FSR08 Mod Comes Under Scrutiny

Recently it has become apparent that the .gmt files which are used by teams as a base for their team liveries has the ability to control the length of the wheelbase and wheeltrack of the supposedly controlled FSR cars. Significant testing has been done by members of the forums and while several drivers, including Bruno Marques, have said they can feel no difference, the telemetry disagrees with them showing that in a controlled test the cars are definitely different.

The whole problem springs from the fact that when creating team liveries graphic designers often use different car shapes as a base for their design, obviously if one team uses a Ferrari F12005 and another team uses a Torro Rosso STR2 significant differences will exist. In most cases this was never considered a problem as although the cars look different the overall physical properties of the chassis was defined by another file, the .HDV, which overwrote any differences in the chassis used by different teams, or so we thought.

FSR Management have been quick to investigate and repair this issue and in an email ISR Club President Roald Ruerink stated that an update would be posted soon which will repair the issue and force all cars to use the settings contained in the HDV file. WC driver Danny Davison who created an early unofficial fix for the issue has stated that the new wheelbase and wheeltrack settings will be taken from somewhere between the Mclaren and Williams chassis meaning no-one will have any advantage by continuing on the chassis which they have been using since the beginning of the season.

While FSR Management have handled the situation in terms of future racings, it remains to be seen what will be done about the inconsistencies in cars previous to the discovery of this problem.



From this image created by WS ADV driver Tom Eley we can see that of the chassis in this comparison the GhostSpeed Racing and Nocturne eSports cars have a significantly shorter wheelbase than those of Diamond Racing, Roaldo Racing and Crown Seven Da Silva. Without drawing comparison with every car in the field it is difficult to draw any significant conclusions as to whether any driver has gained a specific advantage from this inconsistency. Torrent Motorsports Team Principle Micheal Theis has iterated his concern and has said that the cars with shorter wheelbases definitely had an advantage due to the nature of the physics used in the FSR08 mod due to the lack of mechanical grip for low speed corners.

In an email from Dennis Hirrle Team Princple of Twister Racing I received this comment;

“I think this issue is a bit unfortunate but I don’t think there is anyone to blame. The mod had to be done in very short time due to the modding group being quite careless with releasing carshapes, and there was no hint that there was going to be an issue like this. Neither did the modding group mention anything about it, so there was no obvious mistake in the mod. I’m glad this issue is resolved now, but I don’t think it will change a thing in terms of team performances as differences seemed to be only marginal. But of course it was necessary to apply the same physics to all cars.”

Twister Racing has been critical in the past of Mod groups and their focus on creating car shapes and F1 team liveries over realism in terms of physics, sound effects and tracks and Dennis reiterates some of that criticism today placing some of the blame for this issue on MMG and the rushed nature of this year's FSR mod.

In a championship where real money is on the line in terms of sponsorship and team owner investments this kind of problem is very worrying especially for drivers who stand to lose very valuable WC points if these results are overturned.

Planet FSR has been in contact with several team principles and we hope to have a follow up article with their opinions on what should be done about the issue and how FSR can prevent problems like this arising in the future.

Update: While I was writing this article the Physics update was posted, well done to FSR Management for quickly repairing the problem so that people can continue with their testing.

A "Short" Introduction

Many people admire Formula-SimRacing for its success in simulating not only the human and technical aspects of Formula 1 but also for its fascinatingly complex financial workings. High-flying World Championship teams in FSR work in a fashion very similar to real top flight F1 teams with drivers operating on contracts and sponsorship deals being crucial for the operation of any of these teams. One aspect I believe is lacking in the FSR world is the press coverage of FSR, PSRtv maintain amazing live coverage of the race weekends and the insight provided by PSR commentators is very impressive, many of them being WC drives or team bosses. However I believe a gap exists between what PSRtv can cover in its 2 hour coverage of each category and I will seek to fill this gap with my own thoughts on events in the FSR paddock during testing, pre-raceday anticipation and post-raceday reflection.

A little background about myself, I am currently studying for a Bachelor of Communcations and Media at university, majoring in journalism. I have followed F1 for as long as I can remember and one of my fascinations beyond the technicality of F1 has been the journalism and commentary surrounding it. I read F1 websites and blogs religiously and follow closely all testing and raceday coverage, however I am a relative newcomer to FSR, discovering the championship less than a year ago and beginning to compete even more recently.

So right now I would just like to establish that I am not the fastest driver in the world, any perceived criticism that I make about a driver or a team is solely from the position of a journalist who is interested in the sport and is attempting to share his thoughts and information with people who are interested. Obviously I do not expect that everyone will be this forgiving so I will post under a pseudonym if nothing else then to protect myself and my team from the repercussions of my comments on this blog. That being said, I am not setting out to be inflammatory in my remarks but I do find that sometimes because most people posting on FSR are drivers, who are required by their teams to conduct themselves professionally, discussion of current events and developments in the FSR paddock is kept very clean and uninteresting (with a few exceptions of course).

What I have planned for this blog is simply a place where I will post articles I have written in my spare time about developments on and off the track regarding technical updates to the FSR mod, team and driver movements, controversies over penalties or raceday events and general bits of information and gossip that FSR engenders. I hope to have interviews with team bosses, drivers and league admins to find out their opinions on issues and possibly to allow them to shed light on events and issues surrounding FSR.

Finally, I have a few apologies: First, to people who do not speak english as their first language, I am sorry if my posts are difficult to understand, I have a tendency to use big words and overcomplicated sentences because these things tend to score me marks in assignments, please feel free to email me at planetfsr@gmail.com or leave a comment if you misunderstand a particular sentence or phrase. Second, I apologise that the site is so ugly and that I ripped off the FSR logo so poorly, I'm not sure how kindly Roald will take to me using it but I am not a graphic designer and I made the current banner in MSPaint. After the site gets going a little I would be hugely appreciative if someone could make a very basic banner for the site that doesn't infringe on FSR copyright.

Well, I think that probably is enough for the moment, I hope to have an article regarding the recent developments with the .gmt file consistencies finished within a day, so please stay tuned.