James Pinsker medal 5000 8 years 337 days ago (edited 8 years 170 days ago)
The story of Scuderia Flame GP began a few months ago, when an anonymous donor gave finance to an aspiring motorsport fan in need of cash. This lead up to the original creation of Flame GP. Their debut? Magyar F1 S26 Singapore GP. Eduard Nemec and Luis Wagner took the driver spots. After 2 races, a team by the name of Skyriver came along to the party, and boy, what a rivalry they enjoyed.
At the start of S27, Skyriver had the edge but after important information was fed through to the mechanics on car design the British outfit pulled themselves together to score 8 points with new driver Ellie Wilson. Talking of drivers, so far the group have endured 30 driver stints and counting. After Monaco, both Skyriver and Flame got up and charged to best of the rest, after the dominant teams ran by Chandler Musan and John Sheridan.
All through the remainder of that season, Skyriver were in the dust of the red monsters, but you couldn't forget their lack of luck. In China for instance, before they had scored a point, from P7 and P8 they had to make an extra stop with 3 laps left due to fuel issues. Rejoining 11 12 they fought back the 10 second gap to points to just 2, before getting held up by backmarkers and finishing just off their first points. Similar occurred in the next race in the desert, but a singular point was salvaged.
Later in the season, in a soaking Suzuka, 2 drivers made their debuts for the 2 teams; Pichi Medina and Andrew Myers. Since then, 30 races have passed and they still remain. Andrew Myers, the savior of Skyrivers development issues and runner up in S28, didn't have the best debut on a horrific strategy. After qualifying on the incorrect intermediate compound, a pit for wets on the first lap seemed likely. Instead, they came in on L2, costing htem massively. But unlike other team legend Jack Gonzalez, the soft tyres were out. With a slow stop to cap off the misery, they had to come in AGAIN the lap after to fix the compound error. Those wets could have gone the race remainder but no, on the final lap the fuel was out and the day over for American man Myers. After that race, FGP confirmed 3rd in the constructors championship.
For S27, both teams got a massive uplift with added cash supply and engines from some of the biggest names in the sport; Mercedes for Skyriver, Ferrari for Flame.
Despite winning almost every race that season with Pichi, they got 4 teammates to race alongside over the course of the season. After an unsure start in which Skyriver were pulling a slight advantage, the FGP group needed a rethink. 50 million Italian funds later, as well as a new base on Ferraris doorstep in Maranello, and a rename, SFGP were back in form. But in the Spanish GP, the rivalry remained between SM and SFGP. In a race of tension and action, Pichi Medina fuel conserved like a maniac to finish with 0.1l fuel and with a 0.1 gap to Myers. To put that in true perspective, the American was closing 5 seconds a lap after some new rubber.
2 dominated championships later, all was not well. An engine robbery massively compromised their season, but that was not the worst result of the issue. A massive conspiracy was put in the air by the Tifosi about the incident being framed by the team to indicate a switch to cheaper sources of power. As much as the manager denied this, nothing could calm the Tifosi. In an interview with Mauricio Arrivabene they claimed the remainder of the engine contract would be used but after that, everything would be up in the air. After all of this, the weekly payments from the prancing horse were canceled, meaning an utter financial crisis. This also occurred immediately after SFGP JR and SFGP MR were formed, creating the now group further trouble. In massive debt, the 3rd team was made redundant to pay for the first 2, as well as all of its facilities being sold to the now struggling Skyriver. At least the panic was over, and the team could breathe.
But with the new season just around the corner, the Italian outfit prepared for pro. In a relatively uneventful beginning, Skyriver struggled in the midfield and Flame challenged for podiums. In Spain, with odd strategies all around, the first REAL win chance came; after taking the lead they lost out with a sector left and less than half a second back. Anyone remember what happened in Barcelona the season before?
In rookie, the underfunded Jr team lead the way in an epic 3-way title battle, but with over half the season left, who knows what could happen? And back in pro, Scuderia are dropping points to their rivals on a consistent basis, and promotion has started to look out of reach. The Minor team continues to rot away in the history books, but they could come back. With a financial cushion, it is easily possible. But there are still issues; their long rivals Skyriver, along with their unsuccessful Jr outfit are rumored to be up for sale.
And here we are now, with the entire history of the red icon. Now all we can do, is look at the future. And also at the worn messes that are my fingers after writing all of this.
Following on........
The main team was to have a fixed relationship with Ferrari for the rest of the season, however promotion remained firmly out of grasp after a winless season 1 in pro. The Jr was able to dominate both championships in rookie and was promoted to pro for the next season. And finally, the Minor team was revived as a rookie backmarker, this time with Ferrari power.
The next season was to be frustrating for both teams. It would seem almost every race that the team would be robbed of a win in the closing stages. Slipping out the battle in Spain, getting out of the pits without track position in Monaco, using a horrible strategy in Britain, falling through the field in Germany, getting overtaken on a bold strategy in the dying moments in Hungary, getting destroyed by NSMT's Martin with just a few laps left in Europe, going on incorrect supersoft tyres from the effective lead in Belgium, having the leader run with DRS off a lapped car in Italy, getting pushed out of DRS from a dominant lead with a lap left in Singapore, not attending but being insanely quick on cold tyres in Brazil, and running out of laps to catch the leader in Abu Dhabi were all incidents that blew the head off the aggravated Pinsker, but Japan was the day it worked out perfectly; good strategy, good pace, no attendance from 1 of the 2 other frontrunners, and ultimately a great drive from Pichi Medina to steal the win from Martin's grasp, in the end the gap being just 2 seconds.
As for the other group, they were to challenge the main team at seasons start, but their head of steam soon condensed into nothing more than water, then ice. And their luck wasn't the best either; podiumless, but with a podium easily possible.
And despite having picked up a competent second driver mid-season for the main team, and Pichi's deserved win, AND their mad development charge with new facilities mid season, they still finished the season miles off promotion and with 15 less points than previous. With rumours going around for the new season about a move to Renault PU's and a rename 'Renault Flame Racing,' nobody knew what country the team would be based come Australia. Unsurprisingly, it was Italy.
Even if only 1 race has been completed of S31, it seemingly looks a lot more rosy than last.
Firstly, only 1 team was to come down from elite (Masut) instead of the regular 2, and with no massive additions to the lineup of teams in the season break, this made promotion almost a certainty. This season was also the first for the team that started with the new facilities in development, making the seasons car a massive technological improvement on previous. Going into race 1 then, the manager felt confident of a large points haul, possibly even a challenge for 2nd place. Masut manager Gyozo however was not to attend, so from pole the win looked a little more likely. Even though this was a statistic, you couldn't predict a 1 2 3 4 finishing result for both teams. And to top it all off, Masut were to struggle, finishing 11 12. No points. After this, the Italian outfit were to receive many more sponsor offers and a podium for the Junior group meant the team would move to Maranello for the race that followed. Who knows, maybe they could even clinch promotion! It certainly looks even more likely after Masut have just signed a weaker driver!
Anyway, that basically concludes my teams history for the moment, though expect an update on whether I get promoted to elite or not and if so with how many teams at the seasons end, and all my seasons championship standings are on my manager biography.
PS. The Minor team is still a struggling backmarker.
Part 3 of our mystic tale begins in the high mountains of Finland, for no apparent reason. We REALLY start by SFGP continuing their dominant form. Through the remainder of the season, SFGP were to go on to also win in China, Bahrain, Spain, Turkey, Britain, Germany, Hungary, Europe and Belgium before cliching the title even earlier than expected after Monza. However, the team's home race was not one of the 14 races Pichi Medina won; the manager was only able to attend the latter laps of the GP after the damage had already been done. But with both titles confirmed, Medina soared on to win in Singapore, Japan, Brazil and Abu Dhabi. Indeed, the only time Pavics and Masut could win, bar Malaysia, was when James Pinsker could not attend. The season on a whole was pretty boring for the front runners, but there was one JEWEL of a race; Japan.
Last minute winner Pichi Medina talks about the experience: ''I qualified down in 18th position, Csaba right in front of me, both of us on the wet tyre, and I got off to a bad start off the line. I dropped 3 places to 21st, and I think I got up to around 8th place by the end of the lap. We did 8 laps on the wets, they were about equal with the inters on pace, but there was no point risking it so I pit straight back to the wets. 2 laps later I felt the track dry up, but the team didn't call me to pit until 130R. We went to the inters. It was strange using them, they were incredibly warm for what we expected. Just a few laps later, having scythed my way through traffic, we pitted for supersofts. The plan was to go 6 laps on those, then 7 on softs for the end. The 13 laps on softs or mediums was also effective, but we couldn't go for that. At the pit time, I had reached the podium due to some punctures from the cars around. I spent the next laps chasing Morgan who had done the strategy well. Their mediums were on fire though and on to the final lap I passed for the lead. It was a race I will never forget. Champion or not, this was by far the greatest race of my career.'
The Junior team was to endure a more tense championship fight. They were competing with Masut for the entire season, but having dropped 56 points back, it looked dire for the team now named 'Scuderia Flame Force.' But due to lack of attendance from Gyozo the team closed the gap to single figures by Brazil. Masut looked like they would outscore them in Sao Paulo massively before having to pit on the final lap for unknown reasons. This pretty much gave SFGP Jr their chance and they took promotion.
In elite, the struggles were high and the rewards low. It took until Japan for the team to score, with the turtle of Laci to do it of all people. This was on the doubted 1 stop in the heavy rain. SFF also scathed a point by just a tenth of a second. This result WOULD have saved the 2 teams from certain relegation, but 7 teams left the elite sector after Brazil, so relegation wasn't happening.
In Brazil, Medina almost got his first points in elite before getting overtaken on the final lap to lose them. This did not matter though, as he soared on to P4 in the finale, along with Ismael P7 and Laci P8.
The next season, the decision was finally made to focus SFGP on odd seasons (like this) for development and SFF even. In the recently competed Australia a wet, strategic and tense race was to unfold, with Laci shrugging off his underdog tag to score 2 points in the struggle. Medina was to miss points by less than a tenth of a second.
The Flame Young Drivers Academy league was also formed, to house the 5 academy teams created (including the Minor!) along with others. Since, the league has become a home to 12 managers.
And as for the rest of the elite season, there are so many questions to ask. Will SFF score? Will SFGP get a podium? Who will get the title? Will there be any surprises? Tune into the rest of the season, and see.
PS. All my points ever scored in each season are displayed in my biography :)
The remainder of the season for SFGP/F was very lucrative, inconsistent but very fun to watch. In Malaysia the team picked up it's form to score 3 points, with Medina as the lead car, despite an odd strategy call that didn't pay off. China was a strong suprise as the Argentine lead Laci to 5th and 6th on the soaked Shanghai track, even without a manager spurring them on from the sidelines. Bahrain was their team performing back to the 5th fastest team, scoring 3 points, but Barcelona, race 5, was definitely one not to forget.
Shortly before the cars took to the grid, manager James put strategies and setups on their cars in a frenzied rush that resulted in the pointless SFF not taking to the grid. In the nick of time though, the Albanian/Argentinian partnership were able to race on a set SS SS SS SS strategy. The 2 cars qualified 5th and 8th. From the start Medina climbed his way into a great 6th position, meaning SFGP had officially taken control of best of the, Jason Chen excluded, rest. With Kestrel and STE soaring out of sight, James started focusing on how to maintain what would still be an epic result for the team with a record 18 points. However, having seen Parker, Welti, Kristensen and Davies undercut with the stops, and Medina finding a way past Laci, the team found themselves in a 1-2 position. Of course still needing to stop 1 more time to be equal with Jason, right? No, it turns out that the undercut was just a way of presenting a 4 stop strategy. With no other frontrunner insight, including Jason Mcrae, James realised if Jason's tyres kept freezing at the end of stints, and he pitted one more time, the dream of winning in elite could become a reality. THe race was to unfold in a tense fashion, but when Parker was 2.5 seconds back from the pairing up front going onto the final lap, now it was about WHO would win the race, Pichi or Kushtrim. Laci had more KERS, but Medina track position. After the race their manager admitted if Laci had used his KERS in a chunk, rather than in little spurts, he could've won, but it was to be team legend Medina who took SFGP's only elite win/one two/ top two/ higher pointscore than 27 to date.
For the rest of the season, it may have been a downwards spiral, but it wasn't boring. Monaco, race 6, turned out to produce a decent 10 points for the constructors, but next race Medina, the legend who was going to complete 100 races for the team, suffered a major head injury having spun from P11 on the final corner of the race into the concrete pitwall, the car rolling over the line to P12. He may never drive for the team again. As for Laci, he was to claim a disappointing 10th to make the second worst result of the season for the team. This was mostly down to a bold but idiotic strategy that lead them to use horrifically worn and cold tyres to the flag, which most believe to be the reason for Medina's career-ending crash. Britain was to give a good rain-filled event that got Laci a podium and new-driver Smith 8th, 4 of only 5 points he would score at the team, but significantly SFF scored their only points of hte season through Ismael's impressive P9 drive. Germany was a massive scare, with SFF running out of fuel just before the first stop, and SFGP making it with no fuel left in the tank. Kushtrim was to claim 10 points whilst Smith struggled all the way down in 18th. Hungary got Laci 8th being the highest placed 2-stopper, Europe 4th ditto, and having lead most of the Spa race, Laci scored 15 with Smith getting his only other points. Italy was to lead to the team's worst result of the season in 10th and 14th, with a podium in Singapore, 6th in Suzuka, another podium in Brazil despite no setups being on any cars and a carnage unattended wet race, and to round off a season where every race the team scored 9th in Dubai.
Next season is/was/will be all change, with all 12 major staff positions being interchanged and having a new, raw driver lineup of Rosberg, Hauksson, Rissanen and Moss. These guys were still untrained, unprepared and generally slow for Australia, even with SFF now being much more developed and certainly more than SFGP, so 2 points for SFF's Rosberg and 1 for SFGP's Hauksson was suprisingly taken with happiness from their manager. The following race, and most recent, Malaysia turned into a race for Jonas (Rosberg) to thrive in, getting a great 8 points for a team which was yet to get a top 6 position in elite. Finnur (Hauksson) was also to claim a late point for SFGP. And remember Skyriver? They are back, having scored 4 in Australia and should have scored 4 again today but had to stop again for fuel.
So................... who knows the rest of the season?
PS (I'm doing these all the time now) The academy is still thriving, with now 14 total teams, 8 being James' and 2 more in the works.
Now, like a rubbish 60's rock band, I've had a hiatus for the 46th time when nobody particuarly cares anymore, to be fair did anyone care in the first place lol.
For the remaining 15 rounds of that season we had a lot of rain, jewel races and inconsistency among SFGP/F. Rosberg got P7 the next 2 rounds as the only point scorer, and it was Spain where the German broke into the top 5, with Hauksson gaining SFGP their third point of the season. Rosberg was put back into his natural habitat in P7 in the Principality, with Rissanen finally scoring 2. The next 3 races were all rain affected, where the chain of rain began and the next 2, in Silverstone and Turkey, were arguably the best races of all time. Turkey was described with the term '12 different people could've won it' as everyone had meltdowns in the changing conditions. And the biggest surprise of all was the victory of Wuthrich, not only did neither driver nor car HAVE that level of pace but htey won by over 40 seconds. Silverstone was a race which started easily damp enough for inters, so a few pitted for them on the first lap (including me!) For the rest of the race, the track gradually dried up, as I made a comeback drive. Notably, although Wuthrich didn't pit immediately, they pitted for inters AFTER their first 7-lap stint had been completed. I pitted for dries, the wrong call, before pitting back to inters like others were on, which seemed like a suicidal strategy at the time. It worked though, even in 0.03 conditions, and at lap 23 me and Wuthrich pitted onto SS to the end. The rain STARTED again on lap 25, which prompted most to pit either straight to inters or wets. I decided to do inters THEN wets, which meant I did 24 stops across my 4 drivers that race. However, in FULL 1.00 conditions, Wuthrich again took the flag after inspiredly staying out on dries. He had lost hte lead beforehand, so he really needed to risk. Hauksson JUST took a point, continuing the massive run of elite point scores from SFGP/F. That would end after 29 races in a hard-fought Spa. In Singapore, also a great mixed-conditions race, Nanclares Kart Racing 1-2'd with their FIRST POINTS OF THE SEASON, and Rosberg brought home the first podium of the new Flame era. It was Brazil where Moss achieved the same feat, and out of nowhere, being the last out of hte 4 to score, and being slower than Hauksson basically every race that season, overtook Hauksson in the driver's standings. He then wrapped that up with a Dubai point. It was there where SFF confirmed 5th in the CC, and SFGP 7th.
For the new season, it was SFGP's chance to be quick, and even if they didn't start the season with fully developed car or drivers, boy, they put on a display. Having won the first race 1/2 in a soaked Australia, Moss lead Hauksson with Lee stuck in traffic. Malaysia revealed how much they lacked in the dry, scoring 16, but another wet race in China, where FSA had horrible luck, they took an even more dominant 1-2. SFF wrapped up 3 points from Rosberg in Australia and China too.
Spain showed they could run rings around opponents in the dry too, after just 18 points from Bahrain, with a third 1-2. Monaco was unlucky; having used tactics to hold up the leader on a 2-stop in Monaco, Moss was very little off winning, the end gap being just 7 tenths with 27 tenths between Lee and P4, Parker. Turkey was also claustrophobic, having lost victory again by an even smaller 4-tenth margin, with Hauksson wrapping 4th up without a manager spurring them on. P1-10 had a gap of 9.4 seconds. Silverstone was a race to forget, as their head of steam condensed into ice, having run out of fuel within arms length of the pit box. This was SFGP's first non finish, though a rain-affected Nurburgring made up for it as FSA's strategic error saw them lose mass points at the end. SFGP currently lead a dramatic title race by 41 points, with P2 and 3 seperated by just 2. Moss leads the drivers. And Skyriver? They hold P5, with P4 within reach as their form continues to improve despite their bad luck. Hungary saw Chen struggle, Mcrae off of form and I won prominantly, this time with Hauksson leading the 1-2 to get an overdue first win in red. SFF also scored suprisingly high, and Haydn suffered bad luck in a race where he could've scored big. Also, the rain spurts were making a full return. The next 2 races produced just 20 points but in Italy Hauksson just held on for victory over Team S by 0.067.
Not attending Singapore resulted in just a single point, making the championship up for grabs again, but Suzuka ended in SFGP scoring maximum and FSA missing out on any in the rain. So going into the final 2 rounds, SFGP had 66 points over FSA and Hauksson had 13 over Lee. Surely both titles were theirs?
As for the leagues, the academy was renamed the flame all stars championship, with now 24 members, 10 of which are me and none of which are Skyriver's. Me and Skyriver also created a private league just for our teams, currently with 17.
Part numero something gives you the critical information I bottled it. And it won't be the last time I say that.....
Brazil was going to confirm the CC before it stopped raining with minutes to go and the pit for inters cost them 17 points. Gap now in the CC was 24 points ahead, but 5 points behind in the DC. Abu Dhabi wasn't any fail, just mere RNG and no pace. No pace, no points, no DC, and with a few laps to go, an overtake from Lee lead them to no CC either with a gap of 3 points. This boiled over something I like to call the 'rage' era.
The next season was ridiculously unproductive from SFF, with a solitary win under odd circumstances in the principality. It had stopped raining just before the start, and the team were the only front runner to put on inters. From there, they fell back in time gap, but not position. A gamble by sticking with the inters for the final stint meant just 3 seconds between Valterri P2 and Samuel P3.
That claimed their first 2 podiums of the season, remarkably, and none would occur until Germany. That was an intriguing mixed conditions race, and only got P2/4 because they started on inters and got pole on a basically dry track. halfway through, it rained again too.
A podium would also come from a completely soaking Belgium, before a dramatic Monza got Rissanen P2, 8 tenths off P1 but also 3 hundreths off P3.
Singapore would be an unpleasant paceless suprise, with SFGP beating them with just 8th. Japan would have a similiar result, but the gap between the 2 teams in development but pace showed how far Rosberg and Rissanen had to come. They found one last podium in a 3-4-5-6 at Brazil, another fairly manic wet race. No fireworks in Abu Dhabi.
Another season, another chance to screw up a title challenge. Purely a backmarker gifted Hauksson P1 in a hard-fought Australia, just a tenth ahead of the rapidly improving Skyriver. A podium came in Malaysia, with a 1-2 in Shanghai. Bahrain was a problem, despite a win being easily on the table despite not attending one push level off cost them; 43 points and a title. Spain was unexpectedly low key, with Magrathea taking a breathtaking 1-2 out of nowhere. Monaco proved the gap between Hauksson and Moss was galactic, with 7 positions and 16 points between them. It was second for Finnur. They would then have to wait 4 races for podium glory, notably including a Skyriver victory, with a win on 2-stop Hungary. Finnur would get another to extend his DC lead in an unattended Europe, a result of pure insanity. It was then a massive slump from there, with a single 3rd place from Moss of all people. Abu Dhabi was again traumatising as they lost constructors P2 as well on the final corner of the final lap.
From then on, it was very much low key in the SFGP/F mood room. Several angry press conferences after Abu Dhabi disaster Mk2, Australia saw yet another shock win. Rissanen had just claimed it on 2 stops. Even Malaysia was 3-4 weirdly, and China was a finger from victory.
Bahrain and Spain however were a melting point in Flame, where any momentum was flattened without a top 5.
Monaco awaits, can they, against all the odds, break the title duck?
Guess what? NO.
It was a wet, unattended bore in Monte Carlo as SFF racked up an eventual 10 points. Turkey gave little but Silverstone saw the team under 6 seconds shy of victory yet off the podium. The team wouldn't rack up a top 5 in the next 3 races but after Valencia the team took a dramatic turn for the better.
The situation was, drop any more points to Kestrel or Azur and the team would be facing a constructors showdown competing for 3rd-5th place. Oh, how that turned around.
They so nearly took a victory in Spa, eventually taking 2nd and 6th. Monza saw another close call but Rosberg struggled, the race ending 2/9. Singapore got no less than 20 points, an identical figure, but with SFGP breaking into the points in dramatic fashion with P5. This was when their sights changed from looking back at P4 in the CC, to forward at P2. JM was over 100 points up the road at a point.
Japan showed the world manager James Pinsker still loved Suzuka, FINALLY breaking the 14-race win duck. Brazil SO nearly saw Finnur Hauksson of all people take victory, but freezing tyres on the ending lap led a certain Samuel Davies to P1. And what was Abu Dhabi; it was Flame's first elite win there, scoring a 2-stop 1-2 to gift them from BEHIND P2 in the CC. This was the first time Dubai had ever gone right in a major fighting situation such as that.
Season 39 struck, and it was win or lose for me. Win, and run #Champion on the car livery the next season, or lose, and leave. Simple as that.
Australia; could it have proved they were finally on to get a title? The 2-stop gifted them their, no less, 4th win in 5 seasons in Melbourne, even if only one of those resulted in a 1-2. Samuel took the chequered flag, with Finnur 2 cars back. Bad luck struck, but who cared? We were happy, and the titles will come to us or somebody dies.
Finnur also claimed a deserved victory, 1-5, in Malaysia, the first win there in elite. And people say ultra-agressive strategies don't work, when I won on SS S S. China wasn't bad still, with a double podium, but the team got back on the top step with a 1-2 in Bahrain, led by the man Hauksson. Spain was a horrific 4-5, horrific considering the previous circumstances, yet Monaco gave the team their first triple, their first Grand Slam, their first win, pole and fastest lap in elite, through Finnur Hauksson. Moss, renowned to struggle in the principality, got a decent 10 points.
The season hadn't stopped giving yet. A hard fought 2nd in Turkey, an amazing win from 8th in Britain, a controlled victory in Valencia, along with consistent podiums all round, sent Finnur Hauksson and SFGP in a position where they could win both titles in Singapore. Basically, the team needed 24 points and Finnur needed 22. If Hauksson won, it doesn't matter where the other cars finished, both titles were there's.
It was unusually hot in Marina Bay, leading SFGP to switch to a 2-stop strategy after the first stint using softs. It was the fastest strategy on that day, but was their lack of pace near the end going to catch them out? They had over 3 seconds over the next car going onto the penultimate lap. The titles were finally there's after 13 seasons of blood, sweat and tears. Noone could believe it.......... and then they ended up getting overtaken :(
If they didn't confirm it in Japan, something would have gone massively wrong but it didn't, and it happened in a carnage wet race of changing fortunes and despite a distinct lack of speed they ended up winning the race too. Not with Hauksson, not even Moss, but with ROSBERG of all people, on their off season, running on inters to snatch victory by a few seconds. Who cared? Both titles were theirs. FINALLY.
Even if the last 2 rounds didn't matter, SFGP, and F for that matter, still gave it their all. A bore in Brazil gave Hauksson even more points that season with a controlled P2, and Abu Dhabi would give Rissanen, in the slower car, again SFF victory in his 100th completed race for the team. The championships, coincidentally, were confirmed on the 100th race COMPETED in for them.
They'd done it. Glory in Magyar, and despite not winning any of the last 6 rounds with SFGP, the team's near-500-point total gave them pride and glory, and a peice of history forever.
PS, the private league has been disbanded, and the public is in a state of rot. There is one live team right now, and that is my own
I have 25 teams 0.0
Now you might be thinking 'will they repeat this ever again?' Read on to find out.
The next season started, as pretty much always, with a 2-stop win in Melbourne. The 1-2 gave the team an advantage heading into the previously-won Malaysia, with Rosberg being the one leading the DC going into there. That race went not so great, with the aggressive 2-stop working out podiumless. Dominance asserted through Carpers and Team S made sure SFF stayed off the top 2 steps of the podium for many races to come, until, after using softs in Monaco, they got a wet 3-stop win in Turkey to give Rosberg his second win of the season and Rissanen his second 2nd place.
Back to a lowly position for England, but Germany gave Rissanen a crucial advantage in the DC over his teammate and other drivers from a rare pole position. Hungary gave the strong-starting Rosberg just a single point in their worst race of the season, before many a 5-6 finish sent them completely out of championship contention. Unattended Italy with 4-7 seemed to confirm this, but also brought Carpers ahead to 2nd after a 1-2. 89 points to gain in 4 rounds for SFF? No chance.
PUT THE DRAMATIC MUSIC ON PEOPLE!
An amazing Singapore race time gave SFF the 37 points they needed to get back at the poor performing CRA. Japan put the amazing comeback into colour with another GP win, this time to Rosberg. CRA were nowhere and going into Brazil, the gap was as minor as 9 points to CRA. Team S had dropped off the face of the earth. Brazil was a race far too overlooked by Brazil Gate, where SFGP held CRA in place before the tantrum of Jason lead to the collapse of the league and the eventual decision of James Pinsker 2 seasons later. Jason suicided his championship hunt, and the strategy the boys were running anyway was hollow and resulted in a low championship score. This gave Team S it's chance to get back into the hunt into Abu Dhabi, where after all the gap beforehand, Rissanen and SFF lead the championships.
It was the final lap, 1 DRS zone could change the course of history. If Rissanen maintained 3rd position, SFF would be champion, as would he. If Rissanen dropped a place to 4th, their championship would be in the hands of Rosberg's fights down in 8th, which in the end he maintained. If Rissanen dropped 2, they'd lose both championships. If Rissanen dropped 1 also, and Lambrechts took the place, he'd lose the DC even then. Into the chicane, unbelievably Rissanen maintained position. Everything was cruching down on the humbled 2-stopper, but through the final corner, both team and driver were World CHAMPION! The gaps in the end were mind-blowingly minor, just 10 points between 1st and third in the CC. To add to an insane result, Hauksson somehow clocked up another win to his tally.
What had just happened? In S41, SFGP had LOST AUSTRALIA! In the wet! But Malaysia showed their tactical philosophy on a whole new level, when a first stop overcut gifted them a great win.
The season flashed by dreamily, the ever-consistent Scuderia getting podiums consistently until 3-stop materclass win in Turkey. It was a bad race in Britain once more, before claiming more podiums and then a dominated 1-2 in Valencia to assist their title fight. That, in it's entirety, was the most crucial race of the season, where CRA's bad quali and B5's lack of attendance cost bad. It was catchup for B5 after that, where their insane qualifying gave them free win after win. Japan ended the streak to hold the gap on a surprise strategy. But, the ONE RACE where B5 needed their Murk engines to turn up on Saturday, they ended up costing them the titles. Strategic class gave SFGP another win, where 10th and 11th on the grid couldn't help B5 perform damage limitation.
In this race, shortly predecessed by Carpers vacancy due to bad pace, Brazil Gate occured again in the eyes of many. Something I will never understand.
Anyway, going into Abu Dhabi, all that needed to happen was Moss to come 9th and, no matter what else, both championships were theirs. Coming 5th more than secured this. The end gap showed Europe and Brazil as turning points, 2 races costing Babylon their first titles. This also brought SFGP to world rank 58, their record to date.
Australia? Normal win. Malaysia? One of the weirdest races of all time. A dry to wet race screwed the entire field but John, me being the acception not qualifying on dries but instead FULL wets, taking a risk. John won by over 40 seconds. That is all you need to say. Debutants JPS Lotus got a win in Spain to end Team S's run. Those teams rampaged to win everything up to Germany, where final-stint strategy played it's hand, and fitting intermediates in a pitwall battle won SFF a long-due second win of the season. This was Rissanen's first since 2 seasons previous, where he won the title with just 2 race wins. That's a thing with the teams; doesn't get good qualifyings much, doesn't get wins much, but titles are what I live for. Consistency, in a word. Nothing else interesting occured until a shock result in Italy where another masterclass strategy got the Eagles an amazing win, Lee was lost for words.
Comeback massive gap in 5 races? Challenge accepted.
Italy gained 7 points. Singapore, Team S could've wrapped up both titles in but instead lost 12 points. Japan gained 2 points despite the opponents win. Brazil gained 33 points, but because of the order of the SFF cars, Pesonen was confirmed DC, and Team S needed to score just 2 in Abu Dhabi to get a CC as well. Which a 3-5 did for them. Despite SFF's undescribable comeback, including a final 1-2 involving a triple in Abu Dhabi, they couldn't make up the several-hundred-point deficit in a few rounds. They managed to worry John though.
THIS, if you've read to here you deserve a cookie, will be the FINAL UPDATE! Flame officially withdrew from S43, and their Magyar history is over. Over 16 seasons. 12 title trophies. Several team legends. Flame is gone. I will make an award ceremony at some point soon for the Magyar era, but that is all from me.
#ParaTiPichi
