Sophie Fabron's F1 career 1989-2005?

[Nuppiz]

Okay, so in this topic I'll start posting about my virtual racing career, which will start in 1989 and likely end in 2005 or earlier. As the title says I'm going to use F1 Challenge '99-'02 and it's many mods for this. And while I'm still finishing the details on my character (the career probably won't start until late July anyway because I'm going away for a month, starting on July 29th), this thread can serve as a general discussion thread on the game.

Anyway, here's my current list of mods (and improvements to them, if any) installed, and what I'm still looking for. All of the mods have been tested (single races only, not championships) to work on a Windows 7 64-bit system (using Windows 98 compatibility settings). I've provided links for all of them, apart from my own modifications which currently aren't available anywhere (I can upload them somewhere if you want them, though).

INSTALLED:
1989 Mod + patches
1990 Mod + patches
1991 Mod + patches/updates. Note that this contains the SoundPack needed for the 89-91 mods.
1992 Mod (SoundPack 2.0, Minardi sound fix)
1993 Mod
1994 Mod
1995 Mod
1996 Mod (more minor livery and shape fixes I'm not bothering to list here, pit fix, track loading screens by me. Estoril and Buenos Aires taken from the 1995 Mod, file names and GDB edited by me.)
1997 Mod (upgrade pack, icon pack. Got the Lola through the racesimulations.com forums)
1998 Mod
Ralph Hummerich 2003 Mod (expansion pack, tyres pack)
Ralph Hummerich 2004 Mod (expansion pack, tyres pack, track pack)
Ralph Hummerich 2005 Mod (track pack, Istanbul track)

Note that there is a glitch in the 1993 Mod which makes the game CTD when you press "exit" after a race. I've tried to look at the error log to rectify the problem, but so far haven't made any progress. You can still race normally though.

SEARCHING FOR:

[Nuppiz]

Here's some stuff you can edit in your player file (F1Challenge 99-02/Save/playername/playername.PLR). Can be edited simply with Notepad.

Enable recon laps before the race:
CURNT Reconnaissance="1" // Reconnaissance laps
PRACT Reconnaissance="1" // Reconnaissance laps
QUICK Reconnaissance="1" // Reconnaissance laps
GPRIX Reconnaissance="1" // Reconnaissance laps
CHAMP Reconnaissance="1" // Reconnaissance laps

Add a formation lap to the race:
CURNT Formation Lap="1"
PRACT Formation Lap="1"
QUICK Formation Lap="1"
GPRIX Formation Lap="1"
CHAMP Formation Lap="1"

Self In Rearview="1" // Show rear wing and rear wheels in rearview

Add sparks to collisions:
Vehicle Sparks="1" // Whether sparks occur from vehicle-to-vehicle collisions

Compare sector times to the leader instead of your own best:
Times Comparison="2" // add the following: 1=show leader's split time, 2=show split to leader instead of self

Make AI a bit more realistic:
AI Additional Fuel Mult="1.00000" // Additional fuel multiplier for AIs because of their driving style
AI Brake Power Usage="1.00000" // Fraction of theoretical brake power that AI attempt to use
AI Brake Grip Usage="1.00000" // Fraction of theoretical brake grip that AI attempt to use
AI Corner Grip Usage="1.00000" // Fraction of theoretical cornering grip that AI attempt to use
AI Min Radius="0.10000" // Minimum radius turn to set up theoretical performance tables

Change the amount of AI cars, useful for seasons with more than 22 cars. Can be set to any amount desired:
CURNT Opponents="25"
PRACT Opponents="25"
QUICK Opponents="25"
GPRIX Opponents="25"
CHAMP Opponents="25"

Change the time it takes to remove wrecks from the track:
Vehicle Removal="100.00000" // Seconds until stationary vehicle is removed from track (sug: 30)
Debris Removal="40.00000" // Seconds until stationary debris is removed from track (sug: 30)

Disable automatic flipping of cars upright (increases realism):
Crash Recovery="0" // Artificially keep cars on track or flip cars upright

Fines="1" // Get fines instead of penalties

Add flow to special effects:
Engine Emitter Flow="1" // Whether engine smoke/flames flow over emitting vehicle
Tire Emitter Flow="1" // Whether tire smoke/dust flow over emitting vehicle
Smoke Flow="1" // Whether all smoke/flames/dust flow over non-emitting vehicles
Raindrop Flow="2" // Add to enable: 1=flow over current 2=flow over other vehicles
Rainspray Flow="2" // Add to enable: 1=flow over current 2=flow over other vehicles
Spark Flow="2" // Add to enable: 1=flow over current 2=flow over other vehicles

[JeremyMcClean]

Do you add all that info on the right in the notepad file or do you omit that as well?

[DalekSam]

Probably a stupid thought, but if we set up a VLAN via Hamachi or server we should totally join up and have multiplayer races. Or something.

Because that would be cool.

Also of note, I'm running the 1993 CK mod, which albeit doesn't come with its own tracks, that's easily fixed and doesn't CTD after a race finishes. Not sure if the AI is of any comparison to the other 93 mod though.

[Ferrarist]

First of all I have to recommend the Prototype C mod. Some of the most stunning Group C racers are in the game, including some exotic sportscars such as the Brun C91 or the BRM P351.

But I prefer rFactor over F1C, because it has a more "open" feel to it. F1C is too much of a F1 sim too me, while rFactor is just a race simulator. But both games were made by ISI, so it shouldn't matter that much.^^

[Nuppiz]

Do you add all that info on the right in the notepad file or do you omit that as well?

The info on the right should be in the PLR file anyway, and there's no point in removing it.

[FMecha]

First of all I have to recommend the Prototype C mod. Some of the most stunning Group C racers are in the game, including some exotic sportscars such as the Brun C91 or the BRM P351.

Except that Nuppiz wants his career be F1 ONLY.

I have default seasons and 1988, 1989, and 1991 mods. (Had 1990 for a while but sent it to trash as it CTDs upon start of a race)

[Nuppiz]

First of all I have to recommend the Prototype C mod. Some of the most stunning Group C racers are in the game, including some exotic sportscars such as the Brun C91 or the BRM P351.

Except that Nuppiz wants his career be F1 ONLY.

I have default seasons and 1988, 1989, and 1991 mods. (Had 1990 for a while but sent it to trash as it CTDs upon start of a race)

That doesn't mean that I wouldn't want to drive Group C outside this career though. I'll look into it, maybe some day I'll start another career. Or just drive for fun every now and then.

Which 1990 Mod did you have? I'm using the latest version by Lecrin, Prairie, Psychotronik, Cherry and David Marques, which I've also linked to in my first post, and so far it's been running well (although Life was way too fast, so I made it much slower and more unreliable).

[FullMetalJack]

What 1989 car are you thinking of starting with? Eurobrun?

[Nuppiz]

What 1989 car are you thinking of starting with? Eurobrun?

That'll depend on the nationality of my character (which I haven't decided yet). I'll choose my team from Rial, Coloni, EuroBrun, AGS, Onyx, Zakspeed and Osella.

So if I make my character German, then the logical choice would be Rial or Zakspeed. For an Italian, I'd use Coloni or Osella. AGS would fit for a French driver. The other teams are good if my character isn't from any of the aforementioned countries (of course, I may still pick any team I want). And of course, because I'll replace one of the original drivers, I'll have to consider what effects it'd have on future lineups. Of these teams, Rial (Volker Weidler), Coloni (Pierre-Henri Raphanel), AGS (Joachim Winkelhock) and Osella (Piercarlo Ghinzani) all have drivers which didn't continue their F1 careers after 1989, making them ideal candidates in this sense.

[FMecha]

First of all I have to recommend the Prototype C mod. Some of the most stunning Group C racers are in the game, including some exotic sportscars such as the Brun C91 or the BRM P351.

Except that Nuppiz wants his career be F1 ONLY.

I have default seasons and 1988, 1989, and 1991 mods. (Had 1990 for a while but sent it to trash as it CTDs upon start of a race)

That doesn't mean that I wouldn't want to drive Group C outside this career though. I'll look into it, maybe some day I'll start another career. Or just drive for fun every now and then.

Which 1990 Mod did you have? I'm using the latest version by Lecrin, Prairie, Psychotronik, Cherry and David Marques, which I've also linked to in my first post, and so far it's been running well (although Life was way too fast, so I made it much slower and more unreliable).

Same author as '89 and '91 I remember. Also, I read in RaceSimulations (my username is fmecha there, sadly I forget to capitalise FM in my username there ) that the reason the Life was too fast was because it was the Judd version.

[Nuppiz]

Same author as '89 and '91 I remember. Also, I read in RaceSimulations (my username is fmecha there, sadly I forget to capitalise FM in my username there ) that the reason the Life was too fast was because it was the Judd version.

Yeah I read it too, and the mod's author also mentioned that Life was so fast because he believed that there was nothing wrong with the car, the team was just too unexperienced to set it up properly. And Judd was chosen over their own engine because he thought that it was too shite and didn't want to make new sounds for it.

Of course, as an F1Rejectee I did not accept this explanation, so I replaced the engine sounds with those from a Lambo V12, and then edited the engine power, chassis and reliability to be much worse to simulate their own engine and the crappy FIRST chassis they used. I made the reliability so that there's a chance you might not even be able to complete a single lap before the engine explodes!

BTW my nick at RaceSimulations is the same as here, only without the capitalization.

[Nuppiz]

Okay, so here's my character. Sophie Fabron, a French Formula 3 and Formula 3000 driver who has just signed for AGS. She finished 18th in the 1988 Formula 3000 season and 9th in the 1987 French F3 season, but got the F1 drive simply because of the sponsorship she attracted by being the first female F1 driver in 9 years.

I'll run this and all future seasons fully with both pre-qualifying and 30-car main qualifying, until the amount of cars eventually reduces to a number where this is no longer needed. So from the 1992 Belgian GP onwards there's no need for PQ, and all cars automatically fit into the grid from the 1992 Portuguese GP to the end of 1993, and again from 1995 onwards (though I might try implementing the 107% rule from 1996 to 2002 if I feel like it). To get these working properly, I've made two "new" 1989 seasons: one for pre-qualifying and one for the 30-car qualifying. The first one has the 13 cars which had to prequalify in the first half of the season, while the other one has the 26 cars which didn't need to PQ + the four (five in the Brazilian GP due to Streiff's accident) fastest cars of PQ. By editing the "filters" of the cars I can control which cars appear in which sessions, and also which cars need to PQ after each half-season. And before you say that I copied this straight form the RaceSimulations forums, I quarantee that I figured it out entirely by myself before I read about it there!

Of course, this means that I'm running the championship on a race-by-race basis instead of a whole championship, but it has little difference other than the inconvenience of manually having to keep track of the championship standings. And for the sake of convenience of not having to constantly change the amount of AI drivers, I've actually made three different drivers (one for PQ, one for qualifying, one for the race itself).

Besides ordinary race reports, I'll also occasionally give you "news reports" by F1 C.R.A.P. (Car Racing Associated Publication). For the sake of comedy their style will be extremely politically incorrect and aggressive, so please don't get offended because their stories (mostly) don't reflect my actual own opinions at all.

The career will likely start at around late July or early August, because I'm going for a month-long vacation tomorrow and by the time I get back, the RWRS world has probably advanced enough that I can start running RoLFS again.

[Nuppiz]

Okay, time to move this on as well.

1989 Season Guide
So here we are again, on the verge of yet another Formula One season. This season has brought about many changes, perhaps the most crucial being that turbos are now completely banned. Of course, we at F1 C.R.A.P. believe that this decision was utterly wrong, not in the least because it has attracted many small teams to expand into two-car operations and even two newcomers in Onyx and FIRST and a returnee in Brabham. This has led to the farcical situation where we have 40 cars competing for 26 spots on the grid. In other words, the pre-qualifying will have a ridiculous amount of 14 cars, and only four of them continue on to qualifying proper. F1 C.R.A.P. believes this is harmful to the sport as it should be the pinnacle of all motorsport, not something where every man and his dog can lodge an entry.

Team and driver profiles

...other teams...
AGS Ford
#40 Philippe Streiff
#41 Sophie Fabron

After Streiff drove the single AGS to a good effect last year, the small French team decided to expand into a two-car operation. Streiff is joined by the French female driver Sophie Fabron, whose racing record suggests that she got her seat more because of her gender (and perhaps her looks as well) rather than talent. Needless to say, this publicity stunt has brough a lot of new sponsors aboard, so the deal is financially good for the team. We believe that she'll struggle to prequalify and be out of the series by the end of the year. German F3 champion Joachim WInkelhock was also rumoured for this seat, and we think he would've been a far better choice.

[Nuppiz]

And:

FIRST Racing withdraws from the series

The small Italian rookie team, FIRST Racing, have come to their senses and have withdrawn their entry in the 1989 Formula One championship. The chassis was already thought to be flimsy and poorly built, and the FIA crash test proved just that. Reportedly, the car's designer RIchard Divila went as far as calling it "an interesting flowerpot". As a result, the team decided against taking part in the championship, and their driver Gabriele Tarquini is left without a drive, for now at least.

Philippe Streiff injured in a testing crash - injuries are career-ending

The French AGS driver Philippe Streiff has suffered a serious accident during testing for the first GP of the season in Jacarepagua, Brazil. Reports indicate that he has been paralyzed in all limbs, and as a result his F1 career is over. While the car was completely destroyed in the crash, it is believed that the lack of proper medical facilities on the circuit worsened his condition. This has put the future of the track as a Formula 1 venue into doubt. This also means that due to being unable to repair the car and get a replacement driver in time, the first car of the AGS team has been withdrawn from the event. As it would've been allowed to skip prequalifying due to last year's results, this means that 5 drivers will advance from the prequalifying into qualifying proper until AGS finds a replacement.

Streiff, 33, drove for Renault, Ligier, Tyrrell and AGS in his Formula One career which lasted from 1984 to 1989, and scored 11 points in 53 starts, entering for 55 races in total. His best result was 3rd at the 1985 Australian Grand Prix, his only podium finish.

[Nuppiz]

Despite the terrible news regarding Streiff, our team decides to continue with the second car driven by me. The first obstacle to clear is prequalifying, and when we get on the track, we notice that it is raining, and the conditions will likely get worse over the session. So I am among the first ones to get on the track, which turned out to be a good decision as the conditions worsened up to a monsoon. I'm the second fastest in pre-qualifying, and into qualifying proper!

[Ferrim]

I like this, keep it up!

[Nuppiz]

The rain continued on to Friday's first main qualifying session, although not as heavily anymore. It looks like our car fits the rainy conditions very well, as I got into 13th in this session which guarantees that, technical grievances notwithstanding, I'm going to start in my debut race! I'm also very happy to see fellow French rookie Jean Alesi in 7th - he was very good in F3000 last year - as well as the fellow small team Coloni qualifying. But we all have to wait until the Saturday qualifying session to know our starting positions. I'm a bit sad to see my compatriot and childhood idol René Arnoux struggling so much, but on the other hand he's going to turn 41 this year so maybe he should be quitting soon.

Pos.|Driver|Team||Best Lap|Difference

1. Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:35.680
2. Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:35.808 +0.129
3. Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:37.235 +1.555
...
12. Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 1:39.477 +3.797
13. Sophie Fabron AGS-Ford 1:39.486 +3.807
14. Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 1:39.589 +3.909
...
27. Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:43.260 +7.581
28. Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 1:45.982 +10.303
29. Michele Alboreto Lola-Lamborghini 1:46.864 +11.185
30. Rene Arnoux Ligier-Ford 1:46.983 +11.304

Yes, Jean Alesi drives the full season with Tyrrell and Michele Alboreto with Larrousse, and I'm not going to change that. And because I can't remove cars in the middle of a race weekend, I have to do it so that in Q1 four more drivers are eliminated, and the final 26-car grid is determined in Q2.

[Aerond]

Now that I have a wheel I´m really tempted to get a copy of F1C (I sold it a couple of years ago) and get it going again.

[Nuppiz]

Saturday turned out to be a very sunny day, and as a result I didn't do nearly as well as on Friday. But I still managed to beat a Benetton and a Lotus! However, the talk of the day was Martin Brundle's 3rd place, which was thought to be impossible for the returning team. However, it remains to be seen how he does in the race. My countryman Prost took the pole, which of course made me happy. Onyx, Rial and Coloni struggled surprisingly much, but I guess that the dry weather didn't suit their cars on this track.

Pos.|Driver|Team||Best Lap|Difference

1. Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:25.834
2. Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:25.861 +0.027
3. Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 1:27.551 +1.717
...
20. Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:30.722 +4.888
21. Sophie Fabron AGS-Ford 1:31.429 +5.595
22. Emanuele Pirro Benetton-Ford 1:32.717 +6.883
23. Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 1:32.767 +6.933
24. Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 1:33.031 +7.197
25. Christian Danner Rial-Ford 1:35.901 +10.067
26. Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 1:36.314 +10.480

[Nuppiz]

Mid-race report from lap 11: Martin Brundle leads. I am second (yes, you read that right, in a bloody AGS!), and Mauricio Gugelmin is right behind desperately trying to find a way past, but my blocking skills would put Enrique Bernoldi in shame . Prost, Senna, Boutsen, Patrese, Berger and Mansell have all crashed out, among many others behind me. I had a brilliant start where I was 7th by the second corner while everyone else was busy bumping into each other, and after that my position has risen because of the retirements ahead of me. Only 10 cars are still running.

FYI I'm running with 100% difficulty and aggression, with all rules and full damage. So my position is not caused low difficulty.

[Nuppiz]

Results - 1989 Brazilian GP

This race was just absolute madness. I got an unbelievably good start and was battling the Ferraris by turn 2. And then the cars just started retiring everywhere, usually crashing into each other or the barriers. I was especially frightened to see Prost's car upside down in Nonato, but I've heard his OK like all the others who crashed. Suddenly I found myself in 2nd position, but on lap 16 Pirro got past me, and on the next lap Gugelmin hit me in the behind and I spun off, dropping me down to 6th. I was lucky to escape any serious damage to the car. It was an entirely pointless move by him, as a few laps later he crashed completely on his own, this time causing enough damage to the car that he had to retire. From then on I just concentrated on bringing the car home, and as more people retired, a points-finish was ensured if the car just held together until the finish or I didn't wreck it myself. I momkentarily got past Moreno after he pitted, but was then passed again by him and a bit later I was also passed by Andrea de Cesaris, who had also pitted earlier and had fresher tyres than me. That pretty much made me lose most of my motivation, as the only car behind me was Luis-Perez Sala's Minardi which was almost a minute down, and I had no hope of catching the cars ahead of me anymore. So I pitted for the first time on lap 28. After that I pretty much cruised through the rest of the race, and after Nakajima and Prerez-Sala retired, I was guaranteed for a 4th place with no hope of overtaking others unless they retired. During my second pitstop on lap 49, I was then lapped by Christian Danner who was leading the race, and a bit later by Roberto Moreno. I made an error on lap 57 which forced me to change my front wing, but at the same time I noticed that Moreno had stopped, out of fuel! That gave me a bit of an extra energy, although I soon realized that there was no reason to push now, as I was over half a minute behind de Cesaris. Then on the last two laps I really sturted to struggle as the rear end suddenly had almost no grip at all. It was probably my suspension that was about to fail, but I managed to limp to the finish line to get my first podium in my first race ever!

Driver's championship standings
1. Christian Danner 9
2. Andrea de Cesaris 6
3. Sophie Fabron 4
4. Roberto Moreno 3

Constructor's championship standings
1. Rial-Ford 9
2. Dallara-Ford 6
3. AGS-Ford 4
4. Coloni-Ford 3

ROTR: Pit entrance. Senna, both Williamses, Brundle (even if his retirement is listed as "Engine") and Pirro all crashed out there.

Well, as you can see from the results and my description, this race was just pure madness. I may have to reconsider if I want to continue this if the attrition rate stays similar, but that remains to be seen in the next GP.

[FullMetalJack]

Constructor's championship standings
1. Rial-Ford 9
2. Dallara-Ford 6
3. AGS-Ford 4
4. Coloni-Ford 3

This is the greatest thing ever. And i've seen Dagnall finish a race in 4th for Pacific.

[Nuppiz]

Constructor's championship standings
1. Rial-Ford 9
2. Dallara-Ford 6
3. AGS-Ford 4
4. Coloni-Ford 3

This is the greatest thing ever. And i've seen Dagnall finish a race in 4th for Pacific.

The only downside is that this might make it harder for me to avoid prequalifying in the second half of the season. Just like in real life, Volker Weidler will probably get out of there based on this result only, even though he has no business whatsoever in the main qualifying. And I might have to face more competitive teams like Larrousse or Ligier instead. But, there's still 7 GPs left before the PQ teams change, so anything can happen in the meantime.

[FullMetalJack]

Constructor's championship standings
1. Rial-Ford 9
2. Dallara-Ford 6
3. AGS-Ford 4
4. Coloni-Ford 3

This is the greatest thing ever. And i've seen Dagnall finish a race in 4th for Pacific.

The only downside is that this might make it harder for me to avoid prequalifying in the second half of the season. Just like in real life, Volker Weidler will probably get out of there based on this result only, even though he has no business whatsoever in the main qualifying. And I might have to face more competitive teams like Larrousse or Ligier instead. But, there's still 7 GPs left before the PQ teams change, so anything can happen in the meantime.

You've still got 9 teams that ain't scored points since the second half of 1988, so you should be fine. Tyrrell, Brabham, Minardi, Larrousse, Ligier, Onyx, Osella, Eurobrun and Zakspeed.

Surely Zakspeed, Eurobrun, Osella and Onyx won't score. Ligier probably won't and I can't see Coloni scoring anymore. And surely one of the others will score less than 4 points. You should be fine.

[Nuppiz]

You've still got 9 teams that ain't scored points since the second half of 1988, so you should be fine. Tyrrell, Brabham, Minardi, Larrousse, Ligier, Onyx, Osella, Eurobrun and Zakspeed.

Surely Zakspeed, Eurobrun, Osella and Onyx won't score. Ligier probably won't and I can't see Coloni scoring anymore. And surely one of the others will score less than 4 points. You should be fine.

Yeah, I should. But with attrition rates like this, who knows what's going to happen?

[Aerond]

Maybe agression is set too high and that´s how you got that result? I say it because in F1C and Rfactor, different mods need different levels of agression as sometimes AI tend to drive too hard, making races just a matter of staying on track to score a good result. If that happened in Brazil, I can´t even imagine how race will turn out in Monaco.

[Aerond]

Constructor's championship standings
1. Rial-Ford 9
2. Dallara-Ford 6
3. AGS-Ford 4
4. Coloni-Ford 3

This is the greatest thing ever. And i've seen Dagnall finish a race in 4th for Pacific.

I once got a Zakspeed 1-2!

[FullMetalJack]

Constructor's championship standings
1. Rial-Ford 9
2. Dallara-Ford 6
3. AGS-Ford 4
4. Coloni-Ford 3

This is the greatest thing ever. And i've seen Dagnall finish a race in 4th for Pacific.

I once got a Zakspeed 1-2!

Well played. I got a Forti in the points, nothing else noteworthy.

[pasta_maldonado]

Constructor's championship standings
1. Rial-Ford 9
2. Dallara-Ford 6
3. AGS-Ford 4
4. Coloni-Ford 3

This is the greatest thing ever. And i've seen Dagnall finish a race in 4th for Pacific.

I once got a Zakspeed 1-2!

I once won the Brazilian Grand Prix in a Prost. Everyone else did retire though!

[Nuppiz]

Gabriele Tarquini joins AGS

Gabriele Tarquini, the 27-year old Italian who was left without a drive after the FIRST racing team withdrew it's entry, has joined the small AGS team according to our reliable sources. Tarquini comes with experience from driving with small teams, having previously driven for Osella and Coloni in a total of 17 GPs, qualifying for 9 of them. His best result so far is 8th at the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix, which was also Coloni's best result ever until the madness at this year's first GP in Brazil saw Roberto Moreno being classified 4th.

He will join the team alongside the French rookie Sophie Fabron, who fluked herself a podium finish simply by being able to keep her car on the road, while almost no-one else did despite the sunny conditions. The 1989 Brazilian GP went to the record books as the race with the least finishers ever. However, her driving suggested that had there not been such a high attrition, she would've been very far back in the standings. She got lapped by the Rial of Christian Danner for crying out loud! We expect Tarquini to wipe the floor with Fabron.

I was of course happy to have a team mate again - Formula One is such a tough sport that it's nearly impossible to get through alone. I was also overjoyed by the podium in Brazil, which instantly made me the most succesful woman driver in F1 ever. However, when we arrived in Imola we knew it was back to the basics again, with prequalifying being on my schedule again. With Tarquini in the other AGS car, from now on only four drivers would advance from prequalifying. However, I managed to find a very good setup in my car and the car simply flew around the track. I had no trouble setting the fastest lap of the session with over a second of advantage to the second-placed driver.

Results - Prequalifying for the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix
Pos.|Driver|Team||Best Lap|Gap

1. Sophie Fabron AGS-Ford 1:28.091
2. Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:29.278 +1.188
3. Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:29.326 +1.235
4. Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 1:29.604 +1.513
5. Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:29.712 +1.622
6. Pierre-Henri Raphanel Coloni-Ford 1:30.085 +1.994
7. Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 1:30.377 +2.286
8. Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:30.409 +2.319
9. Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Ford 1:30.695 +2.604
10. Gregor Foitek EuroBrun-Judd 1:31.071 +2.980
11. Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:31.270 +3.180
12. Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 1:31.440 +3.350
13. Volker Weidler Rial-Ford 1:35.901 +4.893

Maybe agression is set too high and that´s how you got that result? I say it because in F1C and Rfactor, different mods need different levels of agression as sometimes AI tend to drive too hard, making races just a matter of staying on track to score a good result. If that happened in Brazil, I can´t even imagine how race will turn out in Monaco.

Yeah, I'll test it a bit. I'll run the San Marino GP with my current settings, and if the attrition is still the same I'll discard those results and run it again with less aggression.

Oddly enough, AI aggression is named "AI Realism" in the config files!

[Klon]

Driver's championship standings
1. Christian Danner 9

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Nuppiz]

Encouraged by the good prequalifying, I was ready to hit the track in the first main qualifing session, which would see a further four drivers failing to qualify to meet the requirement of a 26-car grid. While my time wasn't as good as in prequalifying, I didn't push as hard here because my only objective was to qualify for the race. The time differences were so narrow that my prequalifying time would've actually been good for 8th. I was happy to see my team mate qualify as well, but I can't help but to feel a bit bad for Jean Alesi and Tyrrell, who both got narrowly outside the top 26. Gerhard Berger struggled surprisingly much as well, as his time was only 65 thousandths better than Alesi's. However, he can still improve his position in the next session. The Coloni being out of the race means good for our battle in the constructor's championship, while Rene Arnoux should just retire immediately. He's embarassing himself.

Results - Qualifying session 1 for the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix
Pos.|Driver|Team||Best Lap|Gap

1. Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:25.335
2. Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:26.825 +1.490
3. Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:27.284 +1.949
...
9. Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:28.188 +2.854
10. Sophie Fabron AGS-Ford 1:28.276 +2.941
11. Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 1:28.310 +2.975
...
22. Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:28.758 +3.423
...
27. Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:28.994 +3.659
28. Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:29.021 +3.686
29. Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 1:29.994 +4.659
30. Rene Arnoux Ligier-Ford 1:31.729 +6.394

So now I've got the 26 drivers who take part in the race confirmed. I shall now run a test race to see if the attrition is similar to the previous round, or was it just caused by the track instead of the AI aggression.

[tommykl]

This is the greatest thing ever. And i've seen Dagnall finish a race in 4th for Pacific.

I once got a Zakspeed 1-2!

I once won the Brazilian Grand Prix in a Prost. Everyone else did retire though!

I once got Howden Ganley to win a race

[Wizzie]

I once got a Zakspeed 1-2!

I once won the Brazilian Grand Prix in a Prost. Everyone else did retire though!

I once got Howden Ganley to win a race

Christian Klien won the first race I did in my career (Only because I spent most of the race holding people up in the Melrose Express )

[Klon]

I unrejectified Ricardo Rosset in a F1 manager game taking place in 2008.

[Stramala]

Not F1C, but Patrick Freisacher once won a race at the US GP in F1 05 for me

[Nuppiz]

The test race in Imola confirmed that it was not the settings, but the Jacarepagua track itself that caused the mammoth attrition. So I'll run the next race with the same settings as the previous one.

[BlindCaveSalamander]

The test race in Imola confirmed that it was not the settings, but the Jacarepagua track itself that caused the mammoth attrition. So I'll run the next race with the same settings as the previous one.

What is it with Jacarepagua in games? I remember Chris Dagnall won his first race for Benetton in similar circumstances.

[Nuppiz]

The test race in Imola confirmed that it was not the settings, but the Jacarepagua track itself that caused the mammoth attrition. So I'll run the next race with the same settings as the previous one.

What is it with Jacarepagua in games? I remember Chris Dagnall won his first race for Benetton in similar circumstances.

Well, in this particular case there were two troublespots: the Nonato curve, which the AI cars often took too fast, hit the barriers and if nothing more serious, lost their rear wing which makes the AI cars to pit and retire, and the pit entrance, where many cars failed to brake early and went into the barriers.