F1 Pools is back!
I kinda liked the whole calculation process so I thought I might give it a try this year. I just hope that there will be more than 10 participants, ideally I would like something like 20, but hey, more popular games are struggling for participation.
So, welcome to the first round of F1 Pools 2025!
Qualifying Race 1. McLaren - Ferrari 7. McLaren - Ferrari 2. Ferrari - Red Bull 8. Ferrari - Red Bull 3. Mercedes - Red Bull 9. Mercedes - Red Bull 4. (Not Chicago) Bulls - Aston Martin 10. (Not Chicago) Bulls - Aston Martin 5. Alpine - Williams 11. Alpine - Williams 6. Haas - Sauber 12. Haas - Sauber
Post your guesses before the start of qualifying, early on Saturday.
I would expect your guess format to be something like XXX 111 222 1X2 were the first and last guess would correspond respectively to duels 1 and 12. In case you use a different format please make it clear.
Good luck!
Game rules
F1 Pools is a game loosely based on soccer betting (1X2 bet or match betting) – only with F1 teams instead of soccer teams and with random(ish)ly picked 'duels' instead of actual soccer matches.
Your job is to pick the right outcome for each 'team 1 vs team 2' duel. There are three possibilities:
(1) team 1 win (X) draw (2) team 2 win
Because F1 isn't soccer and because each F1 team has two car/driver combos, picking a winner isn't quite as simple as guessing who's ahead when the checkered flag waves. Or it kind of is but you need to consider both cars of a team – not just the higher-placed one. This means that both reliability and pace are important.
The basic idea is that by picking "1" you're predicting a team 1 sweep. Logically, it follows that "2" is a team 2 sweep and that obviously leaves "X" for everything else. While ”everything else” may seem like an awfully vast selection of possible outcomes, a fairly loose definition of a draw was necessary in order to keep it as a realistic option. Here's a summary of how various qualifying and race results translate into duel outcomes (team A vs team B) :
1 team 1's cars nicely lined up ahead of their opponents on the results sheets corresponds to finishing orders AABB, AAB, AB and just A see item * below X a mixed grid/split result/any deviation from the above (or below) i.e. finishing orders ABAB, BABA, ABBA, BAAB, ABA, BAB, ABB, BAA see item ** below 2 as in 1, but now it's team 2 that's ahead
* If you can’t beat them on track, you can still earn points for reliability. A finishing order ABB (team A wins on pace, B on reliability) translates into an 'X' because this is supposed to be a team sport and there are 2 cars in a team. However, an AB finish does not warrant a punishment for unreliability because team A hasn’t done any worse than team B in that respect (A wins on pace, no one on reliability, hence the outcome is '1').
** No unreliabilty punishments for draws. An ABA result is an X and a mission accomplished for team B in that they’ve managed to beat one of their opponents on track.
Changes:
1. Deviating from previous seasons, I will be calculating the duels using the official results, after all penalties are applied. It will be easier for me considering that I will surely have some results posted a couple of months after the race (you can laugh, 'cause this is an understatement 
)
2. Scoring: Each player will be awarded the sum of the values of his correctly guessed duels. Each duel is calulated using your guesses as an indicator of probability, so that for each correct guess, your score will be 1 + the fraction of players that guessed wrong. An example: let's say 50 % of you have picked 1, 40 % X and the remaining 10 % 2. If 1 is the correct guess, the clever 50 % will score 1 + 0.5 = 1.5 points. Similarly, if X is the way to go, the score will be 1 + 0.6 =1.6 points and the lucky ones betting on 2 will get 1 + 0.9 = 1.9 points.
F1 Pools champion will be the person who amasses the highest number of points over the season. In case of a tie, the one with the most round wins takes the crown, etc.
Mat
