Grand Prix World 1998: The Tyrell Challenge Part 3

We must survive America: The Brazilian and Argentinean GPs

OK, that was a decent first weekend. We lost cash, as expected. We will be fine when we start running at Europe, since Transport Costs are lower. However, we go from an overseas race, to racing at the American Continent. No, we aren't racing in the US, we are racing at Interlagos.

Note: I made a mistake along the way. I ignored the fact that we would have a department morale crisis and tried to save cash by building 2 spares instead of 3. I realized this mistake after Argentina, however.

Those that have played the game before KNOW what the heck is coming, this is THE most dangerous track of all of GPW. Wear rates in this track are ridiculous, as combination of the minimal Heat, minimal Surface and generally destructive nature of the track. It is brutal.

And that's before we get into weather. This track has perhaps the most unpredictable weather of all tracks, though Luxembourg/Europe and Japan might claim that honor. The positive is that the AI isn't that good when dealing with changing conditions, so we might sneak something. The negatives is that our guys suck in the wet (well, suck in general), the car sucks and there are some pretty OP guys racing. The Michael, Damon Hill and Jean Alesi are the best wet weather drivers, and it is common to see them leading wet races.

Now, I'm not totally sure which is the ideal strat for this race. I'll go with Softs and a 2 stop. That will force the guys to be conservative, something you MUST do here to even make it to the end of the race.

Ok ... let's go ... I'm scared.

Team performance ratings as of Brazil.

All right, Tyrell beats the Minardi boys. Ahead, McMerc lock the front as usual, Team Enstone and Williams keep fighting, Tyrell didn't need a 4th run. They weren't improving and Minardi wasn't catching.

OK, time for the race. I'll have the guys go long on the first stint in case the weather happens to attack.

If anyone knows, where could that image be from?

Wait, what? What?! WHAT?!

WHAT THE FOK HAPPENED HERE?! WHY TYRELL AND ARROWS SCORED POINTS?!

Ok, ok ... let me collect myself ... For some reason, today the Tosser performed on a level far superior to ANYTHING I expected. He had an amazing start that put him on 15th. Mika Hakkinen quickly demonstrated the vaunted McLaren reliability by DNF'ing. The Tos- ... actually, I'll do it differently. Rosset was beating the Arrows, the Prosts and Jan Magnussen's Stewart ... ON MERIT AND PACE ALONE. They weren't close at all.

It started raining and we went to the pits ... twice because it went from inter to wet after a few laps. Then Takagi had that Clutch issue and failed to bring the car back so we could fix it ... that's some damage on the car ... but it was half way, so car isn't as worn ... good job Takagi. If you are going to DNF, DNF as early as possible. Less wear on the car.

Now it was all Rosset out there ... until he found traffic ... lead lap traffic. And he is TERRIBLE at overtaking, so he sat behind a lot of trains. And, to make things worse, he eventually found himself Fisichella. He then SMASHEDs his front wing into Fisi and he had to pit! Fisi didn't survive, but Rosset did, with significant damage. How much damage, we'll see.

The traffic thing also allowed Salo's Arrows to sneak around everyone else and finish P4. By the end, it was a matter of hoping the guys ahead DNF'd. The most critical guys were the Sauber boys. Both were ded with brake issues. If Eddie Irvine DNF's a lap earlier ... that Point turns into PointS.

This is the greatest point of this season. Nothing will top it.

Back to reality land, though.

I've seen this before ...

Damn right he did, let's go boy!

Told you, we were making moves. F you Ferrari ... but, why looking for Level 3 Dassaud when you have Level 5 Stepney?

Look at them moves. That said ... Double H Frentzen is the first driver that triggers the driver freeze rule. Mika Hakkinen is one of the drivers that's frozen, he won't move from McLaren for 2 years. I'm keeping track of this on a spreadsheet.

Lord, Rubens ... why?

... Oh lord, they did get Newey!

Manzoni is a Level 2 Commercial Manager. Our current Commercial Manager is also Level 2, but more expensive. There was no way we could sign a Level 3 guy, so might as well sign someone that's cheap and that isn't a downgrade.

OK, that's a bit better. But I needed it to be much better. It won't in the next race though.

Now, let's check what kind of damage Rosset did to the c-

F'ing Tosser, you destroyed the Chassis! 

Car 1 was completely worn anyway ... Still ... we have to run the rest of the season ... with 2 chassis.

OK ... I know what we doing ... we repairing Car 3, both wear and damage ... We leave Car 2 as is, as 14% wear isn't an issue ... and we run Argentina like that. I'll have to HOPE the reliability is good and that we don't hit people. I'll tell the guys to be extremely careful on their racecraft and to not push the car too much.

Like so. The Tosser will use the best car since ... hey, man got a Point.

In other news, the Licensing deals aren't going anywhere, so I abandoned that. Instead, nearly all of our resources in the Mugen-Honda deal (Which didn't move at all this weekend). We have some guys begging Goodyear to let us buy their tires (Goodyear's are the cheapest option), and we have some guys finding a big cash sponsor. The faster we have the ... hah, call it Honda. The faster we have the Honda Partnership deal, the quicker we can worry about cash sponsors.

Now, let's head South, to Argentina.

A slow track, considerably less damaging on the cars than Interlagos. Tires suffer around here though, and passing people is difficult. I decided to run the Softs again on both cars.

Performance entering the Argentinean GP. Few teams have actually moved. But the moves are TINY. You need to pay attention ... at least until big upgrades start hitting.

Nice cool day today. Good for the engines.

Yes. The Tyrells boys have out performed the Minardis, the Stewarts and Salo's Arrows. Future Tyrell driver Pedro Diniz looks good too.

Again, cool day. Not that I'm pushing the engines anyway, I don't trust the Fords. It will rain later today, however.

A more realistic result. The changing conditions helped a bit. Still, we were the best Ford powered team with the Tosser finishing 11th. DC lapped the field by making a big gap at the start of the race, then doing things right when the conditions got wet. I recently discovered a bug that works at this track, will test on other tracks. You'll notice something alarming in the news.

Unless miracles happen, we won't see results like that in a long, long time.

We made money and that makes me upset! Why? Well, it took 44% of our engineering department to build a spare part. We can make 3, by making the 3rd a very expensive one. However, now it takes like 61% to build a spare part, so we can build 1 part at the normal cost, and another part at a higher cost. In the long run, this will cost us money. 

The positive is that it will cost $200k less than before to go to Imola. We can make a bit of money now.

Rubens and Damon at Prost ... oh, dear ... Also, John Newhouse going to Ferrari triggers the second frozen driver in the form of Michael Schumacher.

Yes, this is a Takagi fastest lap. This is not a drill. Anyway, Salo to McLaren ... which sadly isn't happening, because The Mika is already frozen there, so The (Other) Mika will have to go somewhere else. Sorry Salo. Anyway, The glitch I triggered is that, if the two drivers on a team try to pit on the same lap, the first one will pit, but the second one will skip the final corner complex and teleport to the main straight. I'll use this throw away year to see how much it works, but won't use it when we are fighting for something.

Oh, so the The Chin, Mr. CRT TV Head himself is going back to Williams.

We did the repairs. Cars will ALWAYS enter races slightly worn. We MUST save parts for the heavy wear races. If we can use just 1 part per car, perfect.

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