GP2 Forum

Hello everyone,

First of all, let me say I'm really sorry. Yes, if there was something that the world was not needing right now, was the 748th version, revision and reimagining of the 1994 Formula 1 season, as another alternative Grand Prix 2 1994 Carset. It's nothing less that preposterous that this still keeps going. Anyway,

I'm afraid that the idea that ocurred me was still not represented in previous carsets so I could not keep it to myself. I'm really sorry for bothering the world this way.

I have this book "Schumacher - The Life of the New Formula 1 Champion", by Timothy Collings, which covers until the end of the 1994 season. There are several good pieces of information about Schumacher and his surroundings - things that are seldom discussed today, as this is now old history. (Like the view that Frentzen got bad advice in his road to F1.) One of those pieces, very hard to find on the internet, says that during the weekend of the 1993 Hungarian GP there were rumours that Senna would somehow consider a move to Benetton in 1994, in order to pressure Williams into signing him. The book adds that, somehow, that talk contributed to an erratic on-track performance by Schumacher during the weekend.

So I considered this alternative scenario. What if, for some absurd reason, Senna actually signed for Benetton for 1994?

• What if the French engine maker Renault was so enthused by the idea of taking the French quasi 4-four time world champion Alain Prost to the 5th title, equalling Fangio for the very first time, that they challenged Prost to stay for 1994?

• What if Frank Williams was so dependent on Renault and so faithful to his idea that the car is the priority rather than the driver, and complied with the Renault request, keeping Prost and Hill for 1994?

• What if Ford, so happy with Senna's performances and work in early 1993 season, became eager to have him in its oficial team for 1994?

• What if Ford, the American brand, always with an ambitious and irreverent way of working and thinking, decided to have Senna onboard in its oficial team to reinforce its brand worldwide? And pairing the great Brazilian with the up and coming dynamic young German already in the team? With no "European" considerations about having a Top Driver and a sidekick, and going for two Top Drivers?

• What if Flavio Briatore got rammed by a truck (or lorry, for those of you who are reading me from Britain) while driving in a bustling Italian road and got severely injured, unable to run Benetton from July 1993 onwards, for several months, or years, or ever?

Honestly, it doesn't seem so weird. So, here you have it. This 1994 carset has minimal changes to the vanilla one:

• Senna is in car number 6 and has the exact same Random Grip Range of Schumacher. (Verstappen does not debut.)

• Prost is in car number 2, as in 1993 (unfortunately, GP2 has no number 1...). I give Prost, Hill's vanilla grip; and Hill, Coulthard's vanilla grip.

• For the sake of it, Ratzenberger is in his car number 32, with Gounon's grip.

• And, following the same thinking, Pedro Lamy is in his car number 11, with Zanardi's grip. Hence we have the drivers that performed in the Brazilian GP, but with Prost instead of Verstappen.

Please, feel free to waste your time adding furthers changes. Would this be better with the improved 1994 car jams and graphics developed subsequently? Or a diferente engine sound, for that matter? Could Senna have a qualifying grip diferent from the race one (does that work properly)? Should Senna and Schumacher have different grip ranges? Should the Grip Ranges be changed in order to be more close to real life results than the vanilla game, as Schumacher won 75% of the races in was classified in real life 1994 season but I don't think he can win 12 of 16 races in the vanilla game?

Could you win the vanilla game in Ace mode with "Selected Team Power" and selecting either Senna or Schumacher, quarreling against a 16384 AI driver as your team mate and having only 750 HP at your disposal during the race?

Lots of questions. Once again, I'm really sorry for wasting your time. Have fun!

Very nice. I'll take a look. I love these kind of alternative universers.

I'm emulating Senna's carreer, but I had to stop it in the 5th race of 84 season, because I'm out of time right now. But my ideia is to create alternatives carsets for each of the next years based on in-game performances and real life rumours. I have mapped most of F1 rumors since 85 and after each season I'll analyse the real life rumors, the in game performance + results to adapt my carsets and create a alternative F1 universe. I"m going to exclude drivers I don't like in favor of others.

Mazorca wrote: ↑

06.11.2024, 14:45

I"m going to exclude drivers I don't like in favor of others.

I hope that De Angelis survives. He was perhaps the second best Senna F1 team-mate, after Prost. Several interesting results against him and also against Mansell.

I also hope Senna doesn't veto Warwick. With Warwick at Lotus and De Angelis alive, the 1986 season will be even more amazing - and the subsequent ones too. Maybe De Angelis ends up in Benetton instead of Roberto Moreno. I love Moreno, he built an amazing racing career for a guy always without money, but he didn't reach the same top echelon level.

Good luck!

I have to correct: it was not Senna who spread the rumours of going to Benetton, according to Timothy Collings - it was Briatore himself, to "promote his team", and Senna "accepted the idea and massaged it a little, because he knew it could help him in his already advanced negotiations with Williams." But Collings does not imply that Briatore was really serious about hiring Senna.

I love Moreno, he built an amazing racing career for a guy always without money, but he didn't reach the same top echelon level.

Moreno had some excellent rides in CART. He drove the newman-haas cars and the patrick cars. I remember he won in cleveland one year and he was very emotional.

These alternatives 1994 seasond are very interesting. Good job Ismael! When I read it I felt like i was really in march 1994 just before the overture of this season.
I had begun a season with Senna in a Mclaren Lamborghini teamate of Hakkinen, Mansell come back in the williams (with Hill) and Prost in the ligier teamate Panis..