I will again be running a F1 Pick6 Competition in 1995. Here, for your
reference, are the complete rules for the competition, along with some
additional notes and guidelines. To participate, just send in a pick.


Formula One Pick Six (or, for short, F1 Pick6) is a competition among
the fans of F1 racing on the Internet to see who can do the best job
predicting the points paying positions (1-6) of the Grands Prix. There's
no money or prizes or anything, other than bragging rights.

Here's how to participate in F1 Pick6:

1) Before each race, decide which drivers you think will finish in the 1st to
   6th spots in the race.

2) Send a mail message with your picks to the following address:

        winalski@adserv.enet.dec.com

   or, if you have access to the World-Wide Web, you can submit your picks
   using the automated form whose URL is:

        http://www.essi.fr/Pick6/pick6.html

   The advantage of using the automated form is that it takes care of
   formatting and sending the mail message for you.

3) Here is the format for a Pick6 entry.  I process the entries automatically
   using a program, so please try to adhere to the format below.  While I
   don't mind doing a small amount of editing of the picks, running this
   competition isn't my full-time job.  I therefore reserve the right to
   reject picks that are not in the proper format.

   a) Your mail message should say Pick6 in the Subject: field.

   b) The body of the message must contain a line with "Player:" followed by
      your first and last name.  Please, no nicknames, and there's too many
      players for use to go by first name only.

   c) The body of the message should contain a line with "ReplyTo:" followed
      by your Internet Email address.  This line is optional, but it helps
      the processing programs to correctly send you a reply acknowledging your
      picks.  Use your COMPLETE Internet mail address.

   d) The body of the message should contain a line with "Race:" followed by
      the *country* (NOT the track or the city) whose GP the pick is for.
      This line is optional, but it helps assure that I register the pick for
      the correct race.  Here are the race names the program recognizes:

	Brazil		Argentina	San Marino	Spain
	Monaco		Canada		France		Great Britain
	Germany		Hungary		Belgium		Italy
	Portugal	Europe		Pacific		Japan
	Australia

   e) The body of the message must contain your picks, one per line, in order
      from first to sixth place.  Each pick is a position number followed by
      the last name of a driver.  Please be careful and try to spell the
      driver's names correctly (Schumacher caused a lot of trouble last year).
      The last names that the program recognizes are these (more will be
      added later if necessary):

      Benetton:  Schumacher, Herbert	 Ferrari:  Alesi, Berger
      Arrows:    ?, ?			 Jordan:   Barrichello, Irvine
      Larrousse: Comas, ?		 Ligier:   Panis, Suzuki, Brundle
      Pacific:   ?, ?			 McLaren:  Mansell, Hakkinen
      Minardi:   Badoer, Martini	 Forti:    Diniz, ?
      Sauber:    Wendlinger, Frentzen	 Simtek:   Noda, ?
      Tyrrell:   Salo, Katayama		 Williams: Hill, Coulthard

   f) Everything is case-insensitive.  Comment lines start with a '#'
      character.  Everything from the '#' to the end of the line is ignored.

   g) Even if you don't include a Race: line, please indicate somewhere, either
      in the subject line or a comment, which race your pick is for.  That helps
      me assign the picks to the correct race when there are two races a week
      apart (e.g., France and Great Britain).

   h) Picks must be unconditional:  things like "I pick Mansell for first
      unless he isn't racing in which case I pick Prost" are not allowed.

   i) You can't pick a driver for more than one position in a single pick.

   Here is an example Pick6 entry:

	Subject: Pick6

	#
	# Here are my picks for the GP of Brazil
	#

	Race: Brazil
	Player: J. M. Balestre
	ReplyTo: napoleon@ffsa.fia.org

	1. Comas
	2. Alesi
	3. Prost
	4. Suzuki
	5. Andretti
	6. Mansell

4) Picks are due by the start of first practice for the race.  We choose this
   time so that those who have access to early practice and qualifying
   information won't have an unfair advantage over those who don't.  First
   practice is usually Friday morning (local time at the race site), but note
   that sometimes it's Thursday morning (e.g., Monaco).  I suggest you send in
   picks by midnight Wednesday to be on the safe side.  The Internet postmarks
   are used to determine when a pick was posted.  Picks arriving late will be
   accepted, but they will be flagged as late in the standings reports.  The
   organizer (Paul Winalski) reserves the right to reject attempts at blatant
   cheating (e.g., a perfect pick posted after the race was held).

   You may send in picks as far in advance of a race as you wish, and you may
   change your pick as many times as you wish, up to the deadline.  The last
   pick received and allowed will be the one that is used.
   
   If you fail to send in a pick for a race, or if your pick arrives too late
   to be counted, your pick for the last race will be used again, but it will
   only be carried over once (e.g., if you fail to enter a pick for race #3,
   race #2's pick will be used, but if you fail to enter again, race #2's
   pick will not be used for race #4).

5) Players score points for each race based on how well their picks match
   the actual race results.  For each driver that you picked, you score points
   based on where the driver finished versus where you predicted he'd finish:

	didn't finish in the top 6			 0 points

	finished exactly where predicted		10 points
	finished 1 place off from where predicted	 6 points
	finished 2 places off from where predicted	 4 points
	finished 3 places off from where predicted	 3 points
	finished 4 places off from where predicted	 2 points
	finished 5 places off from where predicted	 1 point

   Your total score for a race is the sum of the points scored for each
   driver in your pick.

   For example, if you picked Schumacher to come in 3rd and he did finish 3rd,
   you'd score 10 points, but if he finished 5th, you'd score 4 points.

6) The F1 Pick6 Champion will be the player who scores the most total points
   over the season.  All 16 Grands Prix will count towards the total.


		SOME ADDITIONAL NOTES ABOUT THE RULES

o It is each player's responsibility to get their picks in on time.  I send
  out a reminder message a week in advance of the due date, but because
  of the unreliability of network mail, you shouldn't depend on the reminders
  as your only way to remember to send in a pick.  Here is the F1 Grand Prix
  calendar for 1995.  I suggest printing it out and saving it:

		26 March	Brazil
		 9 April	Argentina
		30 April	San Marino
		14 May		Spain
		28 May		Monaco
		11 June		Canada
		 2 July		France
		16 July		Great Britain
		30 July		Germany
		13 August	Hungary
		27 August	Belgium
		10 September	Italy
		24 September	Portugal
		 1 October	Europe
		22 October	Pacific
		29 October	Japan
		12 November	Australia

o If you're going to be away from the Net, you can send in your picks for a
  race early.  If I don't get a pick from you, your pick from the last race
  gets used, so all is not lost if you forget to send in a pick for one race,
  or if the net eats your mail.

o If you send in a pick way in advance, be sure to say somewhere which race
  it is for.  If you don't, it'll end up being used for the next race on
  the calendar at the time I receive it.

o It's OK for one player to mail in picks for another.  If you are sending
  in picks on behalf of more than one person, you must put each person's
  picks in separate mail messages.

o PLEASE, PLEASE try to follow the format rules.  I have an automated method
  to deal with misspellings of driver's names, but the processing programs
  can't handle things like no "Player:" line, picks out of order, two
  drivers picked for the same position, etc., automatically.  If hand-editing
  the picks gets to be too much of a chore, I will start bouncing picks that
  aren't properly formatted.

o If you send in a pick that has a driver picked for more than one position
  (which is against the rules), I will send you back mail informing you of
  this and inviting you to send in a corrected pick.  If I don't receive a
  correction, I'll enter the pick, but you won't be eligible to score points
  for that driver in either of the positions you picked him for.  

o If you decide to leave the competition, please send me email to let me know
  and I'll remove you from the distribution list.  That way you won't get
  pestered by mailings you don't want to receive and I won't waste net
  bandwidth sending them out.

o For your convenience and peace of mind, I send out an acknowledgement when
  I've processed your pick.  For picks submitted ahead of time, I batch them
  up and process them just after I send out the Call for Picks for that race,
  1 week before the deadline for picks.  If at any time you want to check on
  the status of one of your picks, just send me email.

o After each race, the scoring program will send you a personalized status
  message showing how your pick scored for that race, your ranking for that
  race, your overall points total, and your overall rank.  An overall standings
  summary, showing the complete per-race and total points scoring for all
  players, gets posted to rec.autos.sport after each race.  If you wish to
  be mailed a private copy, send me mail and I'll put you on a distribution
  list for it.

o You'll notice one "player" in the standings summary called "Popularity Poll".
  The Popularity Poll's pick for each race is determined by treating each
  player's pick for the race as though it were the real results, assigning F1
  championship points to the drivers accordingly, and then taking the top 6
  drivers as the pick.  The Popularity Poll thus indicates the collective
  wisdom of all the players.  In the last couple of years, it's performed
  well above average (a well-known psychological phenomenon known as the
  Delphi Effect).

Have fun, and may the best prognosticator win!

--Paul Winalski, F1 Pick6 Organizer