Fatlogic

I spent a little time cleaning up some of the bronze medals in Challenge Mode.  The Race Craft | Failures element was not too bad.  I tried to stay just under 140mph through the whole section and that seemed to work, 84% is better than nothing I guess.  The Pit Stops | Barking/Empty Tank was very difficult.  I cleared it with 91% by waiting to brake until the middle of flags 1 and 2.  A well timed cut through the chicane, riding both brake markers on the way through.  Full throttle over the hill and braking early before the pit lane entrance to maximize my acceleration out of the last turn.

One high point for the night was finally getting a handle on the Pit Stop Challenge.  I've had the worst time with the pit stops due to F1 2001's inferior manual.

How to make a great pit stop:

Pit Lane Entry Speed
Look at the graph!  There are two elements displayed, one is your current speed, and the other is the speed you need to be under before the graph finishes it's animation.  If you've entered the pits very fast you will have to bring the car's speed down quickly, but be careful, it's also not a good idea to take off too much speed.  However, I think the penalty for not getting under the pit entry speed is worse than taking too much speed off.

Pit Box Entry Speed
The next phase of the pit stop is very similar to the first.  This time you are bring the car down from pit lane speed to pit entry speed.  You wouldn't want to crash into your pit crew, would you?  For this phase I try to wait until the animation is 1/3 to ½ complete.  You want to keep your speed up, but use caution and make sure you don't enter the pit box too fast.

Turn-in
Turn, turn, turn!  As soon as the pit speed animation  is complete you need to turn into the pit box.  This phase always seems to come in fast because your attention has been focused on decelerating the car to the pit box entry speed.  Make sure you are ready to turn as soon as the previous animation is complete.

Gear-up
This phase is pretty straight forward, just make sure you know what button on the controller is the gear-up button.  Make sure you press only that button and press it only once.

Accelerate Out
If you've made a clean pit entry you will see the Accelerate Now indicator.  Get on the gas and you've made a great pit stop.

Lots of progress tonight, I finished Challenge Mode.  Well, not finished, I really need to go back and clean up a lot of the low percentage elements.  Still, it's a good feeling to clear everything with at least a bronze.

I sailed right through the Track Experience section.  Bronze or better for all of the following; Sepang, Interlagos, Imola, Barcelona, A1-Ring, Montreal (yuk), Nurburgring, Magny-Cours, Silverstone, Hockenheim, Hungaroring, SPA-Francorchamps, Monza.

I also went back and cleaned up a fw of the really low percentage elements from the other 4 sections.  Nothing special, just basic clean up.  I've updated the Current Game Status to reflect the improvements.

Ok, that's enough for tonight.  I've redone most of the challenge mode.  I even got a few of the Track Experience elements out of the way.  I'm actually feeling that the wheel is making the full lap elements a lot easier than I remember them being when I was using the standard controller.

The following is my current progress, all of these have been done on simulation mode.

CHALLENGE MODE STATS

• THE BASICS
  • Challenge 1: The Basics
    • 1.1 The Start [92%]
    • 1.2 Braking [89%]
    • 1.3 Cornering [78%]
    • 1.4 Chicane [68%]
    • 1.5 Hairpins [85%]
• WEATHER
  • Challenge 1: Wet Weather
    • 1.1 Start/Stop [83%]
    • 1.2 Cornering [85%]
    • 1.3 Chicane [80%]
  • Challenge 2: Variable Weather
    • 2.1 Dry Tires/Wet Road [83%]
    • 2.2 Wet Tires/Dry Road [72%]
• PIT STOPS
  • Challenge 1: Pit Stops
    • 1.1 Braking/Empty Tank [70%]
    • 1.2 Braking/Full Tank [71%]
  • Challenge 2: Pitting
    • 2.1 Interactive Pit [73%]
  • Challenge 3: Tire Wear
    • 3.1 Tire Wear/Fresh Tires [62%]
    • 3.2 Tire Wear/Worn Tires [76%]
• RACE CRAFT
  • Challenge 1: Manual Transmission
    • 1.1 Manual Transmission [92%]
  • Challenge 2: Damage
    • 2.1 Damage [82%]
  • Challenge 3: Failures
    • 3.1 Oil Leaks  [68%]
    • 4.1 Penalties  [95%]
    • 4.2 Flags  [62%]
• TRACK EXPERIENCE
  • Challenge 1: Australia
    • Melbourne [67%]
  • Challenge 2: Malaysia
    • Sepang [0%]
  • Challenge 3: Brazil
    • Interlagos  [0%]
  • Challenge 4: San Marino
    • Imola  [0%]
  • Challenge 5: Spain
    • Barcelona  [0%]
  • Challenge 6: Austria
    • A1-Ring  [0%]
  • Challenge 7: Monte Carlo
    • Monaco  [75%]
  • Challenge 8: Canada
    • Montreal  [0%]
  • Challenge 9: Europe
    • Nurburgring  [0%]
  • Challenge 10: France
    • Magny-Cours  [0%]
  • Challenge 11: Great Britan
    • Silverstone  [0%]
  • Challenge 12: Germany
    • Hockenheim  [0%]
  • Challenge 13: Hungary
    • Hungaroring  [0%]
  • Challenge 14: Belgium
    • SPA-Francorchamps  [0%]
  • Challenge 15: Italy
    • Monza  [0%]
  • Challenge 16: United States
    • Indianapolis  [61%]
  • Challenge 17: Japan
    • Suzuka  [72%]

Massive depression has set in.  I have lost all of my EA Sports F1 2001 game data.  I even had it backed up on a second memory card.  I have no idea how I managed to do this, argh.  I was planning on 'maybe' restarting the game since I got a Logitech GT Force racing wheel, but now it looks like I am definitely starting from SCRATCH!

It looks like I'll start tonight with the basics, here I come, Challenge Mode.