Eurosport - Wed, 03 Sep 10:54:00 2008
The Formula One season enters its 13th round at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend with the Belgian Grand Prix - so it's time again to pick your Fantasy team.
HOW IT WORKS
- You choose three drivers for each race - one from Group A and two from Group B - plus a team.
- The top eight finishers in the race receive 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 fantasy point respectively, plus there is a bonus point for any driver leading at any point during the race and another for completing the entire race.
- The top three drivers in qualifying will earn 3, 2 and 1 point respectively, meaning each driver can receive a maximum of 15 fantasy points during each race and each team can earn a maximum of 27 fantasy points per race.
- Each driver and constructor can be an active member of your team in no more than four races.
This means with 18 races scheduled you will have to use at least five of the elite seven Group A drivers at some point in the season and also at least nine of the 15 Group B drivers.
It also means that you have to pick at least five of the 11 teams. Herein lies the great dilemma of the game - who should I pick for each race?
Which teams perform well on which tracks? And which teams will improve as the season progresses?
The deadline to create a team for each race is 8am local time on the day of qualifying.
FOUR FOR BELGIUM
Kimi, Kimi, Kimi. Are you going to explode back into our Fantasy F1 lives with a fourth-straight victory at Spa? Well are you?
Flying Finn Kimi Raikkonen loves the Belgian circuit, as does every other driver in the paddock, not least for the famous Eau Rouge corner. But is love enough to see him fight back in the World Championship after he lost second place to Felipe Massa?
Over to him: "The Belgian Grand Prix is one of the highlights of the season and I usually obtain a good result at Spa. I need it more than ever after the results of the last races. The last race for example was one of those I should forget as fast as possible."
He could just take a podium place this weekend, but you would do better to look at team-mate Massa, who was dominant in winning that last round in Valencia. The Brazilian completed a one-two for Ferrari in 2007 at Spa and has also performed well there for former team Sauber-Petronas.
Briton Lewis Hamilton continues to lead the drivers' standings by six points from Massa and has shown greater consistency in races this year, as shown by a solid second place in Spain. He was fourth on his first appearance at the track in an F1 car last season, behind then-colleague Fernando Alonso.
Robert Kubica however is the driver that has scored points in the most races in 2008: on only two occasions has he failed to take something from the race weekend, while he was on the podium in Valencia. He is a sound choice, depending on your remaining picks, although McLaren and especially Ferrari have more knowledge of the intricacies of the racetrack than BMW-Sauber.
Alonso was second in 2005 as he raced to the first of his two titles during his opening spell with Renault - there was no race in 2006, nor in 2003 - but crashed out early in his homeland a fortnight ago.
Heikki Kovalainen, now at McLaren, finished eighth on his Spa debut with Renault last year and is in good form, while Nick Heidfeld has plenty of experience at the varied circuit.
In the 'B' section Jenson Button tasted podium success in Belgium three years ago while Mark Webber finished fourth and Rubens Barrichello fifth.
Jarno Trulli, impressive this season in the Toyota, crashed out from that race, while there were further retirements for David Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella; however all three finished the year before as nine drivers crashed out - with Alonso and Webber victims on that day.
For one pick we'd go with Barrichello, who was on the podium in 2004 and also took a second-place finish in the race before that in 2002.
Trulli, Sebastian Vettel, Timo Glock and Nico Rosberg all won vital points in the last round while Nelson Piquet Jr failed to reproduce his previous sparkling form: if you are really stuck then choose Vettel.
In the teams section Ferrari are technically the most consistent, leading the constructors' standings with 121 points from McLaren, who have 113. The Woking outfit are in better form but Spa is considered a Ferrari circuit. BMW are not far back in the standings with 96 points.
Before every race we will give you the definitive guide of who is hot and who is not whilst within the game there is a Driver Performance Table - a stats tool showing you the top fantasy performers for each race of the season - and a Driver Distribution Table showing you how many managers are picking each driver.
So join up now, form a mini-league with friends, family or colleagues, watch your progress in your national league and you may find yourself at the top of the grid!
Comment 1 - 3 of 3
KIMI ALL THE WAY!!!!! GO ICEMAN,GO!!!!
MASSA 2 WIN!!!
ITS ~~~ NO RACEE ~~~~~ WITH ONLY 2 COMPETTATIVE ~~ TEAMS ~~~~ COMPETING
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