Tag Archives: rfactor2

gaming, racing, wordpresser

Ferrari F1 1968 @Algarve, Portugal : 01:51:9xx

If there is anything good in the current F1 2020 championship, is the new circuits, namely the “Autodromo Dino e Enzo Ferrari” (Italy), the “Autodromo Internacional do Algarve” (Portugal), and the “Intercity Istanbul Park” (Turkey).

Novelty is much needed. F1 has never been so full of young drivers, yet smelling of old déjà vu winners. Or winner, singular, such as been the boring, uncontested for tooooo long, dominance of Lewis Hamilton.

The wonderful Turkish track is a return, but it was missing from the official F1 calendar for so many years, that it feels like a debut. The Ferrari circuit is also no stranger to F1 (red) cars. In a way, the Portuguese track will be the completely new event.

I raced the Ferrari F1 1968 car around the Algarve track, in the RFactor 2 game. With no aids (no traction control, no braking assistance, no stability control), these 1968 cars are nearly impossible to control. They can be “driven” but never pushed to their real top performance levels, unless at least a bit of traction control is set on the game.

The 01:51:9xx lap that I am sharing, contrary to my usual, does use that bit of traction control (the minimum level). I could not approach the A.I. cars without such help. Even with TC on, I was 2 seconds adrift the top computer cars. If I was optimistic, I would say that if I practiced enough, I could null the difference in a few hours, but I value first impressions and my impression was that, with these cars and A.I. at 101%, TC is the only way to make the challenge feasible.

This left me wondering how hard these cars really were. I felt the Ferrari too nervous: not only small throttle inputs are enough to destabilize it out of control, but also small direction corrections can easily overcompensate and make the driver lose the car.

The video I am sharing lasts for more than the time of my recorded full lap (01:51:9xx), because it includes the start of a failed second attempt and a TV perspective of the whole event. I beached the Ferrari very early on the second lap, because of an unexpected car response out of a turn.

gaming, racing, wordpresser

F1 1968 @Portland, USA

Modern F1 is probably facing its most serious existential crisis: the sport remains a formidable engineering laboratory, but the racing on track – or the perception of it – leaves much to be desired.

Seasoned viewers should be able to appreciate the underlying technology, and enjoy the constant showoff of amazing numbers, namely 200 kph to 300 kph in ~2 seconds, unbelievable short braking distances, body challenging G forces, and so on. F1, for example, is now the reference in applied IoT (Internet of Things), with hundreds of addressable sensors per car.

Yet, casual viewers, not knowing or not caring about the technology, and with no understanding of the history of the sport, will have no references, and see nothing but a small set of 20 cars going around boring wide tracks, designed for safety, difficult to capture on video, conveying a decent sense of speed.

The fact is that the “relative speed” of F1 is eventually at its lowest ever: cars might be regularly exceeding the once magical 300 kph mark, but 300 kph at an “airfield” is like 12 kph on a treadmill. Moreover, the understanding that the cars are safer to crash than ever, creates the perverse collateral effect of undervaluing the drivers’ effort: in the past, one mistake would literally break or kill you, so overwhelming respect was due to those daring to ride their fallible temperamental machines. After Senna’s death, in 1994, F1 changed enormously in terms of safety. The early 1990s cars were the last
machines to constantly challenge the drivers’ physical integrity, and even then, less than in the 1980s, the 1970s, and certainly the crazy 1960s.

I remember the day Jacques Laffite (JL) broke both his legs in what seemed like a slow accident: his car steered to the right, at the first corner of a chaotic first lap, to avoid other cars in trouble. His Ligier left the asphalt, and then just skidded “slowly” over the zero grip grass, until its “nose” hit the barriers. The absolute speed of the car upon the impact must have been “low” (~50 kph), but the car’s construction offered nearly no protection to the feet and legs. JL’s F1 career ended that afternoon.

Imagine higher speeds and even less modern cars, namely the machines from the 1960s and from the 1970s! Every event was a bit of a “circus”, such were the life threatening risks looming. Yet the “rewards”, for example measured in exhilaration and/or adrenaline, shared by both racers and spectators (which were crazy daring, placing themselves in unacceptable spots), is something unparalleled.

Today, somewhat bored with the F1 2020 cars, I decided to exercise my arms and legs, by virtually racing the “Matra” from the 1968 F1 season. I did some laps around the “new” Portland circuit, USA, a track for rFactor2, released this July. It was formidable! What a challenge! The Matra is a noisy, nervous, powerful car, capable of ~275 kph in such a short circuit! My best lap was a 01:14:8xx, half a second slower than the best adversary.
In real life, with this car, I imagine, if you put a wheel wrong, you will hurt yourself – instantaneously and seriously. The Matra is agile, nervous, very fast, but unstable. It accelerates much better than it can decelerate or turn, so be careful with what you request it to do!
The video that follows has two segments: first it captures my best 01:14:8xx lap, from the in-car camera (footage taken while I was driving the lap), then it features two other laps, from the “TV” camera perspective.

Enjoy and try it yourself. The “Portland” track and the 1968 F1 cars are both free.

gaming, racing, wordpresser

Nordschleife under 5 minutes is getting nearer – Juan Pablo Montoya, William BMW F1 2004

This is a 05:12:xxx lap around the 20+ KM long Nordschleife track, @Germany, running Juan Pablo Montoya’s 2004 William BMW F1 car.

This lap is 46 seconds faster (!!) than the one I did on Alain Prost’s 1986 McLaren F1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fe6Q7qaXTo). This translates to a progress of ~2.5 seconds per year, in the 18 years of rules and technology changes that separate both cars.

The 2004 Williams BMW F1 seemed easier to drive than the 1986 McLaren, which has sudden bursts of power and requires a very firm hand on any acceleration. The older car also produces less downforce and cannot handle corners with the impetuosity of the Williams, demanding an intelligent preparation of any corner.

The 2004 Williams is greater fun! With my current setup, it is ~30 kph faster on the long straight. It can brake later and, more importantly, it does not immediately spin around, when subject to extreme – and bordering carelessness – direction changes. Overall, it tolerates a violent lap and it rewards the player with considerable brain and body stimulus. After a few minutes of trying to push this car, one gets tense, awaken and sweaty! True physical exercise. I adore it!

This time of 05:12:xxx can surely be improved, but not by much. I doubt that I can make this car go sub 5 minutes, but I will try.

gaming, racing, wordpresser

Montoya vs Schumacher, Nordschleife, Williams BMW F1 2004

During my attempts to perform a great lap around the Nordschleife 20+ KM track, racing the 2004 Williams BMW F1 car – which would culminate in a spectacular 05:12:xxx achievement as captured on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vReEBXMRxU
-, there was one situation where the other Williams BMW, driven by Ralph Schumacher on the 2004 F1 season, got on the way and did not play clean at all.
I managed to record the ~1 minute long sequence of “friction” between the cars, until a successful overtake finally happened.

gaming, racing, wordpresser

Nordschleife under 6 minutes – Alain Prost, McLaren F1 1986 (TV cam)

This is a sub 6 minutes (05:58:xxx) lap around the famous Nordschleife track, @Germany, running Alain Prost’s 1986 McLaren F1 car. Not easy at all! With no driver assists, these cars, real or simulated, are known for their very challenging handling, with sudden bursts of turbo power and an overall mass lighter than modern (2020) F1 cars.

It was so difficult (for me) and enjoyable to race this lap, that I recorded it from multiple cameras: the in-car perspective, the TV capture, a view from the car’s top structure, and a split-screen edit, featuring both the in-car and the TV records.

This is the TV camera video. Check my channel for the other perspectives.

Just enjoy and, if you ever get the chance to try it on rFactor 2 (PC), please do, and share it too!, because, at home, this is the closer one can get to the real thing. No other game approaches this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fe6Q7qaXTo

https://youtu.be/NMWQA3fdxPM – from in-car
https://youtu.be/0Fe6Q7qaXTo – from the TV camera
https://youtu.be/MAZ9iAcKs_0 – from the car’s top
https://youtu.be/RTnVyKRhGIw – split-screen edit

gaming, racing, wordpresser

Nordschleife under 6 minutes – Alain Prost, McLaren F1 1986 (split screen)

This is a sub 6 minutes (05:58:xxx) lap around the famous Nordschleife track, @Germany, running Alain Prost’s 1986 McLaren F1 car. Not easy at all! With no driver assists, these cars, real or simulated, are known for their very challenging handling, with sudden bursts of turbo power and an overall mass lighter than modern (2020) F1 cars.

It was so difficult (for me) and enjoyable to race this lap, that I recorded it from multiple cameras: the in-car perspective, the TV capture, a view from the car’s top structure, and a split-screen edit, featuring both the in-car and the TV records.

This is the split-screen edit. Check my channel for the other perspectives.

Just enjoy and, if you ever get the chance to try it on rFactor 2 (PC), please do, and share it too!, because, at home, this is the closer one can get to the real thing. No other game approaches this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTnVyKRhGIw

https://youtu.be/NMWQA3fdxPM – from in-car
https://youtu.be/0Fe6Q7qaXTo – from the TV camera
https://youtu.be/MAZ9iAcKs_0 – from the car’s top
https://youtu.be/RTnVyKRhGIw – split-screen edit

gaming, racing, wordpresser

Nordschleife under 6 minutes – Alain Prost, McLaren F1 1986 (in-car)

This is a sub 6 minutes (05:58:xxx) lap around the famous Nordschleife track, @Germany, running Alain Prost’s 1986 McLaren F1 car. Not easy at all! With no driver assists, these cars, real or simulated, are known for their very challenging handling, with sudden bursts of turbo power and an overall mass lighter than modern (2020) F1 cars.

It was so difficult (for me) and enjoyable to race this lap, that I recorded it from multiple cameras: the in-car perspective, the TV capture, a view from the car’s top structure, and a split-screen edit, featuring both the in-car and the TV records.

This is the video from in-car, as I was playing. Check my channel for the other perspectives.

Just enjoy and, if you ever get the chance to try it on rFactor 2 (PC), please do, and share it too!, because, at home, this is the closer one can get to the real thing. No other game approaches this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMWQA3fdxPM

https://youtu.be/NMWQA3fdxPM – from in-car
https://youtu.be/0Fe6Q7qaXTo – from the TV camera
https://youtu.be/MAZ9iAcKs_0 – from the car’s top
https://youtu.be/RTnVyKRhGIw – split-screen edit

gaming, racing, wordpresser

Nordschleife in 6 minutes – Alain Prost, McLaren F1 1986 (from the car’s top)

This is a sub 6 minutes (05:58:xxx) lap around the famous Nordscleife track, @Germany, running Alain Prost’s 1986 McLaren F1 car. Not easy at all! With no driver assists, these cars, real or simulated, are known for their very challenging handling, with sudden bursts of turbo power and an overall mass lighter than modern (2020) F1 cars.

It was so difficult (for me) and enjoyable to race this lap, that I recorded it from multiple cameras: the in-car perspective, the TV capture, a view from the car’s top structure, and a split-screen edit, featuring both the in-car and the TV records.

This is the video from the car’s top. Check my channel for the other perspectives.

Just enjoy and, if you ever get the chance to try it on rFactor 2 (PC), please do, and share it too!, because, at home, this is the closer one can get to the real thing. No other game approaches this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAZ9iAcKs_0

https://youtu.be/NMWQA3fdxPM – from in-car
https://youtu.be/0Fe6Q7qaXTo – from the TV camera
https://youtu.be/MAZ9iAcKs_0 – from the car’s top
https://youtu.be/RTnVyKRhGIw – split-screen edit

gaming, racing, wordpresser

Prost F1 1986 @COTA = 01:52:7xx

This is a 01:52:7xx lap around COTA (Circuit of the Americas), racing with Alain Prost’s 1986 McLaren F1, against other F1s, from the 1986 and 1996 seasons. This lap is only ~1 second slower than the best lap the more modern 1996 cars were achieving.

These are two related posts for context:

  1. https://arturmarques.com/wp/2020/01/18/aston-martin-gt3-cota-a-4th-place-with-f1s-on-the-event/
  2. https://arturmarques.com/wp/2020/01/19/alain-prosts-mclaren-f1-1986-vs-damon-hills-williams-f1-1996/

gaming, racing, wordpresser

Alain Prost’s McLaren F1 1986 vs Damon Hill’s Williams F1 1996

After having had a good time racing an Aston Martin GT3 on COTA (Circuit of the Americas), against Formula 1 cars from the 1988 and 1996 seasons, I took Alain Prost’s 1986 F1 McLaren TAG Porsche out of its rFactor2 garage. For extra fun, I set the contestants from the 1986 championship against their 1996 evolutions.

The day before, a virtual Michael Schumacher had set the best time @COTA, in his 1996 Ferrari, with a time of 01:52:xxx, with a virtual Alain Prost lagging the German by just 2 seconds, in an 8-years older machine – check this post. Inspired by Prost’s achievement, I stepped-up the challenge, and tried the same feat, but racing an even older car: the 1986 McLaren F1.

The 1986 McLaren F1 is a true “monster”, with 1000+ bhp, no driving aids, and a constant bomb waiting for detonation upon throttle pressure. It is an amazingly hard to race vehicle, requiring permanent steering input and attention to pedals, physically demanding – this in a game! I cannot begin to imagine what it was in real life! -, which is exactly what I was looking for: to sweat.

I was fortunate to endure a fight with Damon Hill’s 1996 William F1, which pursuited me for some laps. I recorded one of those laps, timed at 01:53:xxx, so just ~1 second adrift Schumacher’s yesterday best. I would improve on that time and also enter the 01:52:xxx, but in a clear lap. There is also a post+video with the improved lap.

Here is a video, with two halves: first half is from an inside-car camera, second half is a “TV” perspective.