Now that my update is close to completion, I’ve the pleasure to test the gameplay and see the results of my work. For my first test, I play with Williams as it’s my favorite F1 team.
Senna (Lotus-Renault) is champion with 7 wins, 3 pts ahead from Prost (McLaren-TAG) with 6 wins. This is mainly due to reliability problems in the first part of the season for McLaren.
1 win with Mansell for Williams and 4th place in constructors standing. (1 McLaren 2 Lotus 3 Ferrari)
Driver retirement: Lauda, Rosberg & Tambay are retiring. It’s a bad news as it means my 2nd driver will be very weak.
I cannot keep Mansell as he decided to go at McLaren to face Prost during one year. My 1st driver choice was between Berger (3 years) & Patrese (2 years). I’ve sign for Berger but I know it will be difficult to win a title with him.
I was hoping to sign Piquet but he was the choice of Lotus (so Lotus has now a 100% Brazilian line-up with 2 World Champions drivers). I’ve sign Bellof as 2nd driver as it was only 1 year contract and the driver can give us a little edge in setup area.
Dream season for Lotus as Renault give them an engine at the level of Porsche & Honda, as McLaren suffers from poor slow corner area design in the beginning of the season, and finally as the best car at overall, mine, was driven by 2 non world class drivers.
The battle Senna-Piquet was an easy task for Senna as he wins the title with 10 wins, Piquet finish 2nd with 3 wins. 2nd battle between Mansell & Prost was won by Mansell. Again, poor luck for Prost! Maybe he was little depressed because of 1985 close lost…
1 win with Berger for Williams but a nice 2nd place in constructors standing. (1 Lotus 2 Williams 3 McLaren).
Mansell was agreed to return at home for 3 years. Now with a Mansell / Berger line-up, maybe I can win against Lotus & McLaren.
In 1989, -26% in aero / -22% in engine & +53% in setup & tires management. So, this last factor will be important in the future, I’ve to keep that in mind when recruiting in the end of 1988…
Prost took finally his revenge as McLaren give him a good car. He took easily the best against his teammates who was Boutsen. I’ve lost my 2nd constructors place against Lotus in the last race because of mechanical issue in Mansell’s car.
Draft: McLaren sign Senna for 2 years so now we’ll see the mythic duel between Prost & Senna! Lotus renew Piquet for 2 more years and sign Gugelmin for 1 year. Boutsen find a place at Benneton.
My engine choice was between Cosworth & Judd. I’ve opted for Cosworth during one year. McLaren opted for Judd during 3 years.
The duel was nice. Prost was 2pts ahead before the last two races. Engine problem at Suzuka for Senna, Prost can be champion if he wins but Mansell take the victory and Prost finish 2nd. Now he’s 8 pts ahead from Senna for the last race, Adelaïde. Prost on pole, Senna 2nd. It’s the day for Prost but this time it’s the Prost’s engine which blew up, Senna took the win and he’s World Champion one point ahead from Prost!
Pre-draft: Contract of Berger is expiring, I’ve to sign a driver for more than one year. Engine contract is expiring, I’ve also to find a new supplier for more than one year as the contract of my designer will expire at the end of 1989 season.
Draft: Renault, the best engine supplier at that time, is agree to sign with me a 3 years contract. Williams-Renault against McLaren-Judd, even if they still got a dream line-up, this time the title is for me I hope!
2nd driver will be Boutsen during 3 years, I could renew Berger but only for one year. Boutsen is slower but he’s the best setup/tires management feedback driver. In theory, with the FIA rules change, he’s a very good recruit as he’ll boost the performance of Mansell’s car.
As anticipated, Judd’s engine was too weak and our big rival was in fact Lotus powered by Honda. Mansell make a very good start in the season but a poor finish with only one race finished during the last four. Hopefully, it was a win because in the end he’s the new world champion only 4pts ahead from Piquet (Lotus). Prost took his revenge against Senna but sadly it was on a poor car…
Pre-Draft: Mansell’s contract is expiring, I have to sign a driver less or more than 2 years (because of the length of Boutsen). I have to find also a new designer or to renew Scalabroni contract (again not a 2 years length because of my engine deal)
I have to solve a bug with the car pictures change script which change the pictures in 1990 so my career is already over.
I like the idea, but there could be a room for improvement. I've several suggestions that could potentially make the game even better:
2. All seasons availlable with starting year of your choice (some may want to start form 1994 or even 1950)
Also, I think this platform could be used for other excel management games like this - like cycling (I'd like to know how this game works)
2. Not having fixed number of teams (13 at the moment) - some seasons feature more teams. This may require DNQ algorithm and even pre-qualifying system
I won't work anymore on this game (If I do smthg in the future, it will be from scratch and outside excel limitation). But the excel sheet of the game isn't protected so you can dig the code and do some changes in it if you want. You can then distribute your version, mine was free, so do what you want...
-Customizable starting year: requires lot of works and the game was designed to play during 30 seasons so that why it begins in 1985. There is a limitation of 100 drivers in the sheet. It's possible to rethink that but it requires big changes.
-Adjustable nbr of team: I've tried last year but it was unsuccessful. It's better to start from scratch to implemente this concept.
Sorry to hear that there will be no further updates on your behalf. Honestly I like the idea for an Open Source code and if there is a reboot it could be done on C# or VB with Windows Forms App and Access db.
Team slots - I've noticed that there are only 13 slots. I may expand them to 16 as some racing games (F1C and Mini Racing Online for example) support up to 32 drivers grid.
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