Season 13

Driver's Championship:

This season was the **13th Season of Formula One**. It was played in the F1 2016 video game, Formula is the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. Twenty-two drivers representing ten teams contested eleven Grands Prix, starting in Belgium and ending in Canada as they competed for the World Drivers' and World Constructors' championships.

João Costa and Dylan Pavel were in different places, Pavel initally kept as World Champion in Ferrari but was later loaned to Red Bull, while Costa was unceremoniously dropped by Ferrari and sent to HAAS, where he had driven for in NASCAR. Due to this, Costa felt confident that he could bring the magic from NASCAR to F1.

This season was also notable for being the first with Medium Bots and one-shot qualifying introduced. This was introduced after TheAmessz noted that the gap between Ferrari and HAAS was big enough to render the season a landslide, so a way of changing the starting grid (one shot qualifying) was introduced, OSQ was thought of for Season 12, but due to complications it was scrapped and moved to Season 13.

## Team Changes

Costa moved to HAAS F1, who are considered as backmarkers. It was the second time that Costa was fired from Ferrari, but after failing to get any points in the previous season, the Ferrari boss stated that it was the last straw and that Costa would be fired by the end of the season. However the shock move of the season saw Pavel move from his beloved team to RedBull, a move that enraged the Ferrari manager Maurizio Arrivabene, stating that "If [he] was making Pavel's pizza he wouldn't spit on it, he'd send only the crust.", however the situation ended on a better note for Ferrari, when it was announced that the move was a loan only due to Pavel's interests in RedBull's Minardi history.

## Race 1 - Belgium

The Belgium GP was once again the inaugural race of the season, and this was also the first one to have qualifying. Costa was unlucky to be crashed by Jenson Button, however the bad luck rolled into the race, in lap 10 of 11, Costa was running in 10th, untill he spun out and burst a tyre. While driving back to pit road, he was hit by a Sauber which made him crash into the wall. Pavel won the race in an amazing form, going from 10th to 1st.

## Race 2 - Brazil

Both Qualifying sessions went well for Costa and Pavel, Pavel got 1st in every Qualifier and Costa got 3rd in the first one, and 2nd for the remaining 2. When it came to the race, Costa's bad luck went to unreasonable levels, his clutch got stuck after the green lights went, causing him to go down to 6th, and he was spun twice in a lap. After being so warm from being spun out, the tyres burst, in a fit of rage and sadness Costa had retired his car. Pavel went on to win the race.

## Race 3 - Abu Dhabi

Costa once again had Qualification sorrows, he had 4 out of 5 laps invalidated, his best invalidated lap was a 1:49, which would've been enough to send him to Q2, however the one validated lap was a 1:50, which sent him in last place for Qualifying. Pavel got 1st once again in all Quals, but he tangled with Bottas in Q2, causing him to pit.

Costa was running 6th before being struck with multiple time penalties and a stop-go penalty, he launched a foul mouthed tirade at the FIA before crashing his car in protest, after the race he confronted the FIA officials, however he was held back by his team before anything could break out. Pavel won the race after starting from 5th due to a starting grid penalty after the collision with Bottas.

## Race 4 - Bahrain

Qualifying went once again perfectly for Pavel, however Costa kept close to him, finishing 2nd in Q1 and Q2, he was set for 2nd place in Q3, but after running out of fuel, various accidents and disqualification, he was pushed to 22nd on the Grid.

During the race, Costa kept trying to recover, however after tangling with a Renault, Ericsson was wrecked out, bringing out a safety car. Costa pitted during the safety car while nobody did. After lap 5, a lot of cars pitted, Costa went from 18th to 4th, and eventually passed Rosberg and Vettel to get 2nd, ending his pointless streak. However he was 32 seconds behind Pavel, who went on to win his 110th race.

## Race 5 - Russia

Qualifying was much of the same for Pavel, Costa had a lap good enough to give him a position in Q2, but due to him crashing and not being able to repair his car on time, he was eliminated in Q1 and given 15th place.

Costa drove from 15th to 5th after a messy start, and while trying to overtake Max Verstappen he got hit and crashed along with him. Costa struck the wall, and the impact was enough to make him hover above Verstappen for a short while, however Verstappen only broke his front wing while Costa had to retire, bringing out the Safety Car. Eventually it would be a 1-2 finish for RedBull as Pavel won his 111st race and Verstappen fought his way from 21st to 2nd.

## Race 6 - Monaco

Costa failed to make it to Q2 after yet another unsuccessful bid, however he set up laps good enough to give him 18th place. Pavel made it 6 races in a row where he started first. There was an accident in Turn 1 involving Alonso and Costa. Costa was given a 15 second Stop-Go penalty for not giving Alonso back his position despite Alonso still being stuck in Turn 1. Costa later crashed his car due to lack of carefulness while trying to catch up to the field after being stuck in one of the turns. Pavel once again won the race.

## Race 7 - Canada

Pavel officially became a 13 time champion after winning 1st in the Canadian GP. Costa and Pavel started 2-1 respectively, and Pavel quickly got the lead. Costa tried to catch up Hamilton and Vettel, however he miscalculated the Wall of Champions and crashed. Despite having 4 races to go, Pavel won the race and the championship.