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Post 29 Mar 2014, 2:59 pm

Mike - You mentioned keeping copious stats for stats junkies...I am not going to suggest keeping them for the Test Lap, but are you planning to collect them?

Working for an analytics company like I do, I might have some fun stuff we could do with those stats.
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Post 29 Mar 2014, 3:22 pm

Yes, but at this point I don't know which ones to track/maintain. If you have some ideas on it you're welcome to take the bull by the horns...

I'll send you what I've been receiving from a PBEM game that I'm observing. The stats are a little confounding to me.
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Post 11 Apr 2014, 6:42 am

I think this information belongs here. Chris sent me a message with some thoughts on track selection and how some tracks favor being in the front while others favor sitting back. Doug, shortly thereafter, posted some detail at BGG that supported Chris's comments. Fascinating.

Defining track styles is something I've spent a good bit of time working on over the years. It can be harder than it would seem. I can make assumptions and I can measure the crap out of things, but until the races happen it can be hard to judge.

Right now I judge tracks based on some key physical characteristics that I suspect will affect how the track plays -- width, length, corner density, longest straight -- and if I have the data I'll measure median grid position for a podium finisher and average bid for a podium finisher. I use these two data sets to mark each track on two continuums: from Wide/Fast to Narrow/Slow and from Favors racing from the front of the grid to favors racing from the back of the grid.

To make a potentially long story short, here's how I currently categorize my current tracks. An asterisk means I don't have enough actual results to confirm my suspicions so their grouping is based on looking at similar tracks or only a few races. I've been wrong with assumptions before and this certainly does not mean that this is the only strategy that can work on these tracks... I suspect some veterans of these tracks will have some differing opinions.

Tight/Slow Tracks that favor Running from the Front:
Hungaroring
Catalunya
Marina Bay (Singapore)
Monaco
Nurburgring*

Tracks a lot like that first group, but less so:
Albert Park (Australia)
Gilles-Villeneuve*
Interlagos (Brazil)*

Tracks that are Wide/Fast but seem to favor running from the front:
Istanbul Park
Yas Marina
Monza
Spa

Tracks that are Tight/Slow but seem to favor running from the back:
Silverstone (< 2010)
Buddh (India)*

Tracks that are Wider/Faster and tend to favor running from the back:
Suzuka
Silverstone (>2009)
Hockenheimring
Circuit of the America's*
Bahrain*

Track like the group just above but even more so:
Sepang (Malaysia)
Yeongam (South Korea)
Valencia
Shanghai*