F1 2013
45 Achievements
1,000
30-35h
Hardcore Champion
You have won the Drivers' Championship in Season Challenge on hard difficulty.
30
How to unlock the Hardcore Champion achievement in F1 2013 - Definitive Guide
Hurball
TrueAchievements
TrueAchievements
There are two key things that make this much easier than an equivalent Hard Career would have been:
Firstly, there are only 10 short races. Each race is 5 laps, so no pit stops, no tyre wear, no fuel management. Thus, once you get to the front all you have to do is defend your position, which is simple.
Secondly, when you beat your Rival you take his spot, so he can't earn any points for at least 2 races, making winning the title much easier.
First things first, on this difficulty you can only start with Marussia or Caterham. I recommend Marussia as they're a little faster. For your first rival I recommend picking someone like Massa or Rosberg - a mid-table driver for a good team. If you want you can try someone better, but at a minimum I recommend Massa, which will allow you to jump into a Ferarri after only 2 races.
For the first two races I didn't bother qualifying. Feel free to try, but it's a hell of a challenge getting anywhere worthwhile on the grid. Remember - all you need to do is beat your rival. Points are a bonus but not absolutely necessary at this stage. Starting from 22nd on the grid, try to brake as late as possible into the first corner and with a little luck you'll get ahead of your rival or bump him off the track and escape a penalty. If you don't get ahead inside a couple of corners or get a 10s penalty just restart and keep trying.
Once you're ahead just race as normal and defend your position aggressively. Noone should get past. I found that whilst I couldn't catch up to any cars in front, it was easy to stop those behind overtaking. Therefore, whatever position I was in after the first few corners would be my finishing position.
After two races like this (I finished 12th and 5th, beating Massa both times) you'll move to your rival's team. With this faster car you'll want to do two things each race:
1) Qualify in the top 10 - basically you need to qualify so that you can get 1st place after the first corner, so the higher on the grid the better, but don't go crazy trying to get pole if you can't. With the faster cars I was able to qualify around 10th in every race without any trouble.
2) Get first place and ahead of your rival after the first corner, and defend your position for the rest of the race. You have 4 flashbacks to use for any mistakes, so this really shouldn't be a problem.
Also, you'll want to pick the driver closest to you on the championship as your rival each time. This stops them earning points when you win their spot. I had Massa, Vettel, Alonso, and Hamilton as rivals, and won the Championship before the final race in Brazil.
EnigmaB2S6elite
TrueAchievements
TrueAchievements
gallzy111
TrueAchievements
TrueAchievements
I too like the two above, started with Caterham. However it isnt too hard to qualify somewhere decent. In both races with them I managed to finish 12th (I will explain how). Before anything though choose either Massa, or Rosberg as the rival. I personally chose Rosberg. Now before any race, like Monza (the first) simply go into Grand Prix mode with the Caterham and just practice. Learn the track and make sure you are able to set a good time. Do this over and over with all the tracks and you will be fine.
Now after I beat Rosberg I didn't change teams from Mercedes. The reason being it's the car I'm most succesful in. I'd say do the same, you don't get the advantage you'd normally get by knocking your main challenger out for a couple races but you get good to the car. This method won me the title effectively with two races to go - I was 48 points clear before the penultimate race.
Finally, always use your flashbacks - only if you have to. Don't waste one in the race just because you've gone a bit wide. It could save you later on.
JamesHuntTheShunt
For this trophy you will have to win the WDC in Season Challenge under Hard Difficulty. When you start Season Challenge it will ask what difficulty you wish to play the season under. Select 'Hard' and once you have committed, there is no changing it mid-season, unless you start again. When playing under Hard, your starting car choices are limited to the weakest teams in the game. The cars available are: Caterham and Marussia. Once you have chosen a car, it is advisable in the 10 races of the season that you progressively work your way up to a front running team, in order to put yourself in the best possible position of winning the championship. To get into a new team, you will have to nominate a 'rival' from another team, then it is the best out of 3, so you will have to beat him in 2 races for the replacement to happen. Selecting rivals is mandatory, so it can not be missed.
Tip: it is not all doom and gloom racing under Hard Mode. You can switch the Driver Aids back on in the Settings and it will not hinder your chances of getting this trophy. However, I do recommend having Braking Assists off, as it hampers your lap times so much, to the degree that you will just not be competitive.
Season Challenge: Hard Mode Guide
Starting Team - Marussia
Rival 1 - Bottas (Williams)
Rival 2 - Grosjean (Lotus)
Rival 3 - Alonso (Ferrari)
Rival 4 - Vettel or Hamilton (Red Bull and Mercedes)
I believe that Marussia has the edge over Caterham, so I would recommend starting with them. Your first rival should be someone from a midfield team, so whether it is Williams, Force India or Sauber, it does not really matter, as they are pretty close performance-wise. However, target the weaker driver of the team, for example, in the Williams, Bottas is the 'inferior' driver of the two. So it will be easier to beat Bottas in the race than it would be if Maldonado were your rival, especially considering that you are in one of the weakest teams. Qualifying will be heartbreaking - unless you are some kind of racing God - and you will be fortunate to make it into the top 10. In the two races, don't fret if you do not score any points, just beat your rival. The start is the best opportunity to make up places. Lunge into Turn 1 and brake as late as possible. You may have to do a few restarts in order to get the perfect start, but it will be worth it when you make up considerable ground. You might even get into a points scoring position, but once you are satisfied with your start, press 
and save your progress, just in case you run out of flashbacks. If you do, just simply quit out of the race and reload back into an advanced position. So now you are way up the field and you will therefore come under relentless pressure from everyone behind who are in superior cars. It is your job to be stubborn, look out for the proximity arrows and swerve left to right and right to left in order to thwart any attempts of an overtake. After a few corners they will drop back - do not worry about getting a penalty for your Schumacher-like blocking skills, the game is rather lenient in that respect. If you make a mistake or let too many cars through, press and use a flashback, which allows you to retract back for a few seconds of gameplay - you should have 5 of them available to you per race.
Tip: for your first two teams you are going to be in an inferior car, whether that's a Caterham or Marussia and then when you move into a Willams, Force India or a Toro Rosso. All these teams lack the adequate amount of downforce that the bigger teams have, so you may want to adjust your setup in order accommodate this imperfection. In doing so, it will allow you to be a bit more aggressive in corners and you can get on the power much more fluently – as your car will be more planted. So just before One Shot Qualifying, you get the option to choose a custom setup via a bar (to the left is full wet and to the right is a full dry set-up). For the first 2 teams that you will race for, I would suggest leaving the setup bar in the middle or move it one to the left towards more downforce. Then when you are in a top team you can afford to be more aggressive and shift towards the right, due to the fact that the top cars are overwhelmed with downforce already.
When you eventually find your way into the front running teams, start selecting the championship contenders as your rivals, because as soon as you replace them, they will become redundant for a couple of races and consequently not score any points. This will help in your quest for the WDC. The Championship contenders usually are: Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton, but for your final rival, you should target whoever is leading the championship. Or if you are fortunate enough to be leading, then target whoever is second. You may even have the luxury of retiring from the last couple of races.
Importance of Qualifying.
If you are playing under Easy Difficulty then working your way through the field is really easy. However, under Hard Mode, the AI are little more robust and therefore it can be tricky to pass multiple cars like you can under Easy. So if you get clogged up behind a few cars, then you can easily lose out on what are supposedly winnable races; as the frontrunners have pulled away. Obviously when you start with the weaker teams you should not be targeting pole position, but when you do end up in a race winning car, make sure you qualify on the front row of the grid. In doing so, you can therefore lead from the front and pull away. Here are some Guidelines on what is an acceptable qualifying position, depending on which car you are in:
Red Bull
Mercedes
- Front Row (1st and 2nd)
Ferrari
Lotus
Mclaren
Sauber
Williams
- 5th to 12th
Force India
Toro Rosso
Caterham
- 18th
Marussia
JB, x360a
This is not as difficult as it first appears and is easier if you get your tactics right during the whole season.
You have to remember if you take on a rival and win he will miss 2 races when you are driving his car, so even if he has a slight lead in the championship you have 2 free races to make points back on him.
In my season I started with Caterham and choose Paul Diresta as my first rival, beat him and chose Felipa Massa as my second, beat him and chose Sebastian Vettel as my third, beat him and chose Lewis Hamilton as my fourth, I beat him and the achievement popped although there were still 2 races remaining no one could catch me.
I chose Vettel and Hamilton because at the time they were closet to me in the
standings, yours will be different and you should choose carefully.
Also another point on Season Challenge is don’t be afraid to push and shove other cars, it seems to be easier getting away with contact, and flags don’t seem to be as strict for some reason, blocking a lot seems to be fine if you can manage to get yourself up near the front of the field.
If you are being over taken it will generally be people at the top of points, so another trick is at the last second block them and they will have to brake hard and this may force them to drop back a few places allowing you to get more points than them, also another tip if you are in top 3 in the race brake hard on last corner and block as much as you can so the others all bunch up letting the slower drivers potentially past them.
If you get caught for any contact or blocking then remember to use your flashbacks.
