I was thinking about doing Charles Leclerc's Emilia Romagnia GP helmet, but I was a little put off because I didn't quite have enough angles in photos that I need to recreate the graffiti style writing. Well as I was looking, I saw that he had a new design for the Portuguese GP which is quite a lot simpler, so I thought I would start with that and I may come back to the Emilia Romagna helmet at a later date.
It's a very clean design, using the colours of the flag of Monaco. I think some helmets these days suffer from being a bit too complicated. Being a kid of the 1990s I always enjoyed the distinctive helmets and being able to doodle them quite quickly. It's not quite the case these days.
It's nice that Charles still carries tributes to Jules Bianchi and his father, but I'm not so sure what Pastor is for on the visor, I've seen rumours its in honour of Pastor Maldonado, but if anyone knows, please leave a comment!
I'm taking a risk here in releasing this before the actual Grand Prix, knowing my luck, something will happen and he won't wear it.
As always, my thanks goes to Jvinu for his Bell helmet shape and his template.
The final track specific helmet from the 2021 Bahrain GP is George Russell's 'galaxy' helmet.
My thanks goes once more to Jvinu and his excellent Bell helmet shape and template. And again I based the contours off Jsoria's excellent version of Russell's standard helmet.
For this race, the blue is replaced with a galaxy style image, which bears more reflection than the red parts. The trim is now a sparkly yellow/gold as opposed to the normal white colour. I'm quite pleased with how this turned out. Again, this has been created specifically for GP4, particularly the alpha (reflection) layer, though it is compatible with non-winged versions in other games.
Here's another race specific helmet, it's Lewis Hamilton's race winning Bahrain GP helmet.
The helmet is once again painted on Jvinu's Bell helmet, using his template. I also loosely based the contours off Jsoria's 2021 helmet too, so thanks to both of these great artists.
The motivation for this was the sparkling white/silver parts, once again playing with alpha channels to maximise that effect in GP4. Also the helmet Lewis used had a more bluish purple than his regular helmet, and that also has some sparkle effect in.
Sorry there's not much from me lately, I've been having some issues with various wireless mice dying on me lately on my laptop so I've not been able to do much modding as I had hoped. But I did manage to throw this together, it's Antonio Giovinazzi's helmet he wore for the 2021 Emilia Romagna (Made in Italy) GP.
I didn't realise until I started painting the top of the lid that I realised it's got three cars racing along, so the second version was very much making them look like cars when viewed from the top. Thankfully most the stripes are the same on both sides of the helmet, albeit different colours.
I also realised I haven't been using the templates created by Jvinu which went along with his shapes, this painted on the Bell helmet, so my thanks goes out to this enduring work.
We're at Round 2 of the F1 Virtual and friends Hot Lap league, hopefully following the F1 2021 calendar.
At the end of round 1, the standings are:
Fongu
Gildoorf
32bobo32
Prblanco
Carl_gpgames
Kerleyf1
For Round 2, we welcome Duffer to the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola.
In terms of layout, there was a track released back in 2011 by KTC, but it did not have the revised Variante Alta chicane. A couple of us started doing some hotlaps, with the cc-line hampering the progress of those on a keyboard. I did some comparative laps on keyboard and using a steering wheel, and the difference was a couple of seconds. All credit to Prblanco for quickly creating a more accurate layout with a cc-line that is very similar to the original GP4 version. Immediately, the laptimes between the wheel and the keyboard got quite close, with me finding around half a second advantage on the wheel.
I'll be referring to corner names rather than turn numbers. Just for comparison, I set a lap on the keyboard of 1.21.3 I can't remember exactly, as the save file was lost. On the wheel I set a lap time of 1.20.782. The advantage comes in Tosa, Variante Alta and to a degree Rivazza too, where on a wheel, you can put more steering lock and control your line a bit better. I've not used a steering wheel for very long, so there is no subtly on my throttle control, it's really just full power or full brake, I may as well be using buttons. So I would love to be running without traction control and manual gears, but I haven't learned how to get the speed out of that yet, so for me, I'm still running with those two driver aids on (as I would do on the keyboard).
The times were close. Last time around, it was close at the front, with Gildoorf leading out of the final corner but was out dragged to the line with my low downforce setting. Yes, my friend, I will mention at every opportunity! 😂. 32bobo32 was also very close, so we'll see if the form will carry on onto Imola. Thanks to Carl_gpgames for putting together this video, another great job, and it's great to analyse our driving styles.
Let's watch the lap together and try and break down the key moments.
Well, it's across the line and away we go and it's clear those who are running a lower downforce setup, with 32bobo32 hitting around 325kph just before the braking point, Carl hitting 320, and the rest around 315. Actually Gildoorf is way down with 309kph.
Into the Tamburello chicane, and my aim was to use as much kerb in turn 1, and not use much kerb in turn 2. That's because as you're accelerating whilst turning right, it can make the rear end snap. The rules of our hotlaps is only simple setup changes, so no suspension changes allowed to try manage it.
So you can see, I don't take much kerb at all, whilst Gildoorf and 32bobo32 use it liberally. Coming out of turn 3, and you can see that I carry the most speed out, but 32bobo32 maintains his advantage, with Gildoorf also in the mix. Not too far behind, Carl and Kerley are neck and neck and Duffer and Prblanco are close together too.
Coming into the tricky Villeneuve chicane, and it's Carl and Kerley with great top end speed. Gildoorf, Kerley and Duffer carry the most speed at the apex of the right hander - the field is tight together. Coming into hairpin at Tosa and the first sector split, 32bobo32 maintains his advantage from me, Gildoorf and Duffer slightly behind, Carl and Kerley within touching distance, but Prblanco a little behind at this stage of the lap.
Into Tosa, and you want to brake late, but it's slightly uphill, so you're you don't want to brake too hard. You want to carry as much speed on the exit as you can. Notice the steering lock on of Carl and I using our the steering wheels. It will scrub off speed, but you can use it to your advantage. Notice as we come out of Tosa, how I gently ease off the steering lock, trying to maximise my acceleration out of the corner, compared to Carl, whose closed in on the frontrunners in the turn, but he releases his steering a bit more aggressively. Coming into Piratella, and 32bobo32 and gildoorf are neck and neck, with me slightly further behind now and Carl in my imaginary slipstream.
Piratella, a high speed left hander which is downhill and opens up nicely on the exit. I managed to carry a lot of speed out of that, and close myself up into Acque Minerali. Here, you've got to be brave and not brake into the first part, but not outbreak yourself into the second right hander. It's 32bobo32 who blinks first on the brakes, with his lower downforce setting, and Gildoorf and myself both taking the the lead off him. Look at the speed difference between the top three as they head over the crest. Duffer, Kerley, and Prblanco also nail Acque Minerali well.
Into the new Variante Alta, and there's no exit kerb like there is on the 2021 track, so you have to be careful on the exit. In the 2001 track on the game, you could throw it over the kerbs and straighten out on the exit kerb, but on this version you have to be super accurate to get around there quickly and get a good exit. Sector 2 times are in and its oh so close! I take the lead, by a slender 0.02 seconds from Gilfoorf, 32bobo32 just behind. Karl is ahead of Duffer by 2 tenths, who is ahead of Kerley by 2 tenths, who is ahead of Prblanco by a little over 2 tenths.
Only Rivazza and some straights to go. I'm first heading into the first left hander, but I actually out braked myself and I'm carrying too much speed in. Look at me putting maximum steering lock on, like a pilot trying to pull up on his joystick. Gildoorf takes advantage and nips into the lead with one corner to go. 32bobo32 is a little scruffy in Rivazza but Carl also nails the two left handers.
However, I've managed to carry more speed out of the first part of Rivazza and carry that through the second left hander, and I sneek back in front coming out the final turn. Just a relatively short blast to the finish line now, and Gildoorf is lacking in top end speed, allowing 32bobo32 and Carl to close in. Over the line and the results are in:
Once again, it was decided at the final turn, and I managed to eek out 2 tenths to the finish line. But Gildoorf did a truly astounding time on the keyboard, as I said above, I couldn't get near that kind of time on the keyboard in my attempts. Still, my keyboard time would have been good enough for second, but look how close it was at the end between 32bobo32 and Carl. It was an impressive first half of the lap, but maybe it was the higher downforce cars that made the difference overall in the second half of the track. Carl did a great time, a very clean lap compared to his Bahrain effort, making up 3 tenths on 32bobo32 in the final sector. He will be a contender on tracks to come. Again, towards the final group of cars, it's close between debutante Duffer, who just edges out Kerley, who also improved his skills compared to Bahrain, and Prblanco closing in on those two at the end. But then, he did create the changes to this track, so I'm sure that means something... just not points.
The points system is classic 1990s, with points awarded for the top 6. The nature of the scoring system means the difference between winning and second is huge in terms of points, even if the lap times are incredibly close. The top 3 are the same top 3 as Bahrain, so no changes there, but Carl moves up into 4th with a great performance at Imola. Duffer earns his first points, and Kerley also adds to his tally.
20pts - Fongu
12pts - Gildoorf
08pts - 32bobo32
05pts - Carl_gpgames
03pts - Prblanco
02pts - Duffer
02pts - KerleyF1
Over to the Algarve for the third round of this little league, I'm really looking forward to spending lots of time at the great F1Virtual track.
I was really honoured to be asked to be involved in a Time Trial League with my friends at F1 Virtual. I may not have time to enter every round, but I hope to enter as many as I can. The first round was in Sakhir, Bahrain just before the real GP. Prblanco has done a new dat file based on the 2020 circuit, and it's excellent. We are all using the base game performance, power and physics with only basic setup changes allowed (wing angles, brake bias and gear ratios) and starting with 10 laps of fuel.
For me, I've been doing a fair bit of time-trialing on Real Racing 3, a mobile game which features 2019 and 2020 F1 cars, and I am usually just about in the top 0.5% tier range, albeit upwards of 0.5 seconds from the ultimate pace depending on the track. But Real Racing 3 has it's own quirks that you learn to use to your advantage, particularly with kerbs and track limits which can be liberally used if you know where they are.
But for GP4, I've been modding so much, I don't actually get too much time to actually play it, let alone try and perfect my laps. And generally if you touch a kerb in GP4, you are sent spinning off. My starting point was to do a fair few laps on the keyboard. It was very much to set a base line, as I know I can get a pretty reasonable lap out of the keyboard. Driving on the keyboard is very much dependent on how good a cc-line is for a given track, and Prblanco is a master at it, so no real issues there. However, there are a few parts that are tricky.
Braking through turn 9 and hitting the apex in turn 10 is not easy, you have to be quite precise to get the best line through there. You can lose an awful lot of time there with the slightest error. And then into turn 13 is also difficult, again you need to be precise to carry as much speed through without running wide. With that I was able to set a time of 1:33.844. I was pretty pleased with the lap, I was aiming for a sub 1:34 time, but I knew that Gildoorf had set a time, also on keyboard, of 1:33.694, so I was a little disappointed not to match it.
Next up was an attempt on the wheel. There are certain advantages to using a wheel and there are certain tracks where it takes seconds off your time, but I found on this track at least, that it was about the same as using the keyboard. But maybe that's my inexperience at using a wheel on GP4. I only had a few hours and though I got close, I only actually beat my keyboard time once, by 2 tenths with a 1:33.653. Amazingly, it was just a whisker ahead of Gildoorfs time, so I was really pleased with that.
And that's how things stood, and Carl has put together a great video with all our laps in a grid. It's a really good way to analyse corner by corner where your strengths and weaknesses are.
The first thing to notice at the end of the first straight is that we are running different wing levels, with 32bobo32 and gildoorf running the most downforce and therefore slower at the end of the straight (this will be crucial later) and Carl running the lowest wing angle.
Coming out of turns 1,2 and 3, it's 32bobo32 who has a slight lead just ahead of me and Gildoorf. Down the straight into turn 4, and it's 32bobo32 leading with me, Prblanco and Kerley close behind. Into turn 4, and there's a bump on the inside of the corner in the dat, but I felt I could compensate for it on the wheel and take the tightest line. Coming to the first sector line and it's close:
Fongu - 27.026
Gildoorf - 27.051
32bobo32 - 27.064
Prblanco - 27.159
Kerley - 27.376
Carl - 27.615
Turns 5, 6 and 7 are neck and neck between the top 4. Everyone hits the apex at turn 8, with Gildoorf making the most of his extra downforce and taking a wide exit with an extra 6-8 kph. Everyone manages turn 10 very well, although I carry a bit too much speed and run a little wide and Carl catches up to the pack.
Gildoorf is first to turn 11 and carries a lot of speed around the corner, but one of the advantages of the wheel is that I can have greater steering angle and carry a bit more speed in, though it does scrub off with too much angle, which is what happens to Carl.
Running order at Sector 2:
Gildoorf - 1:07.506
Fongu - 1:07.653
32bobo32 - 1:07.850
Prblanco - 1:08.388
Carl - 1:09.035
Kerley - 1:11.172
Coming out of the turn 13 and its a two horse race at the front with Gildoorf ahead of me. Coming out of the final corner, and Gildoorf is franctionally ahead of me with 32bobo32 not too far behind. Prblanco and Carl are also very close together whilst Kerley also takes the final corner cleanly. If you were to pause the video around 1:38 where the real start finish line is, you'll see that it is dead even between Gildoorf and me, but crucially, I'm travelling an extra 3kph faster with my lower wing angle. When we cross the line, I'm running 5kph faster which gave me a the smallest of victory margins, out dragging Gildoorf to the finish line having come out the final corner clearly behind.
Final Lap Times:
Fongu - 1:33.658
Gildoorf - 1:33.694
32bobo32 - 1:34.088
Prblanco - 1:35.286
Carl_gpgames 1:35.440
Kerleyf1 - 1:38.456
Incredibly close racing, I enjoyed it immensely, and super happy with the result and the last gasp victory.
