Round 3: Malaysian Grand Prix (Kuala Lumpur)

Difficulty:

Medium

Pole Position:

Montoya - McLaren

Race Result:

1st - Klien - Red Bull - 25 Points
2nd - Massa - Ferrari - 18 Points
3rd - Alonso - Renault - 15 Points
4th - M.Schumacher - Ferrari - 12 Points
5th - Montoya - McLaren - 10 Points
6th - Raikkonen - McLaren - 8 Points
7th - Barrichello - Honda - 6 Points
8th - Button - Honda - 4 Points
9th - Rosberg - Williams - 2 Points
10th - Heidfeld - BMW - 1 Point

Highlights:

A mixed weather qualifying session left me 12th for the start of the race. I was easily through Q1 in the dry but a wet Q2 made conditions tricky and I could only manage a time 0.8 seconds slower than 10th. Montoya grabbed pole in a 3 way fight with Massa and Alonso as yet more rain hit in Q3.

Race day and for the time being no rain - but cloudy sky overhead. I purposefully chose to run a long first stint (around lap 23) to give me options with regards the weather. I got away well taking a couple of places and after a few laps was romping away in first. The first stop went hitch free and soon after I was informed by commentator Brundle that the cloud was making way for sunshine and it looked like being a dry race. A relief given my wet weather struggle in Q2.

Annoyingly my team mate Coulthard retired with engine failure after fighting into the points, as did Fisichella for Renault. My second stop went fine and by this point I'd built up a lead of around a minute over 2nd placed Massa. Soon after this the clouds came back and I was told that we could yet see rain in the closing laps.

The rain held off but not long from the end near disaster struck as I collided with a car that was slowing to let me lap. The collision ripped the front wing off but luckily the nose and wheels were okay. I struggled back to the pits in the knowledge that I had a big lead and could afford to stop again to fix the damage. From this point I gathered my composure for the remaining few laps and took the chequered flag. The win leaves the Drivers Championship very tight with 2 points separating myself, Alonso and Schumi.

Video:



Drivers Championship:

1st - M.Schumacher - Ferrari - 52 Points
2nd - Alonso - Renault - 51 Points
3rd - Klien - Red Bull - 50 Points
4th - Barrichello - Honda - 26 Points
5th - Massa - Ferrari - 26 Points
6th - Fisichella - Renault - 20 Points
7th - Button - Honda - 20 Points
8th - Raikkonen - McLaren - 20 Points
9th - Montoya - McLaren - 14 Points
10th - Trulli - Toyota - 10 Points
11th - Coulthard - Red Bull - 6 Points
12th - Heidfeld - BMW - 3 Points
13th - Villeneuve - BMW - 2 Points
14th - Rosberg - Williams - 3 Points

Constructors Championship:

1st - Ferrari - 78 Points
2nd - Renault - 71 Points
3rd - Red Bull - 56 Points
4th - Honda - 46 Points
5th - McLaren - 34 Points
6th - Toyota - 10 Points
7th - BMW - 5 Points
8th - Williams - 3 Points

Round 2: Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne)

Difficulty:

Medium

Pole Position:

Klien - Red Bull

Race Result:

1st - M.Schumacher - Ferrari - 25 Points
2nd - Alonso - Renault - 18 Points
3rd - Button - Honda - 15 Points
4th - Raikkonen - McLaren - 12 Points
5th - Fisichella - Renault - 10 Points
6th - Barrichello - Honda - 8 Points
7th - Coulthard - Red Bull - 6 Points
8th - Trulli - Toyota - 4 Points
9th - Villeneuve - BMW - 2 Points
10th - Rosberg - Williams - 1 Point
--------------------------------------------------
DNF - Klien - Red Bull

Highlights:

Like Barhain I again qualified on pole. After some rain in practice the race day was dry. I got away well but a few laps in had a coming together into turn 1 with Massa. Suffering from a damaged rear wing he needed to pit, sending the Brazilian to the back of the pack (and home without any points). I damaged my own front wing but decided not to pit - a mistake in hindsight. I was never comfortable with the car after that and soon dropped to 3rd.

On lap 12 or 13 I spun on the kerb coming out of Hellas Corner and ended up crashing into the wall. That was the end of my short race which in all honesty had been a bit of a nightmare. I'm hoping for a better result at Sepang next Sunday, though I suspect there's going to be rain!

Video:

Not available for this race.

Drivers Championship Standings:

1st - M.Schumacher - Ferrari - 40 Points
2nd - Alonso - Renault - 36 Points
3rd - Klien - Red Bull - 25 Points
4th - Barrichello - Honda - 20 Points
5th - Fisichella - Renault - 20 Points
6th - Button - Honda - 16 Points
7th - Raikkonen - McLaren - 12 Points
8th - Trulli - Toyota - 10 Points
9th - Massa - Ferrari - 8 Points
10th - Coulthard - Red Bull - 6 Points
11th - Montoya - McLaren - 4 Points
12th - Heidfeld - BMW - 2 Points
13th - Villeneuve - BMW - 2 Points
14th - Rosberg - Williams - 1 Point

Constructors Championship Standings:

1st - Renault - 56 Points
2nd - Ferrari - 48 Points
3rd - Honda - 36 Points
4th - Red Bull - 31 Points
5th - McLaren - 16 Points
6th - Toyota - 10 Points
7th - BMW - 4 Points
8th - Williams - 1 Point

Round 1: Bahrain Grand Prix (Sakhir)

Difficulty:

Medium

Pole Position:

Klien - Red Bull

Race Result:

1st - Klien - Red Bull - 25 Points
2nd - Alonso - Renault - 18 Points
3rd - M.Schumacher - Ferrari - 15 Points
4th - Barrichello - Honda - 12 Points
5th - Fisichella - Renault - 10 Points
6th - Massa - Ferrari - 8 Points
7th - Trulli - Toyota - 6 Points
8th - Montoya - McLaren - 4 Points
9th - Heidfeld - BMW - 2 Points
10th - Button - Honda - 1 Point

Highlights:

I comfortably qualified on pole for the season opener in the desert. My race pace was far superior to all, even Alonso and Schumi. The weather was fine throughout and I made 2 stops (quite a few of the others made 3). My only issue was getting on the kurb and spinning a couple of times coming out of turn 3 but with the vast run off areas of Sakhir damage was never going to be an issue. I romped home to take the win and start 2010 with a bang.

Video:



Drivers Championship:

1st - Klien - Red Bull - 25 Points
2nd - Alonso - Renault - 18 Points
3rd - M.Schumacher - Ferrari - 15 Points
4th - Barrichello - Honda - 12 Points
5th - Fisichella - Renault - 10 Points
6th - Massa - Ferrari - 8 Points
7th - Trulli - Toyota - 6 Points
8th - Montoya - McLaren - 4 Points
9th - Heidfeld - BMW - 2 Points
10th - Button - Honda - 1 Point

Constructors Championship:

1st - Renault - 28 Points
2nd - Red Bull - 25 Points
3rd - Ferrari - 23 Points
4th - Honda - 13 Points
5th - Toyota - 6 Points
6th - McLaren - 4 Points
7th - BMW - 2 Points

Race Calendar & Points System

With the 5 changes from my previous post implemented here is my 2010 race calendar:

Round 1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir - 14th March

Round 2 - Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne - 28th March

Round 3 - Malaysian Grand Prix - Kuala Lumpur - 4th April

Round 4 - Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai - 18th April

Round 5 - Spanish Grand Prix - Barcelona - 9th May

Round 6 - Monaco Grand Prix - Monte Carlo - 16th May

Round 7 - Turkish Grand Prix - Istanbul - 30th May

Round 8 - Canadian Grand Prix - Montreal - 13th June

Round 9 - European Grand Prix - Imola - 27th June

Round 10 - British Grand Prix - Silverstone - 11th July

Round 11 - German Grand Prix - Hockenheim - 25th July

Round 12 - Hungarian Grand Prix - Budapest - 1st August

Round 13 - Belgian Grand Prix - Nurburgring - 29th August

Round 14 - Italian Grand Prix - Monza - 12th September

Round 15 - Singapore Grand Prix - Magny-Cours - 26th September

Round 16 - Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka - 10th October

Round 17 - Brazilian Grand Prix - Sao Paulo - 7th November

Round 18 - Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Indianapolis - 14th November

We all know the F1 points system has changed since F1:CE was released. I'll be using the new points system implemented for real life racing in 2010 that is as follows:

1st - 25 Points
2nd - 18 Points
3rd - 15 Points
4th - 12 Points
5th - 10 Points
6th - 8 Points
7th - 6 Points
8th - 4 Points
9th - 2 Points
10th - 1 Point

F1: Championship Edition (PS3) 2010 Season

I can't wait for F1 2010 from Codemasters to launch in September but I need to fill my F1 gaming fix before then! Since getting a PlayStation 3 on launch I've sunk 90+ hours into F1: Championship Edition. Simply put I love F1 and I love the game.

I realise it's not the greatest racing game ever but it's the only F1 game so far to launch in the HD era of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. I'm really not a PC gamer (I own rFactor and have tried the various F1 mods but just find it to be a lot of hassle) so F1:CE is still the F1 game for me until September at the earliest.

That said I'm going to play through a full season (copying 2010 as best as I can) and paper over the cracks that expose F1:CE as a game now 4 years out of date in terms of tracks, teams and drivers! To keep things simple I will keep all mentions of drivers and teams exactly as they were in the 2006 season.

I'm of very much average ability. I know the tracks so don't need to use any aids such as corner indicators or racing line assistance. But for someone that knows every circuit configuration off by heart I'm really not very good. I find the AI annoying at the best of times. Easy is ridiculously easy and hard stupidly hard. It seems Studio Liverpool really struggled with this as even on medium the AI levels are so inconsistent from one race to another. Because of this I will vary the difficulty between medium and hard depending on the race in question.

I'm driving the Red Bull of Christian Klien and my team mate is David Coulthard. I'll be doing full length race distances with qualifying, damage, variable weather, re-fueling and tyre wear all enabled. I know re-fueling is banned in 2010 but there's no option to turn it off independently of tyre degradation. Stupid I know but hey, it will make the racing a bit more interesting!

There are a couple of my own tweaks I add. I turn off driver penalties as I find the rev limiter punishment that F1:CE implements annoying to the extreme. The game often gives a penalty when no shortcut has been made so the system is basically broken. I'm not one for corner cutting anyway so it's not really an issue. My other policy is that although the game allows it I will not continue in qualifying if I crash out and lose a wheel, be it going into another car or a wall. It wouldn't happen in real life so it won't happen in my game!

Rather than play Career or World Championship mode I'm opting for individual Grand Prix Weekends. As I plan to do each race on the weekend the real-life race takes place this lets me replicate the race calendar of 2010 as closely as possible. With F1:CE based on the 2006 season a few of the circuits have changed since then. Some tweaks were obviously necessary:

1. Imola replaces Valencia

2. Nurburgring replaces Spa

3. Magny-Cours replaces Singapore

4. Indianapolis replaces Abu Dhabi

5. Korea removed (19 real-life races, only 18 circuits in F1:CE)

Each race will get its own blog post. This will contain race highlights, the finishing positions of the point scoring top 10, updated drivers and constructors standings and sometimes a YouTube video if I recorded the race.