Don’t know about Canada - haven’t got there yet - but the curb on the inside of the hairpin in Bahrain (T10 I think) is a right bitch! Kept clipping it a little to tightly and launching myself into a slide across to the other side of the track. Thank goodness for the wide run-off areas…
Managed to grab 2 nice pics from under the Bahrain lights:
F1 installed. Wife will be back at 10pm so it’s down to bath and bed for the kids then we get going.
So last night I had a fantastic GP. It was the French GP. The practice programs went very well, and I quickly got used to the track. The track is actually really nice to drive. Nice and flowing track. By the end of the race weekend I properly fell in love with the track. I was also blistering fast on it.
So this was also the first weekend we received our first major engin upgrade. In the nick of time as well, as the French GP is really fast with a few long straights and high speeds.
I went for the alternative strategy by qualifying on the super soft tires in Q2 in stead of the ultras. Was a great call, as in the race it meant I could do a normal easy 2 stop, while all the rest of the top teams were doing a 3 stop strategy.
Well it worked off extremely well. I survived the first corner carnage that saw both Vettel and Hamilton spinning off track and Danny Ric losing a piece of wing. And after the first pit stops I was in the lead. I kept that lead until the end, and won my very first race for the Renault team, on their home GP!!
Was a stunner of a race
Honest review after the Aus GP.
The game feels more polished, graphics are better, but not significantly as I dont have a 4k setup.
For me the biggest thing is getting used to F1 2018, I am so used to the control panels in 2017, so I take a bit longer to find what I am looking for.
The cars handle very differently, I found the Sauber a bit sticky/heavy in lower speed corners and twitchy on the faster stuff. Not a bad thing, was actually fun learning to drive a new car.
The AI seems to be a touch glitched. Started on 50 difficulty and in FP1,2 I sat in 12-15th and FP3 was 2nd fastest as I did my Quali Sim program. 1.29.7 which is about 4seconds slower on the same track as I was in 2017. Thats a Lance Stroll to rest of pack gap!.. Thinking I had the difficulty right I then qualified P10 and after a daring two dives down the inside I ended up in 6th position after lap 2. Pitted first and after everybody pitted I was 5th, getting the jump on Max as he came out the pit lane. Danny Ricc retired and I sat in 4th, 11seconds behind bottas and spent 8 laps or so with a train on my backside, i was obviously holding them up.
The tyre wear was not so bad on the second set in the closing 3 laps compared to f1 2017, engine wear bug is finally fixed.
One thing I want to change on the settings is the quali, it was a one shot, I want at least one session.
With under 2 hours of gameplay I am enjoying the upgraded version of f1.
Never been a racing game fan until f1 2017 so I am going to use the first season as I did in f1 2017 to work on form. By the time Internet rolls into the valley I want to be able to not embarrass myself on multiplayer.
@DieGrootHammer, on the difficulty you are playing on, that is insane bud! should get many more wins under your belt soon.
I spent 1500 points so far, 500 on general reliability and 1000 on a front wing upgrade. If 2018 does not show the same wear model as 2017 then hopefully I can spend on performance as opposed to durability.
sorry if the above seems mish mashed and a buch of thoughts thrown up. Kids disnt sleep well last night
I’ve never been a huge fan of F1 games but you guys certainly make it sound good
Why can’t I find MEW’s “taken out of context” thread 
Bwahaha gaan kak in die mielies 
So I am bumping up the difficulty much earlier than I expected. Last night was the Austrian GP in my first season career. The Spielberg circuit is not my favourite and I’ve always struggled with the first and third corner, losing lots of time. Yet last night I realised that I am getting really quick and hooked up with the car, and for the Austrian GP weekend I was absolutely dominating. I ended up in pole position after Q3, and lead the race from start to finish. Was actually really boring.
So for the next weekend I am bumping up the difficulty to 93 from 85 and will see how things go.
Geez bud, i’m only considering going to 60…
The first corner in 2017 I came from the left of the start finish straight and apexed it keeping the car in the centre of the track drifting right slightly for turn two. Turn 3 I hated, it needs to be apexed but you have to keep on the gas a touch for traction and some speed straight into the drs zone.
I really struggle with corners like that
Update:
Last night was the most intense racing of the season so far. The Hungaroring proved to be a fierce contention field.
Our Renault has improved drastically, bringing no less than 3 upgrades to Hungary. Suddenly we were on pace with the top 3 teams, and my teammate, Carlos Saints, showed the pace. Unfortunately, I struggled to find a comfortable setup and the car felt loose on the track. Despite this, we both managed to qualify very well, me in 4th position and Carlos in 3rd. It was only the second time my teammate outqualified me.
The race started and turn one was rather subdued. But turn two was where it all kicked off. Kimi came barging up on my inside, forcing me to take the wider line into turn 2. I understeered following a loss of grip on the colder tires, and Verstappen, who took a penalty, followed Kimi and passed me. I now found myself in 6th, with Bottas right up my cuff.
Bottas and I had narrow moments all through the first 3 laps. The bastard even bumped into me going into the last turn. Nearly spun me out, but I managed to hold the line. But my tires were cooked and losing grip rapidly. Bottas, on the harder compound, seized his opportunity into turn 4 and made a daring pass. Great piece of late-breaking by the AI on display.
And so, relegated to 7th, I was shocked to find my teammate. In the scuffle of the first round, Saints got pinched and left the track, falling down several places. The race was not looking good for the yellow team.
I pitted a lap before Saints. He had a stonking in lap, and as I got onto the straight on the lap he pitted, I found myself jumped by my teammate by the overcut.
We battled closely for lap after lap, and on lap 12-ish I managed to pass him finally.
And then I saw it. All the front runners were being held up massively by backmarkers on 1-stop stints. Their pace not enough to drive away from the faster teams, yet holding them up in the tight Hungaroring track. I saw Stroll locking up into the chicane and Kimi almost slamming into him. I had to cut the corner just to avoid hitting the back of Kimi.
After these cars pitted, the front teams were much more bunched up. But the Ferraris and the Red Bulls just had the better chassis and drove away from me. I found myself in 5th after all the scuffles, with Bottas and Sainz very close behind. For a few laps, I went into an ultra-defensive mode, saving a bit of tire temps making them last longer. I saved up some ERS and fuel in the process as well. After the second round of pitstops, Bottas managed to jump me again with an overcut. But this time I was ready. On the pit straight, I went into rich mix and overtake mode, and late-braked into the first corner. I forced Bottas wide and snatched the position back. Interestingly, my teammate followed and it was a Renault 5-6. With better tires, more ERS and more fuel, I started pulling away from Sainz, always keeping at least a 1 second gap between us. Bottas tried his best in those last laps, but to no avail. We Renault’s fought bravely and ended the race in 5th and 6th.
Quite possibly the most fun I’ve had in a racing game in my life. That was an incredible race!!
My session went like this.
19:00 kids are asleep. Wick vape and fire up the Xbox
19:15 youngest wakes up.
19:30 start practice program. In lap oldest wakes up
19:45 start tyre program
20:00 both wake up.
20:30 wife gets home
20:45 Xbox has now turned itself off
Pretty proud of myself. Never been a racing gamer or played racing games seriously until f1 2017.
Started 2017 on 17 difficulty and have been slowly increasing the difficulty. Got a 4th on 55 in a sauber so increased it to 65. First time ever in a racing game I’ve selected hard.
The aim is to find a difficulty that makes scoring points achievable but difficult.
10 SEPTEMBER
Hi all,
Patch 1.06 is now out on PC. Below you’ll find the patch notes for this update:
• 2018 Car model and Livery Updates
o Various livery and sponsor logo updates to teams
o Updated McLaren nosecone
o Updated Ferrari mirror mountings
o Updated Force India sidepod turning vane geometry and steering wheel materials
o Updated Renault front wing and rear wing endplates
o Updated Haas sidepod turning vanes, mirror mountings and halo geometry
• 2018 Vehicle Performance Updates
• Players can now change AI difficulty between sessions
• Updated DRS Detection zones for the 2018 Singapore GP
• Updated Hungary and Singapore Track Map Videos
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to have DRS use on incorrect parts of the track after using instant replay
• Made some adjustments to the AI R&D Progression in Career
• Achievements – “Every artist was first an amateur” should now unlock correctly
• Fixed an issue where the player was being awarded an incorrect 10 place grid drop penalty instead of 5, for changing a gearbox in career
• Fixed an issue where the player was being awarded a 5 place grid drop penalty instead of 10, for fitting an extra MGU-K, Control Electronics or Energy Store component for the 1st time.
• Xbox One – Fixed Xbox Voice chat not working
• PC – Global leaderboards are now showing in the Steam client
• Multiplayer – Fixed an issue in multiplayer where the host was able to select re-start session after receiving terminal damage
• Multiplayer – Fixed a deadstate issue for players starting OSQ when the host and secondary host are dedicated spectators
• Multiplayer – Fixed an issue where cars would spawn on top of each other after joining in progress a OSQ session and then loading into a race
• Improved stability and various other fixes
We are continuing to track down and fix more bugs and we’ll have more information about any further patches soon.
Ladies and Gentlemen. Rejoice!! For I am the World Driver Champion in my rookie year with Renault!!
Stole the whole championship from Lewis in the last race. What a season that first season was.
The first half was dominated by Lewis. He went out and won 4 out of the first 6 races. He looked unstoppable. Especially seeing as the rest of the supposed front pack was struggling with form. Vettel had an absolute nightmare of a season, Bottas was up and down, Verstappen was slow. Only Kimi and Danny Ricardo showed any traces of giving Hamilton some competition.
And then it happened…
The French GP was the turning point of the season. Here I won a shock victory in the Renault. We we gaining a lot of performance in upgrades, and found ourselves in the front pack. But no-one thought it would happen. Since then, the results came thick and fast for Renault.
From Monza right up to the last GP, I finished on the podium every single race. Those podiums included some incredible drives; a win at Singapore with a brilliant strategy, a magnificent drive at COTA going from last on the grid to 3rd, and a very tight battle with Bottas in Russia.
With my consistency and constant upgrades to the car, plus a shock crash of Hamilton and Gasly at Mexico, meant that I went into the Abu Dhabi GP 22 points in the lead. All I needed was to place higher than 8th to win the WDC.
But it was not easy. The car (or more accurately me) did not have the pace, and I qualified in a low 10th position. Plus I had to contend with a very worn MGU-H. But I fought like a tiger!! And after a few daring passes and lunges, I found myself in 4th position. All I needed to do was stay there and I’ll win. Luckily for me Kimi had a gearbox failure and gifted me 3rd position. I was never going to catch him so that was awesome! And so I kept my cool and ended up yet again on the podium, winning the WDC!!!
That was an incredible 1st season of F1. I loved it and I’m very much looking forward to the second season.
Wow bud. Congrats!
I’m only on racec3 thanks to sick kiddies.
Hopefully soon I’ll catch up.
That’s an amazing feat to get the Renault up top. Hope Danny RIC reads this
Baie geluk Hammer!! When and where can I get the merchandise so that I can support your F1 career!
Right, so I got back into the game last night after a bit of a hiatus vacationing at the Forza festival and going to ancient Greece. But also because, after the second season, I wanted to restart my career and take on a more challenging role.
You see I won my second season extremely comfortably. I won the WDC at Japan, after completely dominating the whole season with a car that were way too far out developed. It does seem like the AI teams struggle to keep up with the player if you do all the practice programs and score purple every time.
So my new challenge is in the Torro Rosso team. And this time I am limiting myself to only do 1 practice program per free practice day. So I only get 3 practice programs for each racing weekend. Also I am bumping up the difficulty and starting the season already on a back foot.
And so, I went into the Australian GP with little to no expectations of getting a good position. And you know what, it was the most fun race ever!! All the fighting, overtaking, defensive driving, strategy needed to participate in the race was something I only experienced in the first few rounds of my first season. It was extremely enjoyable. Also coming after a totally dominant season, it was nice to have to try hard to race other drivers.
So my first race I ended up in 12th place, which is absolutely amazing for me, seeing as I only qualified in 17th position on the grid. I had the most terrific fight with Ocon for about 5 laps, before Grojean started to pressure me. He unfortunately overtook me, but not after a fierce fight from me.
I feel like I’m back into this game now.
Project cars arrived in the post on Monday.
So far it’s the game I have been missing!
I wanted to do a racing career and PC2 lets me start as low down as karting.
I dont enjoy the karts so I have started in formula rookie.
The driving line is almost non existant so i turned it off. It takes me 6 laps to get the hang of which corner to enter where, but i must say its flippen awesome.
It’s really an amazing game! I am so in love with the LMP1 cars. Just the way they drive and sound gives me the chills!
Great!! Enjoy dude. Yes, PC2 is a much more simulation game than F1 2018. F1 is very good at its handling model, but PC2 makes it feel almost like an arcade game.
I’ve actually also been into PC2 more than F1 as of late. The handling takes a lot to get used to on a wheel, but it’s much easier than with a pad. I found that I’m much more comfortable with the wheel. And it makes sense, seeing as PC2 is built to be more of a sim racer.
