My F1Time Blogs

F1Time - V2 Update by TaBu

2006-03-20T18:05:00.000-05:00

A copy of the message from TaBu

+ runs a race,
+ updates office,
+ balances,
+ creates race report,
+ updates driver stats,
+ finds new sponsor proposal,
+ renegotiates if ordered,
+ shortens old ones,
+ shortens all staff contracts,
+ builds new parts,
+ improves design of parts,
+ clears practice, testing, warmup, qualification laps,
+ creates xml files to be used by live race.
+ inserts some stats into race history table
+ updated current streaks: wins, no wins, points, no points, podiums, no podiums, etc,

What is left before it goes live?
- update current position,
- update manager stats tables,
- add more events to race history (currently only reports pits)
- adding more stats into DB
o money awards for performance
o process driver firing, assign new temp one
o process c.director firing, assign new temp one
o process designer firing, assign new temp one
o process markets
! adjusted finances
! ... lots of tuning and polishing things up.

Legend:
+ done
- not done, needed to run live test race
o not done, but not needed to run live test race
! not done, stuff between alpha and beta tests

F1Time reaches 2000 Users

2005-12-01T17:23:00.000-05:00

Another milestone for F1Time when it reached 2000 users on Tuesday, Nov 29th.
Unfortunately only 1956 managers are accomodated as of now and the others have to wait on for deletions before they get into this game. With another month to go before the active start, i expect a big number getting deleted due to inactivity.

F1Time v2 Release Date Announced

2005-11-21T11:50:00.000-05:00

A long awaited announcement from TaBu and something which shows the site is still active.

Release date and some info By Tadas Bubelevičius
On: 2005-11-21 10:10:10
F1TIME new version will go live on 9th of January 2006. On that date resets will take place. First race of a new season will be held on 16th of January. From now on, and till then, we will have races at least every Monday and Friday (also 3 Wednesdays in December). After every of these races, results will not be reset, money awarded, staff changes, etc. will happen and season will move on to the new track.

Add Yourselves to this Map

2005-11-20T11:55:00.000-05:00

I have found this site only yesterday and thought it to be cool. I created a F1Time map hoping atleast some of my friends would add them to this map.

Click Here For The F1Time Map

Registration Full

2005-11-20T10:40:00.000-05:00

All the 64 groups are currently filled and the users are in the Waiting List for the last few days. Thats an encouraging sign for TaBu but the bad news is we still donno when we can expect the new game to begin.

The Wait continues

Firefox Memory Leaks

2005-09-12T22:38:00.000-04:00

This is not really F1Time. But i think this is useful stuff.

If you have used Firefox you've probably noticed that it suffers from what can be described as a fairly harsh "memory leak". The main cause of the problem appears to lie within the plugin for Flash content. There are 2 workarounds that I've located.

The first is rather straightforward and simple but wasn't practical for me. All you have to do is un-install/remove the flash plugin and performance increases significantly.

The other option (and the one I'm using) requires you to make some changes to the Firefox configuration. This is how you fix this "memory leak" problem. (It's not actually a leak, it just doesn't flush the cache it has.)

1)Type about:config into the location bar and press enter
2)Right click any line to bring up a sub-menu
3)Choose "new">"integer"
4)paste this into the dialogue that appears: browser.cache.memory.capacity
5)Next click Okay
6)Specify the amount in kb (about 60000 should do) in the next dialogue that appears
7)Restart Firefox and happy surfing.

F1Time adds 1500th Manager

2005-09-10T23:02:00.000-04:00

When v2 started, it just had the existing managers from v11 which came to around 900+. The new version can accomodate upto 2550 Managers and today it crossed the 1500 mark.
The Game is slowly but steadily building up. When v2 started, every group had around 14 free spaces but now it has come down to half (7). With this kinda signup, i expect the groups to be FULL by the time test races start. Now we have the Practise/WU/Qualify and Race Orders Page finished. And I am hoping the test races to start by the month end.

New Responsibilities & New Team

2005-08-19T18:08:00.000-04:00

I am an Admin now. Yeah!! Hard to believe, but within a few days of getting moderator status, i am Promoted :).
But then i realised how hard it can be. The Offices of all managers had to be created and has to be done manually. Oliver has done a very good job in creating the groups as per TaBu's and Jonny's guidelines. But again implementing that was another laborious task. If not for Oliver, i dont we could have done the entire thing in one single day.
Good Job my friend.
The exact nature and responsibilities of this post are still awaited. But i think the new F1Time team takes out a bit of the site functions from TaBu's shoulders.

The New F1Time Team consists of

Developer : TaBu
GameMaster : Jonny Payton
Admins :
Oliver Vogel
Wendy Kemper
Mikhail Mikhailov
Aswin Mathew
Moderators :
Chris Sphicas
Vitor Espadaneira

F1Time v2 - A New Beginning

2005-08-15T20:14:00.000-04:00

The site has been down for a while today and i just took it as just another day. But when the site came back online, i was surprised to see a different page with SimSoccer written on it. For a while, i thought that the site was hacked and i tried logging in. Then i realised that the long awaited v2 has come. Just that the Front Page needs to be changed. TaBu has introduced F1Time v2 as a surprise to many of us.
Well, in looks, v2 is totally different from the earlier v1. Forums are different. The links are different and God knows what all.. I really cant tell anything right now, as it is still in Pre-Alpha stage. Mebbe TaBu wanted mass testing rather than running with a few Beta guys.
The Community is excited and naturally should be. I too am in a different way as i have been given the Moderator post. Good in one way... but more headaches. I think i can face it.

Foto - TuomoK

2005-08-12T11:43:00.000-04:00

Tuomo, the F1Time Iceman, is another impressive manager who grabbed my attention. Very silent and very polite, this guy is a different person altogether in the racing track. In exact 10 seasons after he started, he was running in c1 and these days a top5 contender in every race. I am just waiting for him to step up the pace as hes full of potential. And he is only 18!!
TuomoK - Tuomo Korja

Summer Break or Full Brakes??

2005-08-08T15:06:00.000-04:00

The Season Break is getting indefinetely longer and people are coming up with all sorts of confusions.

This was what Tabu said
"
Season restart will not be done this week, more information about season restart will be announced next weekend. Have a nice F1TIME summer break :)
" Season restart 2005-08-01 (Tadas Bubelevičius)

And Jimmy Winter had this to say
"
well guys, really an very interesting discussion on songs and cover of that. But really there is only one thing that i am concerned about :
WILL F1TIME CONTINUE OT DOES IT END HERE ????????????????????????????????

I've heard rumours tadas is no longer interested in it !!!!!!!!
"

Jonny clarified it to be a rumour but i am keeping my fingers crossed. :)

Retirements started

2005-08-02T18:12:00.000-04:00

BreadC (aka Mark Bunby) is the latest manager to take a break from F1Time. Mebbe the ban hurt him and i hope he should be joining us pretty soon.
"
The time has come for me to say that i am leaving the game. it was my mission to be successful in c1 but i cant see that happening. i managed to win a c1 race though which i am happy about .
"

Earlier in the season Luis Rocha announced his retirement. So that makes it 2 for the season till now.

Its All Over.. Gratz Eld

2005-07-26T10:57:00.000-04:00

Dreams are shattered!!!
In a season where i hoped for the ultimate glory, i have to settle for second. In a way, i can be proud as i have been able to finish second. But thats not what everyone is looking for. The Planning was good. The Execution wasnt that good enough. Taking BML at the start proved to be a good decision. But the main objective was to build a lead in the first part of the season. I wasnt able to do that. Infact trailed by a not-so-small margin. I was able to cut down and was expecting for a final showdown. Even Eld was planning for an EXPENSIVE final race (which i too was planning :D). But that is not gonna happen now.

Just thinking of where i went wrong, i am coming with 2 probable cases.
First, Mebbe i should have planned for a couple of Drops.
Second, i shouldnt have missed the race last season.
And third, i shouldnt have relied on the server.
Whatever i put will be just plain excuses to convince my mind because past is past. And the winner always will be the deserved one.
Congratulations Eld.. You are unbeatable.

Thanks to all the friends who helped me in whatever way they can.. small things, big ways... And to all who believed in me and whom i have disappointed. You are there to cheer me and i hope you will be there with me in trouble times too.
Now i have a tough road ahead. I need to regroup and give it another shot pretty soon(hopefully).

Foto - Mark Bunby

2005-07-16T13:40:00.000-04:00

Coming in from the commercially important town of Slough from the South East England, Mark alias BreadC (BreadCrums) is another old timer who is equally known as a forum spammer :). There is no better time to put his picture down here than now when he has won his first c1 race in his debut c1 season. Starting in Season 9 and serving 9 seasons in c2, he is now in the elite league and proved that in his home GP yesterday. Also known to be 'short-tempered', he is one nice guy if you know him more. His 'interests' are Computers, Football(Soccer) and Women(obvious.. huh ?). His football interest is evident from the fact that he is a better manager in Hattrick than in F1Time. But mebbe with this win, its gonna change.

BreadC - Mark Bunby

Note: What many wont be knowing. IRL, BreadC doesnt like Bread Crums. Just that he needed an online nick for privacy when he first got into the Internet and he had Bread Crums all over his T-Shirt at that time.

A mixed season till now

2005-07-16T13:34:00.000-04:00

This season was what i was planning for a long time.. But somehow pieces arent matching as i had hoped for.. I was planning for a good start to the season, but what i got was an Engine Explosion while leading in the first race. An up-and-down site made me miss one race. And suddenly i see myself trailing Eld by a big margin. Though its impossible to cut down, I am just trying my best to make it up there.. Add to it mistakes in a couple of races which costed me a few points. Another 5 races and i am trying to keep my hopes positive.

Foto - Aleksander Bracko

2005-06-11T21:00:00.000-04:00

Aleksander (Alexander) Bracko aka Lex started hi F1Time 'career' way back in Season3 and that too in my same c-g. Well the story from then is 1 way traffic. In his 7th season, he was racing in c1. The only downfall was in S22 when he had to go down to c2 for some preparation and that too because of missing some races. He was straight into action last season when he finished 5th overall. Lex and Sow had a long term team till Sow joined his brother. The chances are that the team will be revived again this season. Lex hails from Slovenia and is a Computer Programmer and like all Slovenians, very brilliant.

Lex - Aleksander Bracko

F1Time - S24 - Season Preview

2005-06-11T19:12:00.000-04:00

A new Season and as usual, a peek into the c1 group to see whats gonna happen this season.
Major Changes seen this season
1. No Mersedes engine this season (Was expecting a decrease in the managers who go for this, but never expected that to come down drastically)

2. Ferarri engines find favor with c1 managers and infact 7 was chosen this time.

3. Pips still continue to be the favourite tyre as half of the group are with them. But Bridgestones with their price cut found more takers this time around.

So the Supplier List in c1 reads as follows

Renualt 10
Ferarri 07
Totoya 04
Asiatech 04
Puegeot 02
Aodi 01
BML 01
Frod 01

Pipirelli 16
Bridgestones 07
Michelim 05
Goodyeah 02

The Championship also is looking forward for a thriller. I presume atleast 7 'highly-competitive' managers this time around. Andre with his Aodi, His teammie Heike, My Teammie Robbie, Super-duper Eld, Tuomo Korja, Christian Reindl and possibly me. It wont be a surprise if BreadC and Lex too is competitive as the season goes by. Also glad to see former champ Kostya back in c1. Mebbe its time to produce some Kostya magic again. Well lets wait and see.

Skipping S23 and Awaiting S24

2005-06-10T23:56:00.000-04:00

Its been a tough job for the last few months. Add to that, i moved to a different place where i have to setup everything from scratch. All this made me skip almost an entire season. But my teammie was there for my rescue.
S23 was exciting as far as the Championship was concerned. Eld added another Star to his tally. It was a hard fought victory over Tsig and Sow. But we all know that Eld is in a different league and hes sure to repeat that this time around too. This 3 way battle all through made the season enjoyable. Just that i didnt had enough time for it. Tuomo after a normal debut in S22 made his presence count with a Strong 4th place. Lex coming back into c1, took 5th.
Well for me, Arunis left for c2 and i had a new teammie, whos a CHAMP. So i was excited. We went for a saving season where we still managed to get into Discount positions. Now i am looking forward to work with him for the current season. Hes tipped to win the Championship for the second time and i am there to help out.
Bring it on S24 ..!!

Season 22 Ends

2005-04-20T21:57:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since i put something here. I mainly put the blame on the c1 stress and the office work i had in that period. That means a total of 8 races lost for Season22. S22 is a memorable season for me and i shouldnt have missed the race reports, but life is like that and it goes on.
Of the last 8, the start and the end were just ordinary. All i could gather in Week4 was a 4th position. But week5 was better as i scored my first back to back c1 wins. Week 6 was on Saving mode and atleast i was able to collect some money for the new season suppliers.
In the meantime, Woodi was on top gear in this second half of the season. Both woodi and Pijus were racing with plans to retire and so they were competitive all through. Woodi scored podiums in all 8 races with 2 wins, but could only level Eld's points. Though woodi finished 2nd in standings, it was by all means a great achievement. Yeah!! these Swedes just ruled c1 S22. Pijus too fought well but had limitations with the engine he had. The 3rd place with just 10 points away from the winner adds another plus to his f1time resume. The 2 wins enabled me to pip Heike to 5th. Sow with a late show in the 6th week came 6th in standings.
The Final c1 Top10 looks like this
1 Joakim Sjöblom** 104
2 Johan Skog 104
3 Pijus Jerusevicius 94
4 Aswin Mathew 62
5 Heike Kohl 57
6 Sow Oneplus* 32
7 Andre Osterloh 28
8 Thomas Pappaioannou 24
9 Donatas Stakauskas 23
10 Arunas Babrauskas****** 19

Foto - Ran Maclurkin

2005-03-28T03:12:00.000-05:00

Ran Maclurkin is not just another F1Time Manager. He is an allrounder - a sportsman, an artist, a filmmaker and also a Business man. He has grown up with Racecars and even raced a few times. But some financial constraints have put an end to his short racing career. He has played in Bands, released Albums and toured. He has won the Best Editor Award at the SanFrancisco Film Festival. He loves kiteboarding and is about to buy into a Surt/Streetware Business. He is also trying his hand in writing as he is in the works of his first novel.
Ran hails from Melbourne, Australia and currently lives in NoosaHeads. His younger brother Ashley is also in F1Time and forms 'RAM Racing' to ram all their opponents. They are new to F1Time and still managed to get a promo in the first season. Ran is seen with his Girlfriend Jessica in this snap.

Ran Maclurkin

F1Time - S22 - Race9 - Sakhir, Bahrain

2005-03-27T02:10:00.000-05:00

Bahrain was the 9th stop for the F1Time managers in Season 22. The track setup was a little different from other tracks although crazy unbelievable setups have been the order of the day in this season. Woodi clearly dominated the timings in WU and he was on POLE too. My Driver didnt make the mistakes he did in WU as he shared the first row for the start. Heike was back on speed and was third and Eld on a used GB was fourth. Heike was on 4 stops as she had only Pips. The higher temperatures meant an advantage for Bridgestones and i was able to follow woodi without letting him run away. At the first stop, my crew gained me that vital position over woodi. But woodi was able to catch me again in a few laps. But he stayed a lap too long and that meant tyre wear which again came to my advantage. Eld was on Goodyeah and so he too had a lap wear in every stint. All those worked to my advantage and i was able to work out my second win of the season. That one mistake by woodi put him Eld and Eld was not ready to give way to his teammie. In the end, Barbeque racers finished 2-3 with Eld coming ahead of Woodi. 'On Vacation' finished 4-5 ahead of Robbie. Here are the full results.
1. Aswin Mathew
2. Joakim Sjöblom**
3. Johan Skog
4. Heike Kohl
5. Andre Osterloh
6. Robertas Petniunas*
7. Miguel Matos
8. Pedro Lanca

HAPPY EASTER to ALL ..

Driver Contract Extended

2005-03-25T03:55:00.001-05:00

The Bahrain GP was scheduled to be the Last Driver for 'A-Squared' Driver A.Ahuja. He has joined our team 3 seasons back with a 'Last and Proud of it' tag with him. But he has grown to a mature and experienced driver from thereon. Out of the contracted 51 races, he raced 49(He was down with a Flu in one race) and scored 141 valuable points including 9 wins and 4 other Podium finishes. Impressed by his performance, A-Squared management agreed for a Payhike and kept Ahuja with them for another season. Hope he continues to impress.

F1Time - S22 - Race8 - Anderstorp, Sweden

2005-03-24T01:13:00.000-05:00

Another Wet Race and this was the Home GP for the Barbeque Racing Team. Woodi was tipped to be the favourite to win here but he went for a 'Saving by Racing' strategy. There was some close WU times when positions 4 to 6 were decided by a gap of just .04 seconds. But Andre surprised everyone in Qual when he stormed to the POLE position with over half a second gap over teammate Heike. DC leaders Eld and Pijus were in the second row of the grid. I was again in the 4th row. Pijus had a superb start as he got the Lead in the very first lap. I too made a good getaway thanks to a mistake i made. I got my weather calculations wrong as i had to pit a lap earlier. But luckily Pijus, Eld and others too made the same mistake. My Pitcrew made the difference over Pijus, as i got the lead now. Eld was faster now and easily overtook both myself and Pijus. Pijus was faster too.. but my driver managed to hold him till my pitstop. But Pijus was running a heavy fuel load and he pitted very late for the Dry tyres at the weather change. Eld had a 11 second lead over Pijus and there were 12 more laps to go. But Pijus was cutting it down sharply every lap and he caught up with Eld in 9 laps. But overtaking was a different thing as he unsuccessfully challenged Eld on the last 3 laps. He finished just .06 seconds from the 'Homeboy' Eld. And i got the third position even with mistakes. Pijus should have won the race and my driver was at fault. Pijus was stuck behind me for over 25 laps and that was the difference. Woodi had a bad day in his Home GP when his engine blew off in Lap42. Here are the race results.
1. Joakim Sjöblom**
2. Pijus Jerusevicius
3. Aswin Mathew
4. Andre Osterloh
5. Thomas Pappaioannou
6. Donatas Stakauskas
7. Christophe Jauffret
8. Arunas Babrauskas******

F1Time - S22 - Race7 - Estoril, Portugal

2005-03-22T11:48:00.000-05:00

I had a forgettable 2nd week which saw just 2 points added to my kitty. I was back in control of my account and i am hoping for a better week. Race 7 also saw Current Champion Robertas back to mainstream racing. The limitation of a lesser gearbox didnt show a weakness at all as he was matching Eld and Woodi in WU. Rumours say that Robertas was lucky in finishing as he didnt had an enviable Reliability with his Mersedes engine. Eld went for the POLE and was followed by Robertas, Woodi and Heike in the starting grid. My driver could manage only a 4th row start in the grid alongside my last season 'enemy' Nezam :). This was a wet race and Eld went for 3 stops while others went for 2 stops. So Robertas had an easy job at his hands as he cruised to his First Win of the season. His teammie Pijus finished 2nd making it a complete domination of 'Technical Itch' in c1. Woodi was running third and then he had a short spin on the track. Mebbe seeing my car on his rear view made his driver tense. :). But my shitty driver didnt had the skill to utilise that mistake to our advantage. But woodi was kind enough to spin again and this time my driver made sure not to loose again. So i got a Podium thanks to woodi and Eld and woodi finished 4th and 5th respectively. Miguel again had an Engine Explosion and is having a miserable time with his suppliers this season. The Race Results are as follows
1. Robertas Petniunas*
2. Pijus Jerusevicius
3. Aswin Mathew
4. Joakim Sjöblom**
5. Johan Skog
6. Heike Kohl
7. Sow Oneplus*
8. Pedro Lanca

F1Time - S22 - Race6 - Brands Hatch, Great Britain

2005-03-20T01:09:00.000-05:00

The F1Time Race Engine has played a villain yesterday. I was still not on control of my account but i was racing. Infact racing for the second spot in the Podium. Then my engine blew away and there went my money which i saved last race. These situations make me think twice about doing a saving race. I consider racing more attractive :)).
Heike had the POLE this time in BrandsHatch followed by Eld and my driver. Heike made a bad start and both Eld and my driver was able to pounce on her. She kept losing positions and so Thomas and Arus were running behind me. My Bad Luck came on Lap 41 and Lap 44 saw a crash between Thomas and Arus. Eld won the race comfortably from Pijus. Then there was some close racing between Woodi, Andre and Heike. Heike lost out on pits and Woodi managed to get ahead of Andre and thus ensuring a Podium finish. The Race Results are as follows
1. Joakim Sjöblom**
2. Pijus Jerusevicius
3. Johan Skog
4. Heike Kohl
5. Andre Osterloh
6. Miguel Matos
7. Donatas Stakauskas
8. Gediminas Bakas

F1Time - S22 - Race5 - Monaco, Monaco

2005-03-17T11:55:00.000-05:00

I was out of station and my Good Friend managed my race yesterday.
Monaco ideally should be a racing track for any manager but we decided
to save here. Pijus was hot on track and he was on POLE for the race. Eld was second. Sow was looking forward for his first podium as he qualified third. Sow lost a position at the race start to woodi and was trailing him all race. The Leaders were on a 3 stop strategy and Eld couldnt challenge Pijus for that top spot. A couple of tyre wears at the slow first stop put Sow down to 6th position. But his quest for Podium ended in Lap 71 when his engine let him down. Pijus had an easy win followed by Eld. Heike again came third. Eld looks very strong now and now its a matter of time before he gets ahead into top DC spot. But Heike isnt making Eld's job easier too!! I finished 16th in my saving race and i think that was a good position considering c1 standards. The Race results are as follows
1. Pijus Jerusevicius
2. Joakim Sjöblom**
3. Heike Kohl
4. Johan Skog
5. Andre Osterloh
6. Jon Payton
7. Mickey Miksa
8. Rogério Mandler

F1Time - S22 - Race4 - Barcelona, Spain

2005-03-15T09:41:00.000-05:00

Barcelona was the 4th track of the F1Time Season 22 schedule. Fresh engines came after the First weeks testing and Mercedes was rumoured to be strong. And the WU proved that when 3 Mersedes topped the charts. Eld was on top followed by teammie Woodi and Arus. The Weather was hot and the Pitlane was long. That prompted me to try an extra stop and gain some money to get out of the economic crisis i was facing. That worked as i got POLE with my Medium compound Dry tyres. But the other contenders were in Hard Tyres and the close gap they had with my Qual time was Bad news for me. I could hold on to my Top spot till my First pit at Lap 18. Then Eld took control and won his first race of the season. Arus went in for a 1 Stop strategy and he certainly mistimed his first stop as he had a 7 lap tyrewear. But the 1 stop still did its trick and he finished 2nd. DC leader Heike came third and continued to work for her first Golden Star. The extra stop meant i could manage only 6th. Here are the race results
1. Joakim Sjöblom**
2. Arunas Babrauskas******
3. Heike Kohl
4. Johan Skog
5. Donatas Stakauskas
6. Aswin Mathew
7. Felipe Miranda
8. Christophe Jauffret

F1Time - S22 - Race3 - Interlagos, Brazil

2005-03-13T10:38:00.000-05:00

The First was a mixed week for me. I got my First win but at the same time made two big mistakes which could prove costly at the later stages. Mebbe the pressure of c1 is getting to me after all. :)
Brazilian GP was another superb result for Heike. Though she didnt win it, she came second to make a good headstart in the DC standings. Pijus Jerusevicius, the talented lithuanian - dubbed as a future champion, won his first race in c1. They were joined by Eld in the podium and made sure he follows Heike closely. Gamemaster Jonny had the pole but had to settle for 4th position in the results sheet. Robbie again had a Engine Explosion but this time at the starting lap itself. I finished 7th after a tight battle with Sow challenging me from the starting laps and continued till the end. Here are the race results
1 Pijus Jerusevicius
2 Heike Kohl
3 Joakim Sjoblom
4 Jon Payton
5 Johan Skog
6 Gediminas Bakas
7 Aswin Mathew
8 Sow Oneplus

F1Time - S22 - Race2 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2005-03-10T12:57:00.000-05:00

The happiest day in my F1Time career so far. My First C1 Win..!! I never expected that this would come this quick enough. Malaysia proved to be my lucky ground. Many of the managers raced with their unrepaired Gearboxes and when i saw that only Woodi is going 100%, i took a chance which paid off. The Qualifying was a lil worry when i saw Heike and Donatas ahead of me. But later i realised that Heike is having an extra stop and Donatas was running on Softs which was not the ideal tyre for Malaysian Hot Temperatures. Miguel was running good for a podium spot when his engine let down. So Woodi and Heike joined me in the podium with Donatas finishing 4th. Heike marches forward positively for her title dreams. Here are the complete results.
1 Aswin Mathew
2 Johan Skog
3 Heike Kohl
4 Donatas Staukaskas
5 Joakim Sjoblom
6 Arunas Babrauskas
7 Gediminas Bakas
8 Mickey Miksa

F1Time - S22 - Race1 - Melbourne, Australia

2005-03-08T12:12:00.000-05:00

This was my First race and i was really excited to be part of c1 now. But i was also aware of the fact that a manager's real strength would be exposed here and i consider myself a noob in many areas. My only aim was to finish in Top20 and my result was better than that for which i am happy.
The First Race was totally dominated by Heike Kohl as she seems to start her engine for c1 glory this time. Miguel came in second making it a complete Aodi domination. Vitor as usual looks good at the start of the season and came third. Though i qualified in 17th place, i made up some places with the pitstop and finally finished 10th. Here are the First Race Results
1 Heike Kohl
2 Miguel Matos
3 Vitor Ribeiro
4 Joakim Sjoblom
5 Pijus Jerusevicius
6 Jon Payton
7 Andre Osterloh
8 Donatas Staukaskas

Foto - Arunis

2005-03-07T12:52:00.000-05:00

"Stubborn, Lazy and Fun" was what Arunas Viskintas described about himself. True.. he is all these, but faithful. He's been a nice teammie for me for the last 3 seasons but he s a bit short-tempered. He is a F1Time Old-timer and dreams of bagging the c1 title sometime soon. 'Arunis' hails from Lithuania and he is seen with his beautiful GF Aurelija.

Arunis - Arunas Viskintas

Foto - Yih

2005-03-07T01:12:00.000-05:00

Yih Liang Su is from Malaysia and also the elder brother of Sow Oneplus. He is currently taking a break from F1Time having completed his best ever season in C1. With Sow, he has instrumental in getting the Nations Championship for Malaysia a couple of times. Here he is seen enjoying his Chinese vacation. A light resemblance to JetLi.. Isnt it?

Yih Liang Su

F1Time - S22 - Season Preview

2005-03-06T14:08:00.000-05:00

The Season had a surprise element when the Retirement of Team Staff was tweaked a little. Many of the managers lost as many as 3 members from their Mechanical and Pitcrew Dept resulting in a hot debate in the site forums. The plans of many would have changed and the managers would take some time to adapt to these changes.
The Season also witnessed some surprises wrt Supplier Signings. This is a season where we have Five sponsors for the first time(mebbe the last too) and the reason for that being the whole engine contract price being paid at the start of the season. That would have prompted some managers(including me) to go for a 'not-so-c1' engine. Also the tyre characteristics and prices have been changed drastically so that many Pips can be seen in c1 now. But I am still wondering why the likes of Eld and Robbie went for a medium wear Goodyeah when they had enough discount for expensive Bridgestones. Mebbe time will tell as i am a rookie learning the c1 trade while they are experts for seasons. One thing is sure.. C1 is no playground for parttimers.. More time is required and i think the competition is atleast 10 times bigger than in c2. A general trend in other groups also saw managers sticking to Pips(hot favourite this season) and lower profile engines.
A look at the Engine selection shows that the decrease in the number of Aodis and Mercedes wins more favor with the managers. Heike Kohl and Miquel Matos are the only ones with Aodis and there are a few managers with BMLs and they are the ones to look out for in the first two weeks. Here is the engine breakup of c1.
Mersedes 10
BML 7
Bugatit 6
Aodi 2
Totoya 2
Puegeot 1
Renualt 1
Frod 1

The Spin Master for S21

2005-03-02T08:30:00.000-05:00

The Spins made by each Manager in c1 has been tabulated and the results are as follows.

The 'Spin Master' - Jointly shared by Lex and Spazzie with 35 Spins.
'Cool as Cucumber' - Shared by Petri and RC with No Spins.

Total Spins - 297
Average Per Race - 17.5

Top5 Spinners
Aleksander Bracko - 35 Spins in 974 Laps
Calle Korjus - 35 Spins in 1014 Laps
Marcus Gustavsson - 27 Spins in 833 Laps
Miguel Matos - 20 Spins in 703 Laps
Christophe Jauffret - 19 Spins in 913 Laps

Bottom5 Spinners
Rodrigo Coutinho** - None in 218 Laps
Petri Korpela - None in 908 Laps
Rui Ferreira - Once in 766 Laps
Arunas Babrauskas****** - 2 Spins in 994 Laps
Andreas Buettner - 2 Spins in 825 Laps

Most Number of Laps Driven
Panagiotis Kolidas - 1041 Laps
Nuno Mendes - 1039 Laps
Vadim Nogtev - 1034 Laps
Yih Liang Su - 1028 Laps
Johan Skog - 1019 Laps

Least Number of Laps Driven
Rodrigo Coutinho** - 218 Laps
Tej Almeida - 442 Laps
Miguel Matos - 703 Laps
Rui Ferreira - 766 Laps
Thomas Pappaioannou - 771 Laps

Season 22 Tracks

2005-02-28T02:07:00.000-05:00

TaBu has published the tracks for F1Time Season 22.
Monaco is back in the list.

Tracks:
1. Australia - Melbourne
2. Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur
3. Brazil - Interlagos
4. Spain - Barcelona
5. Monaco - Monaco
6. Great Britain - Brands Hatch
7. Estoril - Portugal
8. Anderstorp - Sweden
9. Bahrain - Sakhir
10. Canada - Montreal
11. USA - Indianapolis
12. China - Shanghai
13. France - Magny Cours
14. Austria - A1 Ring
15. Italy - Monza
16. Spa-Francorchamps - Belgium
17. Japan - Suzuka

Test tracks:
1. Zandvoort - Netherlands
2. Kyalami - South Africa
3. Vilnius - Lithuania

Retirements - RC and Co

2005-02-25T00:02:00.000-05:00

As expected, RC is retiring from the F1Time world. "As for the reasons I´m leaving, there is one, plain and simple: I don´t have the time nor the old passion anymore to play it properly. Playing it on a high level demands a lot of time (believe me)." RC told the fellow managers.
Other retirees include
Yih Liang Su
Rui Ferrera and
Robertas Petniunas (Not sure though)
I hope all of these great managers come back sooner or later as we all miss them here in F1Time.

F1Time - S21 - Race17 - Cancun, Mexico

2005-02-24T06:58:00.000-05:00

A New Champion for F1Time
Robertas finally achieved what he was looking for. Mebbe fortune was in his favor. In case of a Eld win in the last race, he needed to finish ATLEAST fourth and he finished exactly there. Mebbe's Sow misfortune turned into Robertas' good. But one must appreciate Eld's comeback. Though i personally wanted Robertas to win the DC, my Manager of the Season is Eld. Battling without a Designer for the first two weeks and trailing by 25 points, he finally finished only a point away from the Star. Gratz to both of you. You guys rock!!
Christian finally had a win to bring curtains to the 21st season of c2g1 group. He was close on many occassions, but couldnt add that finishing touch. This would be a morale booster for him and i hope he turns this into a promotion next season. Gago came second to finish 5th in the DC standings which could still earn him a promotion. And the third was a bit lucky for me which should have gone to Ciskokid if had not spun a few laps from finish. That Podium also gave me my TC-DC double and i cant be more happy than this.
The 5th Sponsor issue has grown to such high proportions that TaBu had to change his decision many times to finally console everyone. Now that we have the option to sign a 5th sponsor or to have it chosen by the gameengine at racetime. This effectively doesnt give any disadvantage to guys with better CDs. Also the problem of running with less sponsors due to this change is overcomed. Its a welcome decision for me, the least to say. :)

F1Time - S21 - Race16 - Kyalami, South Africa

2005-02-22T02:40:00.000-05:00

Woohoo...!!! TC atlast and we are going to c1 as a team. Moreover today is my Bday and i consider the TC as TaBu's Bday present. Not in a mood to write much. Our team had a comfortable 1-2 finish(first of the season) and the TC opponents dropped(Bad Luck). More Bad Luck was for Mik, who was looking good for a Podium finish when his Engine let loose again.. Christian was fast but was unlucky again. Pedro made a mistake and that cost him points. Gago mite be looking for WildCard and he powered his car to a third place finish. And Breugelmans had the best finish of the season when he finished 4th. And i have the DC lead (temporarily though)!!.
Eld is taking the fight to Robertas as he won again (3 wins in a row now). Robertas checked the advantage and came second. The DC fite goes to the wire now.. Who will be Lucky/Unlucky? Will Eld manage to find someone else to help him? We have to wait till Wednesday nite to get the answers.

F1Time - S21 - Race15 - Sepang, Malaysia

2005-02-19T04:34:00.000-05:00

With 3 more races to go, Robertas had a 13 point lead over Eld. 13 is considered unlucky in most parts of the world. And it certainly proved so for Robertas today. He is in slight financial crisis (he again failed to sign a CD and that mite trouble him for the remaining races if he wants to remain on top of DC standings) and so he selected an aggresive strategy today for POLE. Though the In-Outs in Malaysia is relatively low when compared to other tracks, the less or no chances of overtaking provided the managers with 2 options. One was with 4-5 Stops with Soft tyres and the other one, a 2 stopper with Medium tyres. Robertas chose the first option while Eld went with the later. Robertas put in the initial fuel a little too less and that put him on the tail of Yih after the first pits. Yih also was on 2 stops and in no mood to move over for Robertas to have a go at Eld. This delay inturn caused Robertas to be behind Eld after the fourth stop and again Robertas failed to overtake. The delays proved very costly and Robertas could only manage 4th. Eld got the win again followed by Yih. Nuno came in third position and moved his tally to 60 points.
It was racing time again for the A-Squared team in c2g1. We went in with 2 different strategies to minimise our risk. While Arunis selected 4 stops with his Softs, i went in for a conservative 2 Meds. Arunis got the POLE and that was a good sign for the team. I was only 3rd on the grid, but made a good start to surge into the lead. A damn spin in Lap4 pushed me down to 9th place. Christian again looked in solid form as he led the pack after Arunis' pit. But luck wasnt in his side as he had an Engine Explosion soon. His teammie Stefan also was running for points finish when his engine also let him down. Nezam chose the wrong strategy when he tried 3 Softs. The wear due to that helped us as i managed to win another race. Lanca was second but was a serious threat to my first place. Rogerio, Gago and Arunis took the next 3 positions. Nezam and Teammie Xtra came 6th and 7th. That put our team in the TC Lead for the first time. Now we are hoping to stay there.

Foto - Christian Reindl

2005-02-18T04:58:00.000-05:00

Christian Reindl is one of the upcoming talents in F1Time. Starting in c4 in Season 12, he has moved up till c2 and is a prospective c1 manager either next season or the one after that. He has given me lots of trouble (racing) in c3 as well as c2. One weak point noticed by many is his Beer Drinking on Racedays. Doing race orders and then Beer Partying is ok, but not the reverse. :). Christian Reindl comes from Bayreuth, Germany.

Christian Reindl

F1Time - S21 - Race14 - Interlagos, Brazil

2005-02-17T10:15:00.000-05:00

Motivated by the fact that the gap in TC has come down to 10 points, i decided to race again in Brazil. I was expecting challenges from Christian, Rogerio and Cacador. Cacador doesnt seem to be interested in his Home GP and Rogerio settled for old GB. In the end, it was Christian again and he is the tough guy now :). Higher temperatures at Brazil and having only Pips, Christian was forced to go 3 stops against my 2 stops. The lenghty Pit gave me an advantage and i had an easy win. But i was disappointed on missing POLE. I wasnt expecting it, but at the end when i saw that the gap was just .019, i was surprised. Christian didnt do me any favor as he finished only fifth and more importantly below Nezam. Nezam came second above Gago. 'Cisko' Benjamin utilised his fav track to score 5 points and got away from the relegation threat. Lanca disappointed as he had lots of wear and finally had to settle for 7th.
In C1, though Eld seemed to be slower than Robertas in the WarmUp, Eld fared better in Qual. Robertas got over Eld on Lap11 eventually, but the superior crew determined the race win yday. While Eld had stops of 4.8 and 5.2 secs, Robertas could manage only 6.2 and 8.2 pits. Robertas tried to close the gap, but the tyre wear in the last only further widened it. With the win, Eld cut down the gap to 13 points and moved to second spot. Nuno, the last race winner, came third and also got into third posn in the DC standings. Woodi came sixth and is placed fourth in DC. The Malaysian Brothers are right now at positions 5 and 6 in the DC. "Is it really their time?" I wonder!
The Game in the meantime is on an expansion mode as TaBu opened groups 9-16 in Class 5. At this point when i am righting this, managers are filled in till Group 14. The Server has been working well for the past few days and hope that it can withstand the new surge.

F1Time - S21 - Race13 - Indianapolis, USA

2005-02-15T04:03:00.000-05:00

Things changed when we reached Indy for the US GP. We saw a chance for a Team Championship and so we raced leaving aside my plan for a saving race. Christian was the fastest in our group and he took the POLE. Our team came next with myself settling behind Arunis. But once the race started, Christian seemed to be slower than expected. I was at his tail from Lap4 and I had to wait till my first change of tyres to overtake him. In between, Nezam dropped giving us some advantage. Rogerio was on 3 stops compared to our 4 and was threating to take the first place. In the end, i had a comfortable win. Rogerio settled for second while Christian took third. Arunis came fourth and thus gave 15 points to A-Squared. Rox's fan had a disappointing race with Panagiotis settling for 6th place. So we have cut down the TC gap to 10 points from 22 and we expect the Team Championship going down the wire. Another disappointment was Mik's Engine Explosion. This was his fourth try for points and he was set for some as well (he was running 6th), but on all occasions his engine failed him.
C1 battle seems to be almost over. Robertas has a clear lead and neither Yih nor Sow seems to have powered their BMLs good enough to match Robertas. The only competitor, and Real One too, is Eld at the moment. All depends on how close Robertas can get near Eld in the remaining races. But the WU showed a different picture where Robertas came ahead of Eld. Seems like his driver is super-charged for the occation. In qual, Nuno took the pole, seemingly with a Fav track. When the race began, the Double Overtaking Bug cost Robertas to loose his posn over Eld. Arus also was on fav track but he had qualified at the bottom of the table for progress money. All except Nuno were on 4 stops and Arus caught both Robertas and Eld after the first round of stops. The order stayed the same and Nuno won the race from Arus. Robertas finished above Eld and Yih came fifth. Woodi had a terrible strategy going for 2 stops and still finished 6th.

F1Time - S21 - Race12 - MagnyCours, France

2005-02-14T03:39:00.000-05:00

Pijus Jerusevicius was the talk of the town during last race. Starting in c5, he managed to get to the elite C1 group in just 6 seasons. And the fact that he dominated WU in Magnycours gave him some publicity and elevated him to the public's limelight.
But the race was a different matter. Mebbe Pijus' inexperience showed. He could qualify only 4th on the grid and finished 5th. Eld, Osterloh and HS took the first three positions in the grid and finished too in the same order. Osterloh could have won the race had his tyre lasted for one more lap. The win was snatched by Eld in the very last lap. Yih came fourth and so ensured that the DC lead of HS was kept in check. Though HS has a 12 point Lead over Yih, positions 2-5 are too close that any mistake would be costly.
1.R.Petniunas 61
2.Y.Su 49
3.J.Skog 48
4.J.Sjöblom** 47
5.S.Oneplus* 46

The race in our group also had some dramatic moments. I was the only one who went for 4 stops and thus ran away with the POLE money. But when the race started, the 3 Stops seemed better than 4 Stops. But Gago with Meds was too fast that none of the Soft-runners could match him. He was heading for a Big Win when disaster struck. With just 6 more Laps to go, his Engine Failed and i was given the Lead. That was more than what i expected and i couldnt enjoy the race win. Nezam came second with Christian third. In the end my 4 Stops proved better when the tyre wears caused 3 Stoppers to lose time.

F1Time - S21 - Race11 - Sakhir, Bahrain

2005-02-10T03:46:00.001-05:00

The New Rules SUX so much that right now i feel of even quiting the game. Its not that i am opposed to new improvements to the game, but they shouldnt be helpful to some and disadvantageous to others. Providing a new sponsor position for a season to accomodate the Contract costs is fine. But shouldnt it be announced a bit early so that managers can plan accordingly? A typical Sponsorship can vary between 7 to 14 weeks and with this change, the managers who have a contract ending at the season-end would suffer. I am much more worried, as my 3 contracts expire in a row and with the new sponsor, i am loosing 3 sponsor incomes. This would have never happened in the normal scenario. If we dont plan properly and suffer, then we are to blame..a totally different thing. But what if the game/new change asking me to suffer? Whom shd i blame? Thats pure B******T.
Another debatable decision was the new Sponsor dependent on the CD. Well again.. i explained it a couple of times in the forum and sure ..noone heard it. Enough is enough. I stopped Posting when i saw no use in doing it. I dont want myself to be Yelling or to be branded as a Moaner. One must understand that these silly decisions affect more than one may think. As we always say .. We need to step into someone's shoes to think like them. In this case to feel like them :).
Now to the race stuff. Robertas moved out of his Shell and won his first race of the season. He was quite annoyed and unhappy of being branded the Second Best all the time. A bit of luck with Sow and Eld dropping out mite have helped too. Woodi came second and Kolidas came third. Robertas with a string of consistent and strong finishes, now moves to the Top of the DC standings where he has a 9 point lead. Woodi and Sow are tied with 46 points as against Robertas' 55. Yih is not too far away with 44 points.
In our group, it was pretty much Normal results again. Nezam as usual was there at the top with Rogerio behind. Teammie Arunis came third to add another 6 points to the A-Squared Team. Christian looked strong in Qualifying, but had to settle for 4th because of his tyres. It was a saving race for me and i finished 13th.

F1Time - New Changes

2005-02-09T00:45:00.000-05:00

The New Changes for the coming Seasons have been announced.

- You will be able to sign an extra sponsor, so for 1 season ONLY, you will have 5 regular + 1 main sponsor. This will help you to cope with some side effects of the changes about which you are about to read next. Effective: start of season #22
Extra Sponsor is Good. But that based on the CD is quite unjust.
- If you finish with negative balance more than 10.000.000 in debt, you lose your sponsors, they will be reset to 1M each. This will help to stop people from doing silly things in markets like Thomas and others...Effective: end of season #22
A flaw fixed.!
- there will be no engine replacement prices, only engine's contract fee will remain, however, you will have to pay it at once, when you sign engine. Of course, contracts will be more expensive than they are today and will include any and all engine costs, so basically you will pay for 17 new engines for all season long. Effective: end of season #22
Back to old times!
- "Suppliers' fund" will be created, so you can deposit money into it every once in a while, until it is able to cover costs contract fees. It will only be visible to you and any money left, after you pay for contracts, will be added to your balance right before restart happens. Effective: start of season #22
Oh!! There is some privacy there. :)

F1Time - S21 - Race10 - Barcelona, Spain

2005-02-09T00:41:00.000-05:00

I had a near to perfect race in Barcelona. My Driver A Ahuja added a POLE, Fastest Lap and WIN to his stats. Except for two laps, i lead the pack. But the two laps of tyrewear could have been avoided. Though i won c2g1, i must admit that Felipe in c2g2 was faster. The Mandlers had to settle for second in both the c2 groups.
The story would have been different if Christian and Gago had anyother tyre than their Pips. Their Pips forced them to go for Harder Compounds and thus became slow. The DC leader Nezam dropped midway through the race and that opened the gates for Arun to complete a Twin Podium for Indians.
In C1, Eld is on a roll. He powered his Mersedes to another win which was a heartbreaking event for HS. He is proving to be the Second Best at the moment. Though he ruled the WU, Eld had the last laugh in Qualifying. And he didnt relax in the race too. The result put Eld a point below his teammie Woodi and HS close the gap on Sow to just one point. Yih finished third and thus ensured that he too stays in the DC race.
And some good news. The Server stayed all through the racetime and everyone could watch it. But the 12 hours downtime of the server after the race completion continues.
Another HOT news in the community is the possible exploit being fixed in F1Time. Managers tried to sign up the Best CDs and go negative. At the end of the season, they loose their staff, but still keeps their Sponsor contracts. That would enable them to save a LOT during the first few weeks and then race in the later part of the season. TaBu right now fixed the issue by defaulting the sponsors to 1M if we are below -10M.

F1Time needs some BCP

2005-02-08T01:23:00.000-05:00

There needs to be some Business Continuity Plan(BCP) for the site. The Server Outages are becoming an issue where it goes down every raceday and the endless wait for the manager starts. More importantly it has put more overhead on our heads. We need to check every now and then for site availability as there is no public announcement(or email) or alternate site where we could find details or updates about the F1Time site. Missing a race has its own consequences and noone wants to miss one. TaBu is doing everything he can.. but he too is human.. I strongly feel its time we start a Webgroup( Yahoo! groups and MSN groups are the only ones i know, but there mite be even better group sites), where the F1Time community can use for Backup plans. An announcement email from one of the GMs would do a lot better to the managers.

F1Time - S21 - Race9 - Montreal, Canada

2005-02-06T22:51:00.000-05:00

The Weekend was crucial. I was out of Sponsorships and my CD was gone. My First and foremost aim was to get that position filled asap. Though i bid for the top guys, once again i realised how big the c1 (or for that matter.. the higher class) advantage is. I had to settle for a lower level CD. It isnt bad.. but not good either. Now i have to live with it.
As far as the race was concerned, i think i chose the wrong strategy this time. Pretty high temperatures with a InOut time of 14 secs made me go for 3 Meds. But a cutdown version of 2 stops would have been better on afterthoughts. Anyway i wasnt racing for points and so i settled in 12th position. Nezam once again took the win with Rogerio coming in second and Gago in third places. So that put myself, Rogerio and Gago tied with 33 points. By virtue of more wins, i was put above them in the standings. But thats gonna change soon, i know. Also the competition is visible when we look at the next two positions held by Bakas and Kondrat. They trail by just another point and the promo Battle in ON in c2g1.
In c1, Eld is catching up with the DC leaders as he raced to back to back wins. Sure he s making up for the lost time at the start. And with his improved Mersedes Engine, with huge potential under its skin, he should be faster than the rest from nowon. Nuno came second and Sow came third. The win wasnt easy as one think and the podium finishers were seperated by just 4 secs between them. Sow remains in control of c1 with that podium, but with Robertas finishing 7th, he moved to second position ahead of Yih.
The Server as usual failed again. The encouraging thing was that we were able to see the Qual session and 19 laps of racing. TaBu then had to post the results to quench the F1Time thirsty managers.

A Truck Load of GMail Invites

2005-02-04T06:57:00.000-05:00

Today, when I visited the GMail site (I use the Free POP3 service these days and so didn’t login online for a few days), I've seen that the invites Link has changed its shape... And to my surprise... a whopping 50 invites!! So if there is anyone still waiting for a GMail account, please get it from here... :)

F1Time - S21 - Race8 - Melbourne, Australia

2005-02-03T23:15:00.000-05:00

The Server tests everyone's patience levels. The New server is fast but not 0% reliable at racetime. Now i think the old one was better - if not fast, it was more reliable. The F1Time community again gathered in the IRC chat to try their luck. But Server let us down again.. Only relief was the Race log posted by TaBu in a site.

In C1, RC again missed the race clearly hinting a move out. I ve tried to contact him, but login history shows that he hasnt logged in for a while. Now for the race, it was a Swedish domination in Melbourne. Eld with his new designer started to climb the c1 DC wall created by Malaysian Brothers. HS again had to settle for second best due to some brilliant defensive driving at the end by Eld. Woodi came third to compliment his teammie.
Rogerio after a string of Bad Lucks got lucky this time and he celebrated it with a win. Arun was second scoring his first points of the season. Nezam went in for 3 stops Softs as against the 2 stops by other managers. It got him the Pole, but also some tyrewear. Coz of the tyrewear, i suffered as much as Nezam. He denied my driver the chance to overtake, but let Bakas pass through :(. Eventually i overtook him, but the block cost me a podium, So i had to settle for 4th best in group behind Bakas.

F1Time - S21 - Race7 - Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

2005-02-01T12:18:00.000-05:00

The server reliability has been questioned so much that some of my fellow managers even started betting on when the server will go down. And it happened just like that. BreadC proved to be the best among the 'astrologers'. :). Earlier when the server goes down, it would have up an hour or two after the race is done. But now, it takes 10-12 hours for restoration. :(
Well.. I was in all sorts of confusion for this race. According to the pattern i followed this season, this one is for racing. But the low lap money gained by just 44 laps in Spa made me think twice. Only when i saw my teammie top the WU timings (10 minutes to Office closure at that time), i decided to give him company and thereby race. Unfortunately i had done my all 4 WU laps till then and wasnt sure where i stand. The Qual was bad when i could manage only 10th. But as the race progressed, i gained positions and was even leading after the pits. But all those good times came to an end when my Engine Blew. It was my first this season and hope to be the only one too. Nezam held on to his position despite a late charge by Kondrat. In the end, both finished within a second's gap and Nezam took away another win. My teammie came third and thats a relief for me. Lanca continued his good show with a 4th place finish.
In c1, Nuno Mendes got his first win of the season. He was followed by Sow and Tof. Sow, with that 8 points, leapfrogged his elder brother to lead the DC now. Tof was really happy with the podium as was evident in his Press Releases :). Again.. RC missed the race and i doubt it to be the starting of a sabbatical. RC is a champion racer and it would be another loss if he decides to retire.

F1Time - S21 - Race6 - Suzuka, Japan

2005-01-30T08:35:00.000-05:00

From Austria, we move to Asia's finest and one of the driver's favourite tracks - Suzuka. It was a safe saving race for me. A couple of drops and accidents gave me a decent finish position of 11. Kondrat won the race followed by Bart and Kosev. Bart was the real surprise there and his first season in c2 with a Hodna is looking very good. Another important happening was Nezam's DNF. It was his first in the season, but still leads the DC. Pedro with his Aodi continue to gather points and is doing a terrific job at the moment.
In c1, it was Woodi's turn again. Robertas again had to settle for second best. Su came in third and Sow with his 6th posn ensured that Malaysians are well ahead. RCdaDood missed this race and thats not gonna help his cause.
The Server again let us down. The Qual was visible but nothing more. It was down for sometime because TaBu was partying and never knew abt that. Seems like we are having tougher times ahead with the server. In other news, my good friend Cristian won his first c3 race in his rookie season. That was a nice BDay present from TaBu :))

F1Time - S21 - Race5 - A1 Ring, Austria

2005-01-27T01:20:00.000-05:00

After all the testing and fun races, the F1Time moved to its schedule - Race 5 of Season21. After 2 podiums and 2 unrepaired races, it was time to race again. And surprisingly i did it in great style in Austria. Pole, Fastest Lap and Race Victory. It cant get much sweeter than this. So this win again makes me in contention for a promotion spot. But thats not what i am aiming for. The DC competitors Nezam and Pedro took the other podium spots. For Nezam, it was his fourth consecutive Podium finish after his 6th place in the inaugural race.
In C1, Vitor too, like me :), grabbed his second win of the season. Robertas was second and Sow came third. The DC leader Yih had a bad day when he had to DNF and finish way down in 25th. But the Malaysian brothers still have control on the elite group.
Well thats the race part. Now for the server, it is fast when compared to the old one. But this new one wasnt tested enough in the funraces. And that showed at Race time. Infact the server broke down at Qual time itself. Thats pretty disappointing.

Calling You Friend

2005-01-24T05:38:00.000-05:00

I am looking out for some Fellow F1Time managers to help me with something.
No. No.. No... I am not asking for any money..Dont worry..
Anyone interested and with some freetime please put down a comment here or in the F1Time mailbox for more details.
Hint: Its about the 'Most happening word' of 2004.

Foto - Eugene

2005-01-24T01:15:00.000-05:00

Eugene Timchenko is from the Old Soviet Federation Ukraine. He is another veteran who started playing this game as early as Season5. I have played alongside him in a couple of seasons and i know that he isnt that Bad. Another manager whos held up in the c2 barrier like me. Eugene hails from Kiev, Ukraine, a place i know better for its Football Club.

Nimble - Eugene Timchenko

New F1 Game - Pitwall

2005-01-24T01:00:00.000-05:00

Arun introduced me to this new F1 Management Game, which is still in its early stages. A season consists of 13 races here unlike the regular 17 we have in F1Time. And in a week, there is only 1 race. I joined only midway through the season in Race6. Though my drivers scored some points(mainly because of less managers), my economy isnt that good enough. Hope i learn this fast. To my surprise, i saw lots of other F1Time Managers including ... TaBu.. :). So I am not feeling alone there.
Check out the game here

F1Time - S21 - Fun Race, Lithuania

2005-01-22T22:46:00.000-05:00

The FunRace proved to be much FUN for me. The reason - I won it :)). But it didnt make an impact as was thought. Many managers didnt even care to race as its of no importance. But considering the server change and need for Load Testing, i think they didnt do justice to TaBu's 100M. Now with the race, i think i got Lucky to get a win. Arun was faster than me in the Prac/WU listings but mistakes in the Driver Orders costed him the win. My teammie Arunis had a good Qual time. Again wrong(or fun?? i dunno) race settings were the reason. The race had Dry weather as well as very Wet Conditions. I saw 30mm rain conditions for the first time. While myself and Arun went with the Dry race settings, Andreas Weilemann went with the Wet Race settings. That gave Weilemann a good second half and prevented an Indian 1-2 in the Podium.
In C1, it was more fun. Current DC leaders Yih and Sow raced and almost took the win except that they cheated :D. So that meant my racetime to be fastest for the entire race. Should i have anymore reason not to be Happy? :))
Oh! Forgot to put down the most important matter. The Server behaved well and was ultra-fast after the race. wooey...!

FUN Time not F1Time

2005-01-20T12:55:00.000-05:00

The Poor turnout in the first testrace has prompted TaBu to do something different for the second one. So the second one is done at Lithuanian track where laptimes come down inside a minute and total number of lap exceeds a century. Also everyone's engine HP was cut down to 1HP (it was 0HP at first). As someone said, it would be a Snail's Parade rather than a race(j/k). But the interesting part is the economy and the designers. Everyone was provided with Level 100 Designers and 100M (believe it or not). Now the WVs and Yamahahas can have a go at the Aodis and the BMLs. Not to mention the ultra fast pitstops we are gonna see. If the reliability too was made 100%, it would have been real FUN.

New GM for F1Time

2005-01-19T12:32:00.000-05:00

Now F1Time has more than one Gamemaster. In an announcement in the site, TaBu has appointed Jonny to be his co-GM. Its more of a promotion from his 'Second-in-Charge' position. Jonny still wont have access to race scripts and game engine, but would have rights on Markets, something which is very critical these days. That means that he still plays the game like everyone and can also feed TaBu about certain issues from a player's point of view.

F1Time - S21 - Another Delay But Good News

2005-01-19T11:45:00.000-05:00

As if the delays arent enough for the season, here comes another one. But this one is for some real good reasons. TaBu is changing the F1Time servers and he says that the new server should be thrice as fast as the old one. So the fifth race of the S21 is being postponed a week. In the meantime, we are gonna have two testraces - the first being on Wednesday and the second one on Friday. Hopefully we have better times ahead.

New Stats for F1Time Supporters

2005-01-18T23:52:00.000-05:00

The Managers were greeted with new stats in the NewYear. The stats now show DRP%, and track-wise records. Further we have our rating points chart and a guestbook. Currently only the supporters have access to this feature. Login IP addresses are also included to track down on Multies.

F1Time - S21 - The Retirements

2005-01-18T11:35:00.000-05:00

As many as 6 managers retired this season and this is supposed to be the biggest retirement process till now. The retirements include
1. Robertas Mazeikis - 20 Seasons
2. Max Scornioff - 17 Seasons
3. Alvydas Akelaitis - 12 Seasons
4. Renata Paulaviciute - 12 Seasons
5. Soon Hui Lim - 8 Seasons
6. Ilona Staskute - 7 Seasons

With these 6 retirements, the total number of retirees comes to 22.

F1Time - S21 - A Season of Delays & Errors

2005-01-18T09:50:00.000-05:00

Traditionally (yeah!! F1Time has got some history now :D), the first race of a new season would be marred with Live Coverage Problems as the server breaks down. But this time around, though the server held true, what happened before and after the race must have given TaBu a big headache. I really donno what happened coz i was not there firsthand. The first problem arose when the season's opening race was scheduled for Melbourne. Everyone was expecting Monza according to the tracklist published at the end of last season. This caused the season start to be delayed another week. The Season finally started on Jan 10th BUT.. after race events proved to be a havoc. The Markets and the other weekend activities happened because TaBu forgot to change the settings to Friday race. The Last Season was lagging 2 days and so TaBu changed weekend processes to Monday. The 2 weeks(infact 3 weeks) delay made noone think of this. It was a tedious task for TaBu to change everything back to Normal. Lots of managers lost their staff, money, the driver's chara and so on. Both script and manual efforts by TaBu for around 4 hours made everything back to Normal. Race2 passed incident free and a server problem caused Race3 to be delayed a day. Race4 too ran smoothly.

F1Time - S21 - Decent Start to the Season

2005-01-18T06:45:00.000-05:00

Hello and here again I am with the news and details of the new Season. S21 started before the NewYear but this is my first post on the Season. Couple of project related matters delayed my active involvement and I am not sure how long I can be active again. But one thing's for sure; If i have a chance/choice.. i wont miss F1Time.

Four races are done when i write this. After a while, i have the same teammie for two continous seasons. The S21 was our planned season for Promotion. But at the end of S20, we realised that we arent fully prepared yet. Ofcourse, we can always fight for promotion, but we dont want others to see us as C1-visitors. So S21 was again chosen as a 'Team Building' season. Thats the reason why we went for Mid spec Totoya engines. Lots of Aodis and BMLs are there as usual. We also have the Mersedes Hodnas Renualts Bugatits Peugeots and even the WV and Yamahahas. Poor Mik.. He missed the deadline for signing the suppliers and he was forced to take Yamahaha. We were actually quite surprised to see that we are the only ones who signed Totoyas. And we have done quite well in the first 4 races. I got 2 podiums including a win. And Arunis secured points and was unfortunate to miss out on a podium when he dropped in the last but one lap. Nezam is currently leading our group. He is having a BML engine which would would be an advantage at the start of the season and he sure is not missing out on anything coming his way. Pedro Lanca too had some consisent shows. But the probable DC winner would be Carlos Gago. His Aodi has speed, his driver is experienced, his crew is very good and his economy is balanced. It wont be a big deal for him to return back to c1. Another manager to whom everyone is keeping an eye on is Vaidas Navickas. He is having a Mersedes and currently working on developing the engine. We can expect him to be very competitive by the mid-season.

C1 now has a refreshing change when we have different title fighters every season. The time when Arus, Kostya, Eld and Vlad ruled; they kept all the records for themselves and we just have to wait for the race order. This time its the Malaysian brothers who are setting the pace in c1. Especially the elder brother Yih. S19 champ and younger brother Sow is playing a supporting role. Yih has currently 26 points and is leading the c1 DC. He lost the game's first perfect Driver but he still managed to get a good replacement and that too not very expensive. In the recent times, this single market win would hold the key for the DC outcome. Eld for one knows this as he is without a Designer and feels left out in the title fight. Yih is followed by Sow and Vitor.

Here are the results from the first 4 races

1. Monza, Italy

c1
1 Yih Liang Su
2 Rodrigo Coutinho**
3 Robertas Petniunas
4 Vitor Ribeiro
5 Nuno Mendes
6 Andre Osterloh
7 Sow Oneplus*
8 Donatas Stakauskas

c2g1
1 Aswin Mathew
2 Carlos Gago
3 Pedro Lanca
4 Gediminas Bakas
5 Vaidas Navickas
6 Nezam Ghalebi
7 Arunas Viskintas
8 Dmitriy Kosev

2. Old Hockenheim, Germany

c1
1 Vitor Ribeiro
2 Panagiotis Kolidas
3 Sow Oneplus*
4 Andre Osterloh
5 Thomas Pappaioannou
6 Yih Liang Su
7 Donatas Stakauskas
8 Nuno Mendes

c2g1
1 Dmitriy Kosev
2 Carlos Gago
3 Nezam Ghalebi
4 Rogério Mandler
5 Pedro Lanca
6 Marcus Sandberg
7 Gero Egler
8 Benjamin Fischer

3. Silverstone, Great Britain

c1
1 Johan Skog
2 Yih Liang Su
3 Nuno Mendes
4 Robertas Petniunas
5 Panagiotis Kolidas
6 Rodrigo Coutinho**
7 Andre Osterloh
8 Sow Oneplus*

c2g1
1 Nezam Ghalebi
2 Aswin Mathew
3 Rogério Mandler
4 Pedro Lanca
5 Gediminas Bakas
6 Dmitri Kondrat
7 Matiss Fridenbergs
8 Jenne Breugelmans

4. Shanghai, China

c1
1 Sow Oneplus*
2 Thomas Pappaioannou
3 Heike Kohl
4 Yih Liang Su
5 Andre Osterloh
6 Vadim Nogtev
7 Johan Skog
8 Panagiotis Kolidas

c2g1
1 Nezam Ghalebi
2 Pedro Lanca
3 Gediminas Bakas
4 Carlos Gago
5 Rogério Mandler
6 Dmitriy Kosev
7 Panagiotis Karapanagiotis
8 Benjamin Fischer

Triangle of Earth

2005-01-05T05:14:00.000-05:00

This is not related to F1Time, but heres one article which i
found relevant with respect to the recent happenings. This
article is written by Doug Copp from ARTI. Hope this comes useful.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager
of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world's
most experienced rescue team. The information in this article
will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams
from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a
member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United
Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years. I have worked
at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous
disasters.

In 1996 we made a film which proved my survival methodology to be
correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul, University
of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical,
scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins
inside. Ten mannequins did "duck and cover," and ten mannequins I used
in my "triangle of life" survival method. After the simulated earthquake
collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film
and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival
techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions, relevant
to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival
for those doing duck and cover. There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the "triangle of life."
This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey
and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA, Canada and Latin
America on the TV program Real TV.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City
during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under their desk. Every child
was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by
lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary
and I wondered why the children were not in the aisles. I didn't at the
time know that the children were told to hide under something.

Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling
upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a
space or void next to them. This space is what I call the "triangle of life".
The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the
object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the
person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time
you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the "triangles" you see
formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see,
in a collapsed building. They are everywhere.

TEN TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY

1) Most everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN BUILDINGS
COLLAPSE are crushed to death. People who get under objects,
like desks or cars, are crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You
should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You
can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next
to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next
to it.

3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an
earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If
the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also,
the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick
buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many
injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll
off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a
much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the
back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor,
next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out
the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next
to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is
killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward
or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam
falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case,
you will be killed!

7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different "moment of
frequency" (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The
stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other
until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on
stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly
mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the
stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if
the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later
when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for
safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

8) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If Possible -
It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the
interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the
building the greater the probability that your escape route will be
blocked;

9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in
an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened
with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the
San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all
killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying
next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had
been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the
crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that
had columns fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices
and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large
voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

Spread the word and save someone¹s life...

Foto - Tej Almeida

2005-01-01T13:07:00.000-05:00

Tej Almeida was our group's last season (S20) champ. Starting the F1Time career in Season8, it was always an upward journey for him. He reached c2 in his sixth season and survived there for 7 seasons and powered his Aodi to the SilverStar podium last season. Tej comes from Trowbridge, United Kingdom.

Tej Almeida

Christmas Wishes

2004-12-23T04:18:00.000-05:00

'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.

F1Time - S20 - Useless Stats - Part II

2004-12-23T04:08:00.000-05:00

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

F1Time - S20 - Useless Stats

2004-12-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

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

F1Time - S20 - Race17 - Suzuka, Japan

2004-12-18T09:42:00.000-05:00

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.

Not the way to go

2004-12-16T22:30:00.000-05:00

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'.

F1Time - S20 - Race16 - Interlagos, Brazil

2004-12-16T04:42:00.000-05:00

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.

Season 21 Tracks

2004-12-14T08:43:00.000-05:00

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.

F1Time - S20 - Race15 - Mexico City, Mexico

2004-12-14T06:17:00.000-05:00

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.

F1Time - S20 - Race14 - Istanbul, Turkey

2004-12-12T08:06:00.000-05:00

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.

F1Time - S20 - Race13 - Sakhir, Bahrain

2004-12-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

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.

Indian Power for Ferrari

2004-12-08T09:05:00.000-05:00

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

F1Time - S20 - Race12 - Anderstorp, Sweden

2004-12-06T22:52:00.000-05:00

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.

F1Time - S20 - Race11 - Buenos Aires, Argentina

2004-12-04T02:44:00.000-05:00

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.

F1Time - S20 - Race10 - Spa, Belgium

2004-12-02T08:55:00.000-05:00

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.

Interesting Character

2004-11-30T15:49:00.000-05:00

In a game where people post messages for anything and everything, i see that the current c1 manager Joe Himeji didnt even post once in the forum. The fact that he is in the game from Season2 makes it more interesting.

F1Time - S20 - Race09 - Barcelona, Spain

2004-11-30T06:28:00.000-05:00

This race was exciting. Ex-teammie Arun got his first podium
in c2 and i hope that is just the start of more to come.
Its real good news for me too as i would be partnering him for
the Indian team sooner or later. More good news came when i
found my teammie Arunis finishing in fourth position.
In the main battle, the crowd at Barcelona were delighted to
see the Championship contender Eld back into winning ways.
His domination in the race can be figured in the 30 sec margin
he had over second placed Donatas. Sow grabbed the third spot.
DC leader Arus settled with fourth position.
Robertas Mazeikis won the race in c2g1 with a clear margin over
Arun and Thomas. It was his first point scoring race and he
must have enjoyed it. Teammie Arunis at one stage of the race
was even leading the pack and came a strong fourth position
in the end.

Foto - Luis Rocha

2004-11-29T13:10:00.000-05:00

Luis Rocha is from Montijo, Portugal and he is one manager
whom i have met (online) recently. He joined the game in Season9
and promoted to c2 in 4 seasons. He is kinda stuck there
for 8 seasons now, that too in my group, and with his
Portugese friends on the verge of getting into the elite
c1 group. That was evident when he secured his first win
in c2 after a gap of 10 seasons. His previous win came in
c4 in Season10. At 32, he is another oldie of F1Time.

Luis Rocha

Foto - Wendy

2004-11-29T13:08:00.000-05:00

Wendy is one of the oldest managers of F1Time, both in age
and in F1Time experience. She is here from the Beta Season
stage. But she had to wait 14 long seasons to register her
first win. That shows that she just loves F1Time more than
racing! She also has the additional responsibility of being
a reporter/moderator. Wendy hails from Alameda, an island
city in California.

Wendy Kemper - 'Finally got my head out of the tube!'

F1Time - S20 - Race08 - Brands Hatch, Great Britain

2004-11-27T15:00:00.000-05:00

Over excitement.. Over confidence.. These can really hurt. When my pitcrew gave me 5 second stops in the last race, that prompted me to go 5 stops in the Brands Hatch race. The Inout was just 4 seconds, but still 5 stops was not the strategy to follow. And to amaze me, the pitcrew random gave me worse pittimes than i had last time.
Over to c1, this race saw Arus win again, this time from Nuno and Eld. The result was close with Nuno crossing the finish line just a second behind Arus.
In c2g1, Akelaitis got the win. DC Competitors Tej and Thomas came second and third. The saving race didnt work well for me as i dropped out with an Engine Explosion.

F1Time - S20 - Race07 - Kyalami, South Africa

2004-11-25T11:41:00.000-05:00

After 2 weeks of testing, i realised though the engine improved, its
reliability has come down to a new low. That effectively will put down the
curtains on my plans to stay back in c2. But we hear that we need to take
risks to get success. And so did me in Kyalami. I raced for the first time
and with some luck, i got the fifth place. For the first time, my pitcrew
got me something good and my 4stops strategy paid off. I am really happy
today.
The C1 Race was close this time and the final honour went to Sow. Donatas Staukaskas tried hard but could only finish second best. Vitor Ribero came third. Unfortunately no race reports have been published in the site.
C2g1 honours went to Thomas. Now its becoming a battle between Thomas and Tej and they alternate wins and podiums between them. Tej came second this time with Petri joing teamie Thomas in the last podium place.

F1Time - S20 - Race06 - Indianapolis, USA

2004-11-23T06:21:00.000-05:00

The Community saw some good, new and old, suggestions from
creating a Staff Pool, Volume Discount for Racers and
Increasing Crash Damages. I think these suggestions would
address a number of concerns like Saving Issue, Quality Staff
etc., if implemented.
The 6th race of the season was at Indy and heres Wendy with
the race report. Woodi, who was considered to be the main
contender for this seasons title, secured his first win of
the season. I hope its just the start by woodi. Nuno Mendes
came second and Eld was third. Arus could manage only a fifth.
c2g1 was won by Tej Almeida. Thomas and Arunis came second
and third. It was another good show from my teammie who now
seem to save with a good discount for next season. I could
only manage a 20th place finish, 4 laps down on the winner.

F1Time - S20 - Race05 - Hungaroring, Hungary

2004-11-21T10:29:00.000-05:00

Mik is back with this weekly awards again. His first
award for the current season are out. These are for
the first 4 races of the season. Take a look at it here.

Arus notched up his third win of the season from woodi
and sow. Woodi finally seems to have sorted out his DNF
problems. I can imagine woodi's frustration over DNFing
when he had a chance to go at the Top Most Spot of the
game. Some say its the effect of the famous 'woodi-drop-dance'
he used to do some seasons ago.

After a couple of Podium finishes, Luis Rocha got his
first win in c2g1. That makes it 5 different winners for
the first 5 races of the group and it shows how balanced
and challenging the group is, if we are to try for promo.
Tej came second and Petri got the remaining Podium spot.

For me, this was the best result of the season when i came
16th. Arunis had a DNF and he finished 21st.

F1Time - S20 - Race04 - MagnyCours, France

2004-11-17T01:18:00.000-05:00

French GP created some discussion when the wings for
the race gave some real tough time to the managers. Seemingly
a negative (-ve) effectiveness in one of the sectors gave
a better laptime than with the all positive values. And
that created lots of confusion! Also there was a shock
when we realised that CDs and Designers also retire. The
Official word is that the quality staff in the game as of
now is more than what is required and the retirements are
one way of addressing that imbalance. Whatever may it be..
this condition was not very well recieved by the managers.

Arus once again was the man of the day as he grabbed his
second win of the season. Kolidas came second proving
his win in Imola is not a fluke. Vadim Nogtev came third.
The Race Report from Arunis and Mik can be read here.

Tej got his first win of the season in our group c2g1.
Teammie Arunis cameup with an impressive performance to
come second. Alvydas Akelaitis was third.
The Testing brought good results to 'A-Squared' team and
Arunis showed that with an excellent second position in
the race. I had a real bad time in the race when i chose
the wrong strategy. I came 23rd while i could have finished
around 19th.

F1Time - S20 - Race03 - Monaco, Monaco

2004-11-15T03:22:00.000-05:00

The Limited amount of time available to me currently make
me spend less time with F1Time. Fortunately i am again in
a 'non-racing' season and so wont get affected that acutely.
But some of the fellow F1Timers seems to have more free time
now i guess. The Race Reports are back in the HomePage and
so do the 'Unofficial' Awards from Mik. Think saving season
makes my groupmates enjoy more. :)

Monaco saw Last Season Champ coming back to Winning ways. This
Seasons's main contenders Eld and Arus came second and third.
Woodi again had a Bad Day when his Engine let him down. The DC
is too close to call with Eld at 20 points and Arus and Sow tied
at 19. The Race Report by [rox] can be read here.

Thomas took the credits in c2g1 after Christian Reindl made the
mistake of setting Driver Orders while boozing. Christian was
leading till the dying laps and didnt realize that his Engine
Suppliers latest version sucked in more fuel than last season.
Teammie Stefan seemed very angry in initial reactions. edi came
second and Tej took third seemingly with a 6GB.
Our team finally got a name for our Sponsors to advertise.
'A-Squared'. But another saving race which saw me finishing 19th
and my teammie on 21st position.

F1Time - S20 - Race01,02 - Melbourne and Imola

2004-11-14T22:48:00.000-05:00

I have missed the first two races of this new season due to vacation.
I managed to stay back in the same group but am not sure whether i
will continue to do so this season. The C1 is witnessing the comeback
of Arus and Eld and woodi are determined to give Arus a run for his
money. The Summary of the first two races -

Race 01 - Melbourne, Australia

The WU times cant be closer than this..
1. Johan Skog [1284] 1:26.890
2. Joakim Sjöblom* [1300] + 0.004
3. Rodrigo Coutinho** [373] + 0.038
4. Arunas Babrauskas****** [2] + 0.058

But the Grid showed a different lineup
1. Arunas Babrauskas****** [2] 1:27.085
2. Johan Skog [1284] + 0.167
3. Aleksander Bracko [1646] + 0.236
4. Joakim Sjöblom* [1300] + 0.310

But Woodi had the Bad Luck as his Engine blew out on Lap 10.
And the result.. The Leader remains the same.. but others dont..

1. Arunas Babrauskas****** [2] 58 Laps
2. Vitor Ribeiro [1720] +0:8.805
3. Nuno Mendes [1423] +0:12.691
4. Sow Oneplus* [1514] +0:19.196
5. Joakim Sjöblom* [1300] +0:20.431
6. Rodrigo Coutinho** [373] +0:21.299

Tyre wear caused Eld and RC to loose positions. Also the PitCrew
of Arus and Eld stands out from the rest and this mite be crucial
as the season goes by. Sow and RC are the most affected as a
result of last season title fight.

Race 02 - Imola, SanMarino

The Grid
1. Joakim Sjöblom* [1300] 1:23.025
2. Vadim Nogtev [1295] + 0.452
3. Johan Skog [1284] + 0.498
4. Muhammed Assad [3026] + 0.779
5. Nuno Mendes [1423] + 0.857
6. Rodrigo Coutinho** [373] + 0.965
7. Panagiotis Kolidas [2996] + 1.384
8. Vitor Ribeiro [1720] + 1.576

Seems to be Eld faster than the rest.. huh? we are mistaken.
The Results show a different picture.

1. Panagiotis Kolidas [2996] 62 Laps
2. Joakim Sjöblom* [1300] +0:12.230
3. Johan Skog [1284] +0:17.079
4. Vadim Nogtev [1295] +0:20.030
5. Sow Oneplus* [1514] +0:23.952
6. Donatas Stakauskas [189] +0:26.507
7. Arunas Babrauskas****** [2] +0:26.841
8. Nuno Mendes [1423] +1:10.390

Single Stop for Kolidas worked against the 3 stops of Eld.
In turn he became the first Greek to have a c1 win.
Woodi showed that he too is in for a fight this season.
Again the pittimes of Arus is in a different league from the
others which might be crucial.

c2g1

Race 01 - Adelaide Results
1. Petri Korpela [1272] 58 Laps
2. Luis Rocha [2927] +0:18.899
3. Alvydas Akelaitis [2918] +0:23.157
4. Thomas Pappaioannou [3277] +0:27.810
5. Tej Almeida [2797] +0:28.626
6. Rogério Mandler [1391] +0:55.957
7. Pedro Lanca [2767] +1:11.938
8. Arun Ahuja [3121] +1:14.648

Race 02 - Imola Results
1. Dmitriy Kosev [2714] 62 Laps
2. Luis Rocha [2927] +0:20.688
3. Thomas Pappaioannou [3277] +0:35.378
4. Andreas Buettner [2871] +0:55.395
5. Alvydas Akelaitis [2918] +1:1.168
6. Benjamin Fischer [2894] +1:5.689
7. Pedro Lanca [2767] +1:6.434
8. Tej Almeida [2797] +1:16.444

The Petri-Thomas duo looks strong and by all means would take
the TC this time.

Nice Vacation

2004-11-14T13:01:00.000-05:00

A Couple of weeks vacation made me leave F1Time temporarily. The days were loads of fun and they flew like rockets..! The Rope River Crossing, the Snowy Mountains of the Himalayas, the Indo-Pak Border, the Inner (exclusive) view of Fighter Jets.. I never ever dreamt about all these when the trip started.. But i had the time of my life in the last 2 weeks.. :)
All this time, my new teammate Arunis was looking after my account and now that i am back, i hope i will be back to normal schedule of reports and other reviews.

And i will be posting some snaps of the vacation asap :)

F1Time - S20- Season Info

2004-11-01T03:47:00.000-05:00

TaBu has released the list of tracks for the current season.
The 17 tracks for the Season20 are as follows.
1. Australia - Melbourne
2. San Marino - Imola
3. Monaco - Monaco
4. France - Magny Cours
5. Hungary - Hungaroring
6. USA - Indianapolis
7. South Africa - Kyalami
8. Great Britain - Brands Hatch
9. Spain - Barcelona
10. Belgium - Spa-Francorchamps
11. Argentina - Buenos Aires
12. Sweden - Anderstorp
13. Bahrain - Sakhir
14. Turkey - Istanbul
15. Mexico - Mexico City
16. Brazil - Interlagos
17. Japan - Suzuka

F1Time - S19 - Season End

2004-10-31T00:38:00.000-04:00

Heres a look at the S19 races and their winners.

1. Turkey - Istanbul
Sow Oneplus
2. Bahrain - Sakhir
Vitor Ribero
3. China - Shanghai
Joakim Sjoblom
4. Monaco - Monaco
Rui Ferrera
5. France - Magny Cours
Rodrigo Coutinho
6. Belgium - Spa-Francorchamps
Rodrigo Coutinho
7. Portugal - Estoril
Vitor Ribero
8. Canada - Montreal
Rodrigo Coutinho
9. USA - Indianapolis
Sow Oneplus
10. Great Britain - Brands Hatch
Sow Oneplus
11. Italy - Monza
Rodrigo Coutinho
12. Sweden - Anderstorp
Sow Oneplus
13. Netherlands - Zandvoort
Felipe Miranda
14. Brazil - Interlagos
Rui Ferrera
15. Argentina - Buenos Aires
Sow Oneplus
16. Australia - Adelaide
Vitor Ribero
17. Japan - Suzuka
Alexander Bracko

There were a total of 7 different race winners and that too the
first five were won by five different managers. Sow had the most
number of wins-5. RC had 4, Vitor - 3 and Rui - 2. Eld, Felipe
and Lex had one victory each.
In terms of Podium spots, Sow and RC had 12 while the next best
Lex had 6. Sow and Lex had three third spots in a row. Sow had
a good start when he got 9 Podiums in the first 10 races. RC
had a slow start and he had a good middle season when he had
8 podiums in a row from Race5 to Race12.

F1Time - S19 - Race17 - Suzuka, Japan

2004-10-30T07:06:00.000-04:00

The Last Race of the Season. C1 Battle still on. Sow had
the misfortune of dropping in last race. RC now leads by
just 2 points. In case of a tie between RC and Sow, Sow
still would have the upper hand on the basis of more wins.
A win would definitely secure the DC for Sow and RC needs
to keep Sow out of his way in this last race. A flurry
of action was seen in other groups as well as managers
try to avoid the relegation and some trying for that
glamourous promotion to the higher classes.

Sow slightly confused everyone but not for sure RC with
his sandbagged time in WU. But he was almost half a second
down on RC. But the Qualify showed the real pace. But Sow
was in a shock when he realised that Lex, his former teammie,
is running on a favourite track. Lex took the POLE and Sow
was closely behind. RC was lying fourth in the grid. Three
stop strategy was the order of the day and Lex came into pits
first on Lap12, followed by Sow on Lap13 and RC on Lap14.
But the order stayed the same. It was interesting to note that
both RC and Sow kept up with Lex all through the race though
Lex was on favourite track. The Second Pit stop window was
from Lap 26 to 28 and because of the tyre wear for RC and Sow,
Jerusevicius got himself sandwiched between Sow and RC. RC was
quick on the Pits but the tyrewear didnt help his cause.
His third pitstop on Lap41 was faster than everyone else by more
than a second and he used that to regain the third spot. He
wasnt close enough to Sow to catch him though. The positions
stayed the same till the end. That means that we have two
managers tied on same points for the coveted C1 DC and Sow
has won it by virtue of his more wins. It was a brave battle
by RC and a great comeback by Sow inspite of his bad lucks.
This Season will be in the F1Time History books for long.

The last race in c2g1 can also decide my group for next
season. I am lying in 21st position currently and that can
easily come down to 23 if some of the managers decide to race
hard. I didnt take the risk and went all out this race and
secured another 3 points which proved to be of no use at the
end. edi had it easy this race as he won the race followed
by teammie Thomas. Promotee Irman came third. Lanca followed
the win in Adelaide with a fourth place here and that
effectively mean a Top15 finish in c2 with 15 races saving
and racing 2. Some might find it quite hard to digest, but
thats how this game is set. Like the real world, money matters!

Adelaide may be costly for Sow

2004-10-28T15:45:00.000-04:00

The Delayed Race16 of the season hurt the Current c1 Leader the most.
The Engine Explosion in the Adelaide which forced Sow to retire in
the second lap mite prove costly this season. The 6 point lead he had
has now turned out to be a 2 point trail. If he wins from here, then
that would be a true Champion's trademark. But i guess his brother
has to give him a helping hand here. Coz..Even if he wins the last
race and RC gets second, then both will be tied at 110 points. As
per F1Time rules, RC will be crowned as he has more wins..
Will Sow do it? Or Will RC prove its not just luck?
Lets wait and see..
All eyes are on Suzuka now..

F1Time - S19 - Race16 - Adelaide, Australia

2004-10-28T09:43:00.000-04:00

We are into the last week of Season 19. With a 6 point lead
over RC, Sow still leads the Championship. Not only RC has
to produce his magic touch, but also hope that Sow doesnt
finish close to him in the remaining races. The F1Time
community was kept waiting when TaBu postponed the Mondays
race to Wednesday causing the Season end to be on Friday.

If we thought either RC or Sow would be on Pole, then we
are proved wrong by 'Bad Boy' Vitor. Vitor took the pole
with Felipe and RC behind him. Sow took a conservative 10th
place on the grid; mebbe an indication of different strategy.
The Race started and immediately Felipe took the lead from
Vitor. Jonny also made a good start gaining two positions
and with that pushing RC to fourth. But oh! oh! oh! - Sow
dropped on the second lap and thats damn unlucky for Sow.
I ve heard that if something can go wrong, it always does
at the wrong moment. Now RC has to just finish the race and
Sow hopes that RC doesnt finish that high. But RC again
lost position and he was running fifth. Felipe was running a
5 stop strategy while Vitor and RC were on 3 stops. Vitor
took the lead when Felipe pitted and then kept the lead till
the end. The race saw Gimbutas and Su leading for some laps
as they were on an extended 3 stop and 2 stop strategies
respectively. RC also made up his lost postions in the pitstops.
Vitor won the race comfortably with almost half a minute gap
from RC. RC in doing so became the DC leader over Sow by 2
points. Sow's brother Su claimed the remaining podium spot.

With the Promotion spots already under them, the Stephen-Nezam
duo just relaxed in Adelaide. Teammie Thomas got the POLE
followed by Reindl, Bakas and R Mandler. Lanca also got into
the action after the 15 race layoff. He had spent around 40M
for this race and also got the best driver in c2. The result
was a good fifth spot on the grid. But the time was much more
good considering the fact that he was on two stops compared to
others' three stops and Thomas' five stops. The money mattered
and the strategy and Lanca pocketed his first points and first
win of c2. Reindl came second and R Mandler was third, again on
two stops. Stefan, Thomas, Bakas, Tej and Ivan took the remaining
positions.

Foto - RcDaDood

2004-10-27T17:42:00.000-04:00

RcDaDood alias Rodrigo Coutinho is a two times champion in F1Time. Hailing from Brazil, RC was once the 'Barrichello' to 'Schumi' Arus. But he proved everyone wrong when got his First Crown in S12 alongside his countrymate Kevin. He repeated that last season with a different partner Lex. Now with just one more race to go, hes leading c1 again and this mite well be his first back to back Championship Wins. A Friendly character, one of the most friendliest managers whom i havent seen shouting at all, RC is one of the coolest managers in the game beyond compare. Here he is seen with his Girl Friend Gigi at the TGI Friday Restaurant in his hometown Brasilia.

RcDaDood - Rodrigo Coutinho

Foto - Rui Ferreira

2004-10-26T06:46:00.000-04:00

Rui Ferreira, known as Xico, is from Portugal and is relatively new to c1. Since Season8 when he joined F1Time, he always managed to stay or promote. No relegation and saving tactics have been seen from him. Though playing second fiddle to Vitor Ribero this season, this future MBA managed to pocket two wins in c1.

Rui Ferreira

F1Time - S19 - Race15 - Buenos Aires, Argentina

2004-10-25T06:45:00.000-04:00

The Title Fite is closer than ever. With jus one point between them,
its a do-or-die battle for Sow and RCdaMan. Will the GoldStar go to
a new manager or will RC double up his stars? We donno yet. But one
thing we know is the battle is not over yet!

Though RC topped the WU times, he could only manage a 5th place in
the grid when it mattered. Eld was the pole Stealer this time as he
went in with a 3 Stop Strategy. Sow on 2 stops was second in the grid.
Jerusevicius and Osterloh, both again on 3 stops, shared the second
row. Now the only way RC could get ahead of Sow is his shrewd tactics,
which we have seen in many races this season. But the race fate was
seen in the initial laps itself when RC lost a position to Felipe and
then another spin in Lap8 putting him down another four positions.
Arus in the meantime made smart gains as he put his car into sixth
position behind Felipe. RC in the meantime got frustrated and on
trying a move on Joe, lost another position to Petri. Jerusevicius was
the first to pit on Lap18. Eld and Osterloh pitted on Lap20 which
put them into seventh and tenth positions. Sow pitted on Lap24
followed by Felipe in the next lap. RC and Nuno pitted on Lap26 while
Arus was at the top of the field for a couple of laps before he pitted
on Lap28. With that late stop, Arus moved to fifth spot and RC was
running a better seventh. Eld was still leading but his lead came down
to 13 secs before he went to the pits for the second time on Lap38.
Sow completed his pit routine on Lap48 while others did it in the
49-53 window. Eld had his last pit on Lap 56 and he ran second to Sow
and ahead of Arus. Jerusevicius, who was also on a 3 stop messed up
as he had tyre wear which put him out of points. RC too moved into
fourth position, thanks to his pitcrew. But the fourth position meant
that he lost another 5 points to Sow and with just 2 more races to go,
these 6 points mite be vital. Who knows.. If Tabu's game engine decides
to play havoc.. we mite have a twist to this title fite.

L Mandler now wants to race. He dropped when he could have got
Podiums and now when things tightened.. he s racing. Amazing
manager.. Is he creating pressure for himself so that he can deliver
quality stuff? I donno..But his tactics still amaze me. He was on
Pole for this Round 15 of F1Time Season19. Tej, Edi and Stephen
completed the first two rows. Edi and Tej were on a 3 stop strategy
while L Mandler and others were on 2 stops. Mandler, edi and Tej kept
on putting fastest laps but the lead was still with L Mandler. Tej
was the first one to pit on Lap17, while edi had his first stop on
Lap20. But that resulted in a tyre wear for 2 laps and that put him
down to 9th posn. The two stoppers had the first stop between Lap24
and lap28. Bakas was the last one to pit and with that pit, he put
his car into third posn behind Mandler and edi. Both Tej and edi had
tyre wears running 3 stops but still they managed to run for points.
After the second and last round of pits triggered by Mandler in Lap48,
Mandler was still leading and Stefan, Bakas and edi were behind him.
On Lap65, Stefan lost that second place of his to Bakas and then came
the mistake from Tej. He obviously put a lil less amount of fuel and
that made him do an extra pitstop on Lap71. His points are gone now!!..
Mik was obviously delighted as he moved into 8th to score again.
'Waiting for Next Season' again had a bad race.. While i had my second
engine explosion in that many races, Thomas could manage only 12th
with his Frod. But he sure is saving which is good news. He s got a
balance of 24M now.. And that mite be enough for him to push him to
c1 next season.