Dave Robjohns

Dave Robjohns I am, for the purpose of testing, going to try a Medium-Soft strategy.

Trevor Potts

Trevor Potts Excellent, the true spirit of testing. It's up to you how you want to time your pit-stop in that case, and I won't normally give recommendations outside of the default strategy but on this one occasion I would recommend maybe lap 12 or 13 for your pit stop.

If you stop on lap 8 those softs will be quite worn by the end

Dave Robjohns

Dave Robjohns 12/13 was my plan!
There were 2 earlier ones I solved but after the 20 seconds, so didn't buzz in - assume that's the best play, if I don't want it to be taken as a pit stop?

Trevor Potts

Trevor Potts I forgot to post the weather forecast on here too but that will be normal for the races (yes I will be using real weather forecasts for the track location to determine weather!)

There is 0% chance of precipitation in Bahrain for this test. That figures. So no need to worry about weather.

Dave Kempshall

Dave Kempshall I will also go for Medium-Soft, Trevor :)

Trevor Potts

Trevor Potts Good point Dave. The way the spreadsheet is set up is that it will make you change tyres on any 20+ second solve so had you solved them after 20s you would have changed tyres.

While this may deviate a little from real-life F1, I would say in that situation you might still be best solving the conundrum. The reason being that say a 25.0s solve still counts as 25.0s for your base time, whereas unsolved countas as 30.0s. Getting fresh tyres will rarely be a bad thing, even if it means you end up on Hards as they'll get you to the end of the race. If you have sustained any wing damage it could be a good opportunity to repair that too.

Just bear in mind that if you solve a 20s+ con very early, say in the first 6 rounds, then unless you've specified a Hard tyre strategy you will want to make another stop later in the game as it's unlikely your softs/mediums will get you to the end of the race in a good state if you stop too early.

tl;dr: if you see an answer later than 20s I say go f

Trevor Potts

Trevor Potts go for it*

Thanks Dave K. I believe this is sufficient precedent to officially name a Medium-Soft strategy in Formula Apterous: "plan Dave"

Andy SC

Andy SC I'll just be Lance Stroll and drive into the gravel on the formation lap when I clearly didn't need to.

Andy SC

Andy SC Just to be different i'll go for a tyre strategy of Hard-Soft

Fi Thorne

Fi Thorne Question! As someone who will probably only get around 50% of the conundrums, is it better to make the pit stop later so that it's half way through the ones I get correct rather than in lap 8? I have already played so this is how I did it but just wondering for future games!

Trevor Potts

Trevor Potts No, it's still best to time your pit stop around the recommended lap. If you're on soft tyres as the default strategy and don't stop until late in the game this soft tyres will be very worn around the midgame so a high multiplier will be on your lap times.

An alternative if you think you might not get chance to choose a pitstop until later would be to go for a Medium or even Hard tyre from the start, as those are more durable.

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Trevor Potts

Trevor Potts Okay folks given we're going to have two grids I've split the pre-season test into two races. The highest-ranking (as of this week's Pro Ranks) 20 players to have completed both test games have been chucked into the simulator, and you can see the results here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15XjLKEeNg8JpBOnoeC1ORZAf9dIWUzVoAwDsSzth0Ho/edit?usp=sharing

Summary of the race:

Polesitter Potts managed to shoot off the line with the fastest lap of the race but Cappleman quickly made up the ground and took the race lead on Lap 3. Cappleman set an imperious pace from there, forcing Potts into an attempted overcut, hoping to use his tyre advantage to regain the race lead in the closing stages. Unfortunately he didn't make it that far though as, pushing to close the gap to the leader, he made an error on lap 17 that saw him unable to continue and forced to retire.

Trevor Potts

Trevor Potts As it turns out Cappleman's pace was good enough to have won anyway as he claimed a dominant victory.

C-L and Latchford also put in incredible drives to complete the podium despite starting outside of the top 10.

Highlights elsewhere were:
- Volante claiming 8th place after starting last on the grid
- DNFs for Turner and Robjohns following crashes on laps 5 and 10, respectively.
- DSQs for Drury and OC for failing to complete a pit stop during the race.
- Sarb holding on to pip Lee to 9th place by just 0.2 seconds.

Trevor Potts

Trevor Potts Shoutout also to Elwin Carlos for finishing 7th despite driving much of the race with floor damage after an early crash.

Will share a race for the second Test group once there's enough for at least a 16 car grid.

I'll update regulations with some more specifics on how all the complicated bits are calculated now they've started to take shape during testing.

In the spirit of motorsport, some of the more competitive of you may be trying to work out exactly how the race simulation system works so you can game it. That's the mind of a motorsports driver/team! So while I won't tell you exactly how to peek all the way under the hood of this thing, I won't forbid it. If any of you get too clever I'll have to do some regulation changes like the real FIA do when they've been caught out :)

Andy SC

Andy SC What's your rules on swearing? Will it be punishable by a race ban?

Ian Volante

Ian Volante I think these days it's hands chopped off.

Tourney round: Formula Apterous World Championship 2025: Pre-Season testing: Race

<< Pre-Season testing: Qualifying

Notes from the organizer: Everyone who signs up for the 2025 season as either a full-time or reserve driver will be given a test game here. This scores no championship points but allows you to practise the gameplay and me to demonstrate how the scoring will work via some spreadsheets which I will share in the comments when ready.

Race mechanism:
Players will be lined up in order of their qualifying performance in the previous test round. Your solve times will act as a base time and be subjected to a series of multipliers based on tyre wear and, if applicable, damange and weather.

To gain places in the race you must rack up faster lap times than your opponents ahead of you such that you catch up to them and pass them. Details of overtaking mechanics and exactly how lap times are calculated will be updated in the Regulations document once confirmed but it's not realistic that you're going to calculate that manually so just play as quickly as possible while focusing on accuracy.

If you get a conundrum wrong you could crash! Depending on the severity of the crash you could sustain damage that will slow down your lap times or even retire from the race altogether. The quicker your buzz on an incorrect guess, the more likely your crash is to be severe.

IMPORTANT: You MUST solve at least one conundrum in this game in 20s or more. This will be your pit stop and change your tyres. As you will get slower the older your tyres get, it is wise to time your pit stop to maximise the pace of your tyres, rather than letting them get too old and slow. Failure to complete a pit stop in the race will result in disqualification from the race.

The pre-season test takes place at Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir. This is a track favourable for overtaking so it should be easier to gain positions if you are getting faster lap times than your competitors. The FIA are recommending a pit stop strategy of Soft-Medium with a pit stop on lap 8. If you wish to use a different tyre strategy, please inform me BEFORE you play your game. Otherwise I will assume you are following Soft-Medium.

Anyone who makes more than one pit stop in the race will be fitted with the more durable, but slower, Hard tyres on the second stop and beyond.

Runs from: 28 January – 28 February 2025. Format: Conundrum Attack. Matches: One-off. Approved.

Organizers: Trevor Potts.

Fixtures: 33. Completed: 32.

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