Sidepodcast

Fantasy Racers Reminder - Hungary

The Hungarian Grand Prix is upon us and it's time, once again, to take a look at the mysterious world of Fantasy Racers. I am currently 85th in the Sidepodcast league and I can't seem to get away from that sort of position. This week, I'm going to do much better.

Thinking about it, though, I am quite happy with the team I have currently got. There is a sampling from all the teams that look like they might spring a surprise, and the only one I'm missing is Lewis Hamilton. I can't afford him, and I don't really want to switch anyone for him.

The prices are correct at the time of writing. With 0.7 million still left to spend, my team value has gone up slightly to 52.9. I wonder what it will be like after Hungary. At least I will have several weeks to come up with a new strategy for Valencia.

Don't forget you can still join in the fun if you haven't already. Chances are winning the league is out of the question, but there are plenty of battles to be fought and won throughout the field. All you need to know to get started is here, and you've got until 5pm BST (4pm GMT, 12pm EST) to select your drivers. Good luck everyone, and let us know who you're going with.

Fantasy Racers Reminder - Bahrain

There's still time to sign up to Fantasy Racers and join the league if you haven't already. Mr C is doing so poorly, that you even stand a chance of beating him despite being three racers down. All the information you need to do so can be found here.

My decision this week was quite a lot easier than it has been in previous weeks, if only because my lineup was pretty darn good from before. However, I made one small change and that was selling Rubens Barrichello, using up a little bit of my spare cash and purchasing Lewis Hamilton. This may be a foolish reaction based on Free Practice results that aren't trustworthy, but I get the feeling McLaren are on the way up. Even if this weekend isn't theirs, I reckon they'll be doing well soon. Here's my final lineup for Bahrain:

The prices are correct at the time of writing. I have less money leftover, only 0.7, but the value of my team has increased slightly on last week to 53.5m. I reckon that won't be the case next week, though.

I do want to take this time to point out the excellent recap work Ollie has been doing on his Fantasy Racers teams. He's putting us all to shame with the total points each team scored, points per driver, plus his standings in our league and overall. We must try harder.

Anyway, the deadline for last minute changes to your team is 5pm BST (4pm GMT, 12pm EST - thanks to Fantasy Racers for the times, you know we're no good at working these things out.) Head on over and make your selects, and let us know what you decide.

A Change Will Do You Good

Please do not forget to update your Fantasy Racers team.

How I do look forward to the Friday of a race weekend, when I get to share my latest scheme for my Fantasy Racers team.

You've got until 5 o'clock BST to alter your teams, which gives you a good few hours. You can even wait until after FP2 if you so desire.

Personally, I have no need to watch those drivers pootling round that track, I can make all the decisions I need based on a simple system. This week it is all the drivers whose surname falls between A and C.

Here is my team:

I predict that this will not be a strong weekend for Sidepodcast Racers, but I have faith in the arbitrary system. Anything can happen at a new track.

So, make adjustments to your team, or not, as you desire, and let us know in the comments who you've chosen and why.

Take A Look At Yourself And Then Make A Change

Please do not forget to update your Fantasy Racers team.

Ah, it's that time of the week again, where we must review our Fantasy Racers selections.

I have done some extensive research, and evaluated all the drivers comparitively during Free Practice 1 in Hungary. I have decided upon, drum roll please, a completely arbitrary selection. You knew that already, though, didn't you?

Here's mine:

My thought process this time was to pick the cheapest drivers and stack my team full of them. Discounting the Super Aguri boys (because even I'm not crazy enough to choose a driver that's not even racing), I started at the cheapest - Sutil - and kept clicking the next most expensive driver until I ran out of cash. I'm quite annoyed I have some money left over, but I don't want to spoil the system.

So, don't forget to visit Fantasy Racers and update your team, or sign up if you haven't already and want to feel the satisfaction of beating Sidepodcast Racers. Let us know what your team is in the comments, and feel free to poke fun at my selection.

Where Are We All Coming From?

Since the Sidepodcast league was set up over on Fantasy Racers, we’ve had a record number of teams enter. Although, having said that, any number would be a record for us, this being the inaugural competition and all. Still, 92 teams is nothing to be sniffed at and we owe Dan a considerable quantity of beer tokens for getting this particular ball rolling.

We may have mentioned, we love messing around with graphs and this new league contains lots of potential for stats and pie charts, but there is one metric that is most fascinating.

Presenting, Sidepodcast Fantasy Racers by Country:

I thought that F1 wasn't popular in the US? Bernie, are you listening? To be fair, though, the UK also has an England/Scotland split as well, but where are the Welsh?

My favourite demographic are those people that don't live anywhere. How do you guys get F1 coverage out there?

The graph clearly shows us that a few countries have the majority entrants, but I was surprised at the diversity of locations – so many places with just one team. This competition (and it is a proper competition, because we've committed to providing a prize of some sort) is the perfect opportunity for you and your friends to represent your place of residence. Grab your friends and pledge allegiance the Fantasy F1 way!

We're so close to 100, that it would be wrong to not push it over the century mark. Information about joining can be found over on the original post, and the comments might help if you're stuck. If you have any questions please comment below. Your country needs you.

Practice Makes Perfect, Or At Least Acceptable

We’ve had a few comments saying how much you liked the Fantasy Racers Sidepodcast League roll call on last week’s show. This makes me very happy because it wasn’t easy to do.

I’m sure you’re all aware we’re not afraid of a spot of editing, to keep the show running smoothly. We wanted to do the roll call in one take, no editing, because it would have felt wrong otherwise.

We can be a bit touchy feely like that.

Getting straight to the point, it took a lot of practice, and still we made mistakes. And because we’re not scared of making a fool of ourselves, I have put together a compilation of the outtakes from our numerous attempts at getting it right.

Enjoy.

It's Only Make Believe

Last year, we ventured into the world of Fantasy F1 by taking part in a competition on Batracer. I say “we” but of course, I didn’t have the patience to put in the hours of effort required, and I certainly wasn’t impressed when we only managed twelfth place after all the time invested. It’s not that I was taking it too seriously, but I just wanted to see more of a result for all the hard work.

Since then, I’ve been thinking about Fantasy F1 and its many different forms, and wondering whether there is one out there that takes minimal effort and simply adds that little extra element to watching a race. Just as I was about to mention it on the show and solicit opinions, Dan Cross beat me to it and posted details of a Sidepodcast league he had set up over on FantasyRacers.com.

Of course, we had to go and check it out, and I immediately set up my team “Sidepodcast Racers”. It was incredibly easy to do, sign up (email and name required only), pick a team name, pick your drivers. There’s a limited budget, obviously, but you can recruit a couple of good names to your team. My team at the moment consists of: Adrian Sutil, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica.

Yes, I did just pick the drivers I like, and that in turn means my team is subject to change at any moment. Thankfully, it's really easy to do.

Joining the Sidepodcast league is easy too. Here’s Dan’s instructions:

Those looking to join the Sidepodcast league on Fantasy Racers will need the following info (it’s dead simple!):

League Name: Sidepodcast
League Number: 118
League Password: franck

Any players wishing to join the league need to create a team in the main competition using the link below, and then follow the ‘Join New League’ link beneath your name in the menu.

Coolest.Password.Ever.

We’ve had some wonderful people signing up already, but there’s plenty of room for more. Let’s get a friendly competition going. You can already sense the competitiveness between him and me. What kind of a team name is “Longitudinal Inertia” anyway, regardless of whether you can say it or not?