Super Formula 2020

[Matt]

In short, there are three tiers of teams. You have to pick one driver from each tier per week. This will actually be done by car, not driver, given how some drivers might have to miss some rounds. Here are the tiers:
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Tier One: Pick up to twice each
DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing
Naoki Yamamoto
Nirei Fukuzumi

Vantelin Team TOM'S
Nick Cassidy
Kazuki Nakajima

carrozzeria Team KCMG
Kamui Kobayashi
Yuji Kunimoto
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Tier Two: Pick once each
TCS Nakajima Racing
Tadasuke Makino
Toshiki Oyu

Itochu Enex Team Impul
Yuhi Sekiguchi
Ryō Hirakawa

Team Mugen
Juri Vips [Ukyo Sasahara  for Round 1]
Tomoki Nojiri

Kondō Racing
Kenta Yamashita
Sacha Fenestraz
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Tier Three Pick up to twice each
JMS P.mu/cerumo・INGING
Hiroaki Ishiura
Sho Tsuboi

ROOKIE Racing
Kazuya Oshima

Drago Corse with ThreeBond
Tatiana Calderon

B-MAX Racing with Motopark
Sérgio Sette Câmara [Unconfirmed for Round 1]
Charles Milesi [Unconfirmed for Round 1]
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2019 Season Information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Super_Formula_Championship
2020 Season Information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Super_Formula_Championship
Official Site in English: https://superformula.net/sf2/en/

You will notice in the list, and in the most recent story on the front page of the website, that Vips will miss round one, and Sette Camara and Milesi are also likely to miss it. No replacements named for those last two so far. Again, picks will be counted against the car, so if you were to pick one of the replacement drivers, that would count against the primary driver as well.

It looks like both practices will be on Saturday, with qualifying before the race on Sunday. So there should be plenty of time to find the session results and make picks before qualifying.

I haven't completely figured out the points, but it will likely be similar to the standard MF1 format.

[Penfold]

I'll make my carefully considered selections after their practice runs.  Thanks for the links.

I assume we'll be posting the picks here.

Motegi:
1 - Yamamoto
2 - Sekiguchi
3 - Ishiura

Okayama:
1 - Fukuzumi
2 - Hirakawa
3 - Tsuboi

Sportsland SUGO:
1 - Cassidy
2 - Yamashita
3 - Camara

Autopolis:
1 - Cassidy
2 - Yamashita
3 - Tsuboi

Suzuka 1:
1 - Kobayashi
2 - Makino
3 - Matsushita - Racing with B-Max according to official site

Suzuka 2:
1 - Nakajima
2 - Oyu
3 - Matsushita - Might as well give him two shots at it!

[Matt]

Makes sense to me.

This is pretty much going to be entirely luck because, like you, I know about three of these drivers.

[Penfold]

Yeah, just the obvious ones for me: Oyu, Nojiri, and Hirakawa....

[Matt]

Motegi:
1 - Nakajima
2 - Hirakawa
3 - Tsuboi

Okayama:
1 - Nick Cassidy
2 - Tadasuke Makino
3 - Ishiura

Sportsland SUGO:
1 - Kamui Kobayashi
2 - Yuhi Sekiguchi
3 - Sho Tsuboi

Autopolis:
1 - Nirei Fukuzumi
2 - Tomoki Nojiri
3 - Nobuharu Matsushita

Suzuka 1:
1 - Kazuki Nakajima
2 - Sacha Fenestraz
3 - Hiroaki Ishiura

Suzuka 2:
1 - Naoki Yamamoto
2 - Toshiki Oyu
3 - Nobuharu Matsushita

Fuji:
1 - Nick Cassidy
2 - Ukyo Sasahara
3 - Kazuya Oshima

[Matt]

Fairly uneventful first race. Not sure they've got a good package to run this modified race format with no pit stops.

[Matt]

Here is the points system:

1st: 24 points
2nd: 20 points
3rd: 18 points
4th: 16 points
5th: 15 points
6th: 14 points
7th: 13 points
8th: 12 points
9th: 11 points
10th: 10 points
11th: 9 points
12th: 8 points
13th: 7 points
14th: 6 points
15th: 5 points
16th: 4 points
17th: 3 points
18th: 2 points
19th: 1 point
20th: 0 points

2 bonus points for pole

It's the exact same as the F1 game points, except that I integrated the podium bonus points into the normal points because all picks are weekly picks here.

[Matt]

Week 1
Motegi

Penfold:
Tier One: Naoki Yamamoto (1) - 7 points
Tier Two: Yuhi Sekiguchi (1) - 3 points
Tier Three: Hiroaki Ishiura (1) - 12 points
Total: 22 points

Matt:
Tier One: Kazuki Nakajima (1) - 16 points
Tier Two: Ryo Hirakawa (1) - 24 + 2 points
Tier Three: Sho Tsuboi (1) - 2 points
Total: 44 points

[Penfold]

My hopes were dashed within the space of a couple of minutes: Sekiguchi had a tyre punctured from behind and span out; Yamamoto clipped somebody, damaged his front wing and thus ruined his own race.  Not that either were star performers up to then, but they were both solidly in the top ten.

I don't know what the fuel tank capacity is like on these motors, but if they could stretch the races by a few more laps that might encourage more of the field to pit for fresh rubber - particularly if the track lends itself to overtaking.

[Matt]

Tsuboi was out in the first corner, but my race improved from there.

[Matt]

Penfold already forgot about this. To follow up on what we said last race, though, they did increase the distance for this week's race. About to start now, someone crashed on the formation lap and delayed the start.

Plus, several more drivers missing. Nakajima, Kobayashi, Yamashita, and others. They were at Le Mans last weekend.

[Penfold]

Damn, I should've put the calendar on this thread... didn't realise the next race was up. Oh well, at least they listened to us about upping the race distance.

[Penfold]

I know the Okayama race wrapped up many hours ago, but I just added three guys for the hell of it. I have no idea where they came in the race, in qualifying, or even if they competed this weekend. Ignorance is bliss, as they say....

[Matt]

Well, Tsuboi won and I think the other two did compete.

It was a slow start. As mentioned, Sakaguchi wrecked in the first Kondo Racing car before the green flag. Then, after everyone stopped on the grid again and they re-did the formation lap and everything, the two Nakajima cars collided going into the first corner while in the top three, collecting Fenestraz in the second Kondo Racing car. Oyu carried way too much speed into turn one, taking out Makino, who then clipped the rear of Fenestraz.

I fell asleep after that but vaguely heard Tsuboi taking the win.

[Penfold]

Just watched it on YouTube.  Based on that race I should continue to pick drivers without any deliberation.

They left Cassidy's stop too late.  I see what they were trying to do with stretching out his gap to Tsuboi, but once that lead stabilised he should've been in.  As it was, Cassidy only got one hot lap on fresh rubber and he took 1.5s out of the leaders, another lap and a half and he would've been crawling all over the top two.

Oh yeah, I missed your e-mail letting me know about the race but thanks for the heads up.