With one week to go until F1 bursts back into life in Melbourne, it’s time to start the 2012 F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship!
Once again we have a great selection of prizes and all you have to do to win them is make your prediction for each race result.
We’ll be giving away prizes at every race weekend and at the end of the year the player with the highest score will win tickets to next year’s British Grand Prix.
Here’s the full run-down of this year’s prizes – and more will be confirmed later in the year.
2012 F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship overall prizes
Grand prize: Two grandstands tickets to the 2013 British Grand Prix
The person who scores the most points over the whole season will win two grandstand tickets to the 2013 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
The grand prize winner will receive tickets to all three days of the event with reserved seating for the race.
- Buy British Grand Prix tickets via the Silverstone website or call the ticket hotline on 0844 3728 300
Second place prize: An F1 painting of your choice
The second place finisher will win a Formula 1 painting by Rob Ijbema.
You get to choose which F1 driver, present or past, will feature in the painting.
Or you can pick one of the other motor racing paintings on Rob’s site:
Runner-up prize: Racecar Engineering subscriptions
The five players with the next highest scores (positions three to seven) will each win a year’s subscription to Racecar Engineering magazine.
Racecar Engineering is the world?óÔé¼Ôäós leading motorsport technology magazine. Every issue is packed with in-depth features, interviews and analysis from Formula One, Le Mans and all forms racing and rallying.
Runner-up prize: Autocourse calendars
The five players with the next highest scores (positions eight to 12) will each win a 2013 Autocourse calendar.
The Autocourse Grand Prix calendar contains images taken during the season of all the major players competing in the Formula One World Championship.
The images are high resolution and taken by one of the world’s leading Grand Prix photographers, the calendar is printed on art quality paper and comes with a stiffened backing board and shrink wrapped for protection.
More prizes to be announced
Further prizes will be announced during the season.
2012 F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship race prizes
Race winner’s prize: Autocourse eBooks
The highest scorer in each race will win an Autocourse eBook. The 1971 edition will be the first prize up for grabs.
The Autocourse eBooks are faithful reproductions of the original annuals in digital form. The colour, clarity of images and text have been improved to modern standards, but the content remains in original format.
Autocourse has become the definitive record of Formula One racing the world over and early editions are collector?óÔé¼Ôäós items, which regularly trade for hundreds of pounds.
- The 1971 Autocourse eBook is available from www.autocourse.com for ?é?ú19.99 with free postage/packing to UK customers.
F1 posters by PJ Tierney
We will also be offering some of PJ Tierney’s excellent Formula 1 posters as part of the race prizes. Further details will be confirmed soon.
Check out PJ’s website for more examples of his work:
How to play
You have until the start of qualifying on Saturday to make your predictions for each round.
A reminder will be posted on the site after second practice on Friday as well as on the F1 Fanatic Twitter account.
To enter, predict the pole sitter and the top five finishers in the race. You can also enter a prediction for the pole position lap time – this may be used as a tie-breaker.
Enter your pole position lap time prediction as follows: MM:SS.ccc
For example, for a lap of one minute, 25.386 seconds you would enter 01:25.386
You need to log in using an F1 Fanatic account to make your prediction.
If you haven’t got one yet the sign-up process is quick, simple and entirely free: Get your F1 Fanatic account here and read more about registering here.
After submitting your prediction you will receive an email confirming your entry. If this does not happen, or you are concerned your prediction has not been received, please get in touch using the contact form.
Enter your prediction
Predictions are currently open for the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix so enter here now:
Competition terms and conditions
1. Maximum one entry per household.
2. The competition is not open to employees, friends or family of F1 Fanatic, Silverstone Circuit, Car-a-Day, Icon Publishing or Chelsea Magazines.
3. Predictions will be promoted on the front page of F1 Fanatic before closing prior to the start of qualifying.
4. In each round players are invited to predict (a) who will be on pole position and (b) what the top five finishers will be (five different drivers).
5. Players score points in each round as follows:
a. Correctly naming the pole sitter: 2 points
b. Correctly naming one/two/three/four/five driver/s who finish in the top five: 1/2/3/5/8 points
c. Correctly predicting where one/two/three/four/five driver/s finish: 2/6/14/24/40 points
6. Whoever scores the most points in every race counting towards the Formula 1 World Championship wins the grand prize.
7. In the event of a tie on points the winner will be determined by who is closest to predicting the pole position time correctly. If that fails to produce a winner the editor will choose a means of deciding who has won.
8. Predictions must be entered using the form above. If you have trouble submitting your entry via the form please contact F1 Fanatic via email and send your prediction using the contact form.
9. In the event of a dispute the editor?óÔé¼Ôäós decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
10. No cash alternative is offered for any of the prizes.
11. Grand Prix tickets: Children must be accompanied by an adult. Accommodation and transport to the venue not included.
12. Players who have won prizes will be notified by email within seven days of each Grand Prix. Grand Prix tickets will be despatched once they are available.
Don’t miss a round of the Predictions Championship
Make sure you get your entry in every week.
Remember you can enter your predictions in advance and edit them up to the deadline.
To make sure you don’t miss an opportunity to enter, follow F1 Fanatic one of these ways:
- Follow F1 Fanatic on Twitter (There’s also an articles-only feed)
- Join F1 Fanatic on Facebook
- Subscribe to F1 Fanatic via RSS
Image ?é?® Red Bull/Getty images
Tango (@tango)
9th March 2012, 17:44
Best day of the year. I still have a glimmer of hope !
Lord Stig (@lord-stig)
9th March 2012, 17:53
I should really put some more effort into these predictions. I usually do atrociously given my ranking over the last couple of years.
Mach1 (@mach1)
9th March 2012, 17:55
Yahooooo! Only need to beat last years score of 400 and somthing!
Good job I invested in a warehouse sized super-computer for the task!!
MahavirShah (@mahavirshah)
9th March 2012, 17:57
Once I make a prediction can I change it anytime before start of qualifying?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
9th March 2012, 18:06
@mahavirshah Yep that’s right.
MahavirShah (@mahavirshah)
9th March 2012, 18:12
Thanks. This will be my first year playing it. :)
JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
9th March 2012, 18:04
I fear that this season is going to be notoriously difficult to predict. However, those prizes look fantastic :)
Mallesh Magdum (@malleshmagdum)
9th March 2012, 18:12
The prizes are BIGGER and better than last year’s :)
verstappen (@verstappen)
9th March 2012, 19:00
Got it.
Now, let’s wait for free practice to see if my wishes come true…
Wouldn’t it be nice?
Mustalainen (@mustalainen)
9th March 2012, 19:01
Oh, I’m so excited! This first round will be very tricky to get right I reckon
Dan_the_McLaren_fan (@dan_the_mclaren_fan)
9th March 2012, 19:23
After a promising debut year in 2010, a mixed second year with a catastrophic end of the season in 2011, I’m really looking forward for this season to prove myself! I will do my absolute best to try to win some of these great prizes!
Btw, will these prizes be shipped abroad?
Enigma (@enigma)
9th March 2012, 21:54
I think they will be, they’ve been before.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
10th March 2012, 0:09
@Dan_the_McLaren_fan Yes (if you win one).
If there were any restrictions like that I’d put it in the rules. Just so you know.
Mallesh Magdum (@malleshmagdum)
11th March 2012, 3:01
@Dan_the_Mclaren_fan yep, and shipping is free
Rahim.RG (@rahim-rg)
9th March 2012, 19:32
Well i’ll try being a Dark Horse year… :p
Last yr in top 40…now its gonna be more hard to predict…
As kimi says…we’ll see :)
Rahim.RG (@rahim-rg)
9th March 2012, 19:33
this yr*
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
9th March 2012, 19:55
Ooo the Racecar Engineering subscription sounds fantastic! I’d really enjoy that.
Great haul of prizes again @keithcollantine I’m looking forward to it.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
9th March 2012, 20:01
Anyone dare stick their predictions in now, WITHOUT amending them prior to qualifying? ;)
Damon (@damon)
10th March 2012, 10:30
You bet!
My sophisitacated calculations are so accurate I won’t need amending them.
BasCB (@bascb)
9th March 2012, 20:29
I must say I am really looking forward to it this year. First time around I certainly messed up, scoing only a handfull of points and around 400th or something.
Last year after the first couple of races I started to predict more based on the reality than on what i would like to see, and it got me a win in one round of the championship (coveted DVD’s!) and almost into the top 100.
With the prizes now extended down to 12th in the championship and another really nice load of prizes to win each weekend this is going to be really worth it. Thanks @keithcollantine and all of the companies providing the prizes.
Dj xo2 (@dj-xo2)
9th March 2012, 20:31
6 world champs and only 5 picks. …..
George (@george)
9th March 2012, 21:03
Hope I do better than last year!
King Six (@kingsix)
9th March 2012, 22:28
My problem with last year is I forgot to do this. In 2010 every time I chose Vettel he ended up doing something stupid and thus we had a close championship. 2011 I sort of ignored it all…but I’ll be back now for 2012 after a 1 year sabbatical to once again make life very hard for Vettel…
lotusien2 (@lotusien2)
9th March 2012, 22:42
So, I will try to gain one place better than last year which will mean 1st place at the end! ;-)
But… it will be very difficult, starting with a real headhache for the first prediction!
Anyway it wil be fun! Good luck for everybody.
ivz (@ivz)
9th March 2012, 23:11
Should be bonus points for anyone that can predict pole and top five before the first practice session in Melbourne :) lol
UKFan (@)
10th March 2012, 0:58
just dont cheat dont know if anyone cheats but double account ips blah are a big threat to the game.
aka_robyn (@)
10th March 2012, 1:26
I came in 2nd in another site’s predictions championship last year and was totally psyched — until I realized the only prize for 2nd place was being told “Yeah, well, maybe you can manage to win next year.” ;-) Anyway, I think I’ll try my hand at F1 Fanatic’s this year. It looks like fun!
don knowles (@don-knowles)
10th March 2012, 1:47
Taking Ferrari at their word–no podium, not even top 5.
sid_prasher (@)
10th March 2012, 5:41
Great prizes @keithcollantine!! First one is the trickiest and if teams are actually bunched up then even more so…looking fwd to it :)
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
10th March 2012, 9:30
I scored in every race last year, I hope to keep it up!
Damon (@damon)
10th March 2012, 10:31
That’s not a hard thing to achieve, come on mate. :)
HK (@me4me)
10th March 2012, 11:39
already entered my prediction, pretty much like a banker-lap. Will probably change it a few times before Q1 starts. I did however (unlike others?) put an Ferarri in the top 5. :)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
10th March 2012, 14:01
Good tactics!
Lin1876 (@lin1876)
10th March 2012, 11:55
Need to get into this. this season. I’m usually hopeless at predicting results (it really does not matter which sport), but I’m in it for the fun.
Bigbadderboom (@bigbadderboom)
10th March 2012, 15:42
Note to self, predict with head not heart, appalling at this but heres the start of another season.
Firstly remember to do it (kept forgetting last year. Secondly predict where I think drivers will finish, not where I want them to finish.And finally to once again be gracious in defeat. :(
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
10th March 2012, 17:29
The predictions are now open for all 20 rounds so if you want you can get your picks in early and edit them later so you don’t miss a round.
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
10th March 2012, 20:20
Last year I had one good round with 30+ points in addition to some low-scoring rounds, though I didn’t put much effort in. This year, I will put in a more concerted effort, though I will not put head over heart too much. Another reason, then, to hope that my favourite teams and drivers do well this season.
MattHT (@mattht)
10th March 2012, 22:31
Aim 1: Beat Andrew
Aim 2: Beat Andrew
Aim 3: Beat Andrew
Aim 4: Try improve on last year (finished 5th I think)
Aim 5: Beat Andrew
rich E C
11th March 2012, 12:52
Is this prediction for the genuine BBC races only championship or for the ‘sort of slightly dodgy’ Concorde breaking Sky only championship?
James Brickles (@brickles)
13th March 2012, 21:05
I’m entering my first season this year. I fancy a bit of F1Funatic ;)
Pink Peril (@pink-peril)
14th March 2012, 21:26
I think I came 12th last year & this year I am aiming for the top ten. The prize I got was awesome, a 2011 Yearbook so thanks for that Keith. Put my predictions in already but at this stage its more guess work than anything else and I may well revise them closer to the race.