HANDY LINKSI will be providing a list of links to the races and other important information here so you don't need to scroll through all the pages to find what you want.
QUALIFYINGBelgium -
Germany -
San Marino -
France -
Monaco -
South America -
Canada -
USA -
Spain -
Turkey -
Great Britain -
Europe -
Italy -
Singapore -
Brazil -
Malaysia -
JapanRACEBelgium -
Germany -
San Marino -
France -
Monaco -
South America -
Canada -
USA -
Spain -
Turkey -
Great Britain -
Europe -
Italy -
Singapore -
Brazil -
Malaysia -
JapanNEWS & GOSSIPDrivers, Teams & Division StructureSeason 1 CalendarHalf-Term Report: The Good, The Bad and The UnluckyAnnouncement of format changes (with additional key points discussed further up)Driver contracts explainedSeason 2 Transfer RumoursSeason 2 Calendar (provisional)-----------------------------------
THE GRAND PRIX 4 LEGEND'S TROPHYSo here's something that started off as a spark of curiosity and has developed into a major project. I've searched this forum for something similar so as not to bore you with identical championships, but couldn't find anything quite like what I'm attempting to do (if there is please let me know).
I am creating a championship in GP4 that features the greatest F1 drivers and teams throughout the history of the sport. And I don't mean 'greatest' as in my opinion, I mean as in statistical fact.
The first stage was to tally up the number of World Championship points every F1 driver ever has won. However, there is a clear bias towards today's generation of racers due to the higher scoring system used in comparison to yesteryear. Therefore, I have gone through every championship race run since 1950 and awarded points to the drivers based on today's system (25,18,15,12,10,8,6,4,2,1).
Once that was done - which took quite a while - I then worked out their average points earned per race entered (DNQs and DNSs are excluded). This was done so as not to penalise brilliant drivers with (often tragically) short careers and also to cancel out the unfair advantage gained by drivers with a lengthy but ultimately unsuccessful career. The final step was to add a bonus of two points per World Championship won. However, this does not necessarily mean the driver that won the actual Driver's World Championship, but the driver that would have won it had today's scoring system been used during that year.
Interestingly, this came up with the following alternative world champions:
1964 Graham HILL instead of John SURTEES
1965 Graham HILL instead of Jim CLARK
1976 Niki LAUDA instead of James HUNT
1983 Alain PROST instead of Nelson PIQUET
1984 Alain PROST instead of Niki LAUDA
1988 Alain PROST instead of Ayrton SENNA
1994 Damon HILL instead of Michael SCHUMACHER
1997 Michael SCHUMACHER* instead of Jacques VILLENEUVE
1999 Eddie IRVINE instead of Mika HAKKINEN
*Championship disqualification is ignored.
In total, 447 drivers would have scored World Championship points using today's system, however, as I have implemented a rule that requires a driver to have entered at least 25 races to be eligible for the League of Legends (sorry Max), the number of qualifying drivers stands at 218.
For reference, here are the top 100 drivers after all the above calculations have been made. The number in brackets denotes the driver's rank using purely the total number of points awarded over their career:
1 (1) Michael SCHUMACHER ger 26.633
2 (34) Juan Manuel FANGIO arg 25.913
3 (3) Alain PROST fra 24.359
4 (6) Sebastian VETTEL ger 21.258
5 (4) Lewis HAMILTON eng 19.189
6 (20) Jackie STEWART sco 17.300
7 (64) Alberto ASCARI ita 16.879
8 (8) Ayrton SENNA bra 15.497
9 (2) Fernando ALONSO esp 14.398
10 (66) Nino FARINA ita 14.088
11 (23) Graham HILL eng 13.994
12 (17) Niki LAUDA aut 13.590
13 (33) Jim CLARK eng 13.521
14 (24) Damon HILL eng 12.738
15 (61) Mike HAWTHORN eng 11.489
16 (28) Jack BRABHAM aus 11.422
17 (5) Kimi RAIKKONEN fin 11.017
18 (26) Emerson FITTIPALDI bra 10.664
19 (27) Denny HULME nz 10.491
20 (15) Mika HAKKINEN fin 10.382
21 (11) Nelson PIQUET bra 10.261
22 (31) Jody SCHECKTER rsa 9.956
----
23 (13) Nigel MANSELL eng 9.864
24 (92) Jose Froilan GONZALEZ arg 9.577
25 (76) Phil HILL usa 9.176
26 (52) Stirling MOSS eng 8.888
27 (35) Juan Pablo MONTOYA col 8.684
28 (9) Jenson BUTTON eng 8.396
29 (94) Wolfgang VON TRIPS ger 8.345
30 (44) Alan JONES aus 8.197
31 (62) Richie GINTHER usa 8.130
32 (75) Jochen RINDT aut 7.919
33 (19) Carlos REUTEMANN arg 7.798
34 (41) Bruce McLAREN nz 7.394
35 (38) Eddie IRVINE ire 7.331
36 (97) Peter REVSON usa 7.188
37 (48) Mario ANDRETTI usa 7.137
38 (18) Nico ROSBERG ger 7.016
39 (10) David COULTHARD sco 6.968
40 (12) Felipe MASSA bra 6.860
41 (81) Francois CEVERT fra 6.851
42 (14) Gerhard BERGER aut 6.826
43 (51) James HUNT eng 6.667
44 (53) Keke ROSBERG ger 6.648
----
45 (107) Luigi MUSSO ita 6.620
46 (91) Tony BROOKS eng 6.487
47 (59) Robert KUBICA pol 6.447
48 (99) Luigi VILLORESI ita 6.324
49 (16) Mark WEBBER aus 6.263
50 (90) Lorenzo BANDINI ita 6.048
51 (22) Ralf SCHUMACHER ger 6.011
52 (63) Didier PIRONI fra 5.958
53 (69) Gilles VILLENEUVE can 5.956
54 (49) John SURTEES eng 5.938
55 (43) Ronnie PETERSON swe 5.911
56 (36) Clay REGAZZONI sui 5.899
57 (82) Pedro RODRIGUEZ mex 5.870
58 (55) Patrick DEPAILLER fra 5.842
59 (7) Rubens BARRICHELLO bra 5.816
60 (58) Dan GURNEY usa 5.770
61 (47) Jacky ICKX bel 5.642
62 (83) Valtteri BOTTAS fin 5.296
63 (54) Elio DE ANGELIS ita 5.202
64 (32) Jacques VILLENEUVE can 5.200
65 (30) Jacques LAFFITE fra 5.144
66 (104) Peter COLLINS eng 5.143
----
67 (25) Jean ALESI fra 5.129
68 (120) Tony MAGGS rsa 5.000
69 (39) Heinz-Harald FRENTZEN ger 4.875
70 (42) John WATSON nir 4.782
71 (95) Jean BEHRA fra 4.547
72 (71) Jean Pierre BELTOISE fra 4.375
73 (77) Maurice TRINTIGNANT fra 4.333
74 (21) Riccardo PATRESE bra 4.323
75 (109) Mike SPENCE eng 4.270
76 (46) Rene ARNOUX fra 4.259
77 (29) Giancarlo FISICHELLA ita 4.087
78 (124) Gunnar NILSSON swe 4.063
79 (50) Thierry BOUTSEN bel 4.043
80 (60) Patrick TAMBAY fra 3.951
81 (101) Innes IRELAND eng 3.943
82 (80) Daniel RICCIARDO aus 3.882
83 (45) Nick HEIDFELD ger 3.876
84 (67) Chris AMON nz 3.806
85 (100) Harry SCHELL usa 3.754
86 (72) Stefan JOHANSSON swe 3.728
87 (114) Louis ROSIER fra 3.711
88 (73) Jo SIFFERT sui 3.690
----
89 (40) Michele ALBORETO ita 3.605
90 (88) Carlos PACE bra 3.575
91 (86) Alessandro NANNINI ita 3.538
92 (85) Romain GROSJEAN fra 3.500
93 (136) Piers COURAGE eng 3.483
94 (70) Jochen MASS ger 3.417
95 (56) Martin BRUNDLE eng 3.303
96 (98) Alexander WURZ aut 3.275
97 (57) Johnny HERBERT eng 3.218
98 (79) Jo BONNIER swe 3.176
99 (121) Tom PRYCE wal 3.155
100 (37) Jarno TRULLI ita 3.141
Obviously, it is impossible to 100% accurately rank the "best drivers ever", and any method will provide controversy. For example, many will argue that Gilles Villeneuve deserves to be higher than his rank of 53rd, but this is the method I believe is as close as possible to being accurate.
The constructors' rankings were calculated slightly differently - mainly because by the time I realised I wanted to use this spreadsheet for an actual championship, I had already been through most of the races for the drivers and didn't want to spend many hours doing it all again for the constructors. This method is similar but simpler - teams are scored on their overall championship standing using the 25,18,15 etc. system for each year, then the score is divided by the number of years they entered, with two points added for every Constructors Championship won.
Here are the 49 constructors that scored points using the above system:
1 FERRARI 49.345
2 WILLIAMS 32.447
3 MCLAREN 31.020
4 LOTUS 24.906
5 RED BULL 23.818
6 MERCEDES 21.000
7 COOPER 20.667
8 RENAULT 15.632
9 BENETTON 15.188
10 BRABHAM 14.467
11 BRM 12.600
----
12 MATRA 11.667
13 BMW 10.500
14 VANWALL 10.333
15 TYRRELL 9.724
16 BAR 8.286
17 WOLF 7.333
18 JORDAN 7.133
19 TOYOTA 6.875
20 SAUBER 6.368
21 HONDA 6.250
22 LIGIER 6.143
----
23 FORCE INDIA 6.125
24 STEWART 6.000
25 PORSCHE 5.571
26 MARCH 4.857
27 JAGUAR 4.800
28 HESKETH 4.000
29 TORRO ROSSO 3.900
30 MASERATI 3.667
31 PROST 3.600
32 SHADOW 3.375
33 ARROWS 3.160
----
34 LEYTON HOUSE 3.000
35 SURTEES 2.333
36 ALFA ROMEO 2.286
37 LOLA 2.000
38 BRAWN 2.000
39 DALLARA 1.800
40 TOLEMAN 1.600
41 FITTIPALDI 1.500
42 MINARDI 1.048
43 MARUSSIA 1.000
44 LARROUSSE 0.500
----
45 ONYX 0.500
46 CATERHAM 0.333
47 SUPER AGURI 0.333
48 ZAKSPEED 0.200
49 ENSIGN 0.100
Constructors that have entered less than 50 races score 0 points, with the 61 constructors failing to score being ranked by number of races entered. The only exception to this rule is Brawn GP, who score 2 points for their World Championship win in 2009, and are thus ranked 38th.
Now that I have established the 22 drivers and 11 teams that will participate in the top division (other lower divisions will also run, as explained later), the next task was to assign drivers to teams.
Each driver was assigned to a constructor using the following steps:
-A constructor that the driver raced for in his career
-A constructor of the same nationality as the driver
-Perceived personal preference (e.g. potential team mates or affiliation with another team)
-Random selection
Drivers were assigned in descending rank order (e.g. Michael Schumacher was first), however there was scope for adjustments should it result in more drivers being able to fulfill the top two criteria. Should a driver have raced for more than one of the available constructors, a bias was made towards the team the driver is believed to have a closer connection to.
The end result is as follows:
FERRARI: Michael SCHUMACHER, Alberto ASCARI
MERCEDES Juan Manuel FANGIO, Mika HAKKINEN
COOPER: Kimi RAIKKONEN, Denny HULME
RED BULL: Sebastian VETTEL, Emerson FITTIPALDI
MCLAREN: Lewis HAMILTON, Ayrton SENNA
WILLIAMS: Damon HILL, Nelson PIQUET
BENETTON:Nino FARINA, Jody SCHECKTER
RENAULT: Alain PROST, Fernando ALONSO
LOTUS: Graham HILL, Jim CLARK
BRM: Jackie STEWART, Mike HAWTHORN
BRABHAM: Niki LAUDA, Jack BRABHAM
Each driver and team will have their performance file adjusted to reflect these rankings and scores. Thus, Michael Schumacher and Ferrari will be the favourites to win the first season. However, I will make the field spread narrower than is seen in a typical F1 grid, which should make for closer, less predictable racing.
I am currently in the process of downloading cars that I can use for as many of these drivers as possible, with cars that the driver raced in during their career being used wherever I can. However, there are two constructors - Cooper and BRM - that as far as I can tell have no downloadable mods available, and thus I will design an appropriate livery using a more modern F1 template.
Next up: the calendar. This is where, for the first time, personal opinion comes into play (to a degree). It is, in my opinion, the best 17 tracks available taking into account a variety of history, track design and overall spectacle. To see the finalised Season 1 calendar, click the relevant link in the "Handy Links" section at the top of this post.
All the races will be run in spectator/director mode. Races in Division 1 will be 50% race distance with a 30 minute qualifying session to determine the grid order. Division 2 will have rounds of 25% distance races, with the grid being pre-determined by the game itself. Lower divisions will feature 8 races and have results simulated using random numbers influenced by their score as above.
That should be enough to digest for now, further details on the scoring system, lower divisions and promotion/relegation conditions will be revealed as my preparations for the championship continue. Feel free to ask questions/make suggestions about all of this.
Edited 44 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2016 04:54PM by kingdeuce86.