I played around a bit more with rFactor today, seeing if I could simulate tomorrow’s GP race ahead of time. There were a couple problems, though:

1) FSOne 2007 is one of the best mods available for it, but it only has the 2007 teams, of course. I managed to hack together a slightly modified version that put the drivers on the right teams for this year, even if the bodywork and liveries are wrong, but close enough.

2) Finding the right settings. I increased the aggressiveness and AI level, but that just wound up creating pileups like the one I posted yesterday, so I toned it back a bit. I also had to turn mechanical failures off, or the entire field would eventually fall prey to engine or gearbox problems, even at the ‘normal’ setting.

So, with those solved, who does rFactor say is going to win tomorrow at the Hungaroring? The first run came up with Raikkonen first, Hamilton in third, and in second is…Kaz Nakajima? That seemed a bit off, and I discovered I’d forgotten to create a driver profile file for him, so it must have been using some high-skill default settings. After creating one and doing a second run, the top five were Massa, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kubica, and Kovalainen. I guess I’ll find out how accurate it is tomorrow…

(Update: Well, at the halfway mark the first two places were right, but a couple of mechanical failures mixed things up and in the end the only right call was Raikkonen in third.)