Internet Formula One Grand Prix Championship Rules

(V1.3.1 by Markus Kruggel, 21 August 1997)

Acknowledgement to jamesd@santafe.edu and J_DAHAN@pavo.concordia.ca who came up with the original rules used in the PC version of this championship and to James Smith who maintained the championship before I took over the job.

Please note that this set of rules is still provisional and can change before the season starts. Changes and additions to last year's rules are marked as bold and italic.

Rules for the Ace Championship

Each participant must use a legal copy of Oliver Roberts' F1GP-Ed v3.xx. Pirated versions will do strange things to your computer and it is unlikely that you are able to participate in the championship with a cracked version of F1GP-Ed.
A special datafile for F1GP-Ed will be available before the start of the season. The following options must be used:
- Player HP = 716
- ACE
- 1997 LEVELS
- Frame rate = 10fps (PAL and NTSC)
- Qualifying Time = 60 min
- Race length = 100%
The following options are NOT to be used/on/modified:
- No driver aids
- No practice Q tyres
- No unlimited Q tyres
- No use team HP
- No degrade HP
- Car fragility
- Yellow flag/car removal delays
You must enable F1GP-Ed's Local Speed and Risk Factor patches whenever you drive an IC session. If you're using an unregistered version of F1GP-Ed, you have to ensure that you copy the values from the patches' windows manually in the respective gadgets and save that datafile to F1GP's binary before you start an IC session.
Important: You must use car no.39 during all sessions. This is the default in the datafile.
You may use patches like PatchF1GP to give buffered buttons, 2 buttons gears, etc, and you are allowed to use utilities like SplitTime and AGPPerf, the information section of GPPatch, etc. These patches only provide information that today's F1 drivers have, and considering that there's no pit board system in F1GP, it makes sense to use them.
In short: Competitors must be running the computer cars and their own car at the default speeds set by the official championship datafile, at ACE and 1997 LEVELS race options, at 10fps, for 100% race distance.
Teams are allowed. A team comprises of two drivers. The only purpose of being in a team is to score points in the team championship. (and sharing info with your team-mate of course. :-) Three driver teams are not allowed due the way they would adversely affect the team championship.
Whatever is legal in the game is not always legal while racing in the championship. In other words, don't cut corners by leaping over the grass like a mad gazelle and don't go around intentionally ramming the computer cars off the track. I know it's possible to fly over the first chicane at Hockenheim at 200mph+ (for example), but don't. It's not very sporting.
The first week of each race is qualifying. You should enter a NON-CHAMPIONSHIP RACE for each round of the championship and then complete a 60 minute qualifying period. After qualifying you should e-mail me your qualifying time, and they will be mailed to the list. You may also enter a standard championship season as all of the races in this championship are run in the same order as in the game itself.
The next week is the race itself. You should save your game between qualifying and the race, and reload before racing so that you do not need to start at the back (hopefully :-). You can race immediately after qualifying and mail your results in one go if you want, but you won't benefit from seeing everyone else's qualifying times before your race.
Results will be accepted anytime before the relevant deadline.
For the Fidonetters and all of you with similar "problems": be aware that you send in your times early enough so that they will reach before the deadline. It is suggested that you change the schedule so that you send in your results 2 days before the official deadline. If you follow this schedule you will not lose any time because the intervals between the races remains two weeks.
Some races (about 10%) will be declared as wet races. Everyone must race those rounds under wet conditions. This is possible due to Oliver's editor allowing you to set the probability of having a wet race. Therefore whenever a wet race is called you must edit your copy of F1GP to give a 100% chance of having a wet race.
You must use AGPLaptime to log your race (without the computer cars). Send the logfile together with your race result (refer to How to send your results for more info about this this).
You are not allowed to read the entries of your logfile during the race that you log.
You may save and continue qualifying or a race at any time, but you may not reload or restart. You only get one shot at each race.
You must save your game immediately after crossing the finish line. This saved game must be submitted on request to check that no-one is cheating. I don't expect anyone to cheat, but if results are suspect this is the only way you can check your results.
Deadlines will be set to make sure that the championship progresses at a reasonable speed. If you miss a deadline your results may not be included for that race.
Any car control method is allowed. This includes traction control on/off.
Any machine type (A500/A4000/...) is allowed.
Please play fair. Not all of the rules can be enforced 100%.

The points system is one of the strange things about this championship, but it works because it allows more people to score points and therefore be more involved. All 16 race results count towards the championship:

QUALIFYING:
Pos.	Points
1st	20
2nd	16
3rd	14
4th	12
5th	10
6th	8
7th	6
8th	5
9th	4
10th	3
11th	2
12th	1

RACE:
Pos.	Points
1st	180
2nd	170
3rd	165
4th	160
5th	155
6th	151
7th	147
8th	143
9th	139
10th	135
11th	132
12th	129
13th	126
...	...
(3-point-dropoffs)
...	...
54th	3
55th	0

RETIREMENTS:

All the points on the left are rewarded for a fully completed race. If a driver retires, the race distance he was able to complete will be taken into account.If somebody crashed out after completing 22 laps at Spa and ends up on 7th place compared to the other competitors, he'll get 50% (22 out of 44 laps) of the 147 points that can usually be scored with a 7th place. The points will always be rounded up to the next full point, so that the driver in the above example will get 74 points for his result.
Lapped drivers that finish their race and see the chequered flag, will be treated as if they had completed 100% of the race.
A result of 0 laps will be treated as if the driver completed 1 lap.

You are not allowed to transfer points from one championship to the other. If you change the championship you compete in but then decide to get back to your old level you will still have the points you gained there. That means that people who change the competition will have two different scores: one for the ACE and one for the SEMI-PRO championship.
There are no entrants fees, the championship is run for free. Hence there are also no prizes. This championship is purely for fun. But keep in mind that you're using F1GP-ED, a shareware product. Be aware: If people use pirated versions of F1GP-ED I will throw them out of championship.

Rules for the Semi-Pro Championship

The SEMI-PRO-Championship provides a competition for people who don't want start in the ACE-Championship because they think they are not competitive enough to compete with the "cracks". It shall also give people the chance and motivate them to improve their skills so that they may make the step to the ACE-Championship when they feel strong enough.
Everybody is free to choose in which championship to compete. But you are not allowed to race in both competitions at the same time. Decide where you want to race and when it's time to change. You may change from the SEMI-PRO to the ACE as well as from the ACE to the SEMI-PRO. (It's useful to drop me a note if you change the championship)
In general the SEMI-PRO-Championship uses the same rules but they differ in some points. You will get a special datafile for F1GP-Ed. Be sure that you don't alter the following options:
- Player HP = 716
- SEMI-PRO
- 1997 LEVELS
- Frame rate = 10fps (PAL and NTSC)
- Qualifying Time = 60 min
- Race length = 50%
The driving aids for this level are allowed. As this includes Indestructability, I must remind you to show a reasonable style of driving: no cutting of corners and no "straight-through-the-chicane" actions, please.
There will be 16 races but only your best 10 race results count towards the championship. This shall help people who have not enough time to do a 16 race season.
The points system will be the same as the one for the ACE championship.

Last modified: Thursday 21 August 1997 - 22:06