It took a while, but we got here. The first Grand Prix of the season has finally been held, and the grid is the same as it was seemed last December, and as it was supposed to be four months ago in Australia. For the record (and in case the first race of the year is delayed again in the future) – had there been any changes to the lineup after the cancelled Australian race, the original lineup would have also counted. Anyway, we can finally congratulate rodlamas on winning the 2020 Silly Season Trophy! This was his debut, and he did very well indeed.
2003: Brian O Flaherty
2004: Flying Panda
2005: lukywill, Viceroy, Makarias
2017: ANF
2018: Marklar
2019: TurnOffTheLights
2020: rodlamas
rodlamas's prediction was rather sensible. Some of his picks didn't pan out (such as de Vries to Williams or Ticktum to Toro Rosso), but he was one of only three players to place Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso (now renamed AlphaTauri), and that helped him take the lead during the second-to-last driver announcement of the silly season.
The best players managed to get 14 exact picks out of the 20 available. This means that the grid was more predictable than in 2019, when the best players only had 10 exact picks. Last year, the players scored between 65 and 86 points, while the range has increased to 78–97 this year. The range of points is roughly the same, meaning the players don't get too crazy with their guesses.
Here are the full results:
Place Name Points Exact Subm 1 rodlamas 96.40 14 2 2 DutchQuicksilver 94.47 13 12 3 sladealonso 93.93 14 5 4 f1paul 93.47 13 9 5 thequadge 92.60 13 6 6 noikeee 92.33 13 10 7 Marklar 92.00 13 3 8 SpaceHorseParty 91.67 13 1 AVERAGE PICK 91.67 13 9 TurnOffTheLights 90.93 12 7 10 Makarias 90.73 13 11 11 KWSN - DSM 89.53 13 4 12 Grayson 87.47 12 16 13 M2000-5 86.87 12 15 14 thegforcemaybewithyou 85.73 12 8 15 scheivlak 84.33 11 13 16 Costaz 78.60 11 14
The average pick didn't do as well as in the previous years, and splits the pack of players evenly. I managed to score exactly as many points as the average pick, by virtue of only having one difference in picks (I picked Mick Schumacher for Williams, the average pick was Robert Kubica).
Now, some quick statistics on the 2020 drivers:
Name Team Total In team Most popular team Alexander Albon Red Bull 11 0 AlphaTauri (11) Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 14 7 Mercedes (7) Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 16 1 Red Bull (15) Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 13 9 Alfa Romeo (9) Romain Grosjean Haas 3 3 Haas (3) Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 16 16 Mercedes (16) Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri 4 3 AlphaTauri (3) Nicholas Latifi Williams 0 0 n/a Charles Leclerc Ferrari 16 16 Ferrari (16) Kevin Magnussen Haas 14 14 Haas (14) Lando Norris McLaren 15 15 McLaren (15) Esteban Ocon Renault 16 1 Mercedes (7) Sergio Pérez Racing Point 15 10 Racing Point (10) Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo 15 15 Alfa Romeo (15) Daniel Ricciardo Renault 16 15 Renault (15) George Russell Williams 15 11 Williams (11) Carlos Sainz McLaren 16 16 McLaren (16) Lance Stroll Racing Point 16 16 Racing Point (16) Max Verstappen Red Bull 16 16 Red Bull (16) Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 15 15 Ferrari (15)
The most popular driver not on the 2020 grid is Nico Hülkenberg, who was picked by every player but Costaz. Most expected him to stay at Renault, except for scheivlak, who took a chance on him going to Williams. Dan Ticktum (11 out of 16 picks) was the only other driver to have been picked by a majority of players. All of them expected him to make it to AlphaTauri. Mick Schumacher (8 picks) and Robert Kubica (7 picks) were also moderately popular.
Once again, congratulations to rodlamas! I invite you to follow the interim results of the 2021 Silly Season Trophy, as well as to prepare for the 2022 Silly Season Trophy, which is likely to be the silliest yet. We have a little less than four months until submissions are open!
