I have my picks in but may try to make one more edit after P3.

Only 5 hours to go and a bunch of people haven't made their picks!

dayna_k8 MikeK motoring skimonkey tysonK, get on it!

Just for some further clarification on the half-point scoring for this round:

Since the rules from the start were "Based on official F1 results, if a participant's picked drivers score World Championship points, then the participant scores the same number of fantasy points", and because I was able to modify the FF1 software to account for the weirdness, we will be giving out partial points for this round.

Since everyone's in the same boat, it shouldn't have a drastic effect on our season standing, other than having to look at all those non-round numbers all season long.

God, if looking at prime numbers wasn't bad enough, now I've got to look at fractions?

I disagree with the decision...The F1 championship is not choosing winners with a limit on usage...Our fantasy league limits the times you can pick a driver. So today my winning pick is worth half while someone who picks the same winner down the road gets full credit. If there wasn't a restriction on the number of times you could choose a driver, it wouldn't matter. So today, someone who picked poorly gets rewarded.

AAAHHHH, the half-wits will prevail!

I understand what you're saying, and you're correct picking the winner in Malaysia is similar to picking only 4th place in a race that goes the distance. But the rules for fantasy point scoring is not "10 for picking the winner, etc...", it's "share the points awarded by the FIA". Even if it potentially screws w/ those of us that picked well for this round, I can't in good conscience award full points unless there was some technical reason why the website couldn't be made to score it properly.

I really don't want to go down the road where we're second guessing the official results... for example, if someone is excluded from championship points, that will be reflected in our points... otherwise, technically Hamilton crossed the line 4th in Australia, but we're not going to score fantasy points for Hamilton in 4th because we might disagree with his later exclusion, right? Similarly, if Malaysia is only worth half points, then that's just tough luck for those of us that picked Button (assuming Button goes on to win 9 more times this season and we miss out on a 10 point win we could have scored if not for the 5 point win we picked in Malaysia). At the end of the season, the driver's point totals in our result should exactly match the official FIA point totals.

All in all, I don't think it's all that different from picking a good driver that ends up getting hit from behind, or is otherwise taken out of the race to no fault of his own. Sometimes events are out of our control, and a good pick nets nothing. Personally, I"ll take those 5 points for Button, because I think by the end of the season, Ferrari and McLaren are going to be back up at the top of the results, and I'll be glad I got those early Brawn points before they're back to being mid-packers. :(

But you do have a good argument that I'm not trying to dismiss offhand or anything. Picking poorly this past round could certainly work to your advantage later in the season. Some people may have lucked out, and some of us are getting the bad luck balance. I just think that in this situation, the most fair action is to stick to the letter of the way the rules were written. If we had awarded full points for the round, those on the other side of the coin would have a more valid (IMO) argument that we weren't sticking to the rules.

On another note... did anyone else want to punch themselves in the face at the start of the race w/ the Fast and Furious tie in segment? :unamused:

I couldn't stop laughing at how bad it was.

I missed that I guess.

They showed it during the pre-race show, on the entry or exit of a commercial break (I forget).

It was laughably bad.

I was trying to see if I could find the video on SpeedTVs website, but ended up getting distracted by Steve Matchett's "Chalk Talk" videos.

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...gp-chalk-talk/
and
http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...gp-chalk-talk/

even my wife was laughing at that

I've been watching the BBC Sport feed it's pretty decent.

thank you internet.

Sweet! Brawn GP is going to have to really push for points the next few races, because now that Ferrari and McLaren know they're not going to get reprieve via the rules, they're going to be working full bore on getting their new diffusers on the car.

Hell, they've probably been working on them since the season started... but with testing only allowed at the track on Fridays, Brawn still has a bit of an advantage window.

True. If you consider the resources McLaren and Ferrari have, it will probably only be a race or two before they are the top teams again. It would be nice to see a 3 or 4 way tie for the constructors championship late into the season.

Interesting to consider also, is that I feel like the Red Bull has been extremely quick and consitent without the advanced diffuser, thay car should be a real frontrunner with some aero upgrades.

Very true. Adrian Newey really put together a terrific car, and he was super clever at using the rear wing end plates to get the performance out of a non-controversial diffuser. I think they've got the best shot at being the first guys to be faster than Brawn, but I'm worried they just don't have the drivers to be a real contender. Really it comes down to whether or not Vettel can live up to his potential as a driver.

According to the last paragraph in this article, red bull should have a new diffuser on their car by Monaco.

I think Vettel can perform, he's still extremely young and as his experience increases, you can see him putting himself in a place to win. I don't think we'll see him in many more situations like he was in in Australia where Kubica and he got together, experience keeps you out of spots like that. In all honesty, I think with a good car, Webber can be successful...He has been written off in most circles but I still think he's a very competitive driver, even if he's Australian. :alien: We'll see, I think the mid-stretch of the season will be very interesting to watch.

There's quite a few folks that believe it may be Timo's time for a win. He and Jarno have been impressive so far and they appear to have the cars to do it. Ferrari dumps the KERS for China, yet it's still doubtful that they have what's needed to overcome the advantage of the stacked difusers.

More Chalk Talk!

This time is KERS

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...gp-chalk-talk/

Wish he had some real pictures of them on the cars and the battery systems.

That is the innovation F1 should be making. 80HP in something that small. can you imagine 1 on each of four corners of a plug in electric sports car? That is one of the technologies to make things like The Skateboard a reality in the next decade.

If you haven't seen this, it's pretty cool.

A computer-animated clip features Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel racing on track, as they bring to life the biggest rule changes in the history of Formula One.




http://link.brightcove.com/services/...tid10497901001