Fantasy League – Let’s get things rolling…

Hm, okay. Williams and HRT have yet to announce their final 2 drivers (and there’s still a small chance that Trulli will be dropped), but there’s really no reason for us to wait. In fact, a brave player may decide to take a gamble early on and choose one of these 3 drivers to get a better price. If, for instance, Sutil gets the 2nd seat, then 6,500,000$ is a good bargain, but if Alguersuari or Senna gets it, I am not so sure. Let’s not delay any further – these are the rules of the game:

1. Team selection

Each player must select 2 drivers, 1 chassis (team) and 1 engine. The budget is 50,000,000$. From now on, we will refer to the drivers, chassis and engines as “assets”.

The value for each asset is represented in the table below (click on it to enlarge):

The Stock Market

Please post your selections in the comments section, or drop me an e-mail at abulafiaf1@gmail.com. It’s that easy and that’s all you have to do really. Just remember to keep within the budget (I will be checking!). Please be careful though: To ensure proper identification, if you register your team via the comments section (at the bottom of this post), please include your favourite number (or any number that you can easily recall). This number will be edited out from your comment, but I will ask you for it at the end of the season, just to make sure it’s really you… 😉

There is no submission deadline – you can create a team whenever you feel like it. However, any submission that is sent after the start of the 1st practice session of each race, will not be taken account in the results of that particular race, and will start scoring from the next round.

As I said, the above assets’ values will updated after every race. However, the players will have three (3) chances to change their roster. The first will be after the 4th race of the season (Bahrain GP). If the Bahrain GP doesn’t take place, it will be after the 5th race of the season (Spain, Barcelona). The 2nd opportunity to change roster will be after the 10th race of the season (Hockenheim). Finally, players will get the chance to change their team for a 3rd time (and a final push towards victory!) after Round 16 (South Korea).

Each time a player changes his team, he/she must use as budget the value of his team at that time; any change of asset will use as value the value of the asset at that time. For example, after Round 4 my team’s value may have risen to 55,000,000$. That means I have an extra 5,000,000$ to spend. Also, Schumacher presently costs 14,000,000$. If after Round 4 he costs 17,000,000$ then you’ll have to spend an extra 3,000,000$ to recruit his services.

All the above means that you will have to judge carefully which assets you select at first. You may not go for the ones that will produce the better results, but for those whose value you expect to rise dramatically, thereby giving yourself a better budget for the remainder of the season.

As a final note, the values will be determined by me, and they will not be debatable. I will try, as much as possible, to make them an accurate reflection of both performance and expectations… It goes without saying that you don’t have to make any changes if you don’t feel like it. You can keep the same team for the entire season. Also, if a driver loses his seat, then you automatically inherit the replacement driver, along with his value.

2. Rules and Scoring

You don’t need to read this part in order to understand or to participate, but I highly recommend it, in order to understand how the points will be distributed which will allow you to make intelligent and strategic selections.

2a. Drivers

Each driver in your team will be getting 25 pts for 1st place (classified finishing position), 18 pts for 2nd place, 15 pts for 3rd place, 12 pts for 4th place, 10 pts for 5th place, 8 pts for 6th place, 6 pts for 7th place, 4 pts for 8th place, 2 pts for 9th place and, finally, 1 pt for 10th place.

However, in addition to the above, and in order to make your choices much more interesting and strategic, the drivers will be scoring pts in numerous other ways:

If a driver does not finish the race due to an accident (it doesn’t matter who’s at fault), 5 points will be deducted. If he doesn’t finish the race due to any car-related problem, 2 points will be deducted. If a driver does not start a race (for whatever reason) 5 points will be deducted. If a driver does not qualify for a race, 6.5 points will be deducted.

Also, for every place that a driver gains in relation to his starting position he will get +0.25 points. For every place that he loses, he will lose 0.25 points. Pole position will be awarded with 1 point and fastest lap of the race with 0.5 points.

Finally, to award the battle between team-mates, for every tenth of a second (0.1 seconds) that a driver is faster than his team-mate, he will get 0.15 points, and vice versa (for every tenth he loses, he will lose 0.15 points). The lap times that will be compared will be the fastest lap of each driver from all qualifying sessions. In case a driver doesn’t post a laptime, no points will be awarded. In case there is a huge difference between laptimes due to weather (e.g. Q1 is under rain and only one driver advances into Q2, which is dry), then points will be awarded taking into consideration the laptimes of the session that they both participated in.

2b. Chassis (team)

Each team will be scoring according to the higher placed car, in the classified results. 1st position will be awarded with 20 pts, 2nd place with 14 pts, 3rd place with 11 pts, 4th place with 8 pts, 5th place with 6 pts, 6th place with 4.5 pts, 7th place with 3.5 pts, 8th place with 2 pts, 9th place with 1 pt and, finally, 10th place with 0.5 pt.

Further to the above, if one car does not finish the race 3.5 points will be deducted, whereas 7 points will be deducted in the case of a double DNF. In case of DNS (did not start, for whatever reason) for one car, 3.5 points will be deducted, whereas 7 points will be deducted in case of a double DNS. In case of DNQ (did not qualify) for one car, 4.5 points will be deducted, whereas 9 points will be deducted in case of a double DNQ.

Pole position will be awarded 0.8 points, and the fastest lap of the race 0.4 points.

Finally, for every place (on average between the two cars) that is gained in comparison to their average grid position, 0.5 points will be awarded. Similarly, 0.5 points will be deducted for every (average) place lost.

2c. Engine

Each engine will be scoring according to the higher placed car, in the classified results. 1st place will get 10 pts, 2nd place will get 8 pts, 3rd place will get 6 pts, 4th place will get 4 pts, 5th place will get 3 pts, 6th place will get 2 pts, 7th place will get 1pt and, finally, 8th place will get 0.5 pts (yeah, no points for 9th and 10th).

Additionally, each DNF due to engine problem only will be penalized with 2.5 points.

Pole position gets 0.4 points and the fastest lap of the race 0.2 points.

Finally, for every place (on average between the two cars) that is gained in comparison to their average grid position, 0.25 points will be awarded. Similarly, 0.25 points will be deducted for every (average) place lost.

OK THEN… You are now more than ready to make your choices. 2012 looks to be a great season, once more. Looking forward to having a great fantasy league with you guys. After each race, I will be posting the results, the updated values and lots of interesting tables and graphs so that the geek side of you can rejoice…

Oh, by the way, I will be sending out an 1:18 replica of a 2011 F1 car (not decided which one yet!) to the winner. It’s not a gift and it’s not a promotion, since this blog has no advertisements and no sponsors – it will just be a personal thank you and well done 🙂

Abu.