I’m Doing It a Different Way
Please do not forget to update your Fantasy Racers team.
The format of picking a lot of drivers, even if they’re not expected to be getting results, has worked quite well for me in the past. Unfortunately, the last race was a particularly poor showing for Sidepodcast Racers, but that’s okay, this week we’re going to bounce back.
I’ve decided to pick the top two drivers in the championship. The plan was to start from the top and work my way down until I ran out of money, but that only meant I could afford two drivers. That’s Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa. The total is only £26.10 million, which is quite annoying, but Raikkonen is next and he’s just too damn expensive.
I’d love to know what strategy you’re using, whether the Free Practice results are useful to you at all. Visit Fantasy Racers to update, or to register a new team. It’s probably a bit late to be a serious threat in the Sidepodcast League, but we have plenty of very welcome latecomers and we’re almost seeing a secondary championship forming. Join in, and have fun.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:16 amme said:
this is how you’re going to bounce back?
lady, methinks you need a new strategy
September 5th, 2008 at 11:20 amChristine said:
Yea, yea. We’ll see.
I bet this week you don’t want to ditch Alonso now, do you?
September 5th, 2008 at 11:21 amDank said:
The highest score you stand to make is 378. I think…
20 for pole position
150 for first place
100 for second place
88 for laps completed (1 point per lap. 44 lap race. 2 drivers)
20 for fastest lap
Probably an idea to have the most drivers possible given the lowest number of laps of any track on the F1 calendar?
September 5th, 2008 at 11:22 amChristine said:
That’ll still be more than I got last time.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:23 amChristine said:
I could have added Kubica, but that means skipping Raikkonen, and that would mess up the system.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:24 amlou said:
Oh no! my school has blocked fantasy racers!!
i hope i get back in time tonight… what time do i have till?
September 5th, 2008 at 11:25 amme said:
or… pick another system!
September 5th, 2008 at 11:26 amme said:
according to the site:
“All selections will be frozen at 05 Sep 2008 17:00 GMT+1 so make sure your lineup is finalised before this time.”
September 5th, 2008 at 11:27 amlou said:
I should be home by 5….
Thanks.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:27 amNigel Mac said:
Re Dank’s comment,
surely it’s better to go for points finishers with the lower number of laps so you get the extra points for finishing in the championships points?
September 5th, 2008 at 11:29 amChristine said:
I could start from the bottom of the championship instead?
September 5th, 2008 at 11:29 amNigel Mac said:
I was going to change my strtaegy and go for 5 drivers this time, usually I go for the only 3 best, but after reading that this approached works for Christine I am having a rethink, it doesn’t appear to work too well….121st in the league?
September 5th, 2008 at 11:31 amAlianora La Canta said:
lou, you have until 5pm, so if you’re quick when you get home, you should still get your picks.
As usual, I’m waiting for second practise. I’ve got my comparitor primed to receive information.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:33 amChristine said:
I tried for the first couple of weeks and was rubbish at the game. So now I pick arbitrary systems for my choices. Don’t pay any attention to me. I am a yardstick for doing things badly.
Plus, all the drivers I pick have bad luck, so be warned.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:34 amAlianora La Canta said:
My strategy goes thus:
1) Program the comparitor
)
2) Pick the fastest Force India driver (I’m allowed a bit of favouritism, aren’t I?
3) Take the driver predicted to be first in the race
4) Take the next driver in the classification who’s cheaper than the race winner (this is for value-for-money reasons)
5) If I exit the top 10 before running out of money, look at how much I have left and pick the highest-running driver I can still afford.
6) Repeat 5) until I can no longer afford any more drivers.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:34 amNigel Mac said:
Did you get my email earlier in the week?
I’m now up to date with all podcasts for this season, it’s great to be current!
September 5th, 2008 at 11:36 amAlianora La Canta said:
I’ve just noticed I’ve climbed from my initial 144th to the dizzy heights of 143rd
September 5th, 2008 at 11:36 amChristine said:
I did. Think I replied last night. Welcome aboard the good ship Sidepodcast.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:36 amDank said:
Er, perhaps so… [goes to change line-up - again!]
September 5th, 2008 at 11:37 amJeremy said:
Can you please reconsider your system then? I really would like Lewis to win the championship!
September 5th, 2008 at 11:42 amme said:
September 5th, 2008 at 11:49 amNigel Mac said:
My new team for this weekend has been decided and it feels right! See Spitfires at Dawn in 18th place.
What do you reckon?
September 5th, 2008 at 11:54 amAlex Andronov said:
Before reading this… Don’t panic… It’s a joke…
Button in F1 accident
September 5th, 2008 at 11:55 amme said:
christine, have found you a new system. how about every driver on the grid who’s name (first or last) starts with an ‘R’?
- Kimi Räikkönen
- Nico Rosberg
- Robert Kubica
- Rubens Barrichello
it’s a simple process, pick a decent team and then find something they all have in common.
next week, drivers with a vowel in their name.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:57 amAlex Andronov said:
Identi.ca is a bit broken at the moement…
September 5th, 2008 at 11:57 amme said:
hmm, you have heikki, if it rains he may be in trouble. and robert didn’t do so well at silverstone in the wet.
mind you, you’re in 18th… what do i know!?
September 5th, 2008 at 11:58 amme said:
we need to set up our federated system asap.
bring on the next mini-series.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:09 pmSteven Roy said:
September 5th, 2008 at 2:50 pmJordan Allen said:
Jordan F1 had three basic race strategies in place before Monaco.
The “My” strategy was the basic generic strategy. Basically, pick drivers I like. The “My” and “Christine” strategies have been used since Monaco in some sort of modified “Yugoslavian Method”.
The “Monaco” strategy ==> dubbed “Christine” looked at the fact that Monaco was the shortest circuit and therefore had the most laps, and goes for maximun possible points period, based on finishing the race. Basically, Maximium safety for maximium points.
The “Spa” strategy ==> dubbed “Me” looks at the fact that Spa has the shortest number of laps, and a retirement here is the least costly. Thus I have in line up the three drivers which I think are coming in 1, 2, 3. Basically, Maximimum Guts from hopefully Maximium Glory.
So Jordan F1 has in its line-up, Kimi Raikkonen, Robert Kubica, Jarno Trulli and Der Seb, in roster.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:56 pmme said:
i’m going the same except swapping kub for alonso.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:56 pmJordan Allen said:
It sums up Christine’s stratgic abilities when she refuses to hire the only driver that has been in Jordan F1 since the being of the season, and is proability the main reason why I am currently in first place in the Sidepodcast league….
September 5th, 2008 at 2:59 pmJordan Allen said:
But that Beemer still has more grunt in it than that powerplant that may decide to take “French Leave” from that Reanult chassis at any moment.
.
September 5th, 2008 at 3:15 pmNigel Mac said:
I notice in the selection stats on Fantasy Racers that more Fantasy Teams have selected Davidson for the last race than selected Nakajima!
http://www.fantasyracers.com/
September 5th, 2008 at 3:31 pmAlianora La Canta said:
I’m taking the following team:
Sutil
Massa
Kovalainen
Vettel
September 5th, 2008 at 3:34 pmAlianora La Canta said:
I’ve just realised I may be in trouble with that plan if it rains significantly…
September 5th, 2008 at 3:38 pmAlianora La Canta said:
By the way, I will not be updating the comparitor again before qualifying, because I’m working tomorrow. It won’t work on my PDA because Mobile Excel only supports three pages and my library frowns on staff members manipulating 20-page recreational spreadsheets at work for some reason…
September 5th, 2008 at 3:39 pmNigel Mac said:
Alianora - where can I get to see your comparitor?
September 5th, 2008 at 3:49 pmAlianora La Canta said:
drop.io. It’s available in both Excel (.xls) and Openoffice 2 (.ods) versions, and drop.io will load up the file in its own document viewer if you have neither program.
September 5th, 2008 at 3:50 pmAlianora La Canta said:
The drop.io address for Sidepodcast is http://drop.io/sidepodcast .
September 5th, 2008 at 3:53 pmSteven Roy said:
After much thought the management of Dossier what Dossier have decide to make a minor change to our line up. Staying with us as he has done all season is Lewis Hamilton on the basis that if it rains he should win.
Out from the last race go Kimi Raikkonen who may be back for Monza and Timo Glock who will probably never darken our doorstep again. Into the team come two drivers who have enhanced their reputations this season and better not blow their chance this weekend or they will be following Herr Glock.
The team line up for this weekend is
Lewis Hamilton
Felipe Massa
Roberto Kubica
You can’t have a racing driver called Robert so he has agreed to a minor modification to his name.
Unfortunately unlike Christine I don’t have a clever system so I am unlikely to score lots of points. I will endeavour to have a system for Italy
September 5th, 2008 at 4:38 pmJordan Allen said:
Ali, if you have a bottled oxygen supply and a pressure suit, join me up here where you can see the black emptiness of Space….
Heck, I will even give you Astronaut Wings….If you want, I will even pin them on you up here…..
September 5th, 2008 at 5:09 pmlou said:
Damn it! I missed the cut off piont by 2 mins!!! So i am stuck with
Massa
Alonso
Button
Glock
September 5th, 2008 at 5:34 pmAlenyaa said:
Before picking my line-up I tend to look at last year’s results, how a team/driver has performed this year, momentum and the type of circuit and which cars it will suit best.
It often leads to similar line-ups though.
Cheers!
September 5th, 2008 at 5:56 pmChristine said:
Don’t worry, Lou. I think a certain someone is experience de ja vu this week. One day I’ll come home to a “Hi honey, how was your day?”
September 5th, 2008 at 6:06 pmme said:
cheers ali. i have good feelings about it this week.
it was only an afternoon nap, i wanted to change…
September 5th, 2008 at 6:38 pmlou said:
hahaha
you should set an alarm or something so you wake up 10 mins before to change it… or change it before you nap
September 5th, 2008 at 7:16 pmAlex Andronov said:
I wish I could have taken a nap during the day today. Man I’m tired.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:28 pmme said:
i don’t feel a whole lot better for it to be honest, and i still have alonso in me team.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:59 amFelipe Leite said:
Sorry for being the responsible for “me”’s misbehaviour, Christine (wow, try to repeat that 3 times in a row! :)).
The decision process for my team line-up this weekend took into account that Spa has the lowest number of laps.
So I am tipping Massa to be 1st or 2nd and pole or fastest lap. That would sum up to 144-234 points. I think that even if it rains, it is impossible that he will have such a catastrophic race as he had in Silverstone. And he will want to prove every one wrong about his wet driving skills, so I hope he can do it.
Then I choose Kubica, and I expect him to be in 3rd or 4th place (114 - 124 points). Finishing the line up, two drivers that I guess will finish between 5th and 8th, the new “best value for money duo”: Trulli and Vettel(74 - 104 for one of them, 84-94 to the other).
Summing up, if everything goes well, I can score between 416 and 556.
BTW, I’ve lost one position in our league, because someone with more points than me joined, so now I’m 21st
I hope I can recover a top 20 position! 
September 6th, 2008 at 10:20 amPoppy said:
Yet again I have failed miserably and forgotten to update my fantasy racers in time!! As a strategy this has occasionally worked in my favour - Trulli’s pretty good showing this year - so he has been on my team for every race this year.
Unfortunately so is Alonso. He scored a fantastic 0 for me at Valencia. I even got rid of Jenson for that type of misdemeanor!! Alonso is still hanging in there though due to rubbish forgetfulness on my part. Who knows perhaps it will work in my favour and he will be on the podium at Spa?
Generally my strategy is to get as may drivers as I can for my money so my team uses up exactly the £35m budget. This does leave Trulli as the linchpin…..which doesn’t really win me any strategist of the century prizes
Although this time I have been ahead of myself and added Kubica for next time and got rid of Webber - oh wait I still have Alonso in there? How did that happen…? Ah well he is always good value in other ways - comedy fist shakes being one…
September 6th, 2008 at 12:27 pmRich said:
If it makes you feel better - I also took a nap and awoke to find alas it is too late to change my team!
My problem is I want to see how they do in free practice so I do not confirm my drivers until just before the cutoff. That would not be so bad except after a race i look at various combinations and change my setting to “explore”. So I am stuck with my interesting “exploration” combination which was to see if you could spend all of the 35 million! - and this is the combination it gets you!
Felipe Massa Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 12.50m
Giancarlo Fisichella Force India 5.50m
Jarno Trulli Panasonic Toyota Racing 6.00m
Sebastian Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 5.20m
Timo Glock Panasonic Toyota Racing 5.80m
It cannot be a worse combination than the last time where I had Sutil, Webber, Coulthard and Bourdais!