There will be only one episode this weekend, I’m afraid. The leadup episode will be going out when the race episode normally would have.
For once The TM1 Channel needs to do something related to the actual “TM1” thing. I’ll be giving a talk at a user conference next week and need time to prepare. I’m therefore going to be splitting Tondela over Two! Big! Weekends! This weekend will be the leadup, and next weekend will be the practice and race.
And let’s be brutally honest; after the way the planets aligned for Little Max last weekend, and knowing that they won’t for either driver at Tondela… I’m not in a rush to get there!
Believe it or not, the most interesting part of this week’s episodes comes in the setup one.
Don’t expect to read that sentence too often on these pages.
UFOs. Bigfoot. Having the EXACT SAME, TO THE PIXEL, needle location in different stints yielding two different feedback results.
There are believers, and there are sceptics.
In this weekend’s episode, we offer the most convincing video evidence since that fuzzy, out of focus video of Bigfoot that came to light in the 1970’s.
No, not about the existence of UFOs – about the exact same needle location yielding an Excellent in one stint, and a Great in another one.
But first in the leadup episode, there is good news, bad news and ugly news. We look at all three types.
We think about the question of team orders, their benefits and their drawbacks.
What do we think about Amanda Cavalcanti? What does Sara think about her?
The pedal is dropping on part production. It’s still not fast enough, but we’re getting there. However conditional components cause us some sleepless nights.
We get well and truly done over on the slot 4 sponsorship deal. Hey, what’s new?
On the other hand, Max Porter learns the art of praise which makes a refreshing change from the last couple of years.
Finally, we contemplate the weekend appearances of both Maxes.
Kirkus puts out a tweet and gets a “pretty damn cool” reaction to it as real life collides with gameplay.
In the practice episode we get done over by the weather (again), and discover evidence for the Motorsport Manager equivalent of Bigfoot, as discussed above.
In the race itself, if you’re expecting a repeat of the one-two finish from the last race? It ain’t gonna happen. With our current strategy race 2 is and shall forever be our low water mark of a season.
And to a lesser extent, race 3.
Still, we’re a better team than we have been in the past and we are not devoid of either rabbits, or hats to pull them out of.
How many rabbits? Grab a refreshing beverage of choice, settle back, and yell ‘GO LITTLE MAX!” or “GO SARA!”, according to preference.
Doubtless you are a fan of the European Racing Series. (Unless you are reading this after we’ve been promoted to higher tiers.)
You are also most likely a fan of the Italian racing team Scuderia Quantistica.
If so, I congratulate you on your excellent taste.
Perhaps you are instead a fan of Ozu, Krüger, Silva, Dragon Race Team China {chortle!}, ZRT or Octane Racing. If so, there is still a chance that your eternal soul can be redeemed.
If you are a fan of Archer or Vexala, though, there is little hope for you.
Still, if you would like to stick around for a while and bask in the throaty roar of our mighty engines… OK, our engines aren’t that mighty yet but Freddie is working on it… you may yet find a path to motoring salvation.
Welcome to the madhouse.
Breaking the 4th wall for a moment, this site is dedicated to a YouTube series on a motorsport management game called Motorsport Manager. You will find the series >>here<<.
No, I’m not taking the game that seriously. In fact, if you have ever watched the series you’ll find that it swings much more toward parody and absurdity with a splash of dry humour (much as the game does itself), except for the data analytics part which is real enough.
The real reason for the existence of this site is that I wanted to learn to use the WordPress Content Management System, and this seemed as good a way of doing it as any. And incidentally, thus far I am massively impressed by WordPress. This entire site to date was built in under 20 minutes. It’s massively easier than hand crafting a site in Dreamweaver or some such thing. I speak from experience.
Important disclaimer: Neither this site nor the associated YouTube series have any connection with the developers, producers or publishers of the Motorsport Management game. They just supplied the building materials, I built the storyline with them.
Laps 1 to 3 were clear and 12°, with rain starting from lap 4. The rain increased to saturate the track but began to break around lap 13. The track was dry by lap 17 / lap 18, and there was no further rain.
Weight Stripping And Config
Gomes
Front Wing: Spec, 150 (80% Reliability)
Engine*: Good, +60 to 233 (80%)
Brakes: Good, +90 to 267 (70%)
Suspension*: Stock, 140 (88%)
Gearbox: Great, +90 to 298 (70%)
Rear Wing*: Spec, 150 (80%)
Effective: 1,238
Practice was done on softs only.
Tyres 21.6psi, Camber -2.4°
Wings 16.0/26.5 (Excellent)
Suspension 94% (Excellent)
Gear Ratio 81% (Great)
98% Total
Finished 11th in practice.
10% bonus for Softs, 10% bonus for Race Trim.
We took the 10% bonus for race trim but the risk taker since the weather showed rain, and there would therefore be a need for more pit stops.
Thomas
Front Wing: Spec, 150 (80% Reliability)
Engine*: Good, +60 to 234 (80%)
Brakes: Good, +90 to 285 (70%)
Suspension*: Good, +60 to 223 (73%)
Gearbox: Great, +90 to 303 (70%)
Rear Wing*: Spec, 150 (80%)
Effective: 1,345
Practice was done on softs only.
Tyres 21.6psi, Camber -2.4°
Wings 15.5/25.5 (Excellent)
Suspension 88% (Excellent)
Gear Ratio 69% (Excellent)
99% Total
Finished 12th in practice.
10% bonus for Softs, 10% bonus for Race Trim.
Both of those were taken.
Pit Plan
Formulated “on the fly” given the chane of weather due at lap 4.
Gomes
4: 50% SS and 0.62 laps. Fast strategy. Given fresh Wets and 9 laps of fuel. Engine at 70% but gearbox at only 65%. Obbedio made a mistake on the front jack costing 1.884 seconds.
13: 38% and 0.57 laps. Fast strategy. Given Inters and 6 laps of fuel to do 5 with an expected further pit on lap 18. (A diminishing amount of water on track was expected for that entire time.) Engine 49%, gearbox 51%, brakes 52%, suspension 55%, wings 61%.
17: 67% Inters and 2.33 laps. Fast strategy. He was given a fresh set of Super Softs and 7 laps of fuel to do 6 laps. Engine and gearbox were at 40%, brakes and suspension at 48%, wings around 55%. There was still a very small amount of water on the track but arguably he should have been left out for one more to burn the fuel.
Thomas
5 : 23% SS and 0.49 laps. Given fresh Wets and and 9 laps of fuel. Engine at 70%, gearbox at 69%, brakes at 67%. The others were in the mid to high 70’s.
14: 29% and 0.35 laps. Given 10 laps of fuel to do 9 laps and a fresh set of Softs. There would still be water on the track for a few laps but after that it was going to become sunny and warmer. Engine at 50%, gearbox 54%, brakes 48%, suspension 53%, front wings 68% and rear wings 51%.
Race Report
Target: 10th or above, 400K. (Nippon)
Given that rain was forecast to start from lap 4, Gomes was sent out on Super Softs with 5 laps of fuel to pound it from the outset.
Sara was sent out with 6 laps of fuel and Super Softs. Since smoothness doesn’t matter the intention was to stretch out the time on her first set of tyres.
Both drivers were launched in Attack / High.
Sara was on row 5 (10th) and Gomes was on row 6 (12th). All but a couple of the teams launched on Super Softs, the others on Softs.
Lap 2: Thomas had shot up to 3rd, Gomes to 7th. The cars were pretty evenly split between Overtake and Medium fuel burn with a mixture of driving modes.
Lap 4: Gomes pitted to change tyres. The track looked like it would be saturated by lap 7, so I decided to put him out on Wets despite the fact that 5 and 6 looked like laps best suited to Inters.
Lap 5: 6 cars (including Gomes) had pitted to change to Wets. Thomas called in at 35% tyres and a projected 0.49 laps of fuel. Both drivers were dropped back to Neutral / Medium.
Lap 6: 14 cars had changed to Wets and all of the others were in the pits.
Lap 7: Melo and Iannizzi both picked up drive through penalties. Thomas 1st (1:33.422; out lap) and Gomes 6th (1:26.244, flying). Others all over the place due to pitting for tyre changes.
Lap 9: Engelhart took the lead, doing times of 1:23.808 to Thomas’ (2nd) 1:24.429. Gomes was in 5th at 1:24.366, slightly faster than Marchetta in front and the 4 cars following.
Lap 11: Thomas had dropped to 3rd behind Sabado, and had low tyre temperatures. Gomes was holding 5th but had the same problem. Both were sent to Attack mode.
Lap 13: The rain started to reduce and the track dried marginally. Gomes was called in with 46% and a projected 0.48 laps of fuel.
Lap 14: Sara was called in with wets at 36% and projected fuel 0.29 laps. Gomes set to Push / Medium. About half of the cars were still on wets with the rest pitting for a mixture of Inters, Softs and Super Softs. Thomas was set to Neutral / Medium.
Lap 15: Gomes 1st place, Thomas 6th. Gomes was one of only 6 cars on Inters. The vast majority were on Softs by now. The track was drying out rapidly and would be dry by lap 18.
Lap 17: Gomes was called in at 77% Inters and 2.22 laps of fuel.
Lap 18: Sara (3rd) put to Push / High to warm her tyres and burn her fuel. Gomes (8th) on Neutral / High.
Lap 23: Thomas 3rd, Gomes 8th. Both drivers reporting mechanical issues.
Gomes’ engine 30%, gearbox 29%, brakes and suspension 38%, wings 51 and 42%.
Thomas finished 3rd with 28% and 0.58 laps, Gomes 8th with about 35% and 0.46 laps, though he was on overtake for a lot of the last lap.
The winner was Falko (Garuda), Sabado 2nd (Firebird MRT, +7.4 seconds), Thomas 3rd (+10), Stone Jr (Garuda, +11.8), Marchetta (Octane, +20.3), Santa Ana (Vexala, +22.2), Zarate (Kruger, +23.7) and Gomes (+24.2).
Marchetta was demoted 2 places for dodgy parts. That dropped him to 7th but did not change Gomes’ finish.
Rogers also had dodgy parts and dropped from 15th to 17th.
Melo received a drive through penalty.
Aftermath
This represented our first podium position.
Gomes went to 6th and Thomas to 11th in the driver’s championship.
Both cars started practice on Inters, but went to wets for the 2nd lap.
The track started to dry after that and the cars were sent out on softs for the 3rd stint.
Race
No indication of rain, and 14°C. It remained dry through the race.
Weight Stripping And Config
Gomes
Front Wing: Spec, 150 (80% Reliability)
Engine: Good, +45 to 217 (84%)
Brakes*: Good, +15 to 210 (85%)
Suspension*: Stock, 140 (88%)
Gearbox*: Great, +30 to 238 (89%)
Rear Wing: Spec, 150 (80%)
Tyres 20.4psi, Camber -2.4°
Wings 17.0/27.5 (Excellent)
Suspension 38% (Excellent)
Gear Ratio 38% (Excellent)
99% Total
5% bonus for Softs, 10% bonus for Race Trim.
Both of those were taken.
Thomas
Front Wing: Spec, 150 (80% Reliability)
Engine: Good, +45 to 219 (85%)
Brakes*: Good, +30 to 200 (85%)
Suspension*: Stock, 62 (73%)
Gearbox*: Great, +15 to 223 (89%)
Rear Wing: Spec, 150 (80%)
Tyres 20.4psi, Camber -2.4°
Wings 16.8/26.8 (Great)
Suspension 44% (Excellent)
Gear Ratio 38% (Excellent)
96% Total
5% bonus for Softs, 10% bonus for Race Trim.
Both of those were taken.
Pit Plan
Gomes: Laps 10 and 19 (10 / 9 / 6). Sent out with 10 laps.
10: 7% and 0.93. Fresh softs and 9 laps of fuel, push / medium.
19: 21% and 0.64. Fresh softs and 7 laps of fuel (for 6 laps), Neutral / Medium. Brakes at 45%, suspension at 43%, other parts 57 or 58%.
Thomas Laps 8 and 17 ( 8 /9 / 8). Sent out with 8 laps of fuel.
8: 19% and 0.45. Fresh softs and 9 laps of fuel, push / medium.
17: 16% and 0.68. Fresh softs and 9 laps of fuel (for 8 laps), Neutral / Medium. Gearbox was at 47% but all others were in the mid 50’s; 61% for the engine. Britner made an error on the rear jack which cost 1.297 seconds, 12.902 total.
Race Report
Target: 10th or above, 400K. (Nippon)
Grid: Thomas on row 7, Gomes on row 8.
Only 4 of the teams launched on mediums. Everyone else launched on softs.
Lap 4: Stone Jr (Garuda) had crashed.
Lap 6: Most cars were in the mid 1:33s. Thomas was 1:33.489 and Gomes 1:33.707. The tyres were starting to cool down and needed to be brought up again.
Lap 8: Sara called in with tyres at 27% and a projected 0.45 laps of fuel.
Lap 9: Santa Ana (Vexala) crashed.
Lap 10: Gomes called in with tyres at 14% and projected fuel of 0.65. NOTE: Softs theoretically do 10 to 12 laps. Clearly this is optimistic here.
Lap 12: Thomas 6th, 1:32.771 (flying), Gomes 14th, 1:36.226 (out), most were in 1:33s except Zarate (Kruger, 1st, 1:29.925) and Sabado (Firebird, 2nd, 1:30.401).
Lap 14: Thomas 7th, 1:32.572, Gomes 12th, 1:32.466, most were in 1:31s or low 1:32s.
Lap 17: Thomas called in with 22% and a projected balance of 0.47.
Lap 19: Thomas sent to Medium / Push. Gomes was called in with 25% and a projected 0.55 laps. Several cars were in the pits with Antonov (Vexala), Iannizzi (Silva) and Marchetta (Octane) having mechanical issues.
Lap 20: Both drivers were sent to Push / High. Sara was then brought back to Neutral because of tyre temperatures.
Lap 22: Times were around 1:31.2xx. Most of the others were in that range as well.
Lap 24: Both drivers were back to Push / High, in Sara’s case to make a move on De Oeste. Her gearbox as registering a warning at 29%. Top 8 Zarate (Kruger), Sabado (Firebird), Molly Fox (Kruger), Falko (Garuda), Cooper (Dragon), De Oeste (Firebird), Thomas, Gomes. About half way through the lap Sara went to Overtake mode.
Final lap: In the last quarter Thomas overtook De Oeste to seize 6th (32.5 seconds behind), and Gomes pushed past into 7th. Right on the line De Oeste took 7th back (32.5x seconds behind), with Gomes finishing 8th, 32.6 seconds in arrears of the winner.
Gomes finished with 0.55 laps of fuel and 42% tyres, Thomas ran out of fuel just past the flag and had 8% on her tyres.
The podium was occupied by Zarate (Kruger), Sabado (Firebird MRT) and Fox (Kruger). Engelhart (Garuda) 4th, Cooper (Dragon) 5th.
Aftermath
The sponsor objective was achieved.
Gomes held 9th and Thomas held 11th in the drivers’ championship.
The team retained 5th position (65 points behind the leader). Firebird MRT passed us to take 4th, but we in turn passed Vexala Motorsport, dropping them to 6th.
Garuda had the lead in the championship, 9 points clear of Kruger. Silva was 3rd, a further 40 points behind.