Fantasy Racers was a mixed experience in 2009. The rule changes were of a similar magnitude to those in Formula 1 itself, and some of us adapted well, whilst others of us did not. Kathi led the way almost from the very start, and put on a really impressive show to make the Sidepodcast League the top scoring league of the competition for the second year in a row. She also completely outclassed the rest of us in the field, meaning we simply have to try harder in 2010.

There are a couple of changes to the Fantasy Racers rules again this year, and we're also tweaking the way we play as well. Starting with the competition, though, you can now choose between two strategies, as detailed on the site:

Strategy 1 allows you to make unlimited changes during the course of the year, with a 40.0m starting budget.

Strategy 2 does not allow you to change your drivers, but has a starting budget of 45.0m. You may only remove a driver that is sacked / injured / unable to compete.

As a particularly lazy person, I have selected Strategy 2, although I have yet to choose my drivers. You are welcome to choose either option, and the selection you make will show up against your team in the league.

With the added complexity this gives the competition, we've realised it's going to be almost impossible to cover it in a sensible amount of time on the podcasts, so generally speaking, Fantasy Racing is now a blog-only thing. That doesn't mean we're not encouraging you to sign up and join in though, because we want you all to go ahead and do that now.

Sign up is free, just head on over to FantasyRacers.com, pick a team name, your strategy and your drivers - if you're thinking that far ahead already. I believe at the moment you can change your mind on the strategy front, but that will most likely be locked down at some point before the season begins.

We've created a league for everyone to join, although we want it to be less Sidepod-centric this year. Thus, we have named it Panda Racing 2010. To join the league you can simply click here, or search for Panda Racing. There's no password this year, so you can just sign right up and get choosing. Once you've done that, come back and let us know your team name and what your strategy is.