Anybody with a passing curiosity in F1 certainly is aware of the broad strokes of Frontier’s F1 Supervisor collection by now—you’re taking management of an actual group, you construct and design new components to your automotive, and you then take that automotive to race weekends and oversee the occasions in pleasingly granular element. That’s simply as true of this yr’s sophomore launch because it was of the debut, besides that in F1 Supervisor 2023 you even have the choice of getting caught straight into races.
‘Race moments’ and ‘beginning grid’ situations successfully strip away the lengthy recreation, all of the interstitial materials between races, and can help you soar into the enjoyable bit instantly. Within the case of race moments, which means reliving an actual second from the 2023 season and making an attempt to alter the course of historical past by righting a kind of heartbreaking tales—Lando’s 2021 Sochi grand prix is the apparent instance, though the race moments on this recreation are from 2023 solely. Beginning grid situations, in the meantime, don’t have any historic context—they’re basically the fast race mode equal for a administration sim.
And that’s how I discovered myself spending a Friday morning making an attempt to get Fernando Alonso a Monaco win within the pouring rain. Provided that Fernando Alonso neither drives a Purple Bull nor is named ‘Max Verstappen’, that was all the time going to be troublesome.
In actuality, Alonso completed nearly 28 seconds adrift of Verstappen in extraordinarily difficult moist circumstances, having teased F1 followers with the potential for a romantic return to the highest step nearly precisely a decade after his final win by going extraordinarily nicely in quali. However the quickest drinks firm in motorsport wasn’t having any of it. Ultimately, it didn’t seem like Alonso ever had an opportunity of difficult Max for the win.
It’s fairly daunting, then, to leap into the Sunday at two thirds race distance and one way or the other beat a Purple Bull. Solely 5 occasions within the final 30 races has that occurred. Not as soon as this season. The imply common distance between the profitable Purple Bull and P2 to this point in 2023 is 10.9 seconds. Better of luck Fernando, mate.
Because the situation begins, we’re all nonetheless out on worn dry tires. Max is about 4 seconds forward of us. The boss’s son can be within the race and technically I can mastermind a wonderful P11 for him too, however I really feel like I’ve obtained sufficient on my plate with Fernando’s mission. And what are they going to do if Lance doesn’t end within the factors, sack him?
It feels at this stage as if pitting on the precise proper second, onto both intermediates or wets, goes to be the important thing to beating Max. I toy with the concept of leaving Fernando out on dry tires and seeing if he can maintain the hole till the tip of the race—pit stops at Monaco take about 20 seconds beneath regular racing circumstances, however beneath a VSC or security automotive you solely lose about 12 seconds as a result of pack’s diminished tempo.
So if Max pits in, I can go away Fernando out and acquire an immediate 20 second lead. From right here, we are able to hope that hole’s sufficient to final him the remaining 20-odd laps, or we are able to hope for a security automotive and get Fernando onto new tires for a lesser web time loss. However each really feel like fairly dangerous methods, don’t they?
We move the pits as soon as and neither Purple Bull nor my Aston Martin group service their drivers. In fact, though it’s raining, and that rain’s anticipated to get stronger, the monitor isn’t truly moist sufficient for inters but. They’d in all probability overheat if we put Nando on them this lap, affecting their efficiency and sturdiness for the remaining race.
I keep watch over what’s taking place additional down the pack. A lot of the others have stayed out too, however George Russell’s gone all in and opted for the complete moist tire. That’s extraordinarily helpful knowledge for me—the Merc’s tempo is corresponding to the Aston Martin, so if it seems to be like George goes faster than the remainder of the pack as soon as all of them go on inters, I’ll comprehend it’s time to clad Nando on full wets too.
Besides George isn’t going very quick. He’s slower than those that went for inters early, on this primary lap of the situation, and he’s slower than Max and Fernando on the entrance. So our technique to remain out this lap was sound. The one hassle is, it doesn’t give us any benefit over Max as a result of he did it too.
I’m left feeling like I missed one thing. There was a golden alternative in there, someplace.
I resolve to easily cowl off Max. At any time when he pits, I’ll pit Fernando too. The monitor’s a lot wetter one lap later, and the climate forecast suggests he’d by no means maintain a 20-second lead on dry tires with this a lot rain coming down. Perhaps there’s a possibility right here to go for whichever tire Max doesn’t go for, however clearly I can’t see that till it’s occurred and that might imply pitting one lap later, spending an additional minute and a half shedding time to him on dry tires.
There’s nothing to do however pit for inters on the very same lap as Max, coming into 4 seconds behind him and leaving the pits 4 seconds behind him. George’s full wets nonetheless aren’t lapping sooner than these of us on inters, and on condition that we’d now want an extra pit cease to place Fernando on them, he’d need to be about three seconds a lap faster than everybody else to make that price it.
What’s occurred right here is strictly what occurs in the actual sport. It’s a formidable testomony to the simulation Frontier has constructed, nevertheless it doesn’t make for an particularly scintillating situation. All of the variables and forces that strong-arm the actual race strategists into conservative calls are current right here, and as a lot as I needed to do one thing wild and impressed that put Fernando into P1, such a technique merely wasn’t viable. I spend 20 laps chipping away at Max, get inside a second of him, after which fail to move him by the tip of the race, as a result of it’s Monaco.
I’m left feeling like I missed one thing. There was a golden alternative in there, someplace, however I’d have to play that situation a number of occasions to uncover it. And the factor is, I can truly see myself doing that when F1 Supervisor 2023 releases. These new situation modes aren’t dramatic set-pieces that tee you up for glory, however puzzles to be solved by cautious calculation and, in the end, trial and error. They’re a worthwhile addition to an already strong administration sim, however they’re not the fast burst of enjoyment and gratification I used to be anticipating.
