F12010: Hedger?s F1 Journey in 2010 and Beyond

[hedger_14]

My name is Brendon Hedger. I had always wanted to drive in F1 since I was young . A great 2 seasons in Formula 3 a few years ago had given me the option to race in GP2 and 3 seasons in GP 2 now has me eyeing a drivers seat for the 2010 season at 24 years of age. I had been to a press conference earlier in the week to announce my start in Formula 1, expressing interest in Lotus Racing. I finally received a phone call and I hoped it was for my job interest. ?Hello?, I said. ?Hey. This is Tony Fernandez. Team Principle of Lotus Racing.? So it was about F1. ?I on behalf of Lotus would like to offer you, Brendon Hedger a 1 year contract at Lotus Racing worth $500,000 a year as second driver. I?m guessing you want the position.? ?Of course, I do.? I was ecstatic. ?That?s good. You?ll be racing alongside Jarno Trulli. We would like you to come to Malaysia where we are based ahead of the Bahrain GP. We?ll pay for flights. This was the start of my Formula 1 career. I knew a great season could get me anywhere, even in the seats of a team like Force India or even Mercedes.

At the press conference announcing my arrival in F1

Now I'm driving for Lotus Racing​

 

[Chewie]

Great start to your story, and the game graphics do look pretty impressive

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Great start mate, looks really impressive. Maybe resize the pics to make the story better.

 

[hedger_14]

Yeah. Sorry about the size. I didn't realise they were so big until I posted them. I'll resize the images from now on. Update should come within the next hour or so.

 

[hedger_14]

Bahrain GP - Practice & Qualifying​

I was all ready for the Bahrain GP. We were at the track and ready for practice. I was looking forward for my first run in the Lotus. I went out pretty early in the session with the car set up to be smooth for the circuit and on the prime tyres. It was going to be a tough practice session to get used to the car and the track. On the warmup lap though, I went into the gravel which resulted in a puncture to my left rear tyre and I had to return to the pits. I put on a new set of prime tyres and headed out again. My first lap recorded an average time of 2:08.12, as I would need a fair bit better than that to cause problems in qualifying and the race. I put in some good laps on the hard tyres and went out for 2 runs of 9 laps each. After a nice session, my best time was 2:04.011, which was 20th fastest. The 2 Red Bull’s were fastest with Vettel going fastest with a time of 1:58.593, closely followed by Webber. Hamilton was the next fastest, followed by Massa, Button and Alonso. Renault and Mercedes were the next 2 fastest cars. I didn’t drive in P2 but went out in P3 with the option tyres on. I drove pretty well, recording a best time of 2:02.983. It was now time for qualifying and I was expected to finish 20th in qualifying.


My first lap in qualifying was pretty good with a time of 2:03.356, as I went out early in the session. I continued with a second lap, hoping for a better time. My second lap was a lot better, with a time of 2:02.457. I decided to go with one last lap early in the session to improve my time. My lap was about 3 tenths slower though so I came back into the garage, ready for a late run to improve my position. I was ahead of my teammate which was good. Unfortunately, he went faster later in the session and while I went out for my second run, I got a puncture to my front left tyre and I qualified 21st, behind Trulli. Webber went fastest in Q1 but Vettel went fastest in Q2 and Q3 to take pole. The grid was as follows:

1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Mark Webber
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Fernando Alonso
5. Jenson Button
6. Felipe Massa
7. Nico Rosberg
8. Michael Schumacher
9. Robert Kubica
10. Jaime Alguersuari
11. Adrian Sutil
12. Sebastien Buemi
13. Vitaly Petrov
14. Vitantonio Liuzzi
15. Rubens Barrichello
16. Kamui Kobayashi
17. Pedro De La Rosa
18. Nico Hulkenberg
19. Karun Chandhok
20. Jarno Trulli
21. Brendon Hedger
22. Bruno Senna
23. Lucas Di Grassi
24. Timo Glock

Track Overview

In the pit garage before Practice​

 

[Gaurav_7]

Yeah, lovely graphics. This can go a long way Hedger. Good Luck man!

 

[hedger_14]

Why won't the second picture resize :confused:

It is exactly the same size as the other.

 

[-D-S-B-]

Cool story bro.

No really, it is a cool story

 

[Aditya]

Great graphics. Looking forward to this story. Best of luck for this story, Hedger.

 

[hedger_14]

Bahrain GP - Race (25 Laps)​

So it was race day. I was ready to go. I was 21st on the grid and behind my teammate, Trulli. I had opted to start on the prime tyres and pit later on for the option tyres. It was a great moment as I sat in my car, waiting for the lights to go out to start my first ever race. The red lights came on one by one, before they went out and I was off. It was a bit of a messy start but I got around it all and moved into 19th, while Trulli had got off to a great start in 16th. Trulli fell back to 18th though and I was battling with my teammate. I tried to overtake him a few turns into the second lap but I caught his rear wheel and spun out, but I only moved down to 21st. I took over Di Grassi though and moved back into 20th, behind Hulkenberg. Trulli lost out to Hulkenberg and I again battled with Trulli without success. He made an early pit stop though on the 5th lap, moving me up to 19th. Chandhok was close on my tail though but I was doing well fighting him off. I had to weave through a Mercedes and Williams car, who appeared to have crashed. It promoted my position to 17th now, higher than my 18th position goal.

Chandhok soon after then touched the back of my car around a corner spinning me out, as I moved back into 18th. I was not happy. I spun out again, losing another position to Di Grassi, but when he pitted and De La Rosa had lost control when trying to overtake me, I found myself in clear air with nobody close in front or behind me, in 17th place. I continued to push but lost out to Glock on the pit straight. I was on his tail the whole of the next lap though and I caught the back of his car, spinning him out while I moved up into 17th again. It got really bad though, when I suffered a puncture to my rear left tyre, forcing me to pit for new tyres, using this chance to change to the option tyres. It got even worse, when I received a drive through penalty for speeding in the pits. By then, I was well out of the race and I received another penalty for Liuzzi being an idiot crashing into me while I let him through so my mechanic told me to just get through to the end. Again, I lost control of the car and a 4 way collision occurred. Maybe I would finish above 18th after all thanks to retirements. Sebastian Vettel won the race, while Alonso and Schumacher were the other racers on podium. I finished the race in 17th, while everyone below me retired. I didn?t think I started too badly but it all turned around with the punctured tyre. Here was the full results.

1. Sebastian Vettel 51:03.897
2. Fernando Alonso +3.4 seconds
3. Michael Schumacher + 7.2 seconds
4. Lewis Hamilton +10.5 seconds
5. Felipe Massa +15.6 seconds
6. Jenson Button +17.6 seconds
7. Mark Webber +25.5 seconds
8. Robert Kubica +30.6 seconds
9. Rubens Barrichello +38.6 seconds
10. Adrian Sutil +43.2 seconds
11. Sebastien Buemi +58.5 seconds
12. Jaime Alguersuari +64.1 seconds
13. Karun Chandhok +80.3 seconds
14. Lucas Di Grassiz +88.3 seconds
15. Jarno Trulli +117.7 seconds
16. Timo Glock +1 Lap
17. Brendon Hedger + 2 Laps
18. Vitaly Petrov DNF
19. Kamui Kobayashi DNF
20. Pedro De La Rosa DNF
21. Vitantonio Liuzzi DNF
22. Nico Hulkenberg DNF
23. Nico Rosberg DNF
24. Bruno Senna DNF


The press surrounded me asking me questions. ?Do you have any objectives for the current season?? ?I?ll try and be competitive throughout the season.? ?Are the team happy with the weekend performance?? ?The team are pretty happy with the weekend?s performance.? That was it for the conference before I left.

Lining up on the Grid

The first corner at Bahrain

Battling with Trulli

Avoiding Rosberg and Hulkenberg's Crash

Glock Spinning Out

Big Crash Involving 4 Cars

Finishing my 1st Ever Race​

 

[Dutchmen]

'wow' Awesome. the graphic is superb, and that made the whole thing amazing.

 

[AkshayS]

I'm loving all the pics, they are just superb. good job.
great update.

 

[surendar]

This is story actually making me to buy this game. Now, I am in hunt to buy this. :banana2 All I can say is - " WOW! " to the story as well as to the game's look.

By the way, pictures seem to be in 1200[width] * 800[height] dimensions. Resize it to 700 in width. It should fit in our PC mode.

 

[Chewie]

By the way, pictures seem to be in 1200[width] * 800[height] dimensions. Resize it to 700 in width. It should fit in our PC mode.

It all depends on the size of your screen. I have a 23.6" 1920 x 1080 screen and they fit perfectly fine.

 

[surendar]

Added to the story, I wanted to ask you for the game info -
1) What's the percentage chosen for the laps of the entire race [ i.e., it would be too long to play 70 laps like real race right? ]

2) Plus, what is the pit stop strategy in the game if the number of laps are shortened.

surendar added 2 Minutes and 58 Seconds later...

It all depends on the size of your screen. I have a 23.6" 1920 x 1080 screen and they fit perfectly fine.

Yes, it's fitting in my screen as I also have a wide screen LCD monitor[samsung]. But the dimensions which I mentioned is for general PC story mode to make it look very neat than very big.