A look back on the Ginetta Cup – in numbers!

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With the Ginetta Cup done and dusted, it is time (for me, at least) to look back on it and reflect. The racing has generated a lot of data. Some useful, some less so. I have sent out surveys to all our participants to enhance this data so I can write an in-depth analysis of the championship.

To start of with some numbers on participation:

  • 23 drivers registered for the Ginetta Cup;
  • 20 drivers participated in at least one race;
  • 9 people participated in all five of the races;
  • 15 people participated in the majority of the races (3);
  • The first two races (Monza and Brands Hatch) had the highest level of participation (16);
  • Zolder had the lowest level of participation (12);
  • The average level of participation was 14.4 drivers per race.

Before starting the competition, I wanted a minimum of at least ten drivers per race to keep the races interesting. I am glad we reached that threshold. I was hoping for at least twenty, but as this was our first championship I knew this was but idle hope.

What did these drivers do? Well, the drove in circles.

  • The total session length amounted to 440 minutes, or 7 hours and 20 minutes;
  • A total of 2417 laps were driven across all events and sessions;
  • On average, each driver did 168 laps;
  • A total distance of 11.546,33 kilometers was covered with these laps;
  • On average, each driver covered 801,83 kilometers.

In terms of results, we can derive the following:

  • A total of 2833 points were given out to our drivers;
  • On average, each finisher scored 39,3 points, but this is slightly skewed due to the double points for the final race.
  • Just four different drivers achieved a podium finishing position;
  • Four races had the same three people on the podium in different order.

The latter two facts indicate a clear difference in level of racing between the top and sub-top. This is mostly down to two facts: 1) there wasn’t a large field of drivers to begin with, and 2) due to the single-car format, differences in performance between cars across different tracks was eliminated meaning that driving prowess was the only defining factor in the race result.

The first is something I hope will be solved as our community grows, the latter I think is not necessarily a negative effect but rather a strong point of the single-car format.

How did our drivers think about the Ginetta Cup? As I said before, I sent out surveys to our participants and got fourteen responses. Lets look at the results!

  • On average, the Ginetta Cup was rated 8.3 out of 10;
  • Three people gave it 7/10, six people rated 8/10, three people rated 9/10 and two gave it a perfect score of 10/10!;
  • 50% of our drivers stated to have a decent amount of experience with ACC;
  • 36% had some experience with leagueracing, while for 29% it was their first experience simracing.
  • On average, people rated their own performance with a low 5.6/10
  • On average, people rated the fairness of others with a 7.9/10

Looking at these numbers, it seems that people (rightly, in my subjective opinion) enjoyed the Ginetta Cup but generally wished they did better. Over half the responses on this question (7 out of 13) gave themselves a failing grade.

There are one or two reasons I could give for this. The Ginetta is a tricky car to drive on the limit, leading either to spins or a feeling you could’ve driven it better. Furthermore, I set some tricky conditions for our drivers to overcome, making it harder to get the most out of their race pace.

For next race, I will likely reduce the challenge the weather gives our drivers.