Category: Media

CRL S4:R3 Recap – Tifosi Celebrate in Japan

By ghost_726

As the CRL grid filled the paddock at Suzuka, the main question on everyone’s mind was whether or not anyone could depose The_562KING. But with a number of tight battles developing in the drivers’ and constructors’ championship, Japan was set to host a dramatic battle to close out the first quarter of the season.

And the CRL grid delivered the drama, with a tightly contested qualifying that saw a number of close battles throughout the grid. Ellleventy11 would ultimately claim the pole position with a time of 1:29.290, a mere .045 seconds ahead of ghost_726. P3 on the grid would go to jurdiS09, who was .072 behind ghost_726, while The_562KING showed his pace by taking P4, .155 seconds off of Ellleventy11’s time, despite qualifying on the medium compound tire. Isiboy23 posted a 1:29.455, which was .010 seconds back of The_562KING, which was good enough for P5. xINCIDENTx put a second Haas car inside the top 10 by qualifying P6, putting Haas in good position to apply pressure to Alpine.

The fourth row on the grid was filled by both McLaren drivers, with KENNYHITMANHART and PCC-Godly putting up times of 1:29.644 and 1:29.696. Jmtitan10’s best lap saw him just .033 seconds back of PCC-Godly, good enough for P9, his second top 10 qualification this season. And returning driver Bigryeguy98 closed out the top 10 with a 1:29.968.

For all the drama of qualifying, race day had even more. When the lights went out ellleventy11 got away well, and built a steady lead. The_562KING would eventually run him down thanks to the alternate tire strategy, but a pit lane penalty saw ellleventy11 become the first driver to take a victory from The_562KING this season. jurdiS09 took the last spot on the podium after a consistent, error free drive.

While the leaders ran away early in the race, tragedy struck the McLaren camp. Both drivers were stuck behind a wounded Haas through sector 1, and unfortunately tried to overtake the slow car at the same time, came together, and crashed out of the race. These DNFs, combined with ghost_726’s required wing change, allowed a number of cars to advance their position despite the difficulty in overtaking here.

xINCIDENTx was one such driver, who came through the chaos unscathed and defended well against isiboy23 to finish P4. isiboy23 continued his good form for Aston Martin, finishing P5 and extending his top 5 finishing streak to 3 races. Bigryeguy98, HAL9100 and guitarhero1234 were all big winners in the McLaren/ghost_726 drama, picking up 4 spots from the grid to finish P6, P7 and P8 respectively.

Ghost_726 scored 2 points for Haas in P9 after the early damage and wing change, while Aleixcucco27 grabbed his first points of the season, and the first points for Williams, in P10.

With 19 points in Japan, and aided by PCC-Godly’s mishap, The_562KING extended his championship lead by 14 points to 32 points, which is massive at such an early stage of the season. But the pack tightened up considerably behind the championship leader, with isiboy23 narrowly moving into P2, one point ahead of both PCC-Godly and Ellleventy11, who sit on 36 points.

Moving down the list, ghost_726’s dropped 2 positions to P5, with jurdiS09 and xINCIDENTx 4 and 6 points back, respectively. Meanwhile HAL9100’s 6 points saw him jump teammate jmtitan10 by 2 points, but ultimately gained no positions from last week. Bigryeguy98’s 8 points saw him grab the last spot in the top 10.

Towards the bottom of the table guitarhero1234 and Aleixcucco27 scored their first points of the season, with guitarhero1234 moving into a tie for P11, while Aleixcucco27 moved into a tie for P14.

In the constructors’ championship, the top of the table remained unchanged, with Alpine extending their championship lead to 17 points over second place Haas. Meanwhile, Aston Martin’s 10 points saw them move into P3, jumping a McLaren team that was unfortunate to have both drivers DNF. Ferrari claimed the last spot in the top half of the table on the strength of Ellleventy11’s win in Japan.

In the bottom half of the table Mercedes 6 points was enough to stay in P6, but AlphaTauri is snapping at their heels after scoring 15 points in Japan to pull within 5 points. And Japan saw two teams find their first points of the season as Red Bull grabbed P8 after guitarhero1234 scored 4 points, and Williams secured P9 with a single point from Aleixcucco27.

Race at a Glance

Podium – Ellleventy11, The_562KING, jurdiS09

Team Win – Ferrari (25 points)

Pole Position – Ellleventy11 (1:29.290)

Fastest Lap – The_562KING (1:30.172)

Most Positions Gained – Bigryeguy98 (P10 -> P6), HAL9100 (P11 -> P7), guitarhero1234 (P12 -> P8), Aleixcucco27 (P14 -> P10)

Driver of the Day – Ellleventy11 (11/15 votes) – I knew going into the race that it would be about tire management and keeping the car between the lines. I got a good start, but Jurdi and king both had the pace. I got off my softs before jurdi and ended up ahead after he pitted, and king got an unfortunate penalty in the pits. King was on the better strategy and got ahead of me on his softs, but all I had to do was stay within 5 seconds and not get any penalties of my own to secure the win.

Driver Analytics S4:R2

By ghost_726

CRL S4:R2 Recap – Deja Vu a Le Castellet?

By ghost_726

With the first week of season 4 of the CRL completed, the F1 grid headed to the Paul Ricard Circuit outside of Marseille, France for the second race of the season. After the rookies dominated the streets of Monaco, would the veterans return to form in France?

 

Qualifying did little to answer this question, with the rookies and veterans almost perfectly alternating slots on the grid. The_562KING grabbed his second pole position in a row with a lightning fast time of 1:29.737. Ghost_726 put together a phenomenal lap late to grab the second slot on the grid as the only other driver to get into the 1:29s. Ellleventy11 put his Ferrari into P3, matching his qualifying performance from Monaco. P4 went to JurdiS09, narrowly beating PCC-Godly by .002 seconds. HAL9100 posted his best qualifying performance of season 4 in P6, while isiboy23 put his Aston Martin into P7. xJRACx put a second Ferrari in the top 10 by qualifying P8, while xINCIDENTx qualified P9, but was relegated to P14 due to minor contact with a Red Bull while both were in the run off area. KENNYHITMANHART grabbed the last spot in the top 10, giving the McLaren team a strong chance to grab points.

 

The battles in France were tight, but the results were largely the same. Through two races only 12 drivers have finished inside the top 10, and only four drivers have seen the podium. The_562KING claimed his second victory of the season, again going pole to P1. Meanwhile, PCC-Godly made another charge through the pack to finish P2 again, this time only 2.3 seconds behind the race winner. Ghost_726 and isiboy23 swapped positions from Monaco, with ghost_726 grabbing the final spot on the podium by holding off isiboy23 by .400 seconds, who put together a strong drive to rise from P7 to P4. JurdiS09 enjoyed a strong season 4 debut by taking the last spot in the top 5.

 

Team Mercedes put together another strong team performance, with HAL9100 finishing P6, while jmtitan10 put together an amazing drive to finish P7 after starting P10. Ellleventy11 salvaged points for Ferrari by finishing P8. But Ferrari will surely leave France disheartened as another solid qualifying performance of P3/P8 was squandered, with Ellleventy11 dropping 5 positions, and xJRACx failing to finish. KENNYHITMANHART capped a solid day for team McLaren by grabbing two points in P9, despite early wing damage. And the final spot in the top 10 went to xINCIDENTx, who put together a strong recovery drive from P14 and early wing damage to grab a point for the Haas team.

While we don’t normally comment too much on the battles outside the top 10, we had to take note of juzzzyb’s performance for Alfa Romeo. After qualifying P20, juzzzyb enjoyed a strong start, and a consistent race to rise all the way to P11, improving his position by 9 spots, and missing out on points by a mere 4 seconds.

With The_562KING again finishing P1, and PCC-Godly again finishing P2, they saw their point totals rise to 50 and 36, respectively. Isiboy23 and ghost_726 appear locked in an early battle, with both sitting on 27 points.

 

But the surprise of the season so far has to be the performance of jmtitan10. With a P6 and P7 finish to his name so far, he sits P5 in the standings and seems poised to lead the midfield battle. xINCIDENTx and ellleventy11 pulled even on 11 points after finishing P10 and P8 respectively, while HAL9100’s P6 and jurdiS09’s P5, leave them both a mere point behind. Meanwhile KENNYHITMANHART found his point scoring form in France to pull himself into P11.

 

On the team side, The_562KING’s win again gave Alpine the team win, and ensured that Alpine stayed top of the points with an impressive 50 points through 2 races. McLaren’s double points finish netted them 20 points, and catapulted them from P4 into a tie for P2 with Haas. Aston Martin remains in P4 after isiboy23 delivered 12 points for the team, while Mercedes double points finished saw them pick up 2 points on Aston Martin team to cut their gap to 7 points.

 

AlphaTauri’s 10 point finish got them on the board, but Ferrari’s 4 points were just enough to hold onto P6 with a 1 one point lead. Williams, Alfa Romeo and Red Bull all sit joint P8, yet to score their first points of the season.

 

Race at a Glance

Podium – The_562KING, PCC-Godly, ghost_726

Team Win – Alpine (25 points)

Pole Position – The_562KING (1:29.737)

Fastest Lap – guitarhero1234 (1:31.164)

Most Positions Gained – juzzzyb (P20 -> P11)

Driver of the Day – juzzzyb (10/19 votes) – After my worst qualifying to date saw me start in P20, I knew there was some work to do if there was any chance of points. When the lights went out, I got off the line super fast and gained 5 positions by turn 1 to put me into P15 and then picked up another 3 by the end of the first lap. From there I just tried to race as clean as possible for the rest of the race, and if not for a track limits penalty, I was very close to the points this race.

Season 4 Driver Analytics Explained

By ghost_726

 

As mentioned in the final edition of the CRL magazine, the media team has made the decision to retire the Driver Rating System for season 4 due to a lack of clarity around how the ratings were calculated, and the generation of minimal insights from the data. Instead, this season we will be piloting a series of driver analytics that will attempt to quantify how well CRL drivers perform during qualifying and races. These analytics have been broken into four categories; qualifying performance, race performance, scoring and penalties.

 

Please note these analytics are by no means final. We will continue to add and modify these as we move through the season to try to get to the most insightful statistics.

 

CRL S4:R1 Recap – Rookies Rule the Streets of Monaco

By ghost_726

For the first time in league history, the CRL took to the grid on the streets of Monaco for the Monaco Grand Prix. Eighteen drivers were in attendance for the first race of season four, and for many, the results it yielded were unexpected.

While this writer expected a bloodbath, qualifying went relatively smoothly, with only one documented case of blocking, one DNF and one disqualification. Surprisingly, two of the title contenders fell victim to the streets of Monaco, with both xJRACx and HAL9100 failing to have a time recorded, and starting P17 and P18, respectively. Three newcomers would take advantage of their absence, with The_562KING, isiboy23 and ellleventy11 qualifying P1, P2 and P3, as the only drivers to register times in the 1:10s.

P4 and P5 on the grid went to the Haas driver pair of ghost_726 and xINCIDENTx, who positioned themselves well to start their title defense. Two more rookies, PCC-Godly and guitarhero1234, picked up P6 and P7 on the grid, with CEO and god-king jmtitan10 putting together one of his best qualifying laps to start P8. ChrisKYU62, the lone driver for AlphaTauri, qualified P9, while another rookie, ArabKid50, took the last spot in the top 10.

20 laps around the famous Monaco circuit proved difficult for the CRL grid, with only 9 drivers finishing on the lead lap, 3 drivers failing to classify, and a total of 4 drivers not bringing the car home in one piece, not to mention a total of 28 front wing changes. And emerging from that chaos was a podium featuring three rookie drivers. The_562KING earned his first win in the CRL F1 division, going from pole position to win the race by a comfortable 13 seconds. PCC-Godly, who started P6, put together a masterful bit of strategy, pitting on lap 2 to find some clean air and pulling off a massive undercut to finish P2. Isiboy23 would grab the last spot on the podium with a solid drive in the Aston Martin after qualifying P2.

20 laps around the famous Monaco circuit proved difficult for the CRL grid, with only 9 drivers finishing on the lead lap, 3 drivers failing to classify, and a total of 4 drivers not bringing the car home in one piece, not to mention a total of 28 front wing changes. And emerging from that chaos was a podium featuring three rookie drivers. The_562KING earned his first win in the CRL F1 division, going from pole position to win the race by a comfortable 13 seconds. PCC-Godly, who started P6, put together a masterful bit of strategy, pitting on lap 2 to find some clean air and pulling off a massive undercut to finish P2. Isiboy23 would grab the last spot on the podium with a solid drive in the Aston Martin after qualifying P2.

The Haas pair had a relatively uneventful race, finishing in the same positions they started, with ghost_726 finishing P4, and xINCIDENTx finishing P5. jmtitan10 put together a consistent drive and picked up two positions from the grid to finish P6, matching his best finish from season 3. Ellleventy11 scored 7 points for Ferrari after finishing P7, and picking up the fastest lap point, in what will be a disappointing day for the Ferrari team. ArabKid50 successfully put another Aston Martin in the top 10, scoring 4 points for his respectable P8 finish.

HAL9100 put together a masterful drive after his qualifying disqualification, picking up 9 spots to finish P9 after starting P18. A lap 1 undercut, followed by the decision to drive the Mercedes with a damaged wing late, combined with some phenomenal defending from teammate jmtitan10, all helped HAL9100 gain the most positions of anyone on the streets of Monaco. The last point scoring position went to reserve driver Maple_Bro, who finished P10 after starting P12.

With only one race in the books, the individual standings obviously match the final classification. But it’s worth noting the strength of the rookie drivers on the circuit. P1-P3 are all held by rookies, with a total of 5 drivers in the top 10 belonging to the rookie class. Is the F1 division of the CRL seeing a changing of the guard, or will the veterans prevail over the course of the season?

With one race in the books, the constructors’ championship saw some unexpected names at the top. Alpine claimed top spot thanks to The_562KING’s victory, while another 20+ point day from the Haas duo saw them start their title defense in P2. Aston Martin put two cars in the points to narrowly beat McLaren to P3. Mercedes will start the year in P5, while Ferrari rounds out the point scorers in P6. Williams, Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri and Red Bull will all look to score their first points of the season in France.

Race at a Glance

  • Podium – The_562KING, PCC-Godly, isiboy23
  • Team Win – Alpine (25 points)
  • Pole Position – The_562KING (1:10.522)
  • Fastest Lap – Ellleventy11 (1:12.558)
  • Most Positions Gained – HAL9100 (P18 -> P9)
  • Driver of the Day – PCC-Godly (8/18 Votes) – I was feeling good going in Monaco and was confident in my pace. A lap 2 pit stop gave me enough clean air to reel in the leaders after an less than optimal qualifying. Besides that I managed to keep it out of the walls and executed my goals for the race.

Season 4 Preseason Team Power Rankings

By ghost_726

The team power rankings will be based on an average of individual race ratings. The media team will score each team’s performance in each race from 0 to 10, and the teams will be ranked according to their average score. Since no races have been run yet, for the pre-season ranking our media team ranked each team from 1 to 10, and we averaged out the votes to see who would be ranked where.