SRF1: First of all tell us you have been away from SimRacingF1 for quite a while, what’s the reason behind it?
Shahrukh: Well it has been a tough period for me. Many events happened in these 3 months. I have lost many things in this period. Firstly, in August I lost my 4 family relatives in the space of 5 days. Then came the stupid exams and it was really tough this time around. Then in the end my girlfriend ran away with some idiot American. All these events made life very difficult and obviously I lost my routine. We are friends from last 11 years and everything was so fine and in limits but then it just had to happen. I rate the last event as the biggest of all three but you have to carry on which is next to impossible. I really went too much away from SimRacingF1 which I am sorry but it was just to hard to cope for me.
SRF1: Tell us briefly about your experience in SimRacingF1 as a driver and more importantly as a moderator/manager?
Shahrukh: My experience as a driver is certainly fantastic. I learned a lot. I became quicker and quicker but I think I have reached the limit. This is mainly because I am not into car setup and I have to rely on other’s setups. The day I will start learning about car setups will be the day I will improve now. The other way I can improve is if I get better setups. But I really learned all from this platform. It has been great 2 years. I am playing formula games since 2000. But when I joined this platform I improved a million times.
As a manager, I feel I have learned a lot. This activity needs time and dedication and luckily I had both. You can always compromise on your own needs but when it comes to other people they won’t compromise and will seek the best out of you. So I just gave all out to entertain all members and I am sure they enjoyed a lot. The ideas used to come when I used to be sitting in bathroom. I think my bathroom plans have been a complete success. In my manager ship I learned the art of keeping every member happy without breaking the decorum
SRF1: In this part of the world our major setback has been the non availability of cheap and quality internet connection for a benchmark server, what are your thoughts on that.
Shahrukh: It’s really a big shame that we are still very much behind European Union and Singapore. We can easily expand SimRacingF1 to a larger scale but the only problem is availability of server. It’s just so expensive. Even a 1Mbps DSL connection comes with 64kbps upload speed. This 1Mbps server costs $100 but look at the upload speed. This is terrible. We desperately need a European server. Most of our members are from India and there is no direct link between the two countries. If there is any direct link then there are a lot of hurdles in that.
SRF1: Since new patch for RH2005 has been released by SimRacingF1, how do you see it going forward?
Shahrukh: The new patch is quiet challenging and cars are slow. I know nothing about physics but it will take time before people start to get grip on it. For me the Mod and patch have never been an issue I just want to drive.
SRF1: Do have any plans to buy a wheel and move to intermediate or pro level because it’s real fun.
Shahrukh: Yes this is for sure. I have experienced the thrill of wheel and it’s simply awesome. I loved the drive of it. I will go for it one for sure. It’s great. I believe buying a wheel will be life extension strategy for my gaming interest as it has been long since we had a new Formula 1 game. We can only say thanks to Bernie Ecclestone for this. I don’t when he will learn that there are people who don’t have play station. I strongly support the idea of multiplatform games. I hope the next game is multiplatform. For life to continue normal I will need one of the two things, same girlfriend back or this Logitech momo steering wheel [laughs].
SRF1: Please share you best moment(s) on this platform with us.
Shahrukh: I think it has been an extra ordinary good time and I have lots of magical moments while racing here. Let me recall some of them, my destruction derby with Mohsin, Dog fights with Nenad, me overtaking Basit in the pits and there were some events unrelated to me like Indian Derby (Kairav verses Parikshit), Mahesh and Nenad hitting each other in every race. There are so many of them. The moment for me was when I was winning a championship race and I received a sms on my mobile phone from my girlfriend and I just couldn’t afford not to read it before the end of 20 minutes long race. I started reading that and collided with the wall. I lost the race just because I wanted to read that message and unfortunately it was a forward message. Later on I lost the championship by 4 points because of that silly mistake.
SRF1: Last but not least we would like to thank you for you time, effort and contribution to SRF1, your final thoughts on that.
Shahrukh: Thank you for your kind words. I strongly believe that this is all because of the continued support of our members and Moderators. If you all don’t support what can I do alone? Thanks for your support in these two years. When we started we never thought that it will be this much success. We named it SimRacingPakistan and we never thought we will go international one day. Hope we can continue this forever and then our kids’ takeover from us |
