@aleXis Core leading @Jimlaad43 into Tamburello after having started from Pole Position.
The latest OverTake Racing Club Special Event was yet another highly enjoyable contest - and it did well in recreating a mid-1990s Grand Prix in AMS2 in multiple ways.
Fuel strategy, side-by-side battles, mental fatigue - the latest OverTake Racing Club Special Event had it all. After a 2005 endurance throwback in March, we were back at it in Automobilista 2, but this time in the brand new Formula Edge cars for the Not the Bahrain Grand Prix, as the event was officially named. The mission: Survive 63 laps at Imola as it was raced between 1995 and 2006 in Formula One in our own 1995 San Marino Grand Prix of sorts.
Reiza's latest additions proved to be a great choice for the track: The three different models - with V12, V10, and V8 engines available - were closely matched. Among our 20 participants, the spread was somewhat similar to what you would have seen in 1995: Most opted for a V10, a few picked a V8, and V12s made up the smallest part of the grid.
Strategy Choices & Constant Action
It seemed like the V10 was the go-to car in qualifying, with @aleXis Core putting her not-Ligier on Pole Position - but there were slightly more than 300 kilometers ahead still to see if that was actually the case for the race as well.
At the start, it seemed like it: While there were some fireworks in the midfield, the front of the pack got through the bottleneck that is the Tamburello chicane without issue, and soon, stratgey would unfold. First, however, @Kevin Vanit sat in the lead, with Alexis and @Yannik Haustein right behind - seemingly faster, but unable to find a gap to go through initially, but they managed to do so after a few laps. It would later emerge that Kevin had accidentally selected hard tires, whereas everyone around him had started the race on softs.
In that sense, the race was a great representation of a refueling-era F1 contest. Right before the start, Alexis, Yannik and @Michel Wolk were contemplating whether or not a three-stop strategy would be the way to go, but ultimately settled on a two-stopper. We'll get to how that played out in a bit.
As much as there were on-track battles - all very fair even when things led to slight contact here and there -, there were strategic ones as well. Hardly anyone seemed to come into the pits on the same lap, and while Kevin had indeed chosen a three-stop strategy, @Jimlaad43 initially had not - but decided to change to one on the fly after cooking their tires with one too many lock-ups during the first stint.
This would prove to be the race-winning decision: Ed (that's Jimlaad43) and Kevin were the only ones to stop three times, and they finished in P1 and P2. In true refueling era fashion, they had to push like crazy to make use of their lighter cars, which paid off in the end. In Kevin's case, that meant a pass for P2 just three corners from home on the final lap on Yannik, who then finished in P3.
Alexis dropped back after her final stop, and Michel had a couple of incidents as well which saw him in P5 when the checkered flag flew - though he had kept pace with the front of the field earlier on. The final points-scoring position (under the 1995 rules) went to @Gerben Kelly in P6.
Lapped Cars & DNFs
A look at the final results reveals that they aren't that far off what you would see in 1995: A handful of cars finished on the lead lap, with a fair bit of a gap between most of them, the rest of the finishers were lapped, and some even multiple times.
Meanwhile, a fair few DNFs were also on the board - again very much on-brand for an F1 race of the time. To compare this to the actual 1995 San Marino Grand Prix, 10 of the 26 cars that started the race did not finish it - and the two Fortis driven by Roberto Moreno and Pedro Diniz were still running, but not classified because they had not covered enough of the race distance being seven laps down.
OverTake Racing Club - Not The Bahrain Grand Prix Results
PositionDriverCarTime/Gap1@Jimlaad43Formula Edge Model 3 (V8)1:36:22.9932@Kevin VanitFormula Edge Model 2 (V10)+32.6843@Yannik HausteinFormula Edge Model 2 (V10)+33.0844@aleXis CoreFormula Edge Model 2 (V10)+1:01.9995@Michel WolkFormula Edge Model 2 (V10)+1:20.3726@Gerben KellyFormula Edge Model 1 (V12)+1 lap7@STV_RobinFormula Edge Model 3 (V8)+1 lap8@PavlinaDrndynovaFormula Edge Model 3 (V8)+2 laps9@epete3Formula Edge Model 2 (V10)+2 laps10@Patrick EatonFormula Edge Model 2 (V10)+2 laps11@Christopher EFormula Edge Model 2 (V10)+3 laps12Super132Formula Edge Model 2 (V10)+4 laps13@robbo88Formula Edge Model 1 (V12)+8 laps14@Steve Le GallezFormula Edge Model 1 (V12)DNF15@Maya_HornbyFormula Edge Model 2 (V10)DNF16@The Almighty SnarkFormula Edge Model 3 (V8)DNF17@SmidgeyFormula Edge Model 2 (V10)DNF18@64 HankFormula Edge Model 2 (V10DNF19N2GamingFormula Edge Model 3 (V8)DNF20@GeekyDeaksFormula Edge Model 2 (V10)DNSAnother thing that stood out was the mental, and sometimes physical level of fatigue. Imola in its 1995-2006 layout barely had any breathing space, so keeping up the concentration was challenging at times. It gave participants at least a hint of an approximation of how intense it must be to drive cars like this as fast as possible over a full Grand Prix distance.
When refueling was reintroduced to F1 in 1994, the racing changed as a result. Races truly became a series of sprints interrupted by pit stops, and constantly pushing the car for lap time, almost like you were in qualifying, is an entirely different kettle of fish than an endurance race where finding a rhtyhm and not overdoing it are key.
This was the good kind of intense, however, and it made for a highly exciting Special Event in the OverTake Racing Club. Keep your eyes peeled for the next one!
Until then, check out both Michel's and Yannik's POV streams below.
What are your thoughts on the latest OverTake Racing Club Special Event? Are you looking to join future ones? Let us know in the comments below!