Yas Marina, the first track where I have found professional level success! When I say professional, I am referring to the difficulty level of the AI drivers. I have tried making the leap to professional before with limited success. In race only scenarios at Suzuka, Yeongam and New Delhi, I would start in 4th-6th on the grid, and though I would be able to get out in front, I would lose it when I pitted and I would never quite be able to go fast enough to get it back. I always seemed to top out at 2nd or 3rd. If I did qualifying, I was way down in the pack, compounding the problem. When I finished my recent simulation of the Abu Dhabi GP at Yas Marina in 1st, winning by about 5 minutes against the Intermediate AI, I thought maybe it was time to give Pro AI another crack.
I'm still not certain if my result is because of real driving improvement on my part, or if its just because Yas Marina really agrees with my style somehow, but the race I did this afternoon was so much fun, and the victory against professional AI that I had been looking for.
After a success against the pro AI last night at this track in a 20% distance GP, I knew that I wanted to try a longer race this afternoon. This time I set it up for short race weekend (1 practice session, 1 qualifying session, and the race) at 50% distance. 28 laps would certainly expose any flaws in my driving that last night's 11 lap, 1 stopper might have failed to reveal. Qualifying would tell me a lot, too. When practice was over, I had P1, something I had never been able to do at this difficulty.
Onward to Qualifying. 6 or 7 laps on option/yellow and I was able to turn in a 1:39 to put me at the top of the time sheets. I returned to the garage and waited. With about 7min to go in the session, I started falling down the ranks, to 6th. Oh no, not again... With 5min to go, I went back out, and on my first hot lap I turned in a 1:38. P1!!! POLE!!! And it STUCK. I had NEVER been able to turn in a pole lap at this difficulty before. Things were looking promising. What's more I had gotten the realistic excitement of a real qualifying session, not turning in the pole lap til the very end!
Now the real test...the actual race. I was able to do what I've seen Sebastian Vettel do so many times - get out front in the clean air and open up the best gap I could before the first pit stop. Before I knew it, I had a good 10 seconds on 2nd. But not the pit delta. Big signal to me that things were realistically difficult, and I was doing well, but not UNREALISTICALLY well. I come into the pits on lap 7, as planned, and its a good thing because my options from qualifying are SHOT. By the time I come out, I'm 7th. This could turn out like my previous tries at professional. How high could I climb? Would the cars in front of me get away like before? I head out on prime/white. I had good luck at this track being fast on the slower tire, so all was not lost in my mind. On the next lap I passed all but the leader coming down the finish straight as all the cars were pitted. Hee hee. Score one for my adjusted tire strategy!!! (more on that later). Felipe Massa is still in front of me. Way out, because I can't see his dot going around the track map. 10 seconds back after the first sector. 9 after the next. I'm picking up time on him, flying through sector 3 where I am often quickest of all, close to starting my second lap after pitting and...MASSA IS IN THE PITS. I fly past to reclaim the lead! After a LONG stint on the primes, I come out of the pits JUST in the lead (I think I cut off the guy in 2nd lol)!!! I start opening up the gap again. If I remember correctly I also had the advantage of a tire mismatch. The guy behind me was on primes. Time to do some real damage on my fresh options. Checking the strategy indicator, it was looking like I would come out behind again after my last stop, in 6th or 7th with just 6 laps to try and get it back. Then as my 3rd stint is winding down...I start opening a gap. The tires on the car behind me are slower and also going off as he nears the end of his stint. ADVANTAGE ME! On my in lap,the strategy indicator is now saying I will come out in first...AND I DO!!! Alonso, in 2nd, never got closer to me than about 10sec during that final stint, again on options. Clear sailing to a sweet, sweet victory where I lead for all but 2 of 28 laps. And I beat Alonso by a resounding but quite realistic +23.662sec, with a fast lap of 1:38.914!!! WOO-HOO!!! I may not have had much in the way of battles with other drivers in this race, but it was a major thrill driving SMARTER than them. Very Vettel-esqe.
Which brings me to my explanation about the tire strategy that I used. The recommended strategy called for option, prime, prime, option. One look at that sent up warning flags for me. I was very concerned that a second stint on primes would make me too slow should I come out behind other drivers at that point. I knew I had enough option tires for another option stint in lieu of a second prime stint. The question was did I have the wiggle room in the wear department to cover the whole race. It was looking like I might not, until I added one extra lap on my worn options from qualifying. Those options were at 69%. The last lap or two might be interesting, but it was a gamble I was willing to take. I had to if I wanted option, prime, option, option, which I felt was the smarter and much faster way to go. It was a very near thing on that last lap of the first stint, with the tires in the red and wanting to let go as I tried to accelerate out of the turns in the last sector. But I made it. Barely. I firmly believe that my tire strategy may have been what really let me win the day.
This race also made me feel really good about the result I got from my 100% sim that I ran to compare to the real world drivers. I could see in comparing the times I set in both that my performance in that GP did not benefit from the lowered AI difficulty in the slightest. It wasn't a fluke either, because all told I was actually a fraction quicker in this 50% GP today. I duplicated qualifying on pole, and actually turned a faster fast lap of the race with the more difficult AI. I feel like that really legitimizes what I did before, which is pretty exciting seeing as I wiped the floor with the real world drivers in that 100% sim!
The thing I always dread when it comes to racing game AI is getting "stuck" between difficulties, where its either you win by a mile, or you can never quite win because you're just not quite good enough no matter how hard you try. I hope that what I've been able to do at Yas Marina is indicative of overall improvement in my driving that will translate to all, or at least the majority, of the tracks on the calendar. I much preferred the challenge of out strategizing the other teams on pit stops, and really having to drive my best to open a gap. And though I led almost the whole way at Yas Marina this time, when I looked at the time sheets, I won by a realistic margin. I didn't win because the other drivers were artificially slow - I won because I was just BETTER. This win on professional is how I want the game to feel and play out when I play, and I really hope I can be up to snuff at other tracks. But hey...I'll always have Yas Marina. ;)
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