2011 Formula One Predictions

[Root]

Another race, another Vettel win. Full credit to him for doing it at a track that wasn't particularly suited to his car, but I think one of the two English drivers could have won the race if things had been a little different. Lewis was dozing at the safety car restart, putting him behind Schumacher, who he couldn't re-pass for ages due to the Mercedes' superior top speed and a faulty DRS on the McLaren. Jenson was slowed down by their fight too - he eventually made his overtaking move stick at the first try, but by then he was miles behind Vettel. Then, Lewis was given a 4-second pit-stop, while Jenson got 3.5 seconds, Alonso 3 and Vettel an incredible 2.9, putting Lewis behind Schumacher once again and ruining the rest of his race. That was really poor.

Anyway, the first-lap crash, and Mark Webber's later crash, really played havoc with all our predictions. Nobody scored points from more than seven drivers out of the top ten. Tubeguru and Greatkingrat tied for first with 130 points each, and Scrxisi stays top of the overall standings but his lead is trimmed by two points. The full results are here.

Next round is Singapore in a fortnight's time, so the entry form will be along later.

[The Raven]

I got the the three drivers on the podium correct just not in the right order!

[hopeful traveller]

Can you just join or do you have to do the whole season?

[Root]

You can join at any time! You (probably) won't be able to challenge for the overall lead, but there are also "best five results" and "most round wins" categories, and you can just play for the fun of it

[hopeful traveller]

You can join at any time! You (probably) won't be able to challenge for the overall lead, but there are also "best five results" and "most round wins" categories, and you can just play for the fun of it

Thank you.

[Root]

The Singapore GP entry form is live. The deadline is midnight on Thursday.

Hopeful traveller, when you enter the first time, put anything you like as the "keyword" - just make sure that it's memorable, and that it's not your forum password. Then you can use the same keyword whenever you enter in future, so I know it's the same person entering. PM me if you're unsure about anything!

[Root]

Also, if you ever want to check the results of a previous round but can't be bothered to hunt through this thread, visit this new page I set up with links to all of them.

[Root]

Also also, to further prove I'm a loser who enjoys wasting time on pointless graphs, I made something that shows what percentage of the top score for each round each player achieved. It's made with Google docs, but it seems to display better when published on a separate website, so you can find it at [dead link]. Use it to work out what type of race you scored poorly in (high downforce, difficult to overtake, variable weather etc), or something.

[Root]

Reminder: the Singapore GP deadline is today. I'm still waiting for picks from a few of you.

[hopeful traveller]

I just want to say that I've just found a page on how Vettel could become champion this weekend.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/ ... 12548.html

[Root]

I hope he doesn't manage it just yet.

Does anyone remember on the old motorsport.com Pick 6 game, there was an entrant called "Popularity Contest"? The idea was that it collated everyone's predictions and then made an entry based on those. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could make something like that for our game too. This round's popularity contest, or combined pick if you will, is: Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, Kamui Kobayashi, Vitaly Petrov. I might find a way to weight it based on previous performances by each player, but for now everyone is equal. We shall see if the wisdom of crowds is worth anything

[tubeguru]

I hope he DOES do it. Then everyone will stop this ridiculous charade where a journalist asks, "Is the championship over?" to which all the drivers and team managers say, "No, there's still a chance. We will keep fighting etc etc blah blah bollocks". It was over when Vettel was in the middle of his early-season winning streak.

If he gets it this weekend, hopefully the traditional post-championship slump will take place, and he won't win again for the rest of the season, making it more interesting for all of us.

[Root]

Well, Vettel couldn't quite do it, but the only thing that will stop him winning the championship now is if someone shoots him before (or during) the Japanese GP, which is in a fortnight's time. I thought it was a fairly interesting race, quite predictable except for Michael Schumacher's crash.

Greatkingrat picked up his second round victory on the trot, tubeguru managed second with carried-over picks, and new player hopeful traveller came sixth. Scrxisi keeps the lead after coming fourth, and it now looks like it's a two-horse race now between him and greatkingrat. Three more of us are still in the hunt, however, and the 100-point bonus for one player could change things completely, so none of the seven of us who have entered every round can really be written off with five races remaining.

The full round results and standings are available here. The next entry form will be around later.

[The Raven]

The 100-point bonus for one player could change things completely, so none of the seven of us who have entered every round can really be written off with five races remaining

So the complete opposite of the actual formula one season!

[Root]

Yes, you could say that