Sammy Jones: An F1 Career 1999-????

[AndreaModa]

22nd January 1999: Repsol TWR Arrows Press Release

Repsol TWR Arrows would like to confirm the signing for the 1999 season of the driving talents of Englishman Sammy Jones, last year's British Formula 3 Champion. He will partner Pedro de la Rosa and drive car number 15 for the entire season. Sammy is an excellent aquisition for the team as it looks to build on the 7th place achieved in the constructors championship in the 1998 season. We're confident that alongside Pedro, Sammy will bring a dynamic and enthusiastic mood to the team, something he displayed with great effect in his seasons in the junior categories. As a rookie, expectations of Sammy are not going to be set high, but naturally we will push him to achieve his best for the team, and hopefully we will be rewarded well for his efforts. Repsol TWR Arrows has no doubt that the 1999 season will be one of the best seasons the team has ever experienced and the two drivers combined with an excellently designed car will demonstrate this fact. As a team we wish Sammy and Pedro too, the very best of luck for this season.

End Press Release


Well, the contract has been signed, my legal copy of F1C has finally arrived and is installed and with Hakkinen looking to make it back to back drivers championships, the start of the 1999 season is not far away. Little known talent Sammy Jones is in at Arrows, beating Tora Takagi to the seat. The Japanese is subsequently signed as test driver. First race of the year is schedueled at Melbourne in a little under 24 hours, watch this space to see how Sammy Jones copes in his F1 debut!

[WeirdKerr]

cool, good luck in that car.....

[Aerond]

Good luck in your F1 career!! Don´t cheat!

[CarlosFerreira]

My GP4 arrived about a week ago, the hectic schedule has pretty much stopped me from trying it. Damn!

[AndreaModa]

cool, good luck in that car.....

tell me about it

1999 FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 1: AUSTRALIA

You never know what to expect with racing computer games and the relative strengths of the teams, but it's safe to say that we can all assume that the Arrows will be woefully slow this year, despite the proclamations of Arrows' press releases stating otherwise. With this in mind, I went into the first round of the season expecting the worst, and I would simply try and extract as much as I could from the car as possible. Albert Park isn't one of my favourite tracks anyway.

QUALIFYING
During practice, I was able to find quite a comfortable set up for the race early on and so switched to setting up the car for qualifying early. However the low fuel load made the car very unwieldly and I had a lot of trouble finding any sort of pace come qualifying. When I thought I had something nailed down, and after Barrichello ruined my first run, I was miles away from anyone, and only a last minute set up change to give me some more oversteer got me anywhere near the rest of the pack. Not sure what happened to poor old Luca though!

1. M. Schumacher 1:30.749
2. Hakkinen 1:31.069
3. Coulthard 1:31.347
4. Irvine 1:31.991
5. Barrichello 1:32.304
6. Herbert 1:32.896

17. De La Rosa 1:34.579

20. Wurz 1:35.362
21. Jones 1:35.996
22. Badoer 1:37.608

RACE
Both qualifying and the race were set in dry, sunny conditions. Being so far down the grid and expecting the field to be going for two stops, I decided to go for a 3 stop strategy hoping the lighter fuel might help me get through the pack. At the start, I got away okay, but after an amazing first lap with late brake passes left right and centre I placed 14th at the end of the lap. I then managed to pass Trulli, Diniz, and then Ralf Schumacher to go 11th by lap 4. The lighter fuel load was allowing me to brake way later than almost everyone, but my top speed was still down on the straights. Beginning lap 5 and I'd cruised up behind Frentzen who was struggling to pass a slow Panis, when the German threw it down the inside of turn 1 and punted Panis off, putting the Frenchman out on the spot. All of this gifted me 9th, I couldn't believe it! I even started to catch the next group of cars which were caught behind Irvine in 5th with Frentzen and Ralf all over my gearbox. However coming out of turn 7 and into turn 8 on lap 7, I put a wheel on the grass on the outside and the car spun a full 360 degrees across the track miraculously missing the walls and allowing me to recover quickly in 12th right behind Trulli. I got back past Trulli on lap 11, and it was time for my first pitstop on lap 15, a pity as I was right behind Ralf again who was stuck behind Fisichella and I could have passed both if I'd been able to stay out for a couple more laps.

The pitstop dropped me to 17th, around 13 seconds behind Wurz and I immediately tried to start catching him. At this point though I was lapped by the leaders and this affected my lap times so I had no chance to catch him before my second pitstop. I was expecting the cars to start pitting around now, but none of them did and it was at this point I knew my plan had failed as the field were all 1-stopping and had been full of fuel at the start. Despite that I managed to pass Hill on lap 29 after he collided with Wurz and limped back to the pits to retire to go 16th.

My second pitstop came round on lap 32 which dropped me to 17th once more as Zanardi went through about 16 seconds ahead. Following my stop everyone started to make their stops but it did little for me as Zanardi was one of the last to pit and had pulled the gap out to 30 seconds on me with his reduced fuel load. He pitted on lap 38 and came out right in front of me and was rather slow. I followed him for a couple of laps before making a daft lunge down the inside of turn 15 from miles back which ended up with me wiping my front wing off and Zanardi escaping unscathed. The good thing was I was able to dive straight into the pits and get a new wing, returning still in 17th with no hope of catching Zanardi. My only hope now of going up the order was through retirements. The cards fell my way on lap 45 when Williams added to the rejectfulness of their rubbish car and horrible paint scheme when Ralf hit Zanardi whilst lapping him, putting both out and promoting me to 15th. At this point Wurz was another minute up the road, and I was lapping comfortably faster than both Minardis and my teammate so the 15th was secure, with enough in hand to make my final stop and hold position.

The final stop came on lap 47 and I came out with 8 seconds over Badoer, still in 15th. Things improved further on lap 50 when Wurz crashed out and handed me 14th, and with no further retirements, I closed out the race comfortably ahead of Badoer, but dissapointed with the false impression of pace in the first part of the race. I genuinely thought if things went my way I could have had a top ten finish. In the end though I finished 3 laps down, and although faster than De La Rosa, it could be a long season. There's some better tracks coming up soon though so my chance to prove myself might not be too far away!

1. Hakkinen
2. Coulthard +1.237
3. M Schumacher +13.423
4. Barrichello +41.929
5. Irvine +1 lap
6. Frentzen +1 lap
7. Herbert +1 lap
8. Villeneuve +1 lap
9. Trulli +1 lap
10. Diniz +2 laps
11. Fisichella +2 laps
12. Alesi +2 laps
13. Zonta +2 laps
14. Jones +3 laps
15. Badoer +3 laps
16. De La Rosa +3 laps
17. Gene +3 laps

And the standings after round 1:
WDC
1. Hakkinen 10
2. Coulthard 6
3. M Schumacher 4
4. Barrichello 3
5. Irvine 2
6. Frentzen 1

WCC
1. McLaren 16
2. Ferrari 6
3. Stewart 3
4. Jordan 1

Next round is Brazil!

[AndreaModa]

1999 FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 2: BRAZIL

Brazil...and the Interlagos circuit. Boy do I like Interlagos, the flowing middle sector, long straights and heavy braking, they seem to bring out the best in me, I can get a really good rhythm going.

QUALIFYING
Set up-wise I took much longer than Australia and got a lovely quali set up sorted out. This was reflected in qualifying where I went out on my second flying lap and matched my best time in practice. I couldn't beat it, and with the conclusion of qualifying, I was 8th. Yes from 21st in Australia to 8th in Brazil!

1. Hakkinen 1:14.117
2. M Schumacher 1:14.221
3. Coulthard 1:14.435
4. R Schumacher 1:14.473
5. Barrichello 1:14.578
6. Fisichella 1:15.250
7. Frentzen 1:15.620
8. Jones 1:16.547
9. Villeneuve 1:16.559

18. De La Rosa 1:19.100

RACE
Another completely bone dry weekend, and following the strategy disaster in Australia, I decided on a two stop strategy, more conservative considering my grid position. A good start got me in front of both Frentzen and Fisichella into turn 1 and so I was lying 6th, which I held till lap 3 when Frentzen who was miles faster on the straights blitzed past me over the line into turn 1. Later on in the same lap, I went wide out of Pinheirinho onto the grass and span back across the track, collecting Villeneuve who smashed his car up to the point of retirement before hitting Fisichella too. Minus my front wing I followed Fisi into the pits and emerged in 20th, dead last as Trulli didn't get off the line.

I got past Fisichella on lap 5 and began to close the 17 second gap to Gene in 18th. I set a blinding series of fast laps, and despite running wide at turn 1 on lap 13, had caught and passed both Gene and Badoer to go 17th by lap 15. Five seconds up the road, De La Rosa was passed on lap 19 and on lap 20 I lined up to pass Alesi who was stuck behind Zanardi. Going into the slow turn 8 following Ferradura, I took the inside line to outbreak him but out came the Sauber right into my path, destroying another of my front wings and putting both Zanardi and Alesi out. In the carnage I lost a place to De La Rosa and made it back to the pits where my schedueled stop was due 3 laps later anyway so I combined the repairs with more fuel and new tyres.

Back out of the pits for a second time, only this time my suspension had slight damage with the car drifting to the right on the straights but it didn't affect my scorching lap times. Once again I was stone motherless last and now lapped too in 18th with Fisichella 16 seconds away. Gene pitted on lap 24, and De La Rosa on lap 25, promoting me to 16th, though my teammate emerged right behind me and we had a bit of a scrap for 16th before I pulled away. On lap 29 Irvine came up to lap me on the finish straight and passed me just before turn 1 on the inside. He then pulled back in front in an Algersuari/Chandhok-like incident in Spain and I had no-where to go and lost yet another front wing with Irvine retiring.

So it was back to the pits on lap 30 and back out in 17th (last once more) but with Gene only 2 seconds in front. He was dealt with on lap 32 and I closed down the 25 second gap to De La Rosa super quick and in that time Badoer finally pitted on lap 35 and came out 3 seconds in front of me but whilst closing him down on lap 36 I threw it all away at Mergulho, into the barriers with loads of damage. I made it to the pits, deciding to fuel myself to the end and go for it as I was a lap down on Gene, but the suspension damage was too great and my race was over. A good race, but a real pity as only 9 cars were classified and without my catalogue of accidents, I could have even sneaked a point. One crumb of comfort was that De La Rosa retired too!

1. M Schumacher 1:30:31.752
2. Hakkinen +16.069
3. R Schumacher +1 lap
4. Coulthard (Accident) +3 laps
5. Diniz +3 laps
6. Herbert +3 laps

Standings after round 2:
WDC
1. Hakkinen 16
2. M Schumacher 14
3. Coulthard 9
4. R Schumacher 4
5. Barrichello 3
6. Irvine 2
= Diniz 2
8. Frentzen 1
= Herbert 1

WCC
1. McLaren 25
2. Ferrari 16
3. Stewart 4
= Williams 4
5. Sauber 2
6. Jordan 1

Next up is the beginning of the European season: San Marino!

[TomWazzleshaw]

You are the new master of disaster my friend
2 races into your career and you've already caused more damage than Felipe Massa or Takuma Sato in their debut seasons

[DemocalypseNow]

You are the new master of disaster my friend
2 races into your career and you've already caused more damage than Felipe Massa or Takuma Sato in their debut seasons

If you think that's carnage wait until you see me racing for Enforcer Racing Engineering next season in the World Championship...

[AndreaModa]

You are the new master of disaster my friend
2 races into your career and you've already caused more damage than Felipe Massa or Takuma Sato in their debut seasons

Haha so true! Mr Walkinshaw is on my back to start improving fast, and there are rumours circulating amongst the press that my superlicence may even be revoked if this crash-fest continues! So with a lot on my mind and the future of my F1 career hanging in the balance, the F1 circus moves on to...

1999 FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3: SAN MARINO

The delights of Brazil can't be matched by Imola, though it's not a track I particularly dislike, so it could just be a rather bland, average weekend...to be quite honest anything would be better than the horror show of Brazil! At this point I'd like to point out two bugs that F1C seems to have with Imola: the first is at Variante Alta where cars will occasionally take too much of the high kerb and roll the car and retire, and the second is the entry to the pit lane where cars going to pit will steam right up behind cars braking for the final chicane of Variante Bassa and plough into them from behind. The consequences of this will be revealed below.

QUALIFYING
A productive practice session gave way to a rather disappointing qualifying, where I struggled to match my practice pace for some unknown reason. Despite that, I still outqualified my teammate, and Gene hauled the Minardi up to 13th!

1. M Schumacher 1:24.799
2. Hakkinen 1:25.484
3. Coulthard 1:25.831
4. Herbert 1:26.470
5. Trulli 1:26.537
6. R Schumacher 1:26.688

17. Alesi 1:29.210
18. Jones 1:29.406
19. Panis 1:29.569

20. De La Rosa 1:30.706

RACE
Sunday afternoon arrived overcast, the chances of rain being approximately 50/50 according to the weathermen, but the race started on a dry track. Going the same as Brazil, I went for a two stop strategy, which is what pretty much the entire field ended up doing too, so it was going to be a direct race with the cars around me. A brilliant start got me right up to 13th after the first chicane at Traguado and under late braking at Rivazza 1 at the end of the first lap, I got alongside and passed Fisichella for 12th. The hot headed Italian wasn't having any of it though and turned in on me, causing him to roll his car and retire on the spot! That's me in the middle of controversy again! Whoops! With Frentzen once again all over my gearbox, I span at Aqua Minerale under pressure and he slipped through, luckily it was a slow spin, I didn't hit anything and was able to recover quickly and held 13th, thanks mainly to Gene being a rolling roadblock in 14th holding everyone up!

By lap 7, Irvine was past Gene and had latched onto my tail and by lap 11 we'd both caught up to the main group of cars covering the midfield. Into Villeneuve on that lap Irvine tried an opportunistic move from far back down the inside, tapping my left rear which caused him to half spin with myself suffering no ill effects and neither car recieving damage. I swear he's got it in for me! On lap 16 Panis showed him how it's done and got past me at the same spot, but later in the lap the first car to fall foul of the Variante Alta bug was Barrichello, meaning I kept 13th after all. The next lap, the 17th, Irvine nipped through on the inside of Piratella, but Panis decided to copy Barrichello, crashed, and so I was back to 13th once again! Alesi then piled the pressure on me but pitted on lap 21, whilst I was able to go two laps longer and I tried to stretch the advantage over him. More carnage at Variante Alta however, this time involving Hill slowed me down on my in lap and as I pitted on lap 23, Alesi sneaked past. All was well though as Ralf Schumacher went the same way and retired on my out lap, putting me 12th.

My middle stint was quite quiet, though a further two crashes promoted me to 10th. Alesi made his second stop on lap 41, excellent news as at this point I still had another 5 laps of fuel. I put the hammer down and as Alesi came out, the gap was 16 seconds, with both Frentzen and Zonta a few seconds ahead of me. By the time both of them pitted on lap 45, the gap to Alesi was 25 seconds. I planned to pit on lap 46, but the lapped De La Rosa beat me to it, so I had to go an extra lap on fumes! At that point though Schumi ploughed into the back of poor old Pedro which put both of them out! The unplanned extra lap allowed me to increase the gap on Zonta though and despite stretching it from 15 to nearly 18 seconds, when I pitted on lap 47, both himself and Frentzen got back in front, though Alesi was now comfortably behind me. I emerged in 7th with about 4 seconds to Frentzen, before I noticed it was starting to rain. Great.

So back to the pits I went on the next lap 48, with all hopes of a potential points finish down the drain. Whilst I was in the pits getting a set of inters however, Alesi crashed at Rivazza, and as Zanardi just managed to sneak past me, I came out 8th. The Williams driver then pitted on lap 49, putting me 7th, whilst on my out lap Coulthard ran out of fuel and I passed the stricken McLaren to take 6th! Zonta was now 20 seconds up the road, but incredibly I began to catch him slowly, maybe he was still on dry tyres? I was praying for a BAR pitstop, but none came and although I got the gap down to 13 seconds, the positions remained the same, and I finished a fantastic 6th out of 7 finishers! A crazy, crazy race, but Hakkinen kept his cool to take a commanding win and increase his lead in the drivers' standings.

1. Hakkinen 1:31:49.619
2. Herbert +1 lap
3. Irvine +1 lap
4. Frentzen +1 lap
5. Zonta +2 laps
6. Jones +2 laps
7. Zanardi +2 laps

Standings after round 3:
WDC
1. Hakkinen 26
2. M Schumacher 14
3. Coulthard 9
4. Herbert 7
5. Irvine 6
6. R Schumacher 4
= Frentzen 4
8. Barrichello 3
9. Zonta 2
= Diniz 2
11. Jones 1

WCC
1. McLaren 35
2. Ferrari 20
3. Stewart 10
4. Williams 4
= Jordan 4
6. BAR 2
= Sauber 2
8. Arrows 1

Next up is everyone's favourite: Monaco!

[WeirdKerr]

congrats on the point.....

[AndreaModa]

The millionaire's playground, Monaco really does offer a unique challenge for F1 drivers, accident prone Sammy Jones being no exception! After the good performance in San Marino, pressure to kick me out of the championship has eased somewhat and has allowed me to concentrate on a good performance this weekend, particularly as in the world of F1C, Monaco is always a crash-fest!

1999 FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 4: MONACO

QUALIFYING
Practice started off dry, but by the 4th session things were decidely wet and this continued into qualifying. The wet but drying track saw times gradually fall and after setting some pretty good times, I rolled up 11th overall, not to bad at all.

1. M Schumacher 1:24.551
2. R Schumacher 1:25.383
3. Coulthard 1:25.427
4. Hakkinen 1:25.912
5. Barrichello 1:26.408
6. Zanardi (!) 1:26.883

10. Frentzen 1:27.571
11. Jones 1:27.879
12. Trulli 1:27.980

21. De La Rosa 1:31.281

RACE
Raceday dawned warm and dry, but even without the rain there was sure to be plenty of action in the first few laps. I just knew I had to stay on the track and keep out of harms way and I would be a safe bet for a points finish. Confident of my race pace, I went for a two stop strategy. A decent start kept me in 11th off the line, and after the first couple of laps of utter carnage that F1C produces at Monaco, I was third behind Hill in second and Wurz leading. I was quick too, with most of the guys likely to be one stopping, so I was looking for a way past Hill. I was too quick though, and at Ste. Devote I lost my rear wing in the barriers and the loss of downforce up to Massenet caused me to spin, damaging my rear suspension and making the car nigh on undriveable. So out I went after completing only 3 laps, but with most of the field out by then anyway, only 3 cars finished the race. De La Rosa retired in less spectacular fashion on lap 35 with brake problems.

1. Irvine 1:58:33.874
2. Herbert +1 lap
3. Zanardi +1 lap

After the disappointment of Monaco, it was quickly off to northern Spain for the next round of the championship:

1999 FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 5: SPAIN

I'd like to go on record now and say that I hate Catalunya. I really do. The track blows raspberries at me every time I go round it's that bad. The mixture of speed and downforce and trying to find a compromise is a nightmare and I could never find the right balance.

QUALIFYING
During practice, the balance just wasn't there and I was hoplessly slow. Not slowest but too slow for Mr Walkinshaw's liking and both myself and Pedro got a grilling after we wound up slowest in 3rd practice. This produced the desired effect within me, less so for Pedro during qualifying. After a couple of offs from trying too hard, I hauled the rubbish Arrows up to 14th.

1. M Schumacher 1:21.835
2. Hakkinen 1:22.393
3. Frentzen 1:22.627
4. R Schumacher 1:22.634
5. Coulthard 1:22.658
6. Fisichella 1:23.459

13. Panis 1:25.752
14. Jones 1:26.373
15. Diniz 1:26.422

21. De La Rosa 1:28.362

Other highlights include Badoer sticking the Minardi 11th and Irvine having a shocker down in 18th. More on him later...

RACE
Another 2 stop strategy on another beautiful hot afternoon, I got a super start, launching up to 11th before braking for turn 1 where I had to take to the grass on the outside to stop myself ploughing into the back of the rather slow bunch of cars in front of me. Going across the gravel I recovered to 16th behind the fired up Irvine after his rubbish qualifying. I passed him later in the lap to go 15th as we returned to the start line for lap 2. On the main straight, the speed of the Ferrari was no match for my Arrows and Irvine took the 15th from me before turn 1, where under braking on the inside, the swine pulled over to the left and launched me over the Ferrari and into the gravel only to bounce back off the tyre barriers, back across the track and collect poor Gene too! Naturally I was without my front wing and both Irvine and Gene were out with damage. Back to the pits, seriously pissed, I fueled up for a further 20 laps and set off for De La Rosa who was half a minute ahead. By lap 5 though, it was clear the damage to my car was too great and I had to retire, once again Irvine had ruined my race. I took a leaf out of Senna's book and gave him a piece of my mind after the race! Irvine's actions are under investigation by the stewards but a decision hasn't been made yet. Schumi won to get his title challenge back on track after two DNFs and De La Rosa finally finished a race since Australia.

1. M Schumacher 1:33:19.415
2. Hakkinen +35.705
3. Barrichello +48.440
4. Coulthard +56.071
5. Frentzen +1 lap
6. Trulli +2 laps
7. Hill +2 laps
8. Fisichella +2 laps
9. Herbert +3 laps
10. Diniz +3 laps
11. Panis +3 laps
12. Zonta +3 laps
13. Alesi +3 laps
14. Zanardi +3 laps
15. Badoer +4 laps
16. De La Rosa +4 laps

Standings after 5 rounds:
WDC
1. Hakkinen 32
2. M Schumacher 24
3. Irvine 16
4. Herbert 13
5. Coulthard 12
6. Barrichello 7
7. Frentzen 6
8. R Schumacher 4
= Zanardi 4
10. Zonta 2
= Diniz 2
12. Jones 1
= Trulli 1

WCC
1. McLaren 44
2. Ferrari 40
3. Stewart 20
4. Williams 8
5. Jordan 6
6. BAR 2
= Sauber 2
8. Arrows 1
= Prost 1

Next round is at Canada!

[AndreaModa]

The big story before Canada was the repercutions of Irvine's driving in Spain. The Irishman was dealt with a 3 race suspended ban for dangerous driving. Ferrari decided not to appeal for fear of the sanction being made worse. So with Irvine promising to be on his best behaviour, the bandwagon rolled on to Canada.

1999 FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 6: CANADA

On the back of the nightmarish Circuit de Catalunya, Montreal is a track I knew I'd go well on. I always seem to do well here and I like the track with it's close barriers.

QUALIFYING
A successful practice led into qualifying which was a tad frustrating as I was unable to match the best time I set in practice, a mid 1:22, but despite that I enjoyed my best qualifying result of the year, an excellent 6th! Schumacher and Hakkinen were miles ahead of everyone, but I was in the hunt for points!

1. M Schumacher 1:20.888
2. Hakkinen 1:21.613
3. Barrichello 1:22.449
4. R Schumacher 1:22.532
5. Alesi 1:22.890
6. Jones 1:23.343

19. De La Rosa 1:26.161

RACE
As we all know, Canada is usually the scene of plenty of incidents and bearing this in mind, I took on a ton of fuel and went for a 1 stop strategy (as it turned out, so did everyone else except the Minardis and Stewarts) so any stops for repairs wouldn't compromise my race too badly and with decent race pace, I had faith the high fuel load wouldn't be an issue. An okay start kept me 6th off the line as I held off Coulthard in 7th at turn 1. In the run through turn 5, I got round the outside of Alesi and in a beautiful move outbraked him on the inside of turn 6 for 5th place. I was able to stay with Ralf in 4th for a while and we had a good battle with lots of passes and once Coulthard was past Alesi he caught up and joined in too. That all ended however when on lap 9 I span at turn 1 but held 6th position as the rest of the field were miles back. This allowed Ralf and Coulthard to escape and I had a very quiet period as Ralf now 5th slowly increased the gap to me and I too pulled away from Trulli and Villeneuve scrapping over 7th. Towards the end of the first stint, as my tyres began to go off, a couple of spins put Trulli and his group right in the hunt for my 6th position as the flurry of pitstops took place around lap 40.

I made my stop on lap 45, at which point Ralf was 40 seconds ahead so my sole objective for the rest of the race was to hold onto 6th place. Trulli pitted at the same time as me, and we fell to 8th and 9th respectively. Irvine made his stop on the next lap putting me 7th, with Hill 17 seconds away and still to stop in 6th. It was going to be tight! He finally pitted on lap 49 and came out about 6 seconds behind me but the Jordan was fast. Over the next few laps I was lapped by the leading four cars and my subsequent slow lap times allowed Hill to close the gap to just 2 seconds. The gap was reduced to nothing shortly after and with 15 laps to go I had a hungry Jordan all over me! I managed to keep him at bay, and then Irvine tagged onto the back and joined in the fun too! Luckily it was too late for both of them and I was able to hold onto 6th for one of the hardest earned points ever! De La Rosa retired on lap 5 with crash damage in a rather odd low attrition race for Canada with 20 finishers!

1. Hakkinen 1:38:10.006
2. M Schumacher +9.400
3. Coulthard +14.483
4. Barrichello +52.182
5. R Schumacher +1:02.937
6. Jones +1 lap
7. Hill +1 lap
8. Irvine +1 lap
9. Frentzen +1 lap
10. Trulli +1 lap
11. Villeneuve +1 lap
12. Panis +2 laps
13. Herbert +2 laps
14. Diniz +2 laps
15. Fisichella +2 laps
16. Alesi +2 laps (shocker!)
17. Zonta +2 laps
18. Zanardi +2 laps
19. Badoer +4 laps
20. Gene +4 laps

Standings after 6 rounds:
WDC
1. Hakkinen 42
2. M Schumacher 30
3. Coulthard 16
= Irvine 16
5. Herbert 13
6. Barrichello 10
7. R Schumacher 6
= Frentzen 6
9. Zanardi 4
10. Zonta 2
= Diniz 2
= Jones 2
13. Trulli 1

WCC
1. McLaren 58
2. Ferrari 46
3. Stewart 23
4. Williams 10
5. Jordan 6
6. BAR 2
= Sauber 2
= Arrows 2
9. Prost 1

Next round is in the middle of nowhere! Yep its time for Magny Cours!

[AndreaModa]

1999 FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 7: FRANCE

Coming into the weekend, the silly season was beginning to get underway, with rumours circulating the paddock that one of the two Arrows drivers wouldn't be offered a new contract by the end of the year. Having scored both of the team's two points I was confident it wouldn't be me loosing out, but with over half the season still to run, anything could happen. Points at Magny Cours were probably out of the question, but if I kept consistently beating my teammate, I had to be in with a shout at the end of the year.

QUALIFYING
Like most people, I'm not a big fan of Magny Cours, the circuit itself is actually pretty good fun but I struggled to find a good setup and by qualifying after giving everything I'd got I could only manage 18th. Not great but I still beat De La Rosa, who languished down on the back row.

1. M Schumacher 1:14.673
2. Hakkinen 1:14.886
3. Barrichello 1:15.511
4. Coulthard 1:15.726
5. R Schumacher 1:15.811
6. Fisichella 1:16.892

17. Wurz 1:18.908
18. Jones 1:19.013
19. Diniz 1:19.086

21. De La Rosa 1:20.762

RACE
Yet another sunny, dry raceday and yet another 2 stop strategy for me. At the start, Trulli failed to get away in his Prost, and the stationary car caused carnage in front of me as cars fell over themselves, allowing me to get up to 14th, which was turned into 11th after some handy late braking into the Adelaide hairpin. By lap 4 I was up with Frentzen who was stuck behind Zanardi. Going into turn 1, Frentzen ran wide and forced me out into the gravel, there wasn't any contact but the incident dropped me to 13th.

I kept the group ahead who were still being held up by Zanardi at about 2-3 seconds before their squabbling led to Zanardi going off at the Chateaux d'Eau corner on lap 8. He rejoined behind me and so I was up to 12th. With the Willaims roadblock out of the way, Hill in 11th quickly pulled away and I had no answer for him. Fisichella and Panis in the group ahead pitted on lap 21 and I rose to 10th. Hill and Irvine then pitted on consecutive laps, and Zanardi rammed Fisichella out on lap 24, all before I pitted on lap 25 at the same time as Frentzen. I emerged 11th as expected, with Panis the big loser in the stops about 13 seconds ahead. A quiet middle stint followed as I tried in vain to close the now 18 second gap to the Prost. Having got no closer, he pitted on lap 46 and for 5 laps I ran in 10th before I made my stop on lap 51.

A slow pitstop cost me even more time and I came out with Panis now 23 seconds ahead. Slowly the gap stretched out to about 40 seconds, whilst I maintained the gap to Diniz behind me at around 6-7 seconds. I closed out the race in a solid 11th and while a top 10 finish would have been nice, considering my grid position and the slow pace of the car, it was a good result. At the front it was business as usual as Hakkinen stretched out his lead in the championship.

1. Hakkinen 1:33:51.031
2. M Schumacher +17.571
3. Coulthard +25.449
4. Barrichello +45.932
5. Frentzen +1 lap
6. R Schumacher +1 lap
7. Irvine +1 lap
8. Hill +1 lap
9. Villeneuve +2 laps
10. Panis +2 laps
11. Jones +3 laps
12. Diniz +3 laps
13. Zanardi +3 laps
14. Alesi +3 laps
15. Zonta +3 laps
16. Badoer +4 laps
17. De La Rosa +4 laps
18. Gene +4 laps

Standings after 7 rounds:
WDC
1. Hakkinen 52
2. M Schumacher 36
3. Coulthard 20
4. Irvine 16
5. Herbert 13
6. Barrichello 13
7. Frentzen 8
8. R Schumacher 7
9. Zanardi 4
10. Zonta 2
= Diniz 2
= Jones 2
13. Trulli 1

WCC
1. McLaren 72
2. Ferrari 52
3. Stewart 26
4. Williams 11
5. Jordan 8
6. BAR 2
= Sauber 2
= Arrows 2
9. Prost 1

Next round is my home race, Silverstone!

[AndreaModa]

1999 FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 8: GREAT BRITAIN

Back on home turf, I was looking forward to the race in front of of my home crowd, cheering the Brits on. Arrows too were looking for a good result for their home race too. I enjoy the track a lot, even if it's hard to get right and find a good setup. A strong midfield performance was the target, points seemed like a very long way away.

QUALIFYING
Qualifying went well, I was able to beat my best practice time by about half a second, having laid 17th at the end of practice. The improvements lifted me to 14th which I was quite pleased with.

1. Hakkinen 1:21.010
2. Coulthard 1:21.705
3. M Schumacher 1:21.744
4. R Schumacher 1:22.556
5. Frentzen 1:23.070
6. Trulli 1:23.781

13. Herbert 1:26.235
14. Jones 1:26.485
15. Zanardi 1:26.764

19. De La Rosa 1:28.603

RACE
The race I'd rather not talk about too much, essentially Sunday afternoon came and a shower prior to the start left the track wet, but drying, but with more rain expected later on. The field was split on choosing dry or intermediate tyres. I chose the latter and came to regret it after getting as high as 9th after lap 1, the drying track forced me to pit on lap 7 but I took on extra fuel so I'd only have to stop once more. Whilst the other drivers on inters pitted too, I fell to 17th. By lap 20 it began to rain and the track quickly got wet once more. As everyone else dived for the pits my schedueled stop wasn't for another 8 laps so I held on in the conditions and climbed as high as 11th. Eventually the tyres could hold no more and I pitted on lap 27, and fell to 15th and in the mix of the midfield battle. At Vale on my outlap however I misjudged my braking and careered into the back of Villeneuve which puts the BAR out and forced me back to the pits for a new front wing, the stop dropping me back to 17th, but I was now fueled to the finish. I make up good time on the intermediates which hold up well despite the rain getting heavier. I climb to 14th by lap 43 as more pitstops take place, but after a collision between Barrichello and Fisichella results in the Benetton loosing it's rear wing, I hit the slow car around Becketts, causing more damage and forcing me to pit once again on lap 45. It was truly heartbreaking as I had a lovely pace, I'd even unlapped myself from Wurz who was running 7th at the time. The stop put me back to 15th, before a huge crash at Priory thanks to the suspension damage I'd picked up from hitting Fisichella ended my weekend's work. I walked back to the pits and had a little cry at the back of the garage, I was so disappointed. Meanwhile at the front, Hakkinen had truly dominated, having picked the right tyres and made his pitstops at just the right time, he'd lapped the entire field. He's looking odds on for the championship at this rate. One crumb of comfort for the team was De La Rosa getting his highest finish of the year in 12th.

1. Hakkinen 1:31:29.934
2. M Schumacher +1 lap
3. Barrichello +1 lap
4. Coulthard +1 lap
5. Frentzen +1 lap
6. Trulli +2 laps
7. Hill +2 laps
8. Wurz +3 laps
9. Irvine +3 laps
10. Alesi +3 laps
11. Panis +4 laps
12. De La Rosa +4 laps
13. Diniz +4 laps
14. Badoer +4 laps
15. Zonta +4 laps
16. Gene +6 laps

Putting the despair of my home race behind me, the circus moved back to the continent to Austria.

1999 FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 9: AUSTRIA

QUALIFYING
Being a nice, simple and short track, I like Austria and although practice wasn't that fruitful, come qualifying I pulled out a beauty of a lap and took 12th on the grid.

1. M Schumacher 1:11.180
2. Hakkinen 1:11.509
3. Coulthard 1:11.606
4. Barrichello 1:12.325
5. Villeneuve 1:12.722
6. Panis 1:12.864

11. Trulli 1:13.710
12. Jones 1:13.761
13. Irvine 1:14.158

20. De La Rosa 1:16.022

RACE
A dry race followed the dry qualifying and I decided on a two stop strategy once more. An unbelievable start and good late braking slotted me into 6th by turn 1 and for the next lap I had a fun battle with Barrichello for 5th before I braked way too late into turn 2 and rear-ended the Stewart, causing a bit of a mess and forcing me to pit for repairs. The Brazilian was out and I reminded myself to go and apologise to him afterwards. I was fueled up so I'd only make one more stop so once again it was damage limitation, I was burning from the stern in 18th. Any comparison to a John Watson-like performance was out of the question though, I just wanted to make up as many positions as I could.

I was promoted to 17th after Diniz pitted for repairs after he collided with Panis, and I closed the 17 second gap to Badoer and passed him on lap 9, with De La Rosa following on lap 12. Zanardi was next in 14th, but try as I might, I couldn't close the 15 second gap. By the time Villeneuve went out with gearbox problems on lap 40 promoting me to 14th, Zonta in 13th was still 12 seconds away. Of course, everyone else was 1-stopping, and the stops came thick and fast around lap 45, and I made mine on lap 47, dropping me to 15th. Incredibly however, the top three cars then all retired within the space of a few laps which put me up to 12th which became 11th as Diniz finally pitted on lap 52. Zonta however was 25 seconds ahead, and whilst I closed it to 15 seconds, 11th is the best I could manage. Still not a bad result, but Jordan were delighted as Frentzen took his first win of the year, and Hill finally scored some points for 3rd. Benetton also picked up their first point!

1. Frentzen 1:28:42.636
2. Irvine +29.647
3. Hill +42.880
4. R Schumacher +1 lap
5. Trulli +1 lap
6. Fisichella +1 lap
7. Alesi +1 lap
8. Wurz +1 lap
9. Zanardi +1 lap
10. Zonta +1 lap
11. Jones +2 laps
12. Diniz +2 laps
13. De La Rosa +3 laps
14. Badoer +3 laps

And so the standings after 9 rounds:
WDC
1. Hakkinen 62
2. M Schumacher 42
3. Coulthard 23
4. Irvine 22
5. Frentzen 20
6. Barrichello 17
7. Herbert 13
8. R Schumacher 10
9. Hill 4
= Zanardi 4
= Trulli 4
12. Zonta 2
= Diniz 2
= Jones 2
15. Fisichella 1

WCC
1. McLaren 85
2. Ferrari 64
3. Stewart 30
4. Jordan 24
5. Williams 14
6. Prost 4
7. BAR 2
= Sauber 2
= Arrows 2
10. Benetton 1

Next round and we're heading north to Hockenheim and Germany!

[AndreaModa]

Blimey, the summer break is over, and it should be back to business now with the German Grand Prix.

However...

Players of F1C will be aware of the bugs at Monaco and San Marino with the AI cars, and I mentioned these issues in my race reports above, and it is for that reason that there were only 7 finishers at Imola, and a pitiful 3 at Monaco.

Another issue people might have noticed is the unusually high number of finishers in most races.

As this was beginning to not really reflect an accurate F1 season of the time, I decided to hunt out a patch for these issues and incidentally found a great one that also modified the AI drivers talent to better reflect the real world (so the Benettons now actually score points more regularly, and Frentzen actually makes a decent attempt at the championship, etc, etc), as well as fixing the track bugs and introducing more frequent retirements.

Without wanting to spam, I thought I'd link the mod here as I personally think it's brilliant: http://www.racesimulations.com/F1C/files/6210.html

Anyway the long and short of it is that Sammy Jones' current F1 career has been brought to an abrupt halt and will continue no further, though I am re-starting it with the new mods in place, which should ensure a much more realistic championship.

I'll open a new thread later this evening to document the new, improved career.

Carlos/Goblin if you want to delete this thread once the new one is up in approx 2-3 hours that would be great! Cheers.

[CarlosFerreira]

Carlos/Goblin if you want to delete this thread once the new one is up in approx 2-3 hours that would be great! Cheers.

I'd leave it as it is, usual procedure around here; if, for whatever reason, you'd prefer to see it locked, just let either of us know.