25 May 2009

Monaco 2009: Round 6 Results

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A big, big congratulations to my team mate Wooze on taking his second win of the season at Monaco. He was already leading the standings before this win and so now stands in a very strong position in the championship. This win is the fourth of his career, equalling UnclePeJay, IceMan and closest championship rival Karan.

This result also means that Wooze automatically secures an option on his Brawn seat for 2010, as he is a multiple winner this season.

Karan also scored heavily and is now part of a breakaway group of three at the top of the table, completed by Spain winner Bommer, who is also on an awesome run of form at the moment. Bahrain winner Hollywood climbs into the top eight whilst its good to see SGP move up off the bottom of the table after a tricky start to the year. Keep it up!

Ferrari put the squeeze on Brawn GP, reducing the leaders' cushion to two points while the big winners were Toyota, scoring more than everybody else and moving from 7th to 5th.

A third win of the season for Great Britain keeps them at the top of the nations standings by a slender three points. Both Germany and Belgium climb up a place.

Incidently, information on deciding winners in tied-points situations is covered by the rules.

Roll on Turkey!

16 May 2009

Spain 2009: Round 5 Results

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A big congratulations to Bommer on taking the win in Spain with an impressive 15 points. This victory is his first for new team Toro Rosso and his third overall, equalling the tallies of Fisichella and new championship leader Wooze.

Grats too to the missus on predicting a low points result for Nick Heidfeld - prediction of the weekend. Bommer also had an ace in the pack being the only one to predict Rubens taking fastest lap - probably the guess that sealed the win.

With 14 points from Spain Wooze returns to the head of the standings for the first time since Australia. As usual the return to Europe marked the first high scores of the season and plenty of movement in the 2009 standings. Bommer jumps six places to tuck in just behind team mate LoudHoward, after the Toro Rosso pairing scored heavily to take the team to third overall after Brawn and Ferrari.

The United States swap places with Canada yet again thanks to Bommer's score, jumping to second behind Great Britain.

Next up, its the big one - the battle to be the next Monte Carlo winner. Don't forget that the first day of practice is a day early so the deadline is Thursday 21st May 9am BST.

Roll on Monaco!

4 May 2009

Optional Bonus Events for 2009

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I'm planning on adding a couple of extra non-championship events for this season: The Le Mans 24hrs in June and the Race of Champions in November.

These two events do not count towards the main Formula 1 championship and as such are optional. Everybody is eligible to compete should they wish to but those that enter stand the chance to win extra trophies, or in other words, better bidding power for the 2010 F1 seats.

Le Mans 24hrs - June 13th - 14th 2009

This year Sebastien Bourdais will take on the legendary 24hr race, harking back to the 'good old days' when Formula 1 drivers would compete in various other events and series during the season.

This gave me the idea to incorporate the great endurance race into GPP to give players the chance to pick up another prize during their 'careers'.

(Actually, it was 10% that, 90% seeing the stunning new Aston Martin in the iconic Gulf livery and thinking 'I've got to get in on that'... but, I digress)

As with the real race, seats would be shared between three players, so the team of three that scores highest will be declared the winners of the 2009 Le Mans 24hrs. Of course, the nature of the race means a different scoring system will be needed, but I have a few ideas of how that might work.

Peugeot, Audi and Aston Martin are the big three manufacturers in the race and I'd hope to have at least one of each car. If more than nine sign up, then its up to you guys which additional LMP1 cars we use.

Race of Champions - November 3rd - 4th 2009

Just two days after the Formula 1 season comes to a close in Abu Dhabi, China's Bird's Nest olympic stadium will host the annual Race of Champions.

I thought we could also include this event as an end of season bonus so players who might not have faired so well in the F1 championship still have a shot at a big prize.

As in the real event, it would be split into two separate competitions - the Nation's Cup on the first day and the contest between individuals on the second to determine who is awarded the coveted 'Champion of Champions' title.

In real life, the competitors are proven winners from various series, so I think the day two event might be restricted to players who have finished, say, in the top three of the championship before.

As with Le Mans, this is a very different event from a Grand Prix - its a knockout competition - so again the scoring format will need to be different but I've come up with the bare bones of how the concept could work.

So what do you think? At present this is not set in stone and I'm posting this to gauge the level of interest so please do post in the comments and let me know what you think. Neither event needs a massive entry line up for it to go ahead so if there's a small group of players that would like to have a go at this then I'll go ahead with it.

Let me know. I think it could be fun.