Fantasy Formula 1 Championship 2011

Welcome to the 16^th year of Fantasy Formula 1. Many of you have been here before, but hello especially to the 12 of you who join us for the first time.

I'll be posting the results here and letting those of you on twitter know when they're available. As I'm almost entirely hopeless at maths and inept with spreadsheets (plus fairly lazy) the results usually show up on the Tuesday after the race. Hey, some of us have to work y'know?!

For your amusement/information, here’s what everybody chose, and how it affects their points pre-season, plus some other information on previous winners, and who picked what….

Previous Winners

2010 – Ollie C (23 competitors)

2009 – Cara T (19 competitors)

2008 – Tony D (14 competitors)

2007 – James S (16 competitors)

2006 – Tony D (21 competitors)

2005 – Dan S (22 competitors)

2004 – Will H (21 competitors)

2003 – Elise C (20 competitors)

2002 – Peter G (18 competitors)

2001 – Nigel H (14 competitors)

2000 – Peter G (13 competitors)

1999 – Paul G (10 competitors)

1998 – Peter G (5 competitors)

1997 – Stuart H (12 competitors)

1996 – Don T (13 competitors)

Drivers & Teams Popularity

Ooh, you funny people! Each season, I’m amused by what you selected; was is because of cost? Personal favourites? Complete failure to understand the rules? Complete failure to understand Formula 1 at all?!

Well, you’ve excelled your good selves again this season, that’s for sure. Let’s start with the cars, shall we? No big surprises who got picked the most times – yup, Red Bull and McLaren both bagged 13 selections each. The next team up is a bit harder to figure though. Lotus get 8 selections; because they’ve clearly improved? Cheapness? Williams gain 6 votes and Renault are next along with 5 selections, which sounds about right, especially as they’re now without Kubica. But hang on.... aren’t we missing a team here? The red ones? Remarkably, Ferrari garner just 5 votes too. Mercedes get just 4 (which is a bit surprising too!), the same as Toro Rosso. Force India and Hispania collect 1 selection each, assumingly by those being economic, people who spent a lot elsewhere, the very optimistic or those touched by insanity. Good start – I’ve offended two people already.... Sauber and Virgin don’t have any mates at all. Ahhhh.

On the driver front, the most popular guy to pick only came 4th last year – It’s Craig David (sorry, Lewis Hamilton) with 7 votes. Kobayashi & Heidfeld get 6 each; both are surprisingly high, but maybe you’re expecting big bangs for your bucks? A bit of new-boy solidarity gets di Resta 5 votes, with the three championship rivals from last year (Alonso, Vettel and Webber) plus that old German chap (Schumacher) next along, joined by Sutil on 4 each. Button gets just 3 call-ups, and considering his ability to manage tyres, these might be wise votes indeed. Kovaleinen, Rosberg, Massa, Barrichello and Glock get 2, and Petrov, Buemi and Maldonado 1.

Six drivers will be sulking this season after getting no votes at all: D’Ambrosio, Karthikeyan, Liuzzi, Perez, Trulli and Alguersuari.

2011 Competitors

With a biggest ever 30 people taking part, I thought you might find it handy to know a bit about who you’re competing against, and how well they’ve done in the past…

So, we're ready to go then. Good luck and whatever happens, we've got a thrilling F1 season ahead of us, and I, for one, am itching for it to start. Roll on Sunday...

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