520racer's Alternate F1 universe 1995 round 4 - 520racer's Blog

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520racer's Alternate F1 universe 1995 round 4

Posted on August 29, 2018 at 10:56 PM.

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Round 4 Imola

So, we are back in Europe for the fourth round of the 1995 F1 season. Imola has seen some significant safety changes since last time we visited. There has been several changes to the layout itself in an effort to improve safety and maybe produce better racing. However, there are still significant concerns about the changes made, and whether the drivers will embrace the changes.

PreQ Result
Forecast: Dry and sunny
Advancing to Qualifying: Jean Alesi, Luca Badoer, Johnny Herbert, Eddie Irvine

Qualifying recap
Forecast: Slight rain throughout the session
Pole Position: Michael Schumacher

Race Results
Forecast: Heavy rain at the end of the race but otherwise bone dry

1 Hill
2 Berger
3 Coulthard
4 Hakkinen
5 Badoer
6 Alesi
7 Verstappen
8 Lehto
9 Irvine
10 Diniz
11 Herbert
12 Martini
13 Frentzen
14 Larini
15 Morbidelli
16 Mansell
DNF Salo
DNF Wendlinger
DNF Blundell
DNF Schumacher
DNF Barrichello
DNF Katayama

So, for the first time in this season, Schumacher actually DNF and it gave the race win to Damon Hill. Also, give credit to Luca Badoer, who scored points unlike in real life, in the Lamborghini powered Forti actually giving the small Italian based privateer their first two points of the season. More importantly, with that 5th place finish, they will be promoted out of pre-q by having been placed 9th in the teams� standings as of right now. Moreover, if Forti can score one more point this season, they will be officially off the reject list in this alternate universe. As for Badoer getting off the reject list, he just needs two more points to do so. In other words, one more fifth place or two sixth place finishes will do the job. Here�s the driver�s and teams standings after the first quarter of the season.

Driver�s Standings after Round 4 of 16

Schumacher 26
Hill 18
Alesi 13
Berger 10
Hakkinen 9
Martini 6
Barrichello 6
Katayama 4
Coulthard 4
Irvine 3
Lehto 2
Badoer 2
Panis 1

At least Schumacher still has the points lead despite the DNF. Damon Hill is once again making a serious run at his first WDC with McLaren. Meanwhile, the biggest surprise is Jean Alesi in the Peugeot-powered Ligier emerging as a dark horse for the title. It�s still early days in terms of predictions but if there�s anything we learned from this new format, is making it on the starting grid is more important than ever before, because there are only 22 grid slots for the race, not 26 like it was in 1994. As a consequence, pre-q is even more unforgiving than ever before.

Team�s Standings after Round 4 of 16
1 Ferrari 26
2 McLaren-Mercedes 24
3 Ligier-Peugeot 13
4 Piquet-BMW 10
5 Minardi-Honda 10
6 Williams-Cosworth 9
7 Benetton-Renault 6
8 Larrousse-Cosworth 3
9 Forti-Lamborghini 2
10 DAMS-Nissan 1
11 Sauber-Ferrari 0 best finish 8th
12 Tyrrell-Yamaha 0 best finish 11th
13 TWR-BMW 0 best finish 11th
14 Jordan-Hart 0 best finish 14th
15 Lotus-Rolls Royce 0 Best pre-q Result 23rd x2
16 Dome-Mugen 0 Best pre-q result 26th
17 Stewart-Ford Zetec 0 best pre-q result 26th
18 Footwork-ford 0 best pre-q result 27th
19 Lola-Nissan 0 best pre-q result 27th
20 Pacific-Rolls Royce 0 best pre-q result 29th

For all of their effort to upgrade the second driver position, Ferrari still haven�t scored any points from the other driver during this alternate universe. Even though Karl Wendlinger got close to the points on a couple occasions so far, which is better than what Larini did all of 1994, they are still facing the possibility of losing the team�s title to McLaren despite possibly keeping the WDC title in Italy. As for the midfield, it seems tighter than ever due to the changes. The tighter midfield battle does bring some unintended issues for the backmarker teams, who are finding making it on a 22 car qualifying session tougher than ever with six teams yet to make it out of pre-q at the quarter way point of the season.

Expect some time to work the files in the editor program before we can move on to the second quarter of the 1995 season because I was just too hooked on Gran Turismo Sport since the last post!