2016 Challenge Australian Grand Prix

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Flag of Australia.png   2016 Challenge Australian Grand Prix
Race details
Round 1 of the 2016 Formula Challenge season
Albert Park.png
Date 23rd February, 2016
Event 2016 Challenge Australian Grand Prix
Location Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia
Course Temporary Street Circuit
3.295 mi / 5.303 km
Distance 15 laps, 49.425 mi / 79.545 km (each race)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver France Geoffrey Fournier Epic Racing
Time 1:37.096
Race One Podium
First France Geoffrey Fournier Epic Racing
Second England Jonathan Holmes Arrow International Racing
Third Austria Max Melamed Scuderia Basilea
Race One Fastest Lap
Driver Sweden Johan Lindberg YTF1
Time 1:37.994
Race Two Podium
First Spain Carlos Fernandez Tēafor Motorsport
Second England Cameron Brewster Draig Racing
Third Austria Max Melamed Scuderia Basilea
Race Two Fastest Lap
Driver Spain Carlos Fernandez Tēafor Motorsport
Time 1:37.502


The 2016 Challenge Australian Grand Prix - the opening round of the season - took place on the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Albert Park in Melbourne on the 23rd of February. It was the first time that a Formula Challenge and indeed a Career Ladder round took place on the rFactor 2 platform.

Report

Background

Following on from the dominant performance of Eric Stranne and Ice Cold Racing in the 2015 season, Formula Challenge was expected to be a lot more open this season, with a number of potential race-winning drivers being signed up to the grid. This was also the first time that rFactor 2 would be used as the platform for the career ladder, meaning a lot of teams and driver were venturing into the unknown and making the chances of a upset even greater.

The Formula Challenge grid reduced to 16 teams after 21 competed in 2015, amongst the changes were promotions to the Supercup for 2015 champions Ice Cold Racing, Team Proline, Karjala Racing, Racing Team Schroten and TG Racing (formerly Centurion Grand Prix). Meanwhile, Dogecoin Racing, Downforce iZone Racing, Katana Motorsports, Triple Twenty and Viking Racing all did not continue. The newcomers to the Formula Challenge grid were EVAL Simracing Team, Magenta WRT, Sportscar Driving Evolution and Tēafor Motorsport, none of them having competed in Formula Challenge before now.

Downforce's position as the 1-car team used to nurture drivers was subsequently taken over by the GPVWC Academy.

Qualifying

Geoffrey Fournier, driving for Epic Racing, took the first pole position of the year with a time of 01:37.096, making the most of a well-rubbered in track to edge out Arrow's Jonathan Holmes by only 0.004s, confirming the pre-quali predictions of a tight session. Tēafor's début got off to a brilliant start with Carlos Fernandez qualifying third, just ahead of James Johnson driving for MadCape. The result was noticeable for the top four being covered by only 0.038s.

Other noticeable performances included Andrew Waring qualifying sixth for BackMarker Brigade in a one-off showing and Niranjan Kumar taking fourteenth for newcomers Sportscar Driving Evolution.

Race One

The first race of the season was won by Forunier after a tight, race-long battle with Holmes. Johnson was part of what was originally a three-way fight for the victory, however a spin two-third of the way into the race put pay to any chance of victory, Johnson would later lay the blame at a high tyre wear for the spin that resulted in him finishing in fifth place. Max Melamed of Scuderia Basilea took the final podium position following Johnson's spin, however he only just held off the hard charging effort of Stephane Rouault (Deltec), who drove a superb race to gain nine positions from his starting position.

It was a race to forget for Waring after his fantastic qualifying performance gave Backmarker Brigade hopes of a strong points finish. Starting sixth, he was involved in a first corner collision that resulted in a large pile up and calls for a race restart. Unfortunately for the Canadian, the race continued meaning his first lap resulted in retirement. Magenta's Nicolas Hillebrand registered the highest climb from his grid position, gaining a remarkable sixteen positions from thirtieth on the grid to score points with fourteenth.

YTF1's Johan Lindberg took the fastest lap (despite having no front wing endplates on his car following a first-lap accident) on his way to a twelfth place finish.

Race Two

Race two saw Deltec's Aidan Polson take pole position after the reverse grid draw, however the Scot wouldn't see the chequered flag, retiring late on in the race. This left Fernandez to score his first win afetr starting second capping off an incredible début for Tēafor. The winning margin being a lot larger than the first race with the Spainiard seven seconds ahead of Cameron Brewster (Draig) with Melamed once again taking third For Basilea after starting in eighth. Fernandez also took home the fastest lap of the race.

Race 1 winner Fournier was caught in another first lap collision and could only recover to sixteenth, one position shy of the points, whilst Holmes retired from the same incident. This meant Melamed and Fernandez would leave Albert Park tied for the championship lead on thirty two points, four ahead of Brewster.

Post-race

Dirty Air Controversy

Following the race meet, many drivers voiced their complaints regarding the levels of dirty air experienced in the race, leading to Holmes creating an opinion poll on the GPVWC Forum. In it, he asked What do you think of the Dirty Air in FC? with the most popular response being It's Bad with 64% of the vote (28 votes). Only 9% (4 votes) voting for the positive It's Great! response. The rest voted for the neutral It's Okay... response (12 votes). A lot of drivers have asked for the league management to lower the levels of dirty air, however no official response has yet been made on the matter.

First Lap Collisions/Race Restart Controversy

Both races featured first corner collisions on the opening lap with a decent number of drivers receiving damage, leading for some to call for a restart to the race, however neither were. The drivers were quick to question both the driving standards of some drivers and also the league rules for restarted a race, however it was largely believed the race did not restart due to a number of damaged cars continuing with the race rather than retiring on the spot. Indeed the first race saw only six retirements whilst race two had ten.

Results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 Spain Carlos Fernandez 32
2 Austria Max Melamed 32
3 England Cameron Brewster 28
4 France Geoffrey Fournier 25
5 England Jonathan Holmes 20

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 England Fanatec Draig Raing 44
2 Switzerland Scuderia Basilea 42
3 England Tēafor Motorsport 40
4 England Epic Racing 25
5 South Africa Deltec Racing Team 25

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Image Gallery

External links

Preceded by:
N/A
GPVWC Formula Challenge season
2016
Succeeded by:
2016 Challenge Bahrain Grand Prix