F1PP: Formula 1 Prognosticator Pandemonium

This posting officially announces the fourth annual F1PP competition. The goal of F1PP is to correctly pick the top drivers and teams for the 1995 season, but unlike the F1 Pick6 competition, you make one set of picks for the entire season to predict the top teams and drivers for the year. The picks are collated before the first race, and my magical set of perl scripts recalculates the standings after each race. As a result, NO ENTRIES CAN BE ACCEPTED AFTER THE START OF THE 1995 SEASON.

To enter, send an email message to f1pp@motorsport.com (or simply reply to this posting), with your predictions for the top 10 of the Drivers' Championship (including the number of wins for each driver), and the top 6 of the Constructors' Championship. Please format the entry as follows (note spaces after the position codes, and the colon separating the number of wins from the driver's name). IF YOU PICK FEWER DRIVERS OR TEAMS OR LESS THAN 16 WINS, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SCORE FULL POINTS. Winner picks beyond 16 will be discarded at the director's discretion.

	Name: Joe Racefan
	Scores-To: joe@race.fan.com

	D1. Gounon: 5
	D2. Panis: 4
	D3. Martini: 3
	D4. Gachot: 2
	D5. Zanardi: 1
	D6. Simtek: 1
	D7. Blundell
	D8. Verstappen
	D9. Fittipaldi
	D10. Katayama

	C1. Pacific
	C2. Simtek
	C3. Ligier
	C4. Larrousse
	C5. Jordan
	C6. Minardi

We will provide WWW access to the scoring reports; stay tuned for details. Scoring summaries will be posted to rec.autos.sport.info after each race.

Points are scored according to a somewhat complex formula: basically, for each right-on pick you score 200-140-100-80-60-50-40-30-20-10 for drivers and 200-120-80-60-40-20 for constructors, with each "off" score being the right-on score divided by (1 + # positions off). Each correctly predicted victory scores 25 points, down from last year's 30. Intermediate standings (posted after every race) will have the Drivers' and Constructors' points pro-rated for the number of races completed so far.

[Note: no points scored by substitute drivers (such as Verstappen and Herbert for Lehto, or Coulthard and Mansell for Senna in 1994, or Blundell for Mansell in 1995), will be added to your primary driver's score for F1PP scoring.]

146 players took part in the 1994 competition, up strongly from the 71 in 1993 and 35 in 1992. Barry Byford claimed the top honours with 1173.2 points, followed by William White and Jim Sankey.

Here are Barry's picks and his scores:

 Drivers:
   1. [ 1.] Schumacher      Wins:  6 [ 8] 200.0 + 180 points
   2. [ 2.] Hill                   4 [ 6] 145.0 + 120 
   3. [ 0.] Senna                  3 [ 0]   0.0 +   0 
   4. [ 7.] Brundle                1 [ 0]  22.5 +   0 
   5. [ 5.] Alesi                  1 [ 0]  70.0 +   0 
   6. [ 3.] Berger                 0 [ 1]  13.8 +   0 
   7. [ 4.] Hakkinen               1 [ 0]  10.0 +   0 
   8. [23.] Lehto                  0 [ 0]   0.0 +   0 
   9. [ 0.] Herbert                0 [ 0]   0.0 +   0 
  10. [ 6.] Barrichello            0 [ 0]   2.0 +   0 
            Total                         763.2 

   1. [ 1.] Williams                      200.0  points
   2. [ 2.] Benetton                      130.0  
   3. [ 4.] McLaren                        40.0  
   4. [ 3.] Ferrari                        30.0  
   5. [ 0.] Lotus                           0.0  
   6. [ 5.] Jordan                         10.0  
            Total                         410.0 

 TOTAL POINTS: 1173.2

Due to the tragic death of Ayrton Senna at San Marino, the accuracy of all the picks was reduced from 1993, but the top scorers were still uncannily accurate. But the year before Gerard Ashok scored 1472.5 points (adjusted for 1994 scoring scheme)!

Here are the currently known team/driver combinations for 1995:

    Arrows-Hart			Inoue, Morbidelli
    Benetton-Renault		Herbert, Schumacher
    Corse Forti-Ford		Diniz, Moreno
    Ferrari			Alesi, Berger
    Jordan-Peugeot		Barrichello, Irvine
    Larrousse-Ford		Comas, ?
    Ligier-Honda		Brundle/Suzuki, Panis
    McLaren-Mercedes		Hakkinen, Mansell
    Minardi-Ford		Badoer, Martini
    Pacific Lotus-Ford		Gachot, ?
    Sauber-Ford			Frentzen, Wendlinger
    Simtek-Ford			Noda/Schiattarella, Verstappen
    Tyrrell-Yamaha		Katayama, Salo
    Williams-Renault		Coulthard, Hill

Picks are due in the f1pp@motorsport.com mailbox by 12:01 am EST on 24 March 1994, the first day of practice for the 1995 season, at the Brazilian GP. If you submit two entries, the later one will be used. Any incomplete entries will have the remaining drivers and/or teams arbitrarily assigned by the administrator.