F1 Forward: F1 Forward and the European Grand Prix

F1 Forward and race 4 2006

Now that I am getting comfortable with Race 90 solo I can finally get started on what I really want. A true campaign game where you take a team for 3-5 years and try to build them up to a contender and stay there. This doesn't take the place of the tactical/operational racing game but adds to it by adding flavor and background to the team on the track. For those of you familiar with my other campaign games, Platoon Forward, Squadron Forward and Flotilla Forward you get the idea.

So I have started playtesting the above game tentatively called F1 Forward. This could all change but as principle you will have 8 people you track plus 2 pit crews. There relationships will affect how your team runs and you will have to manage this, try to improve performance and sack people if necessary. I want to avoid bean counting so right now money is vague and you either have, not enough, enough or alot. Should be fun!

So I rolled up my BMW team and was pleasantly surprised that my technical director, Leo Hansen is very good but my commercial director Franz Glick is weak. Everyone else appears average but we start with good funding as we have BMW backing.

Pre-Season we unveil our new cars at an event that Glick organized and it was a disaster. Sound was poor and the pictures were unflattering. BMW and several of our sponsors were not pleased. I hope this doesn't affect our cash flow. Also the press wasn't impressed and we get a -1 to further rolls which won't help us going forward. I need to get Glick on board as press relations is important.

The other pre season event was bad as well. We toured the chairman of BMW around the facility and when he asked Leo some questions Leo was very technical and somewhat condescending with his answers so the chairman wasn't happy. Yep, we get a -1 from the chairman now. The only good thing is he is very fickle so there is a chance if we win all will be forgotten.

So that is my intro to F1 Forward. Stay tuned as it develops. I skipped the sequences for the first 3 races to keep my season going. So on to race 4 the European Grand Prix at Nurburgring!

So almost everyone was happy to be back in Europe where most of the teams lived. Raikkonen and Alonso were tied for first and Renault and Ferrari were fighting for the Constructor's title. All the top tier drivers had a shot at the top. BMW was solidly a middle team between McLaren and Honda. Our reputation was "1".

Qualifying brought the usual suspects to the top with 2 surprises. Honda's Button was third and Alonso was down the grid in 8th. With my quick pitting skill I gave up 2 turns of fuel but still was slotted 7th ahead of Alonso. Now as a principle I care about my teammate and Jacques was 11th. I decided to run his car with 1 point and no skills. I used the point for tires. Raikkonen took pole followed by Fisichella, Button and Massa. All of them took a 2 stop strategy. Schumacher was 5th with a 1 stop. The weather was clear but rain in the forecast.