Grand Prix of India F1 2011 Sim to Real Life Comparison

Driving as Mark Webber for Red Bull-Renault, this is how I stacked up against the top session time, my Red Bull teammate, and the real Mark Webber. I'll be comparing both my time in the session and my fastest lap time overall to the real results from each session. Times rounded to nearest 1/10 of a second for comparison.

FP2
(comparison made only to my fastest lap time from Q2, since I didn't record my FP1 & 2 times, and dynamic weather gave me rain in the first 2 practices)
+0:01.4 MAS
+0:01.3 VET
+0:00.6 WEB

FP3
Session
+0:03.6 VET
+0:03.2 WEB

Fastest Lap
+0:02.3 VET
+0:01.9 WEB

QUALIFYING
Q1
Session
+0:01.9 VET
+0:01.6 WEB

Fastest Lap
+0:00.9 VET
+0:00.6 WEB

Q2
Session
+0:02.4 VET
+0:01.8 WEB

Q3
Session
+0:03.2 VET P1
+0:02.9 WEB P3

Fastest Lap
+0:02.9 VET
+0:02.6 WEB

REAL LIFE QUALIFYING POSITION
18th
(15th if Q1 time had put me in Q2, 19th /16th if not replacing the real Mark Webber)

I'm pretty sure my lost time could be found in the following places:
-more optimal use of DRS & KERS
-steering wheel control instead of thumbsticks
-custom setup instead of 'engineers's special' dry preset

Not a bad performance, all things considered. Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be! The closest I came to real life was against the real Mark Webber in Q1, followed very closely by Q2, where I set my fastest lap of the weekend.

Hoping to come back and update with a total race time and fastest race lap comparison after the race tomorrow!



UPDATE 10/30/11

RACE
Race Time
+0:00:11.1 VET P1
+0:00:02.7 BUT P2
-0:00:13.2 ALO P3
-0:00:14.4 WEB P4
-0:01:13.0 HAM P7

Fastest Lap
+0:01.1 VET
+0:00.9 WEB
+0:00.430 BUT
+0:00.444 ALO
-0:00.3 HAM

I threw Hammy in just for fun hee hee...

REAL LIFE FINISHING POSITION
P3

FAST LAP
5th

Wow. Pleasantly surprised by those results! Did not think I would make the podium. Must have been consistently faster over all the laps than Alonso, probably in sector 2 or 3. To put it in perspective, I beat Alonso by a larger margin than Vettel won by. :)

I'm definitely going to do this whole sim & compare thing again for the remaining races. It was really interesting and a lot of fun finding out how I did and how I theoretically might have qualified and finished. I think I will go back and do the races from earlier this season too...Give me something to do during the off season! Lol

Grand Prix of India Full Race Weekend Simulation - F1 2011

I've decided to have a little fun ahead of the inaugural Indian GP by doing a long race weekend simulation of the event in my F1 2011 game. It is my custom to do a race driving for my favorite team (Red Bull Racing) ahead of the real race weekend; it really enhances the real event, at least for me, when I've spent time driving the track, so that come race day I know the whole layout and all of its nuances. Much more enjoyable than being just a spectator. This simulation of the Indian GP is, however, my first time doing the FULL race weekend: all 3 practices, knockout qualifying, and then race day. It will also be my first time running the full 100% race distance. So far it has been interesting and quite fun! I have been doing the different events leading up to the race on different days, as they are done in real life; FP1 & 2 were yesterday, and then today I had FP3 & qualifying. Full race will be tomorrow. The results so far:

DAY 1
FP1
Weather: Rain
Result: P1

FP2
Weather: Rain
Result: P24
(Note: my position was a result of the as yet unpatched intermediate tire bug, which allows the AI to set times that should not be possible on intermediate tires)

DAY 2
FP3
Weather: Dry
Result: P1-1:28.362 prime (white) tires

QUALIFYING
Weather: Dry
Result: P1 Pole
Q1-P1 1:28.117 prime (white) tires
Q2-P1 1:27.065 option (yellow) tires
Q3-P1 1:27.432 option (yellow) tires (scrubbed, from previous session. Selected because of low tire availability)

So there you have it, folks. Pole position for race day! The way things stand I have two sets of fresh options and 2 sets of fresh primes. I'm a little nervous about how far I can get on the scrubbed options from qualifying but I think scrubbing one of the two remaining fresh sets I had at the start of Q3 would have been worse. We'll see what happens! I will of course come back and update this blog once the race is completed. I'm also thinking of posting the top times from the real life qualifying and race, just for fun. Wonder how bad my times will be in comparison lol...



UPDATE 10/27/11

RACE
Laps:60
Weather: Dry
Result:
1st WEB (me)
2nd MAS
3rd VET
Time: 1:30:46.069
Fastest Lap: 1:28.397 (on scrubbed options from Q)

A win for me and Red Bull woo!!! And everything went exactly as I hoped. I pulled a Seb for this race, getting out front into the clean air and never looking back! Never lost the lead hehe. Hope this brings good luck to Mark for the real Indian GP. My boy deserves a win. I'll be back with an update on the real life timing comparison...