Abu Dhabi GP F1 2011 Sim to Real Life Comparison

FP1 & 2 are on the books and here's how things are going so far. Just to remind everyone, I'm comparing both my time in the corresponding session AND my fastest lap of the entire sim to the real life top driver, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton. For race day, I'm comparing total race time and fastest race lap to the top 3 finishers and the aforementioned 3 drivers.

FP1
Session
+0.475 BUT
+0.349 WEB
+0.335 HAM
-0.017 VET

Fastest
-01.735 BUT
-01.861 WEB
-01.875 HAM
-02.227 VET

Real Life FP1 Position
P4

FP2
Session
+0.897 HAM
+0.379 WEB
+0.351 VET

Fastest
-01.058 HAM
-01.576 WEB
-01.604 VET

Real Life FP2 Position 
P7

I beat Seb in FP1! Woo! lol. In regards to FP2, there is something important worth noting. I did NOT go out on the soft tires in my FP2. My times were set on the mediums. Having been able to watch the real life FP2, I know that the drivers set their times on the softs. We know that softs are at least a second faster than mediums so... If we shave a second off of my FP2 times to account for the tire difference between myself and the real drivers...I beat everyone in FP2. Theoretically. lol. I'd say its pretty impressive that I got that close to their times running on the medium tire.

I'll be back with FP3 and Qualifying results tomorrow!


UPDATE 11/12 

FP3
Session 
+01.249 HAM
+0.822 VET
+0.798 WEB

Fastest 
-0.448 HAM
-0.875 VET
-0.899 WEB

Real Life FP3 Position
P8


QUALIFYING 
Q1 
Session
+0.046 HAM
-0.339 WEB 
-0.650 VET

Fastest
-01.254 HAM
-01.639 WEB
-01.950 VET

Q2 
Session 
+0.094 HAM
+0.012 VET
-0.293 WEB 

Q3 
Session 
+0.481 VET
+0.340 HAM
+0.104 WEB

Fastest 
+0.470 VET
-0.094 HAM
-0.330 WEB

Real Life Qualifying Position
P5

Seems like I was right to expect a good result this weekend! I was faster than everyone but Hammy in Q1 on the primes, for starters. The best part though? Not only did I make it out of Q1 this time BUT I got all the way into Q3 and made P5 on the grid!!! Woo hoo!!! So excited to find out how race day goes! See you all with an update after the race tomorrow!


UPDATE 11/13

I'll let the numbers speak for themselves. The only thing I can say is Ohhhh Myyyy...

RACE
Fastest Race Lap
-0:04.447 HAM
-0:04.490 ALO
-0:04.140 BUT
-0:03.598 WEB

Race Time
-0:02:42.628 HAM
-0:02:51.028 ALO
-0:03:08.428 BUT
-0:03:18.328 WEB

REAL LIFE FINISHING POSITION 
P1

FAST LAP 
1st  
 
I WON THE ABU DHABI GP!!! WOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO!!! BY ALMOST 3 MIN!!! AND I TOOK FAST LAP!!! WOOOOOO!!!! lol. My first win against the real drivers, and 2nd podium in 2 races! YEAH BABY WOO!!!

Custom BOB Project!

Guys, I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Ranger Elite. This awesome little fellow is the subject of my latest figure customization project! Those of you that were around for last time know that my last project, recreating my Halo 3 spartan, was a huge success. I very much enjoyed the process, painstaking as it was, and I have been very much looking forward to an opportunity to do another custom. That's where Mr. Ranger Elite here comes in. This latest project will turn this little guy into none other than...

...This. That's right. That gold Ranger Elite that we so LOVE to wipe out, BOB! As many of my Halo friends can attest, I developed an almost fanatical obsession with wiping out BOBs that started after one of these guys RUINED a perfect speed run by making me roll my truck. From that moment, it was ON. A rather hilarious video of myself and my buddy Laraxa abusing the Winter Contingency BOBs followed, and every time a BOB hunting challenge comes along, we relish the chance to hunt and kill BOB. So yeah BOB has become a special iconic figure in my Halo Reach career, and it is with great pleasure that I will now get to recreate him by customizing a Ranger Elite figure.

I was thrilled to discover that not only my figure, but also the paint, arrived today! Here's the first of many in-progress pictures I will post as I work through this BOB project:

Here we see Mr. Ranger Elite all cleaned up and drying out in prep for the paint test I will do later this evening. Just going to apply a bit of the yellow to one of the toe armor plates, then let it dry to see how it looks. The yellow looks way bright in this photo, but its actually more the color of a road sign which should be perfect. If its a little bright, it should look better once the black wash is applied to dirty it up. If the paint test goes well, the jetpack will be the next thing. I'll paint and finish it completely with the wash as a sort of test for the rest of the figure.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll update later with a pic of the paint test.


UPDATE

As you can see, the paint test did not go the way I hoped. Mr. Ranger Elite will have to get the full white primer coat treatment. The good news is that when applied on clean white, the yellow is a lot more golden than it looks here. When all is said and done I should have a near perfect BOB.

  Primer coat #1 applied to toes, lower legs and jetpack. This should help the yellow look the way its supposed to. But its about 3 times more work! lol.

Abu Dhabi GP Simulation - F1 2011

It's that time again F1 fans and friends! My F1 2011 simulation of the Abu Dhabi GP at Yas Marina has begun! Day 1 is complete and here are my results so far:

Team: Red Bull
Driver: Mark Webber

DAY 1
FP1
Weather: Dry
P1 1:40.738 prime - (white/medium) tires

FP2
Weather: Dry
P1 1:40.483 - prime (white/medium) tires

Update with Day 2 FP3 and Qualifying results coming soon (probably tomorrow)!


UPDATE 11/7/11

DAY 2
FP3
Weather: Dry
P1 1:40.225 - prime (white/medium) tires

QUALIFYING
Weather: Dry
Q1 - P1 1:39.828 - prime (white/medium) tires
Q2 - P1 1:38.528 - option (yellow/soft) tires
Q3 - P1 1:38.962 - option (yellow/soft) tires

Pole position for race day! Woo! Update with race day results coming soon!


UPDATE 11/8/11

RACE DAY
Weather: Dry
Laps: 55
Results:
1st - WEB (me) 1:34:29.258, Fastest Lap 1:39.014
2nd - BUT +2 laps
3rd - VET +2 laps

Yeah...I think I need to up the AI to professional, at least at this track, lol. I beat Button by a tad over 4 min, lapping him twice lol. I did well this race to check the tire strategy before the start - they had me set for opt, opt, opt, prime, and considering the tire bug, I adjusted it to opt, opt, prime, opt. Now, I'm not sure if I fell victim to the bug anyways, because I had 3 option stints even though they weren't consecutive, or if my third set of options were just scrubbed cuz I was low on tires, but the last stint on the scrubbed options was interesting with the tires being in the red the last 5 laps lol. Even though it didn't save me in the wear department, I think putting my option stint where I did was one of the reasons I had such a large lead by the end. Anyways that was my first time redoing the tire strategy and it all worked out fine so I feel much more confident about doing that in future races if it becomes necessary. I need to think about being more careful with my option tires in qualifying, perhaps doing an out +2 and in strategy in Q2, and maybe Q3 also...I can always go back out in the last 10 min or so if need be. I think I could still set P1s in the first 2 Qs without so many laps, and then I wouldn't get myself into so much trouble come race day hehe.

So that's all for my Abu Dhabi sim. I am very excited to see how I stack up to the real race times after this weekend. I'll be back with a comparison blog of course. It is worth noting...I beat Sebastian Vettel's still standing 2009 race lap record by 01.265...I am feeling good about my chances against real life this time! :)


UPDATE 11/9/11

Something else interesting has come to my attention as I looked over my sim data and times from last year. Aside from beating Seb's fast race lap record that he set in 2009, I beat his total race time from 2010 by 5:07.579...FASCINATING! But when we look at the 2009 race where the fast lap was set? Well that's not so amazing...Seb beat my sim race time by 25.844. And my time would only have gotten me 5th. Hmm. Of course, what gimmicks did the cars have that year? I can't remember. I'd say last year is much more indicative of what to expect this year. And if things go like last year, I will be the race winner by a mile and hold the new fastest Yas Marina lap record!!! Will my times hold up? We will find out this weekend!

Buddh International Time Trial - F1 2011

Since we JUST had the inaugural Indian GP, I decided to go back and run a time trial at Buddh International for comparison to the fastest times from this year's GP. When I ran the numbers I got some surprises.

My Fastest TT Lap
Team: Red Bull 
Sector 1: 27.324
Sector 2: 26.360
Sector 3: 30.584
TOTAL: 1:24.270

Fast Lap Record
-0:02.979 VET 2011

2011 Best Sector Times
Sector 1: -13.685 HAM
Sector 2: +4.134 VET
Sector 3: +9.909 VET

2011 Fastest Lap
+0.092 VET Q3

It's that last one in particular, the fastest 2011 GP weekend lap, that REALLY burns me. I lost to the real Sebastian by just NINE HUNDREDTHS OF A SECOND. It's gnawing at me, because I'm pretty sure I can find that teeny bit of time to beat him! Wish I could have been this quick in qualifying during my sim, too...theoretically if I had been fast enough to make real life Q3 and turned it during my sim Q3 session, it would have been good for 2nd on the real grid, beating Hamilton by two tenths of a sec and some change hehe! Ah well...woulda coulda shoulda!!!  The biggest surprise for me was the sector times. Clearly my setup and style gave me a MASSIVE advantage in sector one (probably didn't hurt that I was dumping 100% of the KERS with the DRS open down the back straight after turn 3 lol). But WOW was I SLOOOW in the other 2 sectors! Its crazy that I was so fast in the first that it made up for the rest THAT MUCH. Crazy!

Yas Marina Time Trial - F1 2011

Started my 'simulator' runs to begin prep for my simulation of the Abu Dhabi GP by doing some time trial-ing at the Yas Marina track. Some interesting data came out of my session today when I compared my fastest lap with real life driver performances at this track. First, my fast lap info:

Team: Red Bull
Sector 1: 17.573
Sector 2: 40.870
Sector 3: 38.606
TOTAL: 1:37.050 

Now to compare what I did to the official track lap record, and last year's real driver performances: 

Lap Record
-0:03.229 VET  

2010 Best Sector Times
Sector 1: +0.176 VET 
Sector 2: -1.493 BUT
Sector 3: -0.793 VET

2010 Fastest Lap
-0:02.344 VET Q3
  
 Not bad! 3 seconds faster than the track fast lap record, and I shattered Seb's 2010 Q3 time by 2 seconds! This was my first time driving the track, but I seemed to get the hang of it pretty quick. I still have some work to do on getting turns 2 & 3 right consistently, but other than that I got things pretty well nailed down. Very fast, fun, and busy track. Looking forward to doing the full race weekend there! I'll come back and update with a comparison to this year's real life times after the race...


UPDATE 11/13

2011 Best Sector Times
Sector 1: +0.165 VET
Sector 2: -0.987 VET
Sector 3: -0.280 HAM

2011 Fastest Lap
-0:01.384 HAM Q2
 

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...