F1 Manager 2004 Season

Sauber Statement

Whilst it is certainly difficult to establish the current order in Formula 1 this season, we at Sauber are confident that we can try and maintain the 5th place finish that our predecessors achieved in 2003.

We feel that we have made great strides with the C23 during pre-season, but the Silverstone test has certainly proven that we have a long way to go before we can rise up the constructors table.

Jordan Statement

Not at all happy with testing. Our target was supposed to be 5th this year but it's not looking good at this rate.

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

ROUND 1 - AUSTRALIAN GP - FRIDAY PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING

Hello and welcome to the start of the 2004 F1 Season. Once again Australia is kicking off the action from their fantastic Melbourne Circuit. Last year saw few cars finish this race so who knows what will come of this years race. There has been a lot of changes in the paddock and we'll bring you a full line-up. The big move over the winter was that of World Champion Kimi Raikkonen moving to Renault while Alonso moved in the opposite direction. Let's have a look at the line ups for the teams for 2004...

Renault

AP Racing Brakes, Michelin Tyres
1. Raikkonen
2. Wilson
T. Gene

Ferrari

Brembo Brakes, Bridgestone Tyres
3. M Schumacher
4. Verstappen
T. Doornbos

McLaren - Mercedes

Hitco Brakes, Michelin Tyres
5. Alonso
6. Coulthard
T. Wirdheim

Williams - BMW

Brembo Brakes, Michelin Tyres
7. Montoya
8. Barrichello
T. Klien

Sauber - Petronas

Brembo Brakes, Bridgestone Tyres
9. Heidfeld
10. Jani
T. Fisichella

Jordan - Honda

AP Racing Brakes, Michelin Tyres
11. Button
12. De La Rosa
T. Motoyama

BAR - Honda

Hitco Brakes, Bridgestone Tyres
14. R Schumacher
15. Sato
T. Leinders

Toyota

AP Racing Brakes, Michelin Tyres
16. Massa
17. Glock
T. Briscoe

Jaguar - Honda

AP Racing, Michelin Tyres
18. Webber
19. Pizzonia
T. Pantano

Arrows - Ford

Hitco Brakes, Bridgestone Tyres
20. Villeneuve
21. Wurz
T. Montagny

Minardi - Petronas

Brembo Brakes, Bridgestone Tyres
22. Panis
23. Davidson
T. Badoer


Storm clouds were hanging over head which resulted in both practice and qualifying being a down pour. Let's see how the teams got on...

Full run down of Friday Practice Times



Setup Reward

1. Sauber -0.043
2. Williams -0.205
3. Minardi -0.231
4. Toyota -0.390
5. Arrows -0.509
6. Ferrari -0.510

Barrichello takes pole on his Williams Debut


The Grid for tomorrow

BAR Statement

A very strong qualifying of both our drivers with Takuma Sato even outqualifying Ralf Schumacher. The car looks very handsome and that despite our reliability-focus in testing.

Minardi Statement
Good job from Anthony getting 14th. Don't know what happened to Olivier.

ROUND 1 - AUSTRALIAN GP - RACE

You join us here in Australia for the opening round of the 2004 F1 season. This year looks more exciting then ever as bookies seem unable to decide on who is favourite to win both the WDC and the WCC. Yesterday's qualifying saw Rubens Barrichello take pole on his first attempt for his new team Williams. All eyes will be on him to see if he can bring it home or if we'll see another winner. It's time to get an indication on who is fast and who is not so lets head down to the track for the first race of the season.


58/58 And we're off!! Great start by BArrichello but Verstappen beats him into the first corner and takes the lead


57/58 This is what we like to see as Villeneuve makes a move on Montoya and passes him! Montoya comes straight back at him but clips Villeneuve, punting Villeneuve off. Montoya goes off also and hits the barrier. Montoya goes from 14th to last and will have to pit for a new front wing. Villeneuve is now running in 21st.



56/58 Well it's more bad news for Williams i'm afraid as Barrichello has a brake problem and will have to pit from 3rd. Pizzonia runs wide in the Jaguar, demoting him from 17th to 21st. Jani also has an off sending him down the order.




55/58 De La Rosa is the first retirement off the day as he crashes out of 15th in his Jordan.


53/58 M Schumacher tries a move on his brother Ralf but they touch. Michael spins win Ralf goes off wide. Michael was 7th and rejoins in 18th while Ralf is now behind him in 19th


48/58 A look at the top 8 after 10 laps


47/58 M Schumacher is at it again as he connects with Pizzonia now. Both go off


43/58 Button starts to make his way up passing Panis for 11th


36/58 Massa runs wide handing Webber 9th. Also Button has made a mistake off camera as he is now 19th



35/58 Davidson who was running 8th for Minardi has electrical problems and is forced to pit early


33/58 Montoya is the first mechanical retirement of 2004 as his BMW engine lets go


31/58 Massa is now retiring with suspension problems. He was in 9th


30/58 Glock moved up into 9th after his team mate retired, but Glock's engine has just let go, retiring him from his debut grand prix


26/58 Drivers begin to make their one and only scheduled stops


21/58 Well i don't know what's going on at arrows but they've brung their drivers in at the same time. Villeneuve is the one who loses out here


18/58 Wow BUtton has played this just right as he is now up to 10th after those stops!


17/58 Well here's a sight i thought i'd never see. Verstappen has just lapped his team mate M Schumacher! They are certainly having two different races today


16/58 More bad news for Arrows as Wurz retires from 15th with an oil leak


15/58 Raikkonen hits Sato. They both lose time but luckily no positions


10/58 A look at the top 8 with just 10 laps to go


8/58 Barrichello, M Schumacher and BUtton are all battling it out for 10th but M Schumacher comes out on top followed by Barrichello


2/58 M Schumacher now moves up into 9th after passing Davidson


1/58 Oh no with 1 lap to go Sato has made the mistake Raikkonen was waiting for. Raikkonen has been piling on the pressure and forced Sato to outbreak himself. Wilson also follows him through as Sato is now 6th


0/58 Verstappen brings it home to win on his Ferrari debut! MDBSnake will no doubt be delighted with this result. Is it just a one off? Or is this genuine pace from the dutchman...




Race Results

Australia - Albert Park
(58 Laps)

Pos Driver Time/Speed

1st Jos Verstappen 1h 25m 46.779s
Ferrari-
2nd Fernando Alonso +11.813s
McLaren-Mercedes
3rd David Coulthard +13.269s
McLaren-Mercedes
4th Kimi Raikkonen +32.793s
Renault-
5th Justin Wilson +33.502s
Renault-
6th Takuma Sato +37.610s
BAR-Honda
7th Nick Heidfeld +44.017s
Sauber-Petronas
8th Mark Webber +56.934s
Jaguar-Honda
9th Michael Schumacher -1 Lap
Ferrari-
10th Rubens Barrichello -1 Lap
Williams-BMW
11th Anthony Davidson -1 Lap
Minardi-Petronas
12th Jenson Button -1 Lap
Jordan-Honda
13th Ralf Schumacher -1 Lap
BAR-Honda
14th Olivier Panis -1 Lap
Minardi-Petronas
15th Neel Jani -1 Lap
Sauber-Petronas
16th Jacques Villeneuve -1 Lap
Arrows-Ford
17th Antonio Pizzonia -1 Lap
Jaguar-Honda
18th Alex Wurz Oil Leak
Arrows-Ford
19th Timo Glock Engine
Toyota-
20th Fellipe Massa Suspension
Toyota-
21st Juan Pablo Montoya Engine
Williams-BMW
22nd Pedro De La Rosa Didn't Finish
Jordan-Honda



Fastest Lap - Michael Schumacher 1m26.979

DOTD - Verstappen - Cracking debut for the Ferrari driver. He's went from being at the back of the grid to the front without any problems what so ever

Standings after 1 Round

WDC

1. Verstappen 10
2. Alonso 8
3. Coulthard 6
4. Raikkonen 5
5. Wilson 4
6. Sato 3
7. Heidfeld 2
8. Webber 1


WCC

1. Mclaren 14
2. Ferrari 10
3. Renault 9
4. BAR 3
5. Sauber 2
6. Jaguar 1


Wins

Verstappen 1


DOTD

Verstappen 1


Fastest Race Lap

M Schumacher 1


Poles

Barrichello 1

Jordan Statement:

There's only one word that sums this up: awful. Button had a good start but in the end he couldn't pick
up any points. As for de la Rosa, I couldn't tell where he was gonna end up had he stayed in. Not happy at all.

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

Minardi Statement
Great work from Anthony and Oliver for 11th and 14th place! It certainly could have been higher if it wasn't for electrical problems for Anthony.

ARROWS STAETMENT

A terrible start to the season. An investigation has been launced to find out who was responsible for the pitstop debarcle. Rest asured, heads will roll.

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Retro Liveries on the SMD-ZG02![www.grandprixgames.org]
Retro Renders 2.0 on the SMD-ZG02LN![www.grandprixgames.org]

just to let you guys know i'll be working on the budgets (drivers, engines etc) for 2005 and they should be up by race 3 for you guys to start making your signings for next season :-D

Will there be more engine suppliers to choose from?

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

I can't say Im thrilled with our first performance but we will get there.

GPGSL - Christel VXR team Boss S6-S8, S12 Onwards

McLaren Statement

Fantastic performance after qualifying 4th and 6th to take home a double podium and the lead in the counstructors, bring on round 2

Interested in managing an F1 team? Sign up for the Grandprixgames F1 Manager game here

Ferrari Statement

We are absolutely ecstatic with Jos' win here in Australia, it's an amazing result for the Dutch driver in his first race for the team. However our feelings as a team are mixed since Michael wasn't able to pull it together since qualifying, and it's unlucky to see him finishing 9th just outside the points. But it's Michael, he will be there again next race. Hopefully to go for a 1-2 victory with Jos!

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If you are racing, keep on racing and get some points!

GPG Super League S11 | Driver #41 | Team-manager | Snake Motorsports Racing Group | Next Race: Emmeloord - Flevoland GP | Constructors: 10th | Best Race Finish: 1st
GPG Super League Season 9 Testers Champion*

Sauber Statement

Admittedly, this wasn't the first race we had in mind. Qualifying wasn't great, though we are pleased that Nick picked up 2 points in the end. A quiet debut for Neel, but I'm sure he'll be able to improve his times over the coming races.

Our C23 is certainly reliable (unlike the TF104 of our rivals, Toyota), but we certainly need to find pace to earn higher points in the future.

RENAULT STATEMENT

we beleive 4th an 5th place can be acceptable for the opening round. but the most important thing is the performance of wilson, he was not very far away raikkonen. we hope he can continue his performance.

Jaguar Statement

We are really happy with the performance from Mark Webber at his home grand prix of Australia. However we are not happy with the performance of Antonio Pizzonia and if such performances continue we will have to evaluate his team position.

Williams

Good qualify by Rubens.He could fight for the win,but apparently we need to improve the reliabilty of our cars...

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My GPGSL Career

Right moving on as i'm hoping to get at least three grand prix's done over these 2 weekends....


ROUND 2 - MALAYSIAN GP - FRIDAY PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING


Welcome to Sepang for round two of the 2004 F1 season. Jos Verstappen is the surprise leader coming into this weekend as he took the win for Ferrari last time out in Australia. But Sepang is a totally different scenario as the drivers and teams face a tough task... Malaysian weather. Friday Practice saw a dry afternoon while Saturday the heavens had opened and flooded the track causing a slightly mixed up grid.


Friday Practice Results



Setup Reward

1. Jordan +0.015
2. Williams -0.003
3. Sauber -0.006
4. Jaguar -0.182
5. BAR -0.366
6. Toyota -0.404

Raikkonen is fastest early in the session


But as the circuit dried out Montoya took William's 2nd pole in as many races


Alonso and Sato also took advantage of the drying circuit while the bottom four all tripped up over eachother