Chris

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  • #203630
    Chris
    Participant

    … when you use Brundle-isms in everyday conversation. Man he’s got some gems.

    #245954
    Chris
    Participant

    1) Sebastian Vettel – When you compare Vettel’s first half of the season to the second half, it looks awful, by his standards. However, when you look at those results, they’re not bad at all. In fact, they’re very very good. He won 4 races, and aside from his DNF in Silverstone, he finished no lower than 4th. Then after the summer break, things really got going. Showing complete and utter dominance winning every single race from then on until the end of the season. Oh yeah, and he won his 4th consecutive WDC, and contributed handsomely to the teams 4th consecutive WCC. However, I did find myself wondering on many occasions, just how much of his dominance was down to the car, and how much was him. But, full credit to him, he made very few mistakes, and got the absolute maximum from his beast of a car. Congrats Seb!

    2) Lewis Hamilton – He may have finished fourth in the WDC, and been inconsistent at times, however, Lewis showed how supremely talented he was by coming to a brand new team, and beating Nico Rosberg, who is no slouch. Hamilton took 4 consecutive pole positions between the British and Belgian Grands Prix. Claiming 5 poles for the season, and a grand prix victory at his Hungarian stomping ground, all the while struggling with personal issues and getting accustomed to new brakes.

    3) Fernando Alonso – When you consider the fight he put up in last years championship, you could look at this year’s one and think “Hmmm… what happened there”. Sebastian Vettel happened. Despite the F138 looking promising early in the season, the pace of the car was quickly overtaken by the other top teams, often leaving Fernando to scrap for lower placings. However, he still finished 2nd in the championship, and proved to be Vettel’s biggest (distant) rival, in vastly inferior machinery.

    4) Nico Rosberg – Nico came into the season with something to prove, and that was to prove doubters wrong that he was indeed a top driver in this sport. He’d beaten the old maestro, and was now facing a bigger challenge: Mr. Hamilton. Whilst Lewis had the legs on Rosberg for the most part of the season, Nico did win two races to Lewis’s one. However, many believe he essentially lucked into his Silverstone win, due to blowing up tyres, and Vettel’s gearbox giving up. His Monaco win however, was supreme. He showed complete control and class in a car that was known for a strong appetite of rear wheel Pirelli’s.

    5) Kimi Raikkonen – Kimi’s season started as well as it possibly could have, with a win in at the first GP. However, he wasn’t able to replicate this performance for the next 17 races. His smooth driving style combined with the lenience the Lotus treated it’s tyres with, Kimi was often able to get himself into a position that he had no business being in because he was able to make one less stop than everyone else (I.e. Australia, Spain, Hungary and Singapore, just to name a few). He was on track to put up a robust fight to Sebastian and Fernando, however, a DNF in Spa, and a non-scoring race in Italy, effectively washed away any hope of a title fight.

    6) Nico Hulkenberg – Nico started 2013 in a Sauber that was, let’s be honest, utterly rubbish, and thus was not able to show his full potential. However in China he briefly led the race as opposing strategies played out, whilst his team mate was incredibly unimpressive. The first half of the season was nothing to shout about; his C32 just simply wasn’t good enough. Come the second half of the season, and a new upgrade, the Sauber was much more to his liking, and Hulkenberg displayed a racing ability far beyond his years. Finishing regularly in the points, and amazingly qualifying 3rd at the Italian GP, his reputation sky rocketed.

    7) Mark Webber – Mark is a top class Formula One driver. Make no mistake about that. However, the man he was up against was steadily rapidly blooming into a Formula One legend. Thus, 2013 was a season to forget for Webber. Tyres that rapidly degraded, and even more so with his driving style, he was unable to lean on them. Combine that with the beat down of a life time against his team mate, in both qualifying and the races, things didn’t look good. However, in Malaysia, he was driving very well, and leading the race thanks to good strategy, when all of a sudden ‘Multi-21’ happened. And I’ll leave that at that. I wish you the best of luck in the WEC, which will much more suit your style. Fair well mate!

    8) Romain Grosjean – The quick but erratic Frenchman had a pretty typical first half of the season to be frank; Crashing himself and others out of races, and then there was Monaco. I think the less said about that, the better. As the summer break finished and we arrived at Spa, Romain Grosjean 2.0 was born. The second half proved to be his best time in Formula One, with almost regular podium finishes, and a more controlled driving style, Romain became, for at least a few races, Sebastian’s closest rival on track.

    9) Daniel Ricciardo (‘Rick-ardo’!, not ‘Richy-ardo’) – In 2012 Ricciardo earned a reputation for being blisteringly quick over one lap, but not much to shout about during a race. That changed somewhat in 2013 with his qualifying pace still being present, but his race-craft was vastly improved, beating his more race-savvy team mate more often than not. I really hope Dan goes really well at Red Bull, and gives ‘ze Cherman’, a run for his money, at least in qualifying. And, seeing as we grew up in the same suburb (Duncraig), I have a bit of bias for him. :)

    10) Jenson Button – The McLaren MP4-28 was a scrub, and anyone who says otherwise should get a mental health check. JB showed his usual smooth as butter style, which helped him the races with these 2013 spec tyres that lasted about 30 seconds before you needed a new set. However, his smooth driving could only get him so far, before the constraints of the machine he was in weighed him down. But compared to his team mate, he out performed him for the most part.

    11) Felipe Massa – As clear a number 2 driver as there ever has been. His final year at Ferrari proved to be slightly more successful than the previous few years, as he got on the podium a couple of times, and out qualified his team mate several times to boot. But now it’s on to greener pastures, in the hope that he can rediscover his true self. Arguably the nicest man in Formula One will be joining the team that every has a soft spot for: Williams.

    12) Valtteri Bottas – Big things were expected from Valtteri this year. The much hyped Finnish rookie looked promising, but the Williams car was, like McLaren, a bonefide scrub. With Williams on track to have their worst year in their team’s history. Valtteri stepped up at the pennultimate hour and scored his first points of the year, and more than doubled the teams constuctors points in 1 race (From 1pt, to 5pts). Not to mention his stellar job in Canada, even though he was on a wetter setup than the rest, he paid for it in the race.

    13) Sergio Perez – After a terrific year with Sauber, Perez was hired by McLaren. What could go wrong? He was quicker than his team mate in qualifying, but didn’t have the same level of mental strength in the race, combined with some exciting, yet reckless driving Perez became a marked man. I actually feel that Perez deserved another year with the Woking team. But these things happen in the vicious world of F1.

    14) Jules Bianchi – Jules has been the first rookie to really catch my eye. Proving to be the only bright spot among the back markers. The guy has undeniable talent, and a Ferrari engine in his pocket. However, I found myself wondering if his dominance over young Max was as a result of his talent, or whether Max was just incredibly out of his depth in Formula 1.

    15) Paul Di Resta – Paul had some good drives this year, namely his performance in Bahrain, where he was on course for 3rd, but had it taken from him by Romain Grosjean, as Di Resta’s tyres fell off the cliff. After that, Di Resta was largely unimpressive. His (almost pole) 5th place qualifying in Belgium was another highlight. However, Paul on several occasions played the blame game, and not very transparently either. Claiming all the glory for good performances, and putting all the blame on the team for bad performances. Rumours are that he’s lost his drive at Force India, and if he’s to stay in Formula One: buyer beware of this blaming.

    16) Adrian Sutil – Making an impressive start to the season, Adrian looked like he had the legs on his team mate, however, the change in tyres mid season seemed to hurt him quite badly. He was faster over one lap than Di Resta, but was often beaten in the races.

    17) Jean-Eric Vergne – About as close to invisible as it gets. Scored some points, but that’s about it.

    18) Esteban Gutierrez – A dreadful start to the year had me wondering why this guy was even in Formula One, aside from his thick wallet. However, as with Hulkenberg, the change in tyres, and the upgraded C32, Esteban became a better driver, and developed quite quickly during the season. Finally scoring points in Japan, and deservedly so. But he was beaten into submission about as thoroughly as you can get.

    19) Pastor Maldonado – The crazy Venezuelan has his moments of brilliance, but they’re few and far between. Sure, the Williams wasn’t good this year (understatement much?), but he didn’t exactly maximise the performance of the car in qualifying, which is something he’s known for. OH yeah, and he didn’t help himself with the deterioration of his relationship with Williams.

    20) Giedo van der Garde – A relatively unheard of chap, I quite liked him. He got the CT03 into Q2 on two occasions and seemed to have the advantage over his more experienced team mate when the conditions were changeable.

    21) Charles Pic – Another JEV. Pretty much never saw anything of him. He’s quite talented, but nothing to get too excited about.

    22) Max Chilton – And finally, last, and in this case: least. Chilton proved the least impressive of the field. Essentially only driving because he sold himself as an investment to Marussia, he’d better hope it works out. Credit to him though for being consistent and finishing every GP this year, a feat no rookie has achieved. However, while he was consistent, he was consistently slow. Often being out qualified by his team mate by around 0.3 to 0.8 seconds, and much more during the race, Chilton was as slow as they come. If he get’s another year, I hope he can get on terms more easily.

    #229371
    Chris
    Participant

    Not really an overtake, but i seriously admired Alonso’s defending from Webber with a broken front wing on the opening lap. In hindsight, he should have pitted.

    But, it’s got to be Vettel’s pass on Webber.

    #228734
    Chris
    Participant

    I gonna go with Vettel’s pass on Sutil. That was ballsy braking. He came from about 20 meters behind, and managed to out brake him into turn 3.

    #198492
    Chris
    Participant

    Let me first start off by saying that I have enjoyed the past two f1 games that codemasters have made. Especially since I play on PC and there is a large modding community to help make the game a bit better.
    I won’t bore you with an essay of ideas, but I’ll give a few that I think would make 2012 ten fold better than 2011.

    I’m not sure if any of you have played NBA 2K12, but if you have then you would know about “Living Rosters”, or for that fact, almost any sports game made by 2K Sports or EA games.
    In basic, what 2k sports “living rosters” and EA’s “dynamic DNA”, take real world stats and implement them into the game. However these statistics don’t just show up on a fancy screen as a whole bunch of numbers, they are also implemented into how particular players or teams play, their styles, attributes and tendencies etc etc.

    So what I’m trying to say is for Codemasters to implement a system that updates real world stats into the formula 1 game. So that guys like Hamilton and Kobayashi will be more inclined to dive up the inside to try to overtake you. And on the other end of the spectrum, guys like Schumacher and Alonso, will be able to defend your attacking moves. Basically, have drivers, drive the way they do in real life.

    Also, on Sunday night, (or Monday morning) Codemasters could replicate the track, grid order, and weather of the race that occurred in the real race. And you can chose to be anyone of the drivers from that race, and try to do better (or worse) in the race.

    (I understand that Codemasters Birmingham is relatively small compared 2ksports and EA, so doing this would take a lot of effort, but none the less it would make it easily the best racing game ever made)

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)