Ukyo Katayama - best CC driver in GP2

Has anyone noticed how well Katayama drives (esp. qualifying) in GP2? I'm running a championship season at ace level and I can normally qualify within the top 6. But *** me dead if good ol' UK isn't right up there with the nearly best of them (4th - 7th) <g>. How is it that he drives better in the sim than in real life? (Coulthard seems to bee a wee bit too good too...). Chris

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> Has anyone noticed how well Katayama drives (esp. qualifying) in GP2? > I'm running a championship season at ace level and I can normally > qualify within the top 6. But *** me dead if good ol' UK isn't > right up there with the nearly best of them (4th - 7th) <g>. > How is it that he drives better in the sim than in real life? > (Coulthard seems to bee a wee bit too good too...).

It seems as if they had Senna in the game, and then just changes his name to Coulthard for the release version. If you change his name back to Ayrton then his performance seems much more realistic. Julian _____________________________________________________________________ University of Oxford

> Has anyone noticed how well Katayama drives (esp. qualifying) in GP2? > I'm running a championship season at ace level and I can normally > qualify within the top 6. But *** me dead if good ol' UK isn't > right up there with the nearly best of them (4th - 7th) <g>. As I recall 1994 was Ukio's best year in F 1 with some good finishing positions. That year the Tyrell Yamaha seemed to go right to the top with a lot of HP and one of the best top speeds in the field. They've gone downhill since that season. Harold -- **************************************************** * Harold Zijp Multimedia- & Internetproducties * * Frozen Orange records: low budget cd-recordings! * * member of Iprecom Groep Groningen * ****************************************************

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> > Has anyone noticed how well Katayama drives (esp. qualifying) in GP2? > > I'm running a championship season at ace level and I can normally > > qualify within the top 6. But *** me dead if good ol' UK isn't > > right up there with the nearly best of them (4th - 7th) <g>. > > How is it that he drives better in the sim than in real life? > > (Coulthard seems to bee a wee bit too good too...). > It seems as if they had Senna in the game, and then just changes his name > to Coulthard for the release version. If you change his name back to > Ayrton then his performance seems much more realistic. > Julian > _____________________________________________________________________ > University of Oxford

Katayama had some outstanding performances in '94, but I will grant that he was not as *consistently* quick as he is in the game. Coulthard isn't quite Senna-like in the game (hardly ever takes pole, for instance, and is *usuall* slower than Hill), but he is FAR too consistent - I had the computer run a full season yesterday, and he NEVER dnf'ed and finished no lower than fourth all year. Hill still won the title pretty easily - he won 7 races, and dnf'ed twice. In general, the Ferraris are a bit too strong on slower circuits (Alesi won Monaco!), Schumacher isn't strong enough (and was also too unreliable in the season I ran, but that could just be bad luck), Hill seems to be about right, the McLarens are about right, especially in qualifying (Hakkinen usually much quicker than Brundle). The game does run some good races - in my simulated season, I used acccelerated time in qualifying and _most_ of each race, but would watch the first few laps, and whenever the gaps got small at the front of the field. The Italian GP was a CLASSIC - as good as any real race I have watched in years! Schumacher and the Williams duo were covered by about 2-3 seconds for the last 15 laps, with lots of great dicing, until the last 5 laps, when both Williams drivers went a bit psycho and lost the ability to drive properly - they were both all over the road, failing to come off corners properly, taking incorrect lines. I kept waiting for a "trouble" indicator on the dash, but none came. Schumacher won, Hill second, Coulthard third. Has anyone else seen this wierd behavior from AI drivers? Rick

: Has anyone noticed how well Katayama drives (esp. qualifying) in GP2? : I'm running a championship season at ace level and I can normally : qualify within the top 6. But *** me dead if good ol' UK isn't : right up there with the nearly best of them (4th - 7th) <g>. : How is it that he drives better in the sim than in real life? : (Coulthard seems to bee a wee bit too good too...). During the season '94 that was the case: both Katayama and Tyrrell were in great shape. Joonas

I change the names from Coulthard to Villeneuve which is more realistic. I drove Monaco in a Ferrari and it was a piece of cake(well, I did have supension failure on the front right but nursed it back to the pits for it to be fixed in under 10 secs!!!), I was 3 secs faster than nyone else during the race, unlike other curcuits.

<snip> Maybe their tyres had turned to poo by that stage. So far the closest I've seen is at Spain. I drove (still driving it - had to save) the best I've managed so far and about 10 or so laps in blasted by Hill who was really running at below par speed. Seemed very out of character for this car/driver. He's still in the race (at half way point) but a very lack lustre performance. May be one of the random elements coming in to play. BTW has anyone noticed how if you start from the back of the field that all the CC drivers ahead generally won't give an inch, but by the time you come to lap them they are much more willing to "move over". I can't be entirely sure of this, but it seemed to be a nice touch to the AI. Chris

>Coulthard isn't quite Senna-like in the game (hardly ever takes pole, >for instance, and is *usuall* slower than Hill), but he is FAR too >consistent - I had the computer run a full season yesterday, and he >NEVER dnf'ed and finished no lower than fourth all year. Hill still won >the title pretty easily - he won 7 races, and dnf'ed twice. Interesting. I've run one complete season so far, which was won by Coulthard. I'm about halfways into my second season. In my experience, front row of the grid is almost always formed by Schumi and Coulthard. Coulthard also runs very fast during races, but is only fourth in the second season cause his car has been unreliable. Maybe the sim makes some modifications to the reliabilities/driver performances at the beginning of the season. It looks a little like that. Samppa -- See my homepage for Formula One Shadow Series: http://www.hut.fi/~tax/ "Kuorma-auto - Hy?dyksesi tiell?"

snip (I wrote) At first, I thought that it was just another example of the neat AI in GP2 - Coulthard actually appeared to block Hill into the second Lesmo and on the next straight. The wierd bit is, though, that after Hill got by, both Coulthard and Hill wouldn't take corners properly - their turn-in was very abrupt, and they would either miss the exit of the turn and go off, or come off the corner WAY to the inside, leaving 2-3 car-widths to the outside curb. I still can't figure it out.... Rick

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> Has anyone noticed how well Katayama drives (esp. qualifying) in GP2? > I'm running a championship season at ace level and I can normally > qualify within the top 6. But *** me dead if good ol' UK isn't > right up there with the nearly best of them (4th - 7th) <g>. > How is it that he drives better in the sim than in real life? > (Coulthard seems to bee a wee bit too good too...). > Chris

I agree. Ol' Katayama was in 2nd place in a Aida championship race for a while, before he hit me. :) Oh yeah. Coulthard is too fast. However, he does seem to crash and break down a lot.

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> x-no-archive: yes > >> Has anyone noticed how well Katayama drives (esp. qualifying) in GP2? > >> I'm running a championship season at ace level and I can normally > >> qualify within the top 6. But *** me dead if good ol' UK isn't > >> right up there with the nearly best of them (4th - 7th) <g>. > >> How is it that he drives better in the sim than in real life? > >> (Coulthard seems to bee a wee bit too good too...). > >It seems as if they had Senna in the game, and then just changes his name > >to Coulthard for the release version. If you change his name back to > >Ayrton then his performance seems much more realistic. > I couldn't agree more. Coulthard almost always blasts everyone away and I have a > real struggle with him. I think the drivers reflect very well how they were at > the start of that season. Hill bumbles along and Schumacher and Senna > (Coulthard) do consistently well. > Jamie (waiting for the editor so Senna can start racing again...) > ___________________________________________________________________________ > ______________________________________________________ __ __ _ __ . __ > Opinions expressed here are my own and not those of... (__)|-</-\(__ |__ -_

I'd like to add Oliver Panis to the list. It seems as though he is always behind me, right up my rear wing. No matter what position I am in, leading, in the middle or near the end of the pack, he is always in my mirrors. Sometimes he tries a foolish manuever, especially while heading into a chicane. And down long straights, no matter how hard I try not to let him draft in my slipstream, he sticks like chewing gum. Is it just me, or does anyone else want to concur? Me, Leon

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>>Coulthard isn't quite Senna-like in the game (hardly ever takes pole, >>for instance, and is *usuall* slower than Hill), but he is FAR too >>consistent - I had the computer run a full season yesterday, and he >>NEVER dnf'ed and finished no lower than fourth all year. Hill still won >>the title pretty easily - he won 7 races, and dnf'ed twice. >Interesting. I've run one complete season so far, which was won by >Coulthard. I'm about halfways into my second season. In my experience, >front row of the grid is almost always formed by Schumi and Coulthard. >Coulthard also runs very fast during races, but is only fourth in the >second season cause his car has been unreliable. >Maybe the sim makes some modifications to the reliabilities/driver >performances at the beginning of the season. It looks a little like >that.

I have also run a full 100% season (Ace level) and Hill won the championship with Schu close behind. Coulthard had one DNF and was on the podium for every race he finished but he only managed one win (Jerez) in the whole season. My front rows were consistently Schu/Hill with occasionally Berger or Alesi popping in. Think Coulthard took one pole (Japan). My best start -- 3rd in Australia -- good way to end the season (Only three top 10 starts all season). eric

One thing that I have found works good for me during the races is that to prevent the computer drivers from trying those patented Damon Hill Banzai overtaking maneuvers in the corners which sometimes tend to take both of you out, try taking a tighter line into the turn, for example setup your line for that turn from the middle of the road instead of the outside, this is called defending your line and works wonders to prevent you from "tempting" them to try and make a pass at the wrong moment. Please no flames, I don't mean to bash Damon here just that he had a few of these maneuvers when trying to pass Schumacher over the years, and even one of my favorite drivers Alesi has also been known to do this once or twice ;-) I don't think this agressiveness is bad AI, actually it is very realistic when you compare this to some of the moves and mishaps that happen in real F1. Cheers. --John -- ------------------- John (Joao) Silva http://weber.u.washington.edu/~jsilva Seattle, Washington USA.

>I don't think this agressiveness is bad AI, actually it is very realistic >when you compare this to some of the moves and mishaps that happen in real F1. Hi John, Too true. Give them an inch and they'll go for it and expect us to back off. Close the door on them and they will (usually!) give way. Cheers, Richard

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> Has anyone noticed how well Katayama drives (esp. qualifying) >in GP2? > I'm running a championship season at ace level and I can >normally > qualify within the top 6. But *** me dead if good ol' UK isn't > right up there with the nearly best of them (4th - 7th) <g>. > How is it that he drives better in the sim than in real life? > Chris

Remember that GP2 is based on the 1994 season. Little Ukyo drove a stormer that year, and certainly got the attention of many top teams. I'll never forget the pictures of his Tyrell barrelling along right behind the Williams' at Monza.Perhaps he drives a bit too fast in the game, but he was the revelation of 1994.

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> x-no-archive: yes > >>Interesting. I've run one complete season so far, which was won by > >>Coulthard. I'm about halfways into my second season. In my experience, > >>front row of the grid is almost always formed by Schumi and Coulthard. > >>Coulthard also runs very fast during races, but is only fourth in the > >>second season cause his car has been unreliable. > >>Maybe the sim makes some modifications to the reliabilities/driver > >>performances at the beginning of the season. It looks a little like > >>that. > >I have also run a full 100% season (Ace level) and Hill won the championship > >with Schu close behind. Coulthard had one DNF and was on the podium for every > >race he finished but he only managed one win (Jerez) in the whole season. My > >front rows were consistently Schu/Hill with occasionally Berger or Alesi > >popping in. Think Coulthard took one pole (Japan). My best start -- 3rd in > >Australia -- good way to end the season (Only three top 10 starts all season). > In my season Coulthard is way up there. The pole is almost always > Coulthard/Schum. and Coulthard has won more than half the races. Hill has been > ***and scored 17 points in the first 7 races! - more through ***performance > rather than DNFs (he had one). > Jamie > ___________________________________________________________________________ > ______________________________________________________ __ __ _ __ . __ > Opinions expressed here are my own and not those of... (__)|-</-\(__ |__ -_

After watching Damon in the last 3 or 4 Grand Prix's can I assume that the patch (should it ever be forthcoming) will include his absolute *** starts - from pole to 4th in one foul swoop :)) He blames his clutch, I blame my joystick :)) Gary --