» Rule changes
» Membership
» Server downtime
» Account babysitting
» F1Time and the Policy on Multies
» Negative balance restrictions
» Points

As with any game, there must be rules that govern how the game is played. The rules in F1TIME are geared to ensuring the fair play and enjoyable game play for all managers.

The rules listed here are the general guidelines that govern the overall game play. Game features that govern the way the game works, but are not rules will be included on their relevant pages in the help bar just under the menu. As in real life, the more time you invest in knowing these idiosyncrasies, the better chance you will have to succeed in F1TIME.

Failure to adhere to the rules of the game can result in penalties within the game, bans, and even account deletion. Not knowing the rules is not an excuse for failing to follow the rules so please make yourself familiar with them.

Any new changes to the rules will appear in the Info Centre. As much warning as possible will be given for any rule changes.

By creating your account you agreed to the following Membership rules:

• Agree to play fair. This game is made to have fun.
• You gave full and true details when filling in the registration form. Personal information further provided in the game is accurate. If you move and wish to change your flag you should contact a GameMaster (GM). You may only change your name to correct spelling errors.
• This is your only account in the game.
• You know and understand the forum rules and will respect all players and GameMasters.
• If you find any bugs or programming mistakes you will inform a GameMaster immediately, or post it in the bugs section of the forum, and will not attempt to take any advantage from it. If you do not, you will almost certainly be deleted from the game. If you are unsure of whether something is a bug or not then please post the details on the correct part of the game forum.
• GameMasters are doing everything possible to make the game fair, but sometimes due to technical problems it may be needed to restart the game from a historical point (backup), but this will be done only when it is absolutely necessary.
• Any problems that may arise during the game will be solved as soon as possible (but remember that GameMasters have lives too).
• Any decision made by GameMasters, Admins or Moderators is final, though you still have the right to comment or send suggestions, but you will not necessarily get an answer or feedback.

Any violations of the rules will result in your account deletion.

As with all things internet related, occasionally there are server outages. While we do our best to avoid this, sometimes it is beyond our control. In cases where the server is out for a period of time the following rules will apply:

• Any single outage of 6 hours or more in the 36 hours before any race deadline results in that race deadline moving back 24 hours.
• If no single outage is 6 hours or more, but multiple outages total 18 hours or more in the final 36 hours before a race deadline, then that deadline moves back 1 day.

We regret that there will be rare occasions when it is simply not possible to delay a race. Race starts are automated - but delays have to be manually put in place. Therefore if the server comes back online and a staff member with relevant permissions cannot be online before the scheduled race start, then the race will begin. Should this happen there will be no rollbacks, and no compensation will be given.

Unlike many other games, and due to the ongoing nature of this game, we allow short periods of account babysitting, but the rules surrounding this are VERY strict.

• The player who is going away and giving their account details to someone else must first write an E-mail (PM) to a GameMaster, which must state:
  1. When they are going away
  2. How long they are going away for
  3. Who will be looking after their account
• The person who will be covering the account should also write an E-mail (PM) to a GameMaster, just in case the 1st E-Mail does not arrive for any reason.
• There is no need to wait for a reply from a GameMaster to the E-mail. The E-Mails are usually only checked when Multi Detection routines are run. If an account is flagged as a Multi account then we look to see if an E-Mail has been received regarding account sitting.
• Nobody can cover accounts for more than one player at any one time.
• The maximum length of time an account can be covered for is 30 days, if you are going away for longer than that then you must find an extra person or persons to cover the extra time, and all of this must be included in the E-mail to a GameMaster.

If the rules above are not adhered to, then all accounts involved will be deleted from the game.

We are fully aware that many players share PCs, and play from the same school networks, or Internet Cafes. To make the situation clear, account(s) will NEVER be locked for purely that reason.

Many online games use a strict policy of 1 PC to 1 Account. That is not something we believe in, nor something we would want ever to have to enforce. It is for these reasons that we need to warn people who share a PC, network or cafe, that the emphasis is 100% on THEM to make it obvious that they are not playing multi accounts or sharing accounts with friends.

Data sharing is part of the game, but if you share data with someone who you also share a PC with you run the risk of losing all accounts involved.

The rules are very clear too on account babysitting, if someone asks you to cover for them, make sure both of you have read and follow those rules. Failure to do so will likely result in the deletion of both manger’accounts.

Occasionally you may find yourself facing a negative balance. When your account is negative, you;

• can only use lowest level parts as specified for your league,
• can not train your mechanics,
• can not hire the two top level types of mechanics or designers and the current ones will leave the team if you are still negative at the end of season,
• in markets can only bid salary $750,000 or less,
• can not book a testing session.

However with negative balance, you;

• can still extend the contract with your driver for another season, and
• can hire new low level engineering and mechanic staff.

Points in F1TIME are awarded based on your finishing position and are as follows. To score points, you must finish 90% of the race distance.

Place	Points
1 place	25 points
2 place	18 points
3 place	15 points
4 place	12 points
5 place	10 points
6 place	8 points
7 place	6 points
8 place	4 points
9 place	2 points
10 place	1 points

» Fixed Race Income
» Race
» Championship bonus
» Cup bonus
» Team bonus

In F1TIME you earn money from a variety of sources that are listed below. Money is the life blood of your racing team so is vital to bring in more money than you spend or you will end up bankrupt.

Class	Income
Class 1	3,000,000
Class 2	2,750,000
Class 3	2,500,000
Class 4	2,250,000
Class 5	2,000,000
Class 6	1,750,000

This is income that is given for simply participating in the race. It depends on the class you are racing in and details can be found in the table.

Position	Prize money
1	3,000,000
2	2,800,000
3	2,700,000
4	2,600,000
5	2,500,000
6	2,400,000
7	2,300,000
8	2,200,000
9	2,100,000
10	2,000,000
11	1,900,000
12	1,800,000
13	1,700,000
14	1,600,000
15	1,500,000
16	1,400,000
17	1,300,000
18	1,200,000
19	1,100,000
20	1,000,000
21	900,000
22	800,000
23	700,000
24	600,000
25	500,000
26	400,000
27	300,000
28	200,000
29	100,000
30	0
Expand

The winner of a race receives $3,000,000, while second place is awarded $2,800,000. Every position after second then receives $100,000 less. There is no prize money awarded for qualification positions to encourage more racing throughout the whole field.

Place	Class 1	Class 2	Class 3	Class 4	Class 5	Class 6
1	10,000,000	9,000,000	8,000,000	7,000,000	6,000,000	5,000,000
2	9,500,000	8,500,000	7,500,000	6,500,000	5,500,000	4,500,000
3	9,000,000	8,000,000	7,000,000	6,000,000	5,000,000	4,000,000
4	8,500,000	7,500,000	6,500,000	5,500,000	4,500,000	3,500,000
5	8,000,000	7,000,000	6,000,000	5,000,000	4,000,000	3,000,000
6	7,500,000	6,500,000	5,500,000	4,500,000	3,500,000	2,500,000
7	7,000,000	6,000,000	5,000,000	4,000,000	3,000,000	2,000,000
8	6,500,000	5,500,000	4,500,000	3,500,000	2,500,000	1,500,000
9	6,000,000	5,000,000	4,000,000	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,000,000
10	5,500,000	4,500,000	3,500,000	2,500,000	1,500,000	500,000
11	5,000,000	4,000,000	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,000,000
12	4,500,000	3,500,000	2,500,000	1,500,000	500,000
13	4,000,000	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,000,000
14	3,500,000	2,500,000	1,500,000	500,000
15	3,000,000	2,000,000	1,000,000
Expand

At the end of the season the highest standing mangers will receive prizes for their performance. In each class each position will receive $500.000 more than manager one position below. Lowest position to get awarded prize money is 15th. Class 1 champion will get $10M, each lower class champion will get $1M less.

For each Cup round you pass, you will be awarded money. In class 1 this amount is $500,000 per round, in each lower class this amount is $50,000 less than in the upper class, so in class 4 for each cup round passed you get $350,000. There are a total of six Cup rounds.

Class	Award/season
Class 1	30,000,000
Class 2	27,000,000
Class 3	24,000,000
Class 4	21,000,000
Class 5	18,000,000
Class 6	15,000,000

At the end of the season all teams in a group will split the prize pot proportional to the number of points they have scored in the current season. Each individual team member then gets half of the amount won by their team. Only teams that have two managers will participate in this championship and will be awarded money.

» Taxes
» Winnings
» Financial assistance
» Promotion and relegation
» Suppliers
» Design losses
» Drivers and ageing
» Teams
» Retirement
» Testing

At the end of a season, several things will happen. To facilitate this all the offices will close as the adjustments are being made for the season reset. For the most part, you should treat the end of the season as any other break between races. Your sponsor negotiations will not advance and you should order parts before the last race for the first race of the next season. When your office does reopen for the new season you will however notice some changes have occurred.

Before you are given any season end bonuses you will be taxed on your current holdings. The tax brackets are as follow:

• under $50M not taxable,
• 30% above $50M.

After you are taxed you will receive your earnings for the season based on your results. Season end winnings include Championship bonus, Cup bonus, and Team bonus.

If you finish the season with a negative balance, after you have been awarded all your winnings, you qualify for F1T.I.A financial assistance. F1T.I.A will pay all your losses, and you will start the new season with balance $0. This amount does not have to be returned and can be received every season if needed. In exchange, you lose 1 point of pit stop skill per each million of financial assistance you receive.

Once the new season restarts the most obvious thing is, of course, that some managers will be promoted to a higher class, while others relegate to a lower class.

In each group the top 4 managers will promote (except Class 1) and all managers 23rd or lower in the standings, the bottom 8, will demote. The remaining managers will stay in the same group for next season. Managers in Class 6 who finish lower than 4th may still promote if there is room available in Class 5.

Vacancies left by players leaving the game who finished in the top 22 positions will remain empty for Classes 1, 2, 3, and 4. This is to avoid managers unexpectedly promoting to a higher class.

Each season you will need to sign new suppliers. Upgrades to suppliers from previous seasons are not carried forward.

At the end of each season the F1T technical rules change slightly, causing you to lose any and all advances in Technologies that you researched during last season.

Each season your key staff, driver, designer, and commerce director, will all age one year. In addition to ageing your driver may lose or gain in some of their skills depending on their age. Young drivers will lose less driver skills, and may even gain some (although slowly), where as older drivers will naturally lose more skills during the off season as retirement looms ever closer.

Teams are formed on a season to season basis and are completely free. At the start of each season you will may renew your old team, join another manager's team, create a new team, or simply not join any team. Teams do not promote or relegate together.

At the beginning of each season there will be an option on your Info Centre page to retire your office. If you choose this option your account will be made inactive and you will be retired. Once you have retired you may reactivate your account and begin again fresh in the lowest class. Do not reapply for a new account.

You can test twice between seasons - once after last race of the season and once before start of first race. This represents more intense car development by the team between seasons.

» League Structure
» Design
» Testing
» Garage
» Practice
» Qualification and Race
» Sponsors
» Staff - Driver
» Staff - Designer
» Staff - Commerce Director
» Staff Markets
» Staff - Mechanics
» Staff - Design crew
» Suppliers

Game has two types of leagues: private and public.

Public leagues are interconnected leagues where you can promote and relegate between different levels called classes, with Class 1 (C1) being the highest possible level of play. League structure is like pyramid, each lower level having two times more groups: C1 - 1, C2 - 2, C3 - 4, C4 - 8, C5 - 16, C6 - 32. In each public league up to 40 managers can play. You always join the game at the lowest level - Class 6, but at the end of the season best 4 managers promote to a higher class, while 12 people relegate based on their results during the season.

Private leagues are created by one of the players just like you, with custom settings and they cost a few credits per race to participate in. It is great place to fight it out with friends and other managers.

Let's overview some elements of a game play. There are four major things you need to take care of: Car, Staff, Sponsors and Testing. Each of them is very important as success in each of them will define your overall performance.

To participate in a race, you need to build a car, but first, you have to design your car. Spending Research and Development (R&D) points helps you improve your car's design. Your car has few crucial rating that defines its performance:

• Reliability: shows how often your car will break down during the race (higher reliability means lower chance of mechanical breakdowns)
• Weight: heavier car will be slower in the race. But there is a minimum weight (typically around 605 kg.) so every car bellow that limit will carry extra weight ballast. Note that during the race amount of fuel in your car is not weighted against minimal weight limit. Only driver, car parts, supplier parts (engine, gearbox and tyres) makes up your total weight.
• Speed: this is a total of your speed points gained from technologies with speed points gained from selecting parts to build a car.
• Handling: this is a total of your handling points gained from technologies with handling points gained from selecting parts to build a car.
• Efficiency: Sum of speed and handling points.

During the season there are two ways to invest your points: Technologies and Developing next season's car.

Technologies. They will give you immediate performance boost, but will last only current season, due to new rules and regulations that are evolving and changing every season, you lose technologies at the end of the season and have to start from 0 again next season.

Developing next season's car. You can improve your reliability for next season by investing in it this season and the same way you can reduce weight. When season starts, you cannot change those things for your current years car anymore as your team in the factory already is working on next years car.

After every race you gain some R&D points based on designer innovation skill and your design crew. You can accumulate those points from race to race and spend them when you want. You only lose those points at the end of the season.

You can gain more R&D points by testing. Those points later can be spent on design or improving suppliers' parts. There are 3 types of testing:

• On the track: allows you to test up to 5 days on the track while concentrating on the car, you also can improve one driver skill.
• In the wind tunnel: allows you to test up to 3 days in the wind tunnel while working on a scaled down version of a car and its performance.
• Simulator training: allows you to test for up to 2 days in driving simulator, while working on virtual car parameters, but improving 3 driver skills at the same time.

To race you need to build your car. Since track characteristics change for each race, car will perform best if it is close to track's speed and handling rating. There are 10 levels of parts available, but lower classes do not have high level parts available, while highest classes do not have lowest part levels available. Better parts will give you more speed and handling, but will cost you more. Also, specialized speed or handling parts (those that not even speed to handling ratio) are more costly. You will need to find the right balance to manage your money and achieve best results.

Practice is used to find best car settings as well as for your driver to establish best way around the track, braking points, etc.

Depending on your class, you have different number of laps available to you in each of two practice sessions. Number of laps can be increased by hiring more and right kind of mechanics.

Class	Laps per session	Total per 2 sessions
Class 1	3 laps	6 laps
Class 2	4 laps	8 laps
Class 3	5 laps	10 laps
Class 4	6 laps	12 laps
Class 5	8 laps	16 laps
Class 6	10 laps	20 laps

You have to find best Driver Racing Points (DRP) distribution on 5 key areas: Acceleration, Braking, Top speed, Kerb use, Racing line. After each lap you may get a feedback if you need to increase or lower number of point assigned to certain area. Higher driver's feedback skill will increase the chance of getting feedback. Green arrow point up will show that you need to increase number of points, while red arrow point down, will show that you need to decrease number of points assigned. Only the value that is furthest from the optimal setting will get feedback.

You also need to setup your car in five areas

• Front wing: 0-50 with low number indicating low downforce for higher straight line speed and less grip.
• Rear wing: 0-50 with low number indicating low downforce for higher straight line speed and less grip.
• Suspension: 0-25 with low number indicating soft suspension for bumpy tracks.
• Gears: 0-25 with low number short gears selection for fast acceleration.
• Tyre pressure: 15-25 with low number indicating low pressure for more grip.

Higher mechanics' setup skill will increase the chance of getting car setup feedback.

Depending on the weather conditions on the track, you have to pick your tires, with all types of tyres being available to you in Practice.

You can also see how your laptimes vary with different fuel levels. After completing a lap your team will measure amount of fuel used and will report that too.

Notes:

• There may be laps where you will not get feedback at all, this is normal and it may depend on many factors, you may also get more than one feedback arrow at times.
• Settings may change with weather.
• You will get feedback on how good your DRP is, but only two times, at the end of both practice sessions.

Qualification happens right before the race, so you have to set your qualification settings together with race orders. While you select same Driver orders and car setup like in practice, you also have to other settings specific for the race:

• Qualification is split in 3 parts, 10 minutes each, you must select at what minute your driver will attempt his fast lap. Obviously the later, the more grip you get, the faster the track is, but at the same time you risk to get into traffic, which may ruin your lap and leave you behind competition. After first part of Qualification one third of the drivers will drop out, after second part, again, as many managers will drop out and only fastest third will remain to fight for top grid positions.
• Your starting fuel is the same amount of fuel you qualify with. If you qualify on dry tyres, you will only be able to select same dry tyres compound for the race. YOU can use only one dry tyre compound in the race, but both wet and intermediate tyres are available to you at all times.
• Pits. You also select at what laps your car will pit for new rubber and to add fuel.
• Boost Laps: three times during the race your driver can push (3 laps each time) for very fast laptimes, something that is very demanding and usually only done during qualification. You can select 3 laps when driver will start pushing, so if you select 1, 5, 10, your driver will push on laps 1,2,3 - 5,6,7 - 10,11,12. Overlapping laps will not give you extra speed.
• Expected finishing position: position that your driver will try to achieve. If you select something unreasonable, much too high or much too low, he may lose motivation, but if you set right expectations, he may give you a little extra performance on the track.
• Overtaking risk: how much risk your driver should take when attempting a pass. Higher risk - bigger chance of crash, but he may also pass opposition in places where they do not expect.
• Blocking risk: how much risk your driver should take when defending from a pass. Higher risk - bigger chance of crash, but he may be able to longer keep competition behind him even in a slower car.
• Engine HP: For each race you can set up your car engine to give you more or less performance (horse power) than normal pushing engine past its design limits will reduce reliability, while doing the opposite will increase it.
• Shift delay: You can fine tune your gearbox to increase or reduce shift delay (measured in milliseconds) which changing gears. Reducing shift delay will reduce reliability of your gearbox, while increasing shift delay - will increase reliability, but will make your car slower.
• Advanced settings - Pit when tyres start to wear: When checked, this will ensure that your car pits as soon as tyres start to wear, this may seem an easy option to chose, as you do not want to explode a tyre and lose lots of time, but sometimes couple extra laps is all that separates you from victory. This is not considered an emergency pit stop, just rescheduled regulat pit stop.
• Advanced settings - Emergency stop as normal pit within: When checked, your car will pit in emergency, but will take settings from next scheduled pit stop putting on new tyres and adding fuel as well as not pitting on the scheduled lap as long as it is within selected number of laps.
• Advanced settings - Let my teammate pass: When checked, your driver will let your team mate pass without blocking him, but only if your team mate is behind you and trying to pass you.

Your sponsors are your financial lifeline. Once you run out of money, you have to take extreme measures to get back into black, so do not forget about them. Each season you are negotiating with sponsors for the next season. They will offer you three things:

• Amount per race: This is amount to be paid to you after each race no matter what your results are.
• Goal for the next season: This is what your sponsor wants you to reach for next season. This can be very simple, like competing in all races or almost impossible like winning all races.
• Bonus in case you reach the goal: when and if you reach the goal your sponsor will pay you a nice bonus for matching and exceeding expectations. You will not receive partial bonus for completing only part of the goal.

During negotiations your sponsor will increase/change its offer, but his mood will decrease, the lower the mood, the more likely it is that your sponsors will cancel the offer.

Number of sponsor offers that you can "hold" at the same time is determined by your commerce director's "offers" skill. Once that number is reached, you will not get new offers unless you sign sponsor or sponsor cancels contract offer based on your negotiations.

Driver has five stats that when summed will give you his Driver Racing Points (DRP): Concentration, Speed, Racing line, Stamina and Experience. The more points driver has, the faster he/she is. On top of that, each skill does something extra to make driver unique. There are also secondary skills that are used only in special situations, like Starting only at the start of the race, or Pole only during qualification.

Favourite track is one track where your driver drives a little bit faster than any other tracks.

You can extend your driver's contract before it expires for another season with 15% salary increase. An option to extend contract will appear with less than 6 races left on the active contract, but only if you do not have another driver signed already (from driver market). If you extend active contract any bids in the driver market will be deleted.

Inovation skills determines how many R&D points you gain after each race.

Higher Designer skills means that certain technologies will require less R&D points to research.

Commerce Director helps you in sponsor negotiations:

• Negotiating: gets higher offers from sponsors as you negotiate with them.
• Initial offer: gets better initial sponsor, so you have to negotiate less.
• Relations: makes sponsors keep better mood even as you negotiate hard with them.
• Marketing: shows how many extra sponsors you can have for next season (0-3).
• Offers: show how many sponsor offers you can have at the same time (1-3).

There are markets for all 3 types of staff: drivers, designers and commerce directors. Markets run (are executed) approximately 24 hours before each race, including before first race of the season, there are no markets after season ends.
Each staff member has minimum asking salary (shown) and maximum salary (which is 5 times the size of minimum, this is done to keep bids reasonable). If your balance is negative, you can not offer more than $750,000. There are also class restrictions on maximum bids. See table below.

	Class 1	Class 2	Class 3	Class 4	Class 5	Class 6
Max offer	4,500,000	3,750,000	3,000,000	2,250,000	1,500,000	750,000

Mechanics help you to setup your car and improve pits stop times.

Design crew will give you extra R&D points after each race.

Your team produces is self suficient in every way except it has to buy engine, gearbox and tyres, that is where suppliers come in. At the start of every season you have to sign a contract with one of suppliers that are available to every manager in your league. You will be charged agreed amount after every race and there is no way to break a contract before season ends.

After signing a contract you can still improve every part by working together with supplier to customize part specifically to fit your needs. You have two specifications (spec): "Current" and "Development". After you invest R&D points, your "Development" spec will improve, but "Current" spec is the one mounted on your car at all times, so to upgrade your part, you have to "Upgrade to 1.X revision".

• R&D rating: the higher the rating, the faster your part will be improved while investing R&D points. This rating basically represents how willing supplier is to work with you and help you.
• Revisions: how many times you can upgrade part from "Development" to "Current" spec.

Engine

• Power: how many horse powers engine can produce.
• Weight: how heavy in kilograms your engine is.
• Fuel consumption: how much fuel engine will consume - the higher the number, the more fuel will be consumed.
• Reliability: rate of breakdowns in the race. The higher the percentage, the higher the reliability is.

Gearbox

• Shift delay: time in milliseconds between gear changes that engine does not generate any power. Lower number is better.
• Weight: how heavy in kilograms your gearbox is.
• Reliability: rate of breakdowns in the race. The higher the percentage, the higher the reliability is.

Tyres

• Optimal temperature: temperature that your tyres will perform best at. Cooler or warmer temperatures will make tyre lose some grip.
• Wear: shows wear rating of your tyre in race conditions. Lower number is lower wear - longer distance before it will start to lose grip and performance.
• Performance: indicates how fast and how much grip tyre will produce in dry conditions.
• Wet performance: indicates how fast and how much grip tyre will produce in wet conditions.