YES, BABY! YES! That's how you win the Canadian GP woooo! lol.
Ah what a race...This one was special I think because it wasn't luck or perhaps an overpowered edge from some setup that I looked up online. I actually spent quite a bit of time preparing for this race in Montreal, doing all of my own setup work ahead of the actual race weekend. No engineer presets. No looking anything up. 100% mine.
It started with an afternoon early last week, spent reading some great articles covering the fundamentals of, and the correct procedure for, setting up a car for a track. I really wanted to learn to do setup myself. Looking up other peoples setups can bring mixed results and honestly, its too much like pressing the easy button, ya know? Fine if ya trounce the computer with your own work, but otherwise its too much like plain old cheating for my taste. I distilled all the info down into an easy to follow procedural guide, and the next evening I went to work in the 'simulator' (aka Time Trial mode) and started trying to figure out the setup for my Torro Rosso. It seemed that my guide had worked like a charm, but of course adjustments always have to be made after setup in TT, mainly because in TT the car runs with no ballast, essentially without the weight of any fuel.
Next step was to do some 30% GPs (short weekends) driving as Sebastian Buemi to see how his Torro Rosso behaved with my setup applied. That would allow me to iron out most of the problems. It also gave me a good idea of the tire strategy that I might have to employ due to the nature of the track. The setup definitely needed some adjustment for lapping under fuel load to account for maneuvering with the extra weight in the car. All that ended up needing to be done was a small tweak to the rear wing, and I was pretty sure that I had it. Of course that wasn't the end, because in GP mode the car is Buemi's 2011 Torro Rosso, unaffected by the changing tiers and R&D that goes on in career mode. But it was the end of my simulator work.
I took a break from gaming for the Christmas holiday, and then today, it was back to racing. I opened up the race report and got some news that wasn't exactly what I had been hoping for. While practice would be dry, qualifying would have heavy rain, and there was a 53% chance of rain on race day. Not unexpected, but dry would have been best, as that is the condition I developed my setup in, and I had not yet had any experience adjusting a track setup for wet conditions. Worst of all, I would have to try to make some of the changes while it was still dry, with no real way to know how it was going to perform until qualifying was under way. Yikes. I finished first in practice, so at least I was on to something in comparison to how the other teams were setting up for the conditions.
Fast forward to qualifying. Heavy rain, with running restricted to full wet tires. I don't want to set up for heavy rain as only light rain is forcast for race day, and I'm also thinking that it won't be wet for the entire race. That's my gamble...set up to qualify well, but still perform when things are dried out. The best I get out of my car is P4, which all things considered is not bad. 2nd row on the grid is more than good enough, and I've got the car handling the way I need it to in the wet without making too much sacrifice for dry conditions. I also know that setup alone will not win the day. Montreal is a track that, in my experience, is dictated by pit strategy more than all out speed. Armed with what I learned about pitting from my race sims, I moved ahead to race day.
Its raining for the start of the race, and intermediates have been selected for the start. This is good in relation to my setup. If conditions stay wet I have just 2 stops to make, which I will have to time right, on target or otherwise, to catch people in the pits, since simulator experience says I will not be fast enough to get the delta on the guy behind. I also MUST avoid pitting at the same time as the competition, since I am at a disadvantage with my garage at the far end of the pit lane. I get an excellent start, easily taking the lead going into turn 1. I have a second, then almost 2, over Button in 2nd for the entire first stint. Its still raining when I have my first stop, which I take a lap early based on feedback. I also know that the rain is going to stop in 10-15min. I'm able to overtake everyone when they pit over the next few laps, and I'm back in the lead, lapping well on my 2nd set of inters, decently out in front of Button and Massa, my only real challengers. Things are drying out, and I hear the call as I come down the front straight that Button has pitted for options. I've got one eye on the gap I have over him, and its rapidly shrinking. I lose almost 3 seconds of my lead just in sector 2. SHIT. Obviously I have to pit IMMEDIATELY whether I think I'm ready or not, because when I look at the race director info, the 4 cars behind me all have options. I need to get some faster shoes on ASAP! lol. Coming down the back straight I look at the lap counter and realize that I could gamble and put on primes...I know from my testing that I am very fast on them. I COULD be fast enough to keep anyone in front of me on options from getting the pit delta, and leap frog them while they pit during my longer stint. If it could have just stayed wet, the outcome of the race was almost certain for me barring a badly timed stop. Now, its fly by the seat of my pants time, and pray that it works against whatever strategy the other teams are running. I drive straight into pit lane, ask for primes, and fly back out. I come out JUST in front of Button, but he's consistently RIGHT on my gearbox. He's fast on those options, and I think his team must have gambled on setting him up dryer than me. I'm holding him off but I make a mistake that lets him get a DRS overtake on me down the back straight, and I can't make it up at the chicane, or at turn one. After that Button is just too fast and I can't catch him. Its not long before he's about 10 sec out in front of me, but I'm able to stop the bleeding there. Soon, Button's options are done, and I pass him while he is in the pits. My plan has worked. I'm in the lead again, but...I'm going to have to make one last stop, for primes to take me to the end. I decide to check the race director info again, because surely all those people that had fitted options, including Button, will now pick primes and run to the end of the race, right? Wrong. It seems that I'm getting a belated Christmas gift in the form of everyone that is even a REMOTE threat, once again including Button, is choosing to take another set of options. I should be able to fit my primes and be able to pass them when their options give out, which is guaranteed to be a number of laps before the end of the race. I push hard during this lap, knowing that I can pit immediately to get my primes and easily make it to the end. I come into the pits for the last time, ask for primes. I also need a front wing change from some wall contact when I was duking it out with Button the first lap after coming out of my last stop which costs me a couple seconds. I only drop down to P4, with Massa in P3 just in front of me. I get the overtake on him pretty quickly, but Button in the lead is pretty far out there. He does NOT however, get the pit delta. I catch another guy in the pits. I'm P2. I know Button will have to pit. I'm pushing as hard as I can. Button still does not have the delta. Finally...he pits. I pass him. But he comes out of the pit lane just a second or two behind, and he's still faster than me. 5 or 6 laps to go, and I'm fighting him off of my gearbox all the way down the back straight, through the chicane, and down the front straight, just barely holding him off. I'm still faster in sector 2 but there's nothing in it now. If he gets in front of me its over. But he doesn't. Last lap, I cross start/finish with him almost literally up my tailpipe, having saved just enough KERS to keep him behind me. WOOOO HOOOO! WHAT A RACE!!! P1!!! I WIN!!!
It was an incredible feeling, getting that win all on my own merit, all with my own setup work. My tire strategy couldn't have been more perfect. I made 3 stops...the rest of the field made 4-5. That is most certainly where I won it, and the edge from my setup is what allowed that strategy to work. I was only .6 or so of a sec slower than the fastest lap of the race, which was set on options. I love races like this where you have to figure it out on the fly, and you really don't know what's going to happen until you cross the line on that last lap. All I know is, all the hard work paid off, and it was EPIC.
I have now won two of my personal triple crown of races, which is the back to back series of Monte Carlo, Montreal, and Valencia. Can I win at Valencia and take the crown? I certainly will be putting in the same amount of work that I did this time. We'll just have to wait and see...
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