Brazil 2014 (Round 18) - F1 Prediction League

Welcome to the Brazilian GP prediction league thread! A fantastic weekend is in store with storms looming, although the thought of rain unfortunately brings back memories of the Japan race.

Perhaps it is only fitting Marussia can wrap up the title here, needing only 18 more points than Lotus and 7 points more than McLaren. It’s difficult but not impossible, both Marussia drivers will undoubtedly be pushing hard to make it a reality!

The driver’s championship will go down to the final race, with Michael tight in the slipstream lining up an overtake and Sangan not far behind. Let’s make this one to remember. 

There’s plenty still to play for in the prediction league regardless of both championships including the glory of an individual race weekend win. There are a number of people throughout the field deserving of a win that haven’t quite had the luck. For example Nat who has so far scored 10 (out of 14) top 5 finishes but no victory...

Perhaps the storms will also provide one last non-Mercedes winner this season although the rain often exaggerates the gap from Mercedes to the rest of the field so I wouldn’t count it.

The random this time will be a mixture of driver groupings (think teammate domination style), Felipe Massa questions and tie-breaks.

Read on for the random and other information including team contracts, championship standings and a template to post picks.

Team situation for 2015

Following the announcements of various teams after the US GP, the team situation looks like this for next year (in championship order):

Marussia (administration, future uncertain)

Lotus – Sangan, Dragan

McLaren – Kim, Michael

Mercedes – Metalgatherer, Aled Lewis

Williams – no drivers confirmed yet

Red Bull – Kiszol, Ediglo

Ferrari – Joe, Chris

Sauber – Brian

Toro Rosso – no drivers confirmed yet

Force India – no drivers confirmed yet

Caterham (administration, future uncertain)

Championship Standings

Any way here’s a round-up of the current driver’s and constructor’s championship positions: 

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Random

Thanks to everyone who has helped so far on random this year - please feel free to post suggestions here for other races. 

Category 1: The Great Brazilian Drivers Market

Pick one driver from each of the four groupings below. Do not exceed a maximum budget of 50m EUR. For each unallocated 1m an extra two points will be scored.

Allocate which session (practice, qualifying, race, fastest lap) will be double points for every group (A-D). A session cannot be selected in more than one group e.g. race cannot be allocated twice. Your driver will then score double points in that session.

For example if I pick the below Massa will score double points in all practice sessions:
Group A - Massa (Practice)
Group B - Alonso (Race)
Group C - Hulkenberg (Fastest Lap)
Group D - Sutil (Qualifying)

Groupings

Scoring

Once points are tallied, players will be ranked in order and given points in 2 point increments. For example if there are 14 players, first will score 28 points, second 26 and last 0. If players are tied on points they will all receive the average of the points on offer. For example if three players tied for the lead (with 14 players) then all would receive 26 points (the average of 28, 26, 24).

Retirement rules:

• If a driver retires through no fault of their own between 0-25% distance they get quarter points for where they were within the group (strategy adjusted).
• if a driver retires through no fault of their own between 26-75% distance they get half points for where they were within the group (strategy adjusted).
• If a driver retires through no fault of their own between 76-100% they get full points. So you could get Ricciardo retiring with 3 laps to go and gifting Massa with the lead of the group. Both Massa and Ricciardo would score maximum points.

Other rules:

• if a driver is replaced in a practice session (e.g. Bottas in FP1, the next session they take part in is doubled for that driver so for FP2 Bottas’ points are doubled. Scoring occurs as normal for the other drivers in FP1 except Bottas’ replacement can affect their points total by beating them).

Category 2: The dominance of Massa?

Which session will Massa have the most advantageous position (based on position) relative to Bottas? (FP2, FP3, Qualifying, Race, Fastest Lap) – Nasr is thought to replace Bottas in FP1.

1^st – 4 points

2^nd – 3 points

3^rd – 2 points

4^th – 1 point

5^th (and anyone who picks FP1 if Nasr takes Bottas’ place ;)) – 0 points

Ties (where there is an equal position - for example in FP2 and qualifying if Massa beats Bottas by +2 in both, the better pick will be the one with the greatest time difference. When comparing race to another session a multiple of 50 will be applied to all other sessions for example 0.2 in one session will equate to 10 seconds in the race). Additionally usual retirement rules count, placing will count at the time of a retirement/the lap before problems started occurring, unless a driver retires through fault of their own. If this is the case then rankings will be subject to FIA classification.

How many positions ahead (+) or behind (-) in Massa's best session relative to Bottas?

Correct – 4 points

1 away – 3 points

2 away – 2 points

3 away – 1 point

4 or more away – 0 points

Tie-break

How close will Massa and Bottas be in qualifying (last comparable session together)? 

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Template

Hamilton, Rosberg and Mercedes banned.

Feel free to post picks in the following format:

Qualifying: 
Race: 
Constructors: 
Random:
Group A: [Driver] (double points: [session])
Group B: [Driver] (double points: [session])
Group C: [Driver] (double points: [session])
Group D: [Driver] (double points: [session])
Session Massa best against Bottas: [FP2/FP3/Q/R/FL]
Positions ahead (+)/behind (-) in best session: +/-X

Tie-break: X.XXX seconds

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As always picks are due before Free Practice 1 which is 1300 GMT/1000 Local time.

Good luck everyone!