Osborne GC Engineering Formula LEGO Team

From Wiki Balkavani

Osborne GC Engineering Formula LEGO Team was one of the most successful teams in the early years of Formula Lego, winning 5 Constructor's Championship's in the sport's first 8 seasons. They also racked up an impressive 4 Driver's Titles with two drivers in the same time period.

Team Osborne was especially well trained and extremely well funded, and often has the most technologically advanced cars in the league. Their owner, Micheal Osborne, was among the world's richest billionaires, and took great interest in Osborne's success in the sport. Their in-house chassis and engines, designed at their Headquarters at the Osborne Space Complex in the southern EotLP, were often highly advanced compared to their rivals. However, their driver selection has been much less successful, keeping them evenly matched overall.

Osborne (the Team Owner), was also the Lead Engineer until Season 10, when he hired his daughter to fill that role, Avayah, who also raced for the team. She was also given a 50% share in the team from Season 10.

Osborne had little success in the sport's first years, however, Season 4 brought them the technical regulations and driver they needed to win. Kira Sanchez brought home the Driver's Title, and with 5 drivers in the top 10, they captured a Constructor's Title, too. The team repeated their success the next season, coming first overall by an even larger margin. Season 6 saw a stroke of bad luck, though. Sanchez' crash in Race 3 lost her just barely enough points to lose the driver's title to National's Evangeline Sayll, although Osborne remained dominant as a constructor. In Season 7, Josep Vikalkin managed to win a title that he had deserved a long time before, and he helped Sanchez on to win her final title in Season 8, before her untimely death in Season 9.

Results

Season Power Unit Chassis Points Scored
Season 1 OsbA20A Osb15A 1
Season 2 OsbA20C Osb15A 19
Season 3 OsbA20F Osb15A 12
Season 4 OsbA22G Osb20Q 21DC
Season 5 OsbA25B Osb20Q 31DC
Season 6 OsbA25P Osb25L 30C
Season 7 OsbA28F Osb25N 34DC
Season 8 OsbA29D Osb26P 30DC
Season 9 OsbA30K Osb28G 13
Season 10 OsbA31L Osb29U 4
Season 11 OsbA32C Osb30G -9
Season 12 OsbA33A Osb30K -22

D Indicates Driver's Title Win.

C Indicates Constructor's Title Win.

Season 1

Osborne's first season was relatively disappointing, as they managed a net score of just a single point, and with only two podiums, with Josep Vikalkin and Nocah Tsunoda both taking a solitary second place. Their Car, which seemed technically very competitive, was mainly let down by the driver's inexperience with high-speed racing. While relatively uneventful, their racers gained a large amount of experience, and several of them went into the next season much better prepared

Season 2

Osborne proved their mettle the next season, as they barely missed out on the Constructor's Title by just a single podium (they tied with Octan, and the tie breaker is podiums), and Josep Vikalkin finished in a very close third. Their car proved truly prove its prowess, when in the right hands, and silenced many critics after they only barely missed out on the Title.

Season 3

Season 3 saw a slight dip in Osborne's performance, as they saw several racers begin to peter out, and most of their new racers not quite performing as well as hoped. Their car was significantly less developed for the season compared to their rivals. Once again, they finished in a distant third. But with the extra development time they devoted to their next season's car, they had high hopes for their next season.

Season 4

Osborne's technical prowess finally found a match in a driver in Season 4, as rookie Kira Sanchez finally gave Osborne the success that they so wished. They ended up finishing with half of their drivers in the top 10 overall, and with Vikalkin close to Sanchez in 4th, their inaugural Constructor's title came with impressive ease, contrasted vigorously with Sanchez' incredibly difficult struggle back to the front after missing out on the first race due to a failed start. However, under the new regulations, it was clear that Osborne had done a stellar job of nailing their car, and were visibly ready to dominate going forwards.

Season 5

Season 5 proved the level of both Osborne as a team, and Kira Sanchez as a racer. Now that the reliability issues of the previous season were fixed, it left Kira without any obstacles in her way, and she went on to take victory at every race. Vikalkin took 5 podiums in the same stretch of 6 races. With their combined prowess, Osborne easily took a second Constructor's Title, finishing with 31 points, which was 17 points away from the second-placed Octan's 14.

Season 6

Season 6 broke Osborne's Winning Streak. Kira Sanchez won every single race, bar Race 3, where she and three other Front Running Osbornes crashed into a large chunk of Debris around a blind turn. Despite completely dominating 5/6 of the season, Eva Sayll, who at that point wasn't even a race winner, and who only scored 3 podiums that entire season, managed to just edge out Sanchez for the Title, thanks to the latter's 75 point loss at Race 3, which she had been very much on track to win. Osborne appealed this, since they believed it was clear that Sanchez deserved the title. The EotLP GP Commission reviewed the appeal, but rejected it's validity, saying in a statement that "Ms. Sanchez' average finishing position over the season, when factoring in her P27 during the crash is 5 1/3, is two places lower than Ms. Sayll's average of 3 1/3. The difference clearly shows that Ms. Sayll's comparative consistency is what earned her the Driver's Title." Sanchez accepted the results, and told Michael Osborne to withdraw his appeal, which he proceeded to do the very next day.

Season 7

Kira Sanchez raced through all of season 7, despite being pregnant with her and Vikalkin's child (For the safety & Medical Details, see Kira Sanchez' Wiki Entry), and while a huge team of Medical staff (headed by Julia Osborne, Michael's wife & Avayah's Mother) helped keep Sanchez and her Baby medically safe since she was determined to, if at all possible, to race, her mind was just not quite there that season, and she only managed a single win, at Race 1. However, Vikalkin scored a podium at every race, including two wins at Race 2 and 3, and took the Driver's Title by 20 points. Sanchez, who wasn't quite on top of her game during this season, still managed to take second place overall, by 20 points from Lily Gasly. Sanchez and Vikalkin's daughter, Aurora was born a week before the Season 7 Finale, at which Avayah Osborne finally took her maiden victory, finishing ahead of Vikalkin and Sayll on the Podium.

Season 8

Sanchez returned to Formula Lego for the next season ready to take her third title, and cement herself solidly as the greatest driver in history. She won Race 1 and 3. However, she faced harsh competition from her friend Lily Gasly, who, powered by Octan's new URX-series Engine, who also managed to score two victories throughout the season. However, with Vikalkin, who let Sanchez take the victory at Race 3 without any fight, and who held off Gasly at the two races he won, helped Sanchez take her final Title by five points. Celebrating on the podium after the final race, the two of them and their daughter were captured in a beautiful photo that painted them as a perfectly happy family, celebrating the greatest achievement of their lives. Unfortunately this idyllic, happy scene would be shattered by the tragedy that was to come the next season.

Season 9

With the new Season 9 regulations, Osborne lost their dominance, but Sanchez, as incredible a racer as ever, refused to give up her own dominance, and went on to, through sheer will power and her own incredible driving skills, win both Race 1 and 5. However, the disappointing level of the car she was driving caught up to her at Race 6. In an unusually good start for Osborne, four Osborne vehicles found their way to the top ten within the first lap, including Sanchez, who led the race despite being in a much slower car than either of the drivers attempting to pass her. However, constant hard defence through the corners, and Unbelievably hard turns in the turns she didn't have to defend on, combined with a weaker tire-wall on Osborne's Duet tires (Which were designed for high speeds on the straights, not high speed into corners), caused three of her tires to burst, and her car fell into a roll, and she was almost immediately struck by the next few cars, which resulted in a 7-car collision. Despite the bad nature of the crash, most of the drivers suffered only minor injuries. However, Sanchez' car had rolled several times, and her head had collided with the ground repeatedly. She suffered serious head trauma, despite her helmet, and fractured her neck, although the neck brace she wore had saved her neck from snapping entirely. Her situation appeared grave, and she was immediately airlifted to Rennia for intensive care. 53 hours later, though, she succumbed to her injuries and passed away, with her Boyfriend and Daughter beside her bed. Vikalkin drove like a madman at the next race, taking pole by an unbelievable amount, and then winning the Season 9 Finale. At the post-race memorial service in Kira's Remembrance, he announced he would be leaving the sport for the next season to spend time with his daughter.

Season 10

Season 10 saw Osborne in a rough place. Despite the talent that remained on their team, they had lost their two best racers, and their severely underpowered Power Unit couldn't keep up with the competition. Despite this, Sira Bowler still managed to win the innaugural Verskaell Grand Prix. However, with the further reliability issues that the team faced with their Engines, they finished the Constructor's race in 4th overall, with just 4 points. Bowler and [Avayah] Osborne finished P6 and P7 overall, respectively. However, Avayah, who had taken on the mantle of Technical Officer this season, had set things in motion to, hopefully, return Osborne to its former winning ways.

Season 11

Season 11 proved to be Osborne's worst yet. Avayah Osborne, in several interviews, described the situation of their car concept as "hopelessly wrong for this formula." Despite seemingly knowing what the problems with their concept was, Michael Osborne had cut the funding to his team by 75% in order to redirect high amounts of funds to ramping up development of a new Rocket for OsborneSpace. To avoid completely depriving the team of necessary funding, Osborne sold his 50% share of his team to Southern Sports, a major Broadcasting Network in Jelispsobva. They matched Michael's investment into his daughter's team, bringing the team's budget to 50% of where it had been for Season 10. Furthermore, SS demanded that Ayn Solka take over as Technical Officer. Avayah graciously ceded the role to Solka. Solka, while a brilliant engineer, who later developed several incredible car concepts at other teams, was thrown in head-first, as she hadn't been in the FL technical world since Season 3, with National, and couldn't keep the development pace where it needed to be, causing Osborne to fall backwards down the order. Avayah took the best finishes of the Season at Race 1 and Race 4, where she scored a P13 at each. The team finished the season 6th out of 7 teams, ahead of only the abysmal Silva SW-2. Avayah offered her 50% share of the team to Southern Sports for 50% of what they had paid for her father's share, which the broadcasting conglomerate accepted, believing they could recover their investment through advertising rights and potentially selling the team. Quietly, Avayah, Ella Fader, and Sira Bowler all began to look for other seats on the Grid for Season 12 and beyond. However, due to the low prices that they were already being paid, Southern Sports chose to keep their contracts alive for Season 12.

Season 12

During the break between Season 11 & 12, Southern Sports found several potential buyers for their holdings in Formula Lego and cut back on the funding they gave to the team to 25% of its Season 10 position, hoping to come out of the potential deals ahead. The development budget was hit the hardest, and despite Solka's genuinely impressive efforts, the car, which had barely been developed since Season 10, was the slowest car by a huge gap. Avayah's P14 Finish at Race 1 was their highest finish of the season. The car seemed to get worse and worse as the season went on, since the budget for replacing faulty parts was atrocious. Southern Sport finally lined up a buyer - Dragon Limited - who were willing to pay them at a profit. However, they required that significantly more money be invested into the team's development before the purchase than Southern Sport were planning to spend. In desperation, Southern Sport withdrew from the last two races, and released all three of their drivers early. Avayah worked a temporary contract out with Windsor, and Ella Fader with Angel. The Legendary Osborne Team had fizzled out and was finished with Formula Lego. For now.

Management

Season # Owner(s) Technical Chief Team Manager Finishing Pos.
Season 1 Michael Osborne Michael Osborne Aaron Curon 3
Season 2 Michael Osborne Michael Osborne Aaron Curon 2
Season 3 Michael Osborne Michael Osborne Valerie Keplerus 3
Season 4 Michael Osborne Michael Osborne Valerie Keplerus 1
Season 5 Michael Osborne Michael Osborne Valerie Keplerus 1
Season 6 Michael Osborne Michael Osborne Valerie Keplerus 1
Season 7 Michael Osborne Michael Osborne Valerie Keplerus 1
Season 8 Michael Osborne Michael Osborne Valerie Keplerus 1
Season 9 Michael Osborne Michael Osborne Adan Wallace 3
Season 10 Michael Osborne /

Avayah Osborne

Avayah Osborne Adan Wallace 4
Season 11 Avayah Osborne /

Southern Sports

Ayn Solka Steve Beric 6
Season 12 Southern Sports Ayn Solka Steve Beric 10