Opinions on new F1 qualifying?

[ahnslaught]

I remember there were a bunch of shmuppers who seemed interested in motorsport, so I was wondering - what's your impression of the new F1 qualifying system, and the season in general so far?

Personally, I love it, except for two things:

1) Q3 - I hate how the FIA forces teams to declare a fuel load and run qualifying for the third period with that...it guarantees a boring as hell 15 minutes or so of cars going slowly around with no sense of competition - just burning fuel and using the engine for no apparent purpose.

As an aside, isn't it weird how last year's qualifying would give great advantages to teams who were quick (i.e. allowing teams to go out for session 1 in the previous race order, thus giving better track) , whereas this season, it gives quick teams a disadvantage by limiting fuel option pre-race and forcing them to do 8-10 more laps per race with Q3?

2) Why not allow teams to change settings during qualifying and afterwards? My understanding so far is that they can only change wing setting, tire pressures, etc, but no rear wing or suspension settings. If teams think they can do it in the short time they have already, by all means, let them, I say.

As for the season, the first race in Bahrain was great - lots of overtaking and jsut a good race overall, but Malaysia went back to the processional format. Lets look forward to Australia tonight!

[Vexorg]

I need to do some catching up on the whole F1 bit (I watched the Malaysia race, didn't see Bahrain though, and haven't seen a qualifying session yet.) I think a lot of the changes are still trying to rebalance things after Bernie's whole "nerf Ferrari" kick at the end of the 2004 season. The whole "one set of tires per race" predictably turned out to be a disaster (for the Indy debacle, if nothing else) I think right now most of the teams are still getting the bugs worked out of the V8s, but even with that, Renault seems to be the ones to beat again, although Ferrari is looking like they could make a decent run at them this year. To be honest, mostly I just enjoy watching Raikkonen drop out for one reason or another...

Actually, just a couple of weeks ago I headed over to the local Ferrari dealer and got one of those big Tifosi flags you see at the races to put on my wall.

[raiden]

after not watching F1 for over five years (being bored of watching cars lined up on a chain without any overtaking, AND having the same winner over and over again), I have to say the game has become a lot more interesting again recently. Is it correct the teams have to announce their tires long before the race, so they can´t adapt to current weather conditions? That´s a bit cheap for a rule, to add such a strong element of luck, but apparently it works in creating a lot of diversity for races, and so I won´t complain.

Another thing I noted today is how far away from realism, even graphically, videogames still are. Having played racing games for the last few years without ever watching a real race, I was under the impression they were "almost there", but now, being reminded how MANY details there really are, I can´t imagine they´ll ever reach that point. Not because the hardware wasn´t capable, but because it´s just impossible to design and program all of that into a game. You´d basically need a world simulation, with every bit of grass growing, wind blowing, people animation, material deforming, going on at the same time.

btw. can someone recommend a current F1 game, preferably for the PC platform? I liked F1 World Grand Prix on N64 and Racing Simulation 2 on Dreamcast, never looked at any EA version.

[Vexorg]

Is it correct the teams have to announce their tires long before the race, so they can´t adapt to current weather conditions? That´s a bit cheap for a rule, to add such a strong element of luck, but apparently it works in creating a lot of diversity for races, and so I won´t complain.

I believe the rule deals with tire compound used. And this is a whole lot better than last year, when the rules required that teams had to go through the entire race weekend on a single set of tires.

Anyway, I watched the race (this is one of the few races in the F1 season that isn't on at 3 in the morning) and there was some interesting stuff going on... (The text below contains spoilers, highlight to read it)

It looks like right now, the Renaults are going to be the ones to beat again. They were talking about Jenson Button being on a light fuel load at the start of the race, but it didn't matter, once Alonso got by him after the second safety car period, he was gone, and had 2 seconds on Button within a lap. From there, it was pretty much a one-man show.

Others in the field weren't quite so fortunate. The final turn claimed more than its fair share of victims, including Schumacher (I don't think I've seen him go out of a race on a crash since Monaco in '04, and I'm too lazy to check that right now) and Montoya. In both cases, it looked a lot like people were just pushing the corner too hard and running off the edge (just before Schumi's wreck they showed one of the Toro Rosso cars running off the edge, but managing to pull it back in). As for Massa, based on his performances so far I'm not sure how he ever managed to get into a Ferrari...

But by far, I'd have to say the unluckiest driver today would be Jenson Button. He fought the car all day and looked like he might have been able to bring it home in fifth, right up until the engine blew up in spectacular fashion two turns from the finish line and he was forced to stop it before the line to avoid a penalty for an engine change in the next race. Fisichella would have obviously got by him, but he could have at least brought it in for sixth place points if not for the engine rules.

I've also got to give kudos to Scott Speed, who finished eighth for a point, matching in three races what the Minardis were lucky to accomplish in a season. Granted, it was due to a lucky break (the aforementioned Button blow-up) but not a bad drive for a rookie on his third race.

[ahnslaught]

Wonderful race at Australia! It was probably the most hectic race since Brazil 2 years ago, and this race didn't even have rain. The opening laps especially were must watch, as well as the end, like Vexorg said (Sorry if I might have spoiled something...I don't know how to do the invisi-font thing , and I figured since the race is over, it should be ok)

Anyway, I think the only time you can change all settings is when there is a change in weather to heavy rains on the day of the race, though teams have to compromise during qualifying if they only think there might be a chance for rain during the race and it's clear during Saturday.

Raiden-
Not only in terms of graphics and such, but I think the AI is the part that needs the heaviest improvement. It's either play against kamikaze AI or run hotlaps, which I do most of the time, since multiplayer racing games, as far as I've tried, run slow as all hell online with any decent amount of players.

As for good current F1 games, though, sorry I can't help, but the last one I've tried is F1 2001, which was great only if you turned the physics level to the high level. As you may or may not know, F1 is about as popular as monster truck racing in the US, especially in the midwest where I'm at, and they just don't sell much of 'em. I've heard Career Challenge, which was the last EA F1 game made, is basically the same game with updated lineups (where have i heard that before from an EA game?). F1 2001 still looks and plays well, especially with the many mod packs out there for car models and such, though it has the glaring omission of Spa-Francorchamps.

My personal opinion on racing games for the PC are that older games may be a better choice, since it usually takes a beastly machine to be able to run it with relatively high graphics settings. I'm curious as to what you think about that.

[raiden]

My personal opinion on racing games for the PC are that older games may be a better choice, since it usually takes a beastly machine to be able to run it with relatively high graphics settings. I'm curious as to what you think about that.

that´s my opinion too, exactly. The only problem with older racing games is they tend not to use the Xbox360 controller, which I consider to be the first good racing controller availlable for PC (not counting wheels, I just don´t want to bother with them).
I´ve always despised playing racing games on PC, but after seeing games like World Racing 2 or Need for Speed Most Wanted on Xbox and then on PC, I was converted. There is 360, of course, but I can´t stand long loading times either, and the same game will load quicker on PC than on 360, because PC uses HDD fór that, while 360 is stuck on DVD.
360 games even load longer than their Xbox counterparts, that´s my main reason for shying away from that platform. I don´t want better graphics in exchange for longer loading times. The only reason I´ve been bothering with Xbox loading times instead of playing racing games on N64 was the fact the Xbox controller is so much better.

[VNAF Ace]

I'm more of a casual F1 fan, but I don't really care that much about F1 anymore. I only watch it if nothing else is on.

If I wanna watch some actual racing, then I'll watch the Champ Car World Series (formerly known as the IndyCar World Series before 1996) and NASCAR.

[ahnslaught]

Well, the great thing about F1, at least in the states, is that there is nothing on but 1-900 text message commercials and vacuum cleaner infomercials when races actually begin, right?

Raiden,

I totally understand your distaste for wheels - I have one, but it's such a chore to trot it out when I want to put in a few laps, you know? That's why I haven't been playing racing sims as much as I used to.

It's also a bummer to hear about long X360 loading times. Is this common across most games, or just for racing games where they have to load in track info, etc? I was hoping newer consoles might improve on the issue...

[captain ahar]

It's also a bummer to hear about long X360 loading times. Is this common across most games, or just for racing games where they have to load in track info, etc? I was hoping newer consoles might improve on the issue...

this is gonna depend on the dev's and how they work around loading, but in general i'd say "loading" is going to get worse. the work being done to streamline loading procedures and the amount of data being loaded are often disproportionate.