Starting off with the changes I made to the rules.
Budgets: Instead of $30mil what it was, you start with $50mil. Also important is the sponsor money which you get later. You get at least $20mil from sponsors over the season.
Staff: After thinking a bit about the worst case scenario, I decided to cancel the thing with staff experience. Salaries have also been increased.
Development: You now get more development tokens every week (from 200,500 to 400,700)
Young drivers: Instead of 3, I've put it down to 2 drivers max, to keep the driver list a bit shorter. This limit doesn't include your test driver.
Now, to the point.
So, I've created a PM with everyone (if I haven't, you've already done so with me), where we can talk on the topic, since everything will be done in private in this game.
Disclaimer: You are bidding against other managers!
Budgets:
$70 mil with the worst sponsors.
Also important! When calculating your leftover budget, keep in mind that you need to keep some for staff payments, car part payments, race-by-race payments, research&development, and on the occasions when your driver crashes, damage. All is said in the rules: (long rules) Section 5 (RBR costs), 6 (Staff), 7 (development/testing)
Tip (if you don't want to go through the faff): I'd say put aside $20-25mil for car maintence, repairs and the chief designer. And also I'd recommend another $10-15mil for testing.
Too low budget? You're just starting! Gonna be better next season don't worry.
Drivers:
First give me 5 driver names, then look at the picture.
You need to send me 4 driver names in PMs (one reserve name, in case another manager chooses the same driver name) (and if you want young drivers, give me their names also), and then choose 3 drivers from this list, so 1st driver, 2nd driver, and test driver (might want to read article 4.1.1 in the long regs, or 3.1 in short regs for that). For the other two drivers, read article 4.1 in long regs and 3.1 in short.
Salaries are a good representation of skill (green are pay-drivers, give you money), choose at least 3: two race drivers, one test driver. For test drivers don't go too expencive as you pay him 10% of his salary for the position. But also don't go for paydrivers, since you don't get their money if you put them as test. You can also get any 2 drivers as young drivers, for free. Also keep in mind that test drivers and young drivers improve faster than race drivers, and that younger drivers also improve faster, especially under 26.
Also, for the two race drivers and the test driver, tell me for how many years you're signing him (maximum 5), but keep in mind that the salaries gradually increase every year for paID drivers (ex. you pay some driver $10mil the first season, he'll ask for $11.5 the next season, then $14... and so on)
In the regulations, this is 4.1 in long regs and 3.1 in short.
Engines/Tyres:
You can read more about this under 4.2/.3 in long and 3.2/.3 in short regs.
All engine/tyre performances are randomised, the expencive engines/tyres are randomised between 7-15 and the cheaper ones between 0-15. 7,5=about 5 tenths.
The expencive engines can all give 3 contracts each, Ford can give 5 contracts.
Michelin and Bridgestone can sign 8 contracts each, while Goodyear can sign 3.
Staff:
You need to tell me a number of staff you want to have in your team. Read long regs, article 6 (entirely), it's very short and well explained I hope.
Gearbox/brakes:
Starting with brakes.
3 brake manufacturers:
Brakes 1: Fastest, least reliable
Brakes 2: Average speed and reliability
Brakes 3: Least speed, most reliable
And then gearbox:
You can choose any from 5 speed up to 8 speed. The penalty of extra gears is reliability, but the obvious gain is speed. 6 and 7 speed are well balanced, 5 and 8 speed are extreme. You can change mid season.
If you don't have enough money, you can always borrow a loan (not in the rules yet, but you can!). a $1 million loan paid over one full season has a 40% interest. For every extra million you borrow (maximum $50 million), the interest rises by 1%, while for every extra season you extend the loan by (maximum 3 seasons), the interest increases by 10%.
Oh, and I haven't touched on aero, but you will be allocating aero points after the contracts are signed. I also haven't touched on driver bonuses, for now they will be $0 since the point of those is to waste the extra money the top teams get from FIA rewards
Finally, remember that the contracts are paid race-by-race. Sponsors will pay you race-by-race also. Speaking of sponsors, you are choosing those after the pre-season test race. Also you'll be choosing the chief designer then too.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I am aware I probably haven't been exactly clear in what I said and it probably looks more complicated than it actually is.
(by the way, yes I didn't wait a full week, but anyone can still sign up during the contract-signing phase which will end in a week, or earlier depending on how fast you guys are)
Also important! When calculating your leftover budget, keep in mind that you need to keep some for staff payments, car part payments, race-by-race payments, research&development, and on the occasions when your driver crashes, damage. All is said in the rules.
okay, so a bit of a roundup:
-I've edited section 5 of the rules again, added the combined costs. Perhaps helps your math if you decide to do it.
-I've added another engine: Mecachrome. Sorry guys, I used an outdated picture If this changes your engine choice, you are free to change.
And some disclaimers:
-You do NOT pay a full salary for a test driver. You pay only 10% of it, if he's a paid driver with a salary over $200k. Else, you pay $20k (10% of 200). So if you go for driver 100 as test driver, he won't give you $36mil, you'll have to pay him $20k.
-Young drivers are free of charge. So again, if you go with driver 100, he is NOT going to pay you $36mil.
-I will again repeat: put section 5 of the long rules into the equation. Also, you may want to calculate testing (section 7 of long rules), in which case I'd suggest to use 350 tokens per race as an average, on this budget anything more would require extreme saving up.
-Remember: everyone else is in the same boat too!
Just saying, in case you have any questions to ask me, it's a good idea to do it within the next two days. When F1 2016 comes out, most of my focus will be on that so I may not be able to reply as quickly