1955 Season Rules

# **F1 Revisited – 1955**

Last season saw Maserati and Mercedes fight over the spoils with Hans Herrmann taking the drivers title at a final-race showdown, but with a whole raft of new rule changes in place for 1955 designed to level the playing field, who will take the spoils this time? A smooth driving style, with timely gear changes, well-marked braking points, a feel for the changing track conditions and the best strategy should ultimately come out on top this time around…plus, manage your money well and spend it wisely to ensure you are in the best position for next season!

## Game Play

Each “race weekend” will consist of a single slightly longer qualifying session (not 2 anymore!) and the race. For each qualifying lap you will input a set of instructions about how to take each corner (what gear, how late to brake), your fuel and risk level on your own personal Google Doc spreadsheet, meaning you can do your qualifying laps whenever you like!

However the telemetry you receive back – besides your lap-time – will be non-existent UNLESS your mechanic is watching on (meaning co-ordination with these people will be vital!) You can of course change your approach lap by lap to improve your time, but you must run 1 lap at a time.

Once qualifying is wrapped up the grid will be determined and you can then submit your instructions for the race itself. Again, these will be in the form of braking distance, gear selection, risk levels etc done using a Google Form you will have the link to.

You will of course also pre-determine your pit strategy, but should your car become damaged during the race this may be fatal and lead to a retirement so it is good to push the limits of your setup, but not to exceed them. No car-sharing this season will be allowed, just FYI.

## **The Instructions**

For each corner you need to submit a gear from the pre-allocated range your car has, and a braking point that should be from 0m up to around 250m or so. The more you push in a lap the better the chance of a good lap time, but equally the more chance of you making a mistake.

Please note that instructions are included there, plus of course your team-mates and I will be able to help you with anything that isn’t immediately apparent.

***Race***

Please see the link to a generic race form you would submit – these instructions are then inputted to a spreadsheet and from there I generate the race, which looks something like this:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Dnu3BVk9F-5qmTpckmEC6BxqFhBb5MUTpzPpO0mOKuk/viewform

## **The Driver Allocation**

Drivers who competed last season will be allocated to the same people as before, as long as either a) the driver or b) the person did not retire before the ’55 season. These drivers are fixed and cannot be changed until the driver actually retires from Formula 1. The only exception is the winning driver from the previous season, who will always return to defend their title.

In a change to the normal running of things, drivers joining/confirming their place in the game will post their interest in terms of team/salary etc in the thread, from that information once all drivers have been registered there will then be a period of negotiation with the teams who will be negotiating at the same time with the drivers they are interested in.

Previous drivers still in use are shown here:

If you are new to the game, or if you or your driver dropped out from last season then you will need to select a new driver from the list of available drivers below (note, the Indy 500 representatives are not permitted):

You will represent the same driver in the following years and cannot ditch him until he retires, so if you have your eye on someone who started racing in 1956 it is advisable to choose a driver who did not compete in that season – though winning the whole thing would of course prevent you from using said 1956 driver.

Drivers will be allocated on a 1st come 1st served basis once joining starts and there is no competitive advantage to be gained between them, besides the driver multiplier.

## **The Teams**

As in real F1 the chassis you have under you is crucial and the actual performance of each will vary, though only in as much as the top speed and gears available initially (overall the field will be quite evenly matched). That said manufacturer upgrades will become available based on activity and on how much your car can actually improve vs the best.

You cannot change teams during a season, though you are not tied in to the same team for future seasons…also a winning constructor will not be permitted to stay on if it did not compete in the next season until we reach the 1958 season. Like with drivers the teams are chosen on a 1st come 1st served basis.

The full list of competing cars is here, with the + amount of entries referring to the maximum possible for each team…bear in mind the team may decide not to fill all these spots initially.

**Entrant – Chassis (No. of driver spaces)**

* Arzani-Volpini –Maserati – F1 (3)
* Connaught – Alta – B Type (3)
* Cooper – Bristol – T40 (3)
* Ferrari – Ferrari – 625 (3)
* Gordini – Gordini – T16 (3)
* HWM – Alta – 53 (3)
* Lancia – Lancia – D50 (3)
* Maserati – Maserati – 250F (3)
* Mercedes – Mercedes – W196 (3)
* Vanwall – Vanwall – VW55 (3)

This means that a total of 49 drivers can compete in this 6th season, although initially only 30 will be offered contracts.

## **Money**

There are several things that money can be used to purchase, as follows:

**Mechanics**

These men-in-overalls will help you during the qualifying sessions, and as such they are a much valued commodity in F1 Revisited; there are 2 main options for you here:

1. Use the F1R supplied pit-crew team, who will perform quite well but give no additional insight into the conditions and neither will they ever be particularly quick. To be frank it’s more than their jobs worth, but they are at least quite cheap to hire at £30 per race and will give you a post-session report on what can be improved.
2. Contract a trained mechanic as volunteered in the mechanics thread (this can be anyone on GPRO - link to the thread to come once it has been set up); these mechanics will usually be far quicker than the F1R pit crew and help you with weather warnings for qualifying and the race, but as they are more human who knows when they will have an off day as they are people just like you! Their contract terms are negotiable between you and them but with minimum wage and legislation in place the minimum they can cost is £50 per race.

**Multiplier Boosts**

Every driver has a multiplier figure, which is based on their experience in F1R. However you can boost this figure in the short-term by purchasing some of the following improvements:

**Homes**

You can live anywhere in the world that you want to …if you can afford it. To buy a house in a country other than that of your birth will cost a premium, but will allow you to test on that track between races so when the Grand Prix circus finally shows up to town you will be quicker at that track. Simply send a PM with the words “Quote on a house in COUNTRY NAME(S)” and I will respond with the relevant prices to do so. You may have more than 1 house, but this will dilute your multiplier by the amount of houses you own.

**Citizenship**

A long and drawn out 5 year process, but you can change the country you represent by living there for 5 years in a row…this will allow drivers who may not have a home GP the chance to get the small speed boost that your favourite track affords you. Simply send a PM with the words “Apply for Citizenship” and your application will begin the long process of being put through. Dual citizenship is a possibility too.

**ALL DRIVERS should fill in the following simple form to join:**

* Driver Choice –
* Teams you are willing to drive for –
* Minimum salary (the lowest you will drive for) –
* Desired salary (ideally what you are looking for) –
* Team Contribution (how much money you are willing to give towards the team’s development) –
* Mechanics – F1R Mechanic / Own Mechanic (Delete as Applicable)

(Team preference only taken into account where possible, though this will have an influence on which teams offer which contracts)

PLEASE NOTE – Though all efforts have been made to make this historically accurate there is likely to be some departure, if I have made any errors regarding (for example) the gear a corner is to be taken at I can only apologise but let’s just say that your car handles differently to what you expect in situations like that!

## **New Season Changes**

Some things to look out for:

1. Driver multipliers come into effect – watch out for this creating a more interesting spread across the field
2. 1 qualifying session instead of 2 – less chances to get a perfect setup, so every lap counts!
3. Mechanics still in play, but the concept of a pit-crew (1 per team) is brought in, which is something everyone in the team can contribute to.
4. Tyre brands will not only change setup, but also will have different costs attached to them
5. In-season upgrades to tyres and chassis will ensure no 1 team can dominate all season long
6. You will now be able to respond to changes in weather during the race now, rather than have to simply predict the forecast beforehand!