(updated 17:05)
FOM steers its legal attack at gamers next
More than 30 pages of mods for three racing simulations, two of them licensed Formula One video games, have been taken down on the demand of F1’s rights holder, enraging some in the sim racing community.
The mods were listed in a forum thread at RaceDepartment, a racing news and community portal, and concerned the racing games Automobilista, F1 2013 and F1 2014 on PC. Many of the mods updated the liveries and decal positions for real-world cars licensed to appear in the two F1 titles.
The sim racing site Pretend Race Cars inveighed bitterly against the move, calling it “a power tripping exercise on F1’s part,” though conceding the takedown demand was “technically justified from a legal standpoint.” Formula One World Championship Limited owns the rights to the cars and teams participating in their championship series.
PRC noted that Codemasters’ F1 series ships each year with a fictitious livery for the Williams team, and users manually edit the vehicle’s design so that races conform to reality. F1’s stance here effectively forbids that, though this would really only catch the racing body’s attention if a mod was shared.
All of the mods appear to have been available for free, but F1’s interest in taking them down has little to do with someone making money off their intellectual property, and probably more with making sure the latest version of its licensed game, F1 2015, is the only option for up-to-date liveries and racing teams.
More news in the world of F1
Fastest lap times on qualy and race at Melbourne since 2000
Redditor r/venom02 provides some interesting insight on lap times over the years in Melbourne.
It’s interesting to notice that while the qualyfing times have dropped and are near track record, fastest laps on sunday got higher and higher since 2009. I think mostly because of refueling ban. Notice how 2004 fastest lap during the race (by M. Schumacher) was almost identical to his pole lap; impressive speed.
2016 cars seem to have caught up with the V8 era even in race trim
Petition keep F1 on free to air television
A UK focused petition but certainly something we all want to keep going in the UK. So many sports have declined since becoming pay TV. Please sign!
How Li’l Max shot himself in the foot (updated 17:05)
While debate is raging over Max Verstappen’s arrogance (or lack thereof), it is interesting to glance at what would have happened had he not chosen to dive erratically into the pits against his team’s instructions and without its knowledge. The good types at Autosport have run through the numbers and it seems that Maximilian may have single-handedly wrecked his own Australian GP.
When on lap 31, Sainz was called in for a suboptimal tire change. At that point he was running 5th in front of Hamilton (6th) and behind Verstappen (4th) and Ricciardo (3rd). At the very moment of the “pitgate” on lap 32, Verstappen (on softs) was maintaining an average deficit of 0.4s per lap vs Ricciardo (also on softs) whereas Grosjean in his Haas was at a more significant 1.7s deficit (vs Ricciardo). Had he stayed out and pitted according to the team’s strategy (presumably around lap 42, when Ricciardo finished his tires and pitted), Verstappen would likely have ended up in front of the Haas train and in a good position to trouble Massa’s Williams for a potential 5th place position. Instead, youth and hormones brought him home in 10th place…
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Oh boohoo… cry me a river. UK will lose its free to air tv and we should care? Where was the UK when the rest of the world lost their free to air TV?
Indeed. The fact is popular sport is now primarily on pay tv channels. Football, Golf, Tennis, Rubgy, MotoGP and Boxing are all on pay TV channels. Frankly having F1 on TV without having to pay anything other than the UK TV license fee was pretty generous.
Those who say F1 will die without it having a FTA (free to air) platform? Has the same happened to all those other sports?
I’m not saying I like the decision, but F1 won’t suddenly disappear because of this.
You’re partially right, F1 will not disappear without being transmitted in FTA channels, however, comparing it to football or boxing is just ridiculous. Both of these disciplines have incomparably bigger fanbases. Removing F1 ftom FTA TV is reducing the sport’s market penetration. Every kid in my country knows about football. Every one knows local and at least a couple international teams, many of them can watch the matches live. This makes them accustomed to the sport, they like it more. Many of them will buy their own TV subscriptions to watch their favorite teams when they grow up. Formula 1? Some of those same kids are aware of its existence and the rest… aren’t. Unless the parents (let’s face it – 9 out of 10 times – the father) watch it, or he or she sees it by an accident and gets hooked (despite the show being hardly exciting most of the time), they won’t care at all about it. This policy will not have immediate effects, it will however be damaging in the long run.
Why would anyone want to simulate the current F1 series?
“New AI-engine with mid season rule changes and multiple qualifying formats”
ooh sounds good, a random rule generator that changes between sessions, so after setting your car up nicely in FP1 and skipping ahead to qualy you suddenly find yourself disqualified, and forced to start from last, then when you skip ahead to the race and you find as the driver starting last you now have to sprint past lions and jump thru a flaming hoop to land in you car 😀
hmm, maybe we shouldn’t give them ideas 🙂
shame(ful) about the attack on the game mods, but hardly surprising really, always liked to make believe there’s a parallel world where Sauber (or dare I say McLaren) have more sponsors on their car 😉
@Andy from Beaverton:
Hahaha! Quality rip.
FWIW (cos I really suck at computer games), I’d like a mod that enabled me to replace the race promoter and the President of the FIA.
Only UK residents can sign the petition, that’s a pity.
It’s not a fictitious livery on the Williams, it’s a version of this, which was actually raced in reality
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/bott-8-5/
There’s no advertising for alcohol products in the game because the game is sold in countries where there’s no such advertising.
People edit or modify this at their own risk. IMO, it’s not “power tripping” when the actual license holder makes takedown requests. It’s the softest kind of intervention next to doing nothing.