for the last 11 laps. Sow's countrymate Soon
Hui Lim too had his day when he got first c1 podium. But the highlight
of the race was Arus'c crash. Starting third on the grid, his championship
hopes were shattered by a charging Donatas Stakauskas. Arus had to
retire in the third lap.
In c2g1, 4 managers including me missed the Mexican show. Christian
Reindl reigned supreme in his Totoya from start to finish and won the
race. The Blue & White Team of Petri and Thomas finished in Podium
spots. Tej was fourth. Stefan was fast but his Pitcrew let him down.
He had to settle for the fifth position.
Turkey became popular in F1Time due to the two managers
from that country. One is Mestan Acar, who is a champ
in his own rights, though he hasnt won c1 yet. He retired
a couple of times and right now is still playing, but
not with the same enthu as was earlier i guess. Atleast
the results tell me so. The Other one was FAW aka Gokberk
Ekici. He was more of a popular figure than a champion :).
In c1, Eld decided to give no respite to Arus. He powered
to another win followed by his teammie woodi. Sow grabbed
the third spot. Now the fight seems almost over for Arus
who could only manage a fifth position.
Tej also made it a no-contest in c2g1. He won the race
followed by Blue&White teammies Petri and Thomas. William
made a good result here as he finished fourth. That effectively
means a position down for me as i am staring at the relegation
zone right now.
My good friend Cristian Iorga too had a memorable day in the
Turkey GP. He won the DC as well as the TC with his teammie
Horatiu. Check this
article.
Bahrain is one of the hottest races of the season. The very
same reason prevented me from racing as i am with a tyre not
suited to handle this race.
Everyone was closely watching c1. Arus after a nice start to
the season and a good lead is now slipping off. The CD would
be one of the reasons and so he is not able to go full speed
all the races. Eld on the other hand took this oppurtunity and
closed on Arus. And this Bahrain race was more delightful to
Eld. He pocked another win while Arus was out of points. Arus
took a risk with his Pitstrategy, but the numerous tyrewears
didnt help his cause. Nuno Mendes came second barbequed by the
Barbeque Team.
After a saving race, the DC contenders went back to racing mode
in c2g1 and Tej once again had the win. Petri came second with
Christian securing the remaining podium spot. Thomas had a DNF
and like Arus is slipping and would probably miss the Silver Star.
Though I am not in the same company, an Indian software company making news would definitely interest me. Today i heard that TCS, India's biggest (supposedly Asia's too) Software Services Provider won a deal with Ferrari for the 2005 F1 Season and for the Ferrari Sportscar. Here are some links confirming the news.
F1-Live
Yahoo! News
Digital Media Asia
Times of India
Hindustan Times
CNN
Indian Express
One of the Moderators of the F1Time community David
announced his retirement in the weekend. The typical work
pressure got into him and that made him to retire. But his
actions in the market created a stir when some realised that
he bid enormous amounts. Jonny on hearing this cancelled
out the bids wisely. David later said that he just
did that for fun and would have anyway informed Jonny
to 'zero-out' the bids. But thats a huge risk for
both David and the community as a similar thing led
to the expulsion of Dainius Sivickis a few seasons ago.
The Round 12 was at Sweden and the Swedish managers decided
to make it a no-contest for the others. Johan Skog alias
Woodi took the honours in c1 race. He was closely followed
by his teammie Eld. Arus was behind the Barbeque team
finishing third. Arus's economy makes him handicapped and
the 7GB he uses isnt quite the way for victories at this
stage.
In our group, Dmitri Kondrat showed again the power of his
Ferarri, with his second win of the season. Pedro Lanca
came second and Stefan Hauer came third. Stefan, confident
from the last season outing, again showed that c2 is not
that difficult for him. The result was significant when
we consider that he struggled to stayback a couple of seasons
back. The DC leaders had the next three spots in Petri,
Tej and Thomas.
More than the racing, this friday gave us lot to enjoy as the server
finally seemed to be stable. TaBu recently blocked the stats page
at the peak server usage times inorder to let us browse the site.
But yesterday, all the pages including stats, were available to
the managers and that really is a good sign.
The Hopes of Barbeque Racing for a Hattrick of wins was thwarted by
Sow. He took the win in the Argentina GP. Eld had to settle for
second position while Nuno Mendes came in third. Nuno is doing a
pretty good job this season and is up there with the Championship
contenders at the moment.
C2 Title is going to be very hard to guess as all the top contenders race
neck to neck every race. Petri took the honours this time with Tej coming in
second position. Christian Reindl finally scored with a very good third
position. Thomas could only manage fourth. Teammie Arunis scored
again - finishing fifth.
With points hardly coming in except for the top contenders,
i am a bit worried as to whether my four points would do
good for my stay back in c2. But this race gave me a chance
to further up my kitty, when the lengthy track prompted
many managers to save instead of racing as the Lap money
would be considerably less in this case.
Barbeque Racing seems to be in a roll in c1. Following Eld's
win at Barcelona, Woodi made it a double for the team in
Belgium. Arus was second followed by Yih. Yih, one of the
talented, but underperforming, manager, showed great resistance
in holding off Eld for that podium position.
Our group c2g1 had a different winner this time. After 3 weeks
of testing with his Ferarri, Dimitri Kondrat finally found the
pace and signed off with a win. That makes him the fourth manager
of the season to score their only points in Wins. Hope he
continues to race from here. Akelaitis was second with Petri
coming third. An end of race Engine Explosion from Matis
gave me the chance of scoring the solitary point. Without that
my outing would have been a disastrous one.
