RD Formula Manager - Season 10

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Short Season Recaps
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SEASON 1
It was a new experience for the motorsports world. Dozens of teams launched their teams to be the winner of Formula Manager. The first victory came from Pastor Maldonado who raced for Eggbeer Racing. Adam Eggbeer was the pioneer manager. However, the series proved a huge challenge for many investors. Many teams had to quit mid-season due to financial issues. Eggbeer was one of them. But Marcel Purschke bought the team and moved on.

For the title, it was a duel between Project D led by Sebastien Levret and Team Aware led by Daniel Higgins. In the end, Project D grasped the crown with Petrov leading the charge. Aidan Keranen and Sasha Jednak were the flash mid-season entrants. They achieved victories, but their fewer race participation number disabled their title bids. Manolis Sigoulakis was also a formidable force with Grip Racing.

Top Managers of the Season:
1 - Sebastien Levret
2 - Daniel Higgins
3 - Marcel Purschke/Adam Eggbeer

SEASON 2
The previous season's closing winner, Michael Schumacher was the shining star of the year. With Sasha Jednak's Red Night, he grabbed 5 wins. His closest rival was Mika Hakkinen who drove for Aidan Keranen's 2KF1. But the Finn driver could not keep up with the German.

First season's giants, Project D and Team Aware were nowhere to be found. Project D had to quit mid-season while Team Aware could not even launch their car. Purschke Racing was also closed before the season.

Below the top 2, Steven Poirier's Viper Team Racing had a strong showing. The team took a victory and finished 3rd. Jimmy Laad's DTK Racing made their debut and their top 5 battles with Sigoulakis' Grip Racing were great to watch.

Top Managers of the Season:
1 - Sasha Jednak
2 - Aidan Keranen
3 - Steven Poirier

SEASON 3
It was the first season in which the default engine rule was scrapped and different manufacturers came into the fray. Renault and Ferrari built the best machines while Mercedes and Cosworth struggled.

Continuing their previous season's form, Red Night dominated the first races. But it was Daniel Ricciardo this time instead of Schumacher. But the domination was cut short with the intrusion of three new faces: Tapio Rinneaho's Girl Power, Tobi Kederer's BRT and Milos Ancevski's Apex Racing Team. Simona de Silvestro took the dominating role in the mid-season with 3 victories, but it was the consistency took the title in the end. Ronnie Peterson of BRT managed to win all with only 1 victory. The last race was a title decider between him, Silvestro and ART's Fernando Alonso. Red Night's late-season form pushed Ricciardo way back into 4th before the final race.

It was a good season for Grip Racing and DTK Racing. Especially for the latter as Ferenc Szisz took the team's maiden victory. On the other side, 2KF1 shocked everyone as Hakkinen could not deliver.

Top Managers of the Season:
1 - Tapio Rinneaho
2 - Milos Ancevski
3 - Tobi Kederer

SEASON 4
There were interesting developments in the winter. Rinneaho introduced a new engine to the series named "Audrey." But Girl Power lost Silvestro as she switched sides to ART. 2KF1 lost Hakkinen's hand.

The season started off as a duel between BRT and Red Night. It was Ricciardo leading the title fight post-race 4, but Peterson gained a crazy momentum afterwards and took 5 consecutive wins while Ricciardo struggled. In the end, it was Peterson taking the title. Girl Power taught Silvestro a lesson with Michele Mouton and Lella Lombardi as they finished higher than the ART driver. It was DTK once again, taking a single victory as they won the closing round of the season. Ferrari was the dominating engine as both BRT and Red Night used them. While Audrey showed a good progress of development as DTK won the last race with them.

Top Managers of the Season:
1 - Tobi Kederer
2 - Sasha Jednak
3 - Tapio Rinneaho

SEASON 5
The season took off with a series of engine manufacturer introductions. Keranen brought Aston Martin to the sport, while Ancevski introduced Blackcat and Jednak came in with Riferra. But none of the manufacturer teams had much success as Kederer teams BRT and Silver Soul crashed the all opposition.

BRT won all 10 races. The team had 7 doubles. Silver Soul followed them with Alonso's frequent 3rd place finishes. It was the most straightforward season of Formula Manager. The other teams had no answers to BRT's supreme car and strategies. Especially Grip Racing and 2KF1 was big disappointments of the year. Ricciardo was the best after BRT/Silver Soul teams as he brought podiums to Red Night. However, Girl Power scored more points with their late-season developments.

Top Managers of the Season:
1 - Tobi Kederer
2 - Tapio Rinneaho
3 - Sasha Jednak

SEASON 6
Regrettably for the sport, ART and Grip Racing closed factories and Blackcat's development was stopped. Driver changes were groundbreaking. Season 5's BRT dominating team shockingly lost their drivers. Fangio and Hulkenberg were the new guns of the team. Peterson switched to Red Night. Alonso to 2KF1, and Ricciardo to Mars GP. Jawz GP showed a promising pace and Schumacher started the season with pole position for the team.

Supplied by Porsche, the new BRT driver Hulkenberg took the victory in the season opener. It was apparent that the team did not rely on their driver solely. 2KF1 and Red Night started the season with solid results as well.

In the 2nd race, Andy Black's Canon Racing took a striking victory as Bellof dominated the field. But more striking news followed as Red Night and DTK announced their withdrawal from the sport. 2KF1 immediately signed up Peterson.

Rest of the season saw proper performances by Girl Power, Canon Racing, Aaron Reed's Reed Road Racing, Jason Lutz's Ram F1 and Jawz GP, but the title battle was between BRT and 2KF1. It was Hulkenberg vs Alonso vs Peterson. Silvestro scored podium finishes several times, but Girl Power chassis did not have enough pace for the top.

At the 4th race, Ricciardo came back to the top by joining to BRT. He then took 4 victories and stole many valuable points from 2KF1s. It allowed Hulkenberg to remain the title fight without any victory except the season opener.

After the mid-season break, BRT started manufacturing Lamborghini engines. Surprisingly, the team did not use them and kept running Porsches instead. It was Jawz GP which ran the newly introduced Lambos. But 2 races later, BRT switched to Lambos and the engine took its first victory with Ricciardo.

In the end it was a 4-way battle between Hulkenberg, Alonso, Peterson and Ricciardo. Retirements by 2KF1 drivers and Ricciardo's late entrance allowed Hulkenberg's great consistency to win the title for both himself and BRT.

Top Managers of the Season:
1 - Tobi Kederer
2 - Aidan Keranen
3 - Tapio Rinneaho

SEASON 7
Peterson returned home to BRT while Ricciardo was demoted to the sister team Silver Soul. Hakkinen was back at 2KF1. Hulkenberg was hired by Reed Road Racing. Jimmy Laad made a return with a new brand, Equipe Delacroix.

2KF1 lacked the previous year's form while Girl Power could not get into a consistent rhythm as Silvestro won 2 times, but finished lowly in the rest of the races.. Hulkenberg made wonders with RRR as the team took their maiden victory.

It was an easy season for BRT as Peterson took the title once again. He finished on podium in all of the 7 races.

Top Managers of the Season:
1 - Tobi Kederer
2 - Tapio Rinneaho
3 - Aidan Keranen

SEASON 8
Apex Racing Team returned with Delacroix engines. Alonso immediately signed up with them. Peterson shocked everyone by joining to Keranen Motorsports. The rumours indicated a million dollar deal. Peterson's void was filled with Ricciardo and Briscoe at BRT.

Reliability was a huge concern for the teams as races saw many retiring. BRT did not have a single retirement as Ricciardo took the title with a comfortable lead. Briscoe challenged him, but it was in the hands of the Australian whole season. Schumacher was the best of the race as Jordan Bradford's Elysium Racing Team had a wonderful season. Ram F1 also proved strong this year. ERT and the American team presented a great battle to be the 2nd best to BRT.

ART and Cuspide tried experimental setups which allowed them to be crazily fast at certain tracks. Alonso and Norris managed to get a single victory each, but their season-wide performance was terrible. Girl Power and 2KF1 were the disappointing teams of the season. Delacroix engines showed the best development rate of the season as their power unit gained considerable performance boost. Alonso's victory was the engine's maiden victory. But they were not any close to Lamborghini.

Top Managers of the Season:
1 - Tobi Kederer
2 - Jordan Bradford
3 - Jason Lutz

SEASON 9
Red Night made its return to the series, but the team lacked a good driver line-up and big budget. It was a re-orientation season for the squad. Peterson signed up with Silver Soul. Engine regulation changes brought the field closer.

There were quite a number of surprising victories. Watson won with Cosworth engine and Keranen Motorsports car. Silver Souls took two wins with Ferrari engines. ART once again achieved a victory, with Norris this time.

BRT was the team to beat once again. Ricciardo showed a great form of consistency. But this time, 2KF1's Hakkinen was also consistent. It was until the very last race that their title fight continued. It was Ricciardo winning in the end.

Elysium and Ram F1 massively fell off the mark from the anticipation they built from the previous season. Bradford decided to call it quits, but Lutz kept his Ram F1 team operational for the upcoming final season. Girl Power was once again having problems with the pitwall and their drivers. Silvestro made too many mistakes, but her mistakes were equalled by the wrong calls from her engineer.

Top Managers of the Season:
1 - Tobi Kederer
2 - Milos Ancevski
3 - Aidan Keranen

SEASON 10
The final season saw Lamborghini engines falling behind Aston Martin and Delacroix. This allowed for a three-way battle between BRT-ART-2KF1.

BRT won the season opener with Ricciardo. Hakkinen finished a massively disappointing 13th and that poor result sealed the fate of the season for 2KF1. In the 2nd race, Red Night returned to the top with Vettel. However, it was just a one-race showing by the team as they failed to remain competitive in the other 4 races.

Alonso had a very consistent season. He finished 4 races on podium, but never took a victory. Ricciardo fell out of podium in three races and it ruined his title chances.

In the final race, Alonso, Ricciardo and Hakkinen had a chance for the title. The 2KF1 driver dominated the race massively, but his 3rd victory was not enough as Alonso finished 3rd. Ricciardo finished behind his team-mate Bellof on 5th and this dropped him to 3rd at the drivers' championship. 2KF1 snatched the 2nd place at the constructors' from BRT with just 1 point. ART won that title as well.

Top Managers of the Season:
1 - Milos Ancevski
2 - Aidan Keranen
3 - Tobi Kederer
 
@Sasha Jednak - Do you regret taking that break from the sport? Considering the possibility of winning even more titles in those seasons? Are you satisfied with your return?
At the time, it was to complex for me to play, and it was to predictable also, so I don't regret taking some time off. I saw seasons 3-8/9 like one big season 2. Luck playing main part in first 1-2 races/seasons and then winner dominating until the last 1-2 races/seasons.
As for return, I came back to play, for fun, so I am very happy, as it got me back to what game was at the start (pure fun). In the end, won even 1 race, so it was a plus to having fun. :)
For the end, first we would like to thank: Paul Di Resta, Adrian Sutil, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Nico Hulkenberg, Anthony Davidson, Lucas di Grassi, Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel, Ronnie Peterson, Kimi Raikkonen, Robert Kubica, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Loeb and Kazuki Nakajima. All of them were part, at least for a few races, of our teams and helped to achieve great results.
Then, of course, big thank to other managers, first Aidan, with whom I started at the same time and shared first 2 seasons. Then Tobi, Tapio and Milos that joined in S3 and proved to be tough to beat (some almost impossible :p). And to everyone else who joined later, maybe I didn't have much on track battles with you, but I enjoyed having more new good people here.
The best for last, Omer, what else to say, incredible game, now looking at it how it started and where it finished. Fantastic work, I know how hard it was (I tried it and failed :D), and you managed 10 seasons. :thumbsup: Now waiting for next one ;)
 
@Azabadaza - Numerous times, RRR proved that it is a team capable of podiums and challenging wins. But consistency was rather poor, as the critiques say. How do you review the past seasons?
I would largely agree with the critiques. My time started in rough waters, and tbh I didn't actually know what the game even was, dragged here by Aidan for a bit of a laugh. But after a good chat with Omer, I decided to give it a go. I am extremely glad I made that decision because since then I have found real enjoyment, and find myself eagerly awaiting each update, when I was present. That was the only downside, often I found it hard to commit to daily updates, but also would miss days sporadically so couldn't plan ahead. That led to, as "the critics say", very inconsistent performances. Multiple times I started a season off strong, or was in a position to compete at the front, but all too often all the hard work would come undone. Still, I am proud of all the achievements along the way.
Thanks to everyone that was involved in this great game for making it what it was, and huge thanks Omer for putting in the time and effort to run the thing!! I will miss FM greatly, and look forward to the future and what it may hold
 
@Aidan Keranen - After being a top runner since the team's inception, you were always there. And this season you really stepped up your game. It must feel terrible to lose like that though, winning 3 out of 5. But it is still quite an achievement both for the team and Aston Martin engine, what are your thoughts?
I took a bit of time before sitting down for this one.
Yeah, it's a real shame all things considered. Especially in the last 2/3/4 seasons, it's all been about building the optimum team, training the driver/s, improving the engine, minimising mistakes during races. It was a big effort and this was the season that it would all pay off.
To actually go back and edit my practice strategy for Australia, cost me everything. That's how late a call it was that I made. There is no doubt in my mind that this season would have been a walkover without that. Credit to the teams and drivers elsewhere, congrats to Milos.. but I know who the best driver was, I know who should have won. You don't win 3 races out of 5, one of which was a straight shootout with the eventual champion, and not be considered better. It's just a damn shame that we end up walking away with nothing when we should have had it. It stings.

Looking at it as a whole, I'm glad I jumped onboard in Season 1, it's been a brilliant run for the series. I've been known to maybe put a bit too much time into it, but I don't really regret that at all. It will definitely be a loss to our small section of RD without it, a void that someone should fill... :x3:. Against people like @kedy89, @Milos and @Sasha Jednak (everyone did well but these three in particular were always a thorn in my side :p ) has been so much fun to try to out wit.

Thanks for all the times Omer, it has been a blast.
 
@TTupsi - Silvestro and Girl Power might be the most iconic duo of this sport. A constant threat, challenged title more than once... But do you also feel that the latest seasons were a bit disappointing for the team? Still, the past victories must feel good?
I don't know about the most iconic, there are other duos like Mika & 2KF1, Ronnie & BRT etc. but they definitely have to be included in the discussion! We are very happy for everything she, Michele, Danica and Lella did for us during all these years. Much success was had and although the last few seasons were rough we kept true to our values as a team.

I'm most disappointed at myself for not being able to give my team and the game the attention they deserved. You've done fantastic work running this game Ömer and there has never been a moment I've not enjoyed being part of it. After all, that was everything this has been about for me. I never tried to be competitive BRT or Apex -style where every decision is taken seriously. I played the game my way and I'm thankful it wielded some results early on but I'm not too disheartened with the recent lack of success. It was never the driving force anyway. :)

Big thanks for everyone who have participated down the years, it was a good one. Would go around again!
 
Thank you all for those kind words. I am very happy to read those. :)

Some more stats:

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