Sidepodcast

Please don’t forget to update your Fantasy Racers team.

Here we go then, the last chance to change your Fantasy Racers lineup and get maximum points in this season finale race. I honestly considered giving this race some proper thought, and picking my drivers based on what I’ve seen out on track. Then I thought: naaah. I promise, wholeheartedly, that next year I will actually try.

This week, I’ve taken the Brazilian theme and run with it, picking all three drivers for whom it is a home race. I’ve also picked Bourdais, just because, and Sutil because he’s all I could afford with the money I had left.

That may actually be the closest I’ve ever managed to come to the 35m limit, so I’m secretly quite impressed. I’ve no idea how Sidepodcast Racers will fare this week, but let’s be honest, it’s not going to make much difference.

The cutoff point is 5pm GMT, which will be two thirds of the way through FP2, so don’t wait until the end thinking you can be all clever and change it then. As ever, visit Fantasy Racers and select your team, but more importantly, come back and let us know who you’re running and why.

As mentioned during yesterday’s live show, we had an email from Nigel, who’s been in touch with the team behind the Fantasy Racers site, notably Danny.

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of the Fantasy Racers, the competition has provided hours and hours of entertainment this season. It has a low barrier to entry and you’re free to take it seriously, or not so seriously, as you see fit. As a result of everyone’s involvement, Nigel was wondering if we had any feedback about the game this year, in order to gather together a list of improvements or things that you’d like to see implemented next time round.

Last year by all accounts, it was a little bit more complicated. There was no budget, and you picked five drivers from different pools of comparable names. You also selected an engine and a chassis, and gained points for all your elements. There were also points available for bonus items, like the fastest lap, and the first driver out of the race.

This year, it was simplified, with the introduction of a budget. Now each driver has a price, and you buy as many as you can afford and rake in the points depending on how well your chosen team fares.

As Nigel says:

This years system has been a lot simpler so is great for the casual observer, but I think last years had merit too and was more geared to the F1 aficionado / anorak / petrol head / geek! I suggested to Danny a combination of both would work well to bring the best of both, for example, you have a set budget limit, from which you must select x numbers of drivers, 2 engines, 1 chassis. And then these all earn points per lap as well as the bonus or minus points depending on how they finish relative to their qualifying position. Obviously the more of your budget you spend on drivers, the less you have to spend on a decent engine or chassis, and vice versa.

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Please don’t forget to update your Fantasy Racers team.

Last week didn’t work out so well for me, and I partially blamed the fact that the Fantasy Racers site was down for a lot of the final day. However, this time it’s been up for ages, and I’ve still only just managed to select my team for the penultimate race.

If you’re interested in what crazy system I have picked this time round, then I’ll tell you. Any guy that has driven for the team that is currently third in the constructors, BMW. That leaves me with:

I do appear to have a bit of cash left over, which is annoying, because I tried the system with Renault but there were too many drivers and I couldn’t afford to complete the set. Nevertheless, I have a feeling this might be an okay week for Sidepodcast Racers.

As ever, don’t forget to update your team, and let us know who you’re going with and why.

Please do not forget to update your Fantasy Racers team.

Sidepodcast Racers are running just as fast as we can, but let’s be honest, it isn’t very fast at all. We are performing pitifully, and it’s all because of my crazy systems. However, that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop now, oh no. I’ve got another random selection coming up shortly.

At the beginning of the season, I said “The Racers” were just sandbagging, but I think I might have got that confused with actually doing really badly. If we’re sandbagging, we’ve left it a little bit late to do anything about it. Even Raikkonen couldn’t make up the gap I’ve created to the top.

In which case, let’s have some more fun. This week I’ve chosen:

My reasoning behind this comes from loving the battle for fourth place in the constructor’s championship. Toyota and Renault are fighting it out, and currently on equal points. Therefore, I’ve chosen both Toyota drivers, and both Renault boys, and I’ve thrown in Vettel, just because I had money left over, and I like him.

Feel free to share your team, if it’s not a secret, and let us know how you came to your decision. Changes must be made by 5pm BST.

Please do not forget to update your Fantasy Racers team.

Last week. I was ridiculed for my choice of just two drivers. The system dictated that I start at the top of the championship and work my way down until I run out of money. With Hamilton and Massa at the top, I was out of cash pretty quickly. However, to all those who laughed at me, it was one of my better points hauls, so there.

This week, with very little time to think about who I’d like in my team, as if I would anyway, I’ve gone for another arbitrary system. This time I’m flipping the same idea I had last week, so now I start from the bottom. You’ll all be pleased to know I could afford more than two drivers, although when you see who they are, perhaps not.

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Please do not forget to update your Fantasy Racers team.

I’ve had a look at mine, and you’ll be pleased to know I have given it some thought. Not serious thought, but I did assign at least five minutes to the decision making process.

I wanted someone from McLaren and someone from Ferrari. I’m not good at predicting things, and I like to hedge my bets. From Ferrari, I picked Raikkonen, because, you know, it’s wet.

Last time I had a full team of Germans, and I liked seeing all those similar flags in a row. So today, I chose the only other Finn on offer. Kovalainen. Finnish and at McLaren – he satisfies both criteria.

And finally, as I had some cash left over, I threw Bourdais into the mix. You never know, he might bring me some luck.

Go and update your team now, or if you haven’t signed up yet, visit FantasyRacers.com. I’m currently 116th, so everyone still has a chance of beating me.

We’ve had a few comments saying how much you liked the Fantasy Racers Sidepodcast League roll call on last week’s show. This makes me very happy because it wasn’t easy to do.

I’m sure you’re all aware we’re not afraid of a spot of editing, to keep the show running smoothly. We wanted to do the roll call in one take, no editing, because it would have felt wrong otherwise.

We can be a bit touchy feely like that.

Getting straight to the point, it took a lot of practice, and still we made mistakes. And because we’re not scared of making a fool of ourselves, I have put together a compilation of the outtakes from our numerous attempts at getting it right.

Enjoy.

Last year, we ventured into the world of Fantasy F1 by taking part in a competition on Batracer. I say “we” but of course, I didn’t have the patience to put in the hours of effort required, and I certainly wasn’t impressed when we only managed twelfth place after all the time invested. It’s not that I was taking it too seriously, but I just wanted to see more of a result for all the hard work.

Since then, I’ve been thinking about Fantasy F1 and its many different forms, and wondering whether there is one out there that takes minimal effort and simply adds that little extra element to watching a race. Just as I was about to mention it on the show and solicit opinions, Dan Cross beat me to it and posted details of a Sidepodcast league he had set up over on FantasyRacers.com.

Of course, we had to go and check it out, and I immediately set up my team “Sidepodcast Racers”. It was incredibly easy to do, sign up (email and name required only), pick a team name, pick your drivers. There’s a limited budget, obviously, but you can recruit a couple of good names to your team. My team at the moment consists of: Adrian Sutil, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica.

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