Bug with driver change at the start of the season

[MULDER25]

I'm in a create a team game. The second season is about to start and I have two drivers signed for the new season. All the contracts are signed to start the next season, and in all the different tabs it says that they will be like that. But when I move on to the next season I find that I have no drivers.
Has anyone else had this error? Is this a known problem? Is there a solution?

[Dreagon]

It seems to be a new issue introduced in 1.6. Or a new version of a previous bug. Before 1.6 I had that issue with the technical chief not showing up at my team but the other staff with extended contracts or new people (including a driver) did show up. In that case I suspected it was related to me buying out the contract of the guy who didn't show up. He was the only person I had to buy out of an existing contract. In 1.6 that particular issue was fixed. When I loaded that save and went to the start of the new season, the technical chief was there. But then I looked at my staff and noticed my new driver wasn't there. But I suspect this may be related to the general contract issues the AI has. Whatever improvements they made in 1.6 to the hiring logic of the AI actually made them far worse and they constantly hire new people despite already having existing contracts.

[liv 𓋹]

Yeah in my save a TON of drivers suddenly got into other teams than the contracts they had signed, Max signed Haas but got Merc, Hamilton Ferrari but got Alpine, Gasly signing with my team but got into Williams - it's really weird. Had to sign Hadjar again cause there were no better choices

[Hauntshade]

They definitely messed something up with contracts and the AI hiring logic.
In my save the AI seems to be changing contracts with drivers after every race weekend.

One race Red Bull signed Lando and fired Max. After the next race they hired Max again and the contract with Lando dissapeared. And one race later they signed Russell and Max's contract dissapeared again.
And that is just one team i have kept an eye on for three races.

Contracts don't seem to exist for AI teams.
In a few weeks time i lost all 4 of my affiliate drivers, who were on multi year contracts with high break out fees, to the AI teams.
The wierdest thing was, i had a low 49 rated driver with a buyout fee of over 5 million, the AI had no problem "paying" that to break the contract and poached that driver from me.
Of course with the break out fees being broken i did not receive anything from all those contracts being broken, which should have been over 10 million total.

So far i am lucky with my main drivers, Doohan and Verschoor (which might be because of their 70-75 rating). I managed to sign a new contract with Doohan for next year and Verschoor is on a two year contract, so still has one year left.
But i am at race 18, so who knows what will happen before the end of my first season.

With how the game is right now, there is no use in planning for the future and you might as well sign drivers on a one year deal.

[saberhagen83]

Yeah I noticed that today. Not sure if the new patch screwed with the old save or if it will be like that always moving forward when you sign someone for upcoming season, or just this one time. Haven't had this happen in previous in-game years. But heading into season 5 I had a contract in place for my 2nd car for a few months. But at the start of the new year I had no 2nd driver and he had signed for Mercedes and had to settle for what was left, which wasn't much.

[Hauntshade]

Originally posted by saberhagen83:

Yeah I noticed that today. Not sure if the new patch screwed with the old save or if it will be like that always moving forward when you sign someone for upcoming season, or just this one time. Haven't had this happen in previous in-game years. But heading into season 5 I had a contract in place for my 2nd car for a few months. But at the start of the new year I had no 2nd driver and he had signed for Mercedes and had to settle for what was left, which wasn't much.

It is definitely something this 1.6 patch did, and not just to old saves.
I never saw this happen either in my old game before 1.6.

I started a new custom team/game with the 1.6 patch and contracts are a huge mess.
Their "improvements" to AI poaching logic and AI affiliate hiring completely messed up the game.

[Dreagon]

Yeah, this is a 1.6 issue. Before 1.6 there was another issue with people you hired after buying out their contract not showing up. That got fixed in 1.6 and they screwed it up another way in return.

[SmlehliW]

lottery game ... nice