John Privett

Evening all, A quick - and early! - reminder from me... Don't forget your predictions! As already mentioned, the fantasygp game is locked at 8:30am on FRIDAY, when Sprint qualifying starts. Don't leave it too late! Set your predictions now, if you find time you can always change them after seeing how the 4:30am practice session goes tomorrow.

Evening all, You've probably all seen today's email reminder from fantasygp, pointing out the changed format of Sprint weekends this season. But in case anyone hasn't seen it yet, here are the relevant details; The F1 season continues this weekend and it's time to get ready for the Fantasy GP of China - it's also the first SPRINT weekend of the season. Note that the Sprint weekend format has changed a bit for 2024 - Friday has the practice session and then qualifying for the Sprint. Saturday is the Sprint Race and then the qualifying for the Grand Prix. Sunday is of course, the Grand Prix itself. The game will lock when Sprint Qualifying begins on Friday, see timings below. Make sure you're happy with your team and predictions before the game closes at the start of qualifying! Here are all the important timings for the weekend, all timings in BST (GMT+1). - Friday: 4:30am Free Practice & 8.30am SPRINT Qualifying (GAME LOCKS) - Saturday: 4am SPRINT race, 8am Grand Prix Qualifying - Sunday: 8am Race Start Get your team ready before FRIDAY 8:30am BST (GMT+1) So - my summary - don't wait until Friday to do your predictions - as after 8:30am you'll be too late! I've done mine already, and there's a slim chance I might get a quick look at the P1 results (Friday 4:30am!) and amend the predictions before heading off to work. (I did say, a "slim chance"!)

With the UK channel4 highlights programme well under way, I'll post our results now, but the usual disclaimer applies - If you are watching the highlights and don't want any clues about the results then stop reading now! So first, today's league results; Pos League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 2 3 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 177 2 3 0 Mannschaft Carl Brotherton 168 3 8 3 Iqonic racing iqon 160 4 1 0 Essex Racing Tony Clark 157 5 10 3 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 144 6 12 2 Pitts Specials john stones 143 7 4 0 Hidden Cucumber fat brownie 139 8 15 0 Hans Brake Zoonie 128 9 9 0 teewrex John Tee 125 10 5 1 Revers Racing Pete B 123 11 14 2 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 119 12 7 0 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 118 13 13 3 Torque of the devil Stu 112 14 16 0 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 106 15 6 4 PSS Power Flyer 102 16 11 3 GASTON Formula Chris McG 80 Top place goes to Simon with 177 points. Next up is Carl with 168 points. And third place today is taken by Iqon with 160 points. Well done to today's top 3, and a special mention to Tony, missing the podium by just 3 points. Looking now at the overall table; os League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 1 0 Essex Racing Tony Clark 614 2 2 3 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 602 3 3 0 Mannschaft Carl Brotherton 598 4 4 0 Hidden Cucumber fat brownie 564 5 5 1 Revers Racing Pete B 538 6 6 4 PSS Power Flyer 537 7 7 0 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 530 8 8 3 Iqonic racing iqon 506 9 9 0 teewrex John Tee 493 10 10 3 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 483 11 11 3 GASTON Formula Chris McG 481 12 12 2 Pitts Specials john stones 471 13 13 3 Torque of the devil Stu 461 14 14 2 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 459 15 15 0 Hans Brake Zoonie 428 16 16 0 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 399 Tony holds on to top place in the overall table, with Simon moving up three places to 2nd. Carl remains in third. Pete moves up 1 place to 5th with Ade slipping 4 places to 6th. Lower down the table, Iqon and Grumpygnome are also moving upwards - 3 places each and John S is up 2 places. Next up in 2 weeks is China and it's a Sprint weekend. Again, early start times for us in the UK, though, with the exception of sprint qualifying, at slightly more sociable times than the last 2 races!

Evening all, So, a quick summary of practice so far... P1 saw Verstappen fastest from Perez, with Sainz next followed by the two Mercedes, then Leclerc. P2 was rendered fairly meaningless by rain. Only Piastri, Hamilton and Leclerc set a time on slicks, finishing in that order. P3 for those who want to wait - or who want to maybe alter their predictions after it - is at 03:30 tomorrow morning. And qualifying is at 07:00.

Evening all, An early reminder to all, as it's another race weekend with all the sessions starting at 'silly o'clock' in the morning, UK-time. So, even though there's still over 6 hours until P1 starts; Don't forget your predictions! Make them now, you can always change them later after seeing how the practice sessions work out. P1 is at 03:30 on Friday morning, with P2 at 07:00 P3 is at 03:30 on Saturday morning with qualifying following at 07:00 Sunday's race starts at 06:00 Now, go and get those predictions done!

John - there was a virtual safety car earlier when Hamilton's engine died and the car was being recovered. Then, as you mentioned, the one right at the end.

Afternoon all! I wonder how many of us actually watched the race live at 4am this morning... I didn't - I recorded it and watched it at breakfast time! With the channel 4 highlights programme well under way I'll post our results here without any comment on the race itself for the moment. Usual disclaimer; If you are watching the recorded highlights and don't want any clues about the result then maybe you should look away now! So, here are our scores for today; Pos League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 1 5 Essex Racing Tony Clark 173 2 4 5 Hidden Cucumber fat brownie 161 3 16 0 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 158 4 2 5 PSS Power Flyer 156 5 9 3 teewrex John Tee 130 6 6 1 Revers Racing Pete B 126 7 10 3 Torque of the devil Stu 118 8 14 0 Pitts Specials john stones 117 9 5 3 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 113 10 7 3 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 109 11 3 2 Mannschaft Carl Brotherton 104 12 8 5 GASTON Formula Chris McG 98 13 13 2 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 96 14 15 0 Hans Brake Zoonie 92 15 12 2 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 86 16 11 3 Iqonic racing iqon 71 Topping today's results is Tony with 173 points. Second today is "fat brownie", aka PDB, with 161 points. Close behind in third today is Kev on 158 points. Well done to today's top 3. And I think we now know who has Ferrari in their teams! So now to the overall table; Pos League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 1 5 Essex Racing Tony Clark 457 2 2 5 PSS Power Flyer 435 3 3 2 Mannschaft Carl Brotherton 430 4 4 5 Hidden Cucumber fat brownie 425 = 5 3 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 425 6 6 1 Revers Racing Pete B 415 7 7 3 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 412 8 8 5 GASTON Formula Chris McG 401 9 9 3 teewrex John Tee 368 10 10 3 Torque of the devil Stu 349 11 11 3 Iqonic racing iqon 346 12 12 2 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 340 13 13 2 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 339 14 14 0 Pitts Specials john stones 328 15 15 0 Hans Brake Zoonie 300 16 16 0 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 293 We have a new leader in Tony, with Ade (Flyer) close behind - both move up 5 places today, as did fat brownie, in his case to 4th. This means Carl, Simon, and afew others move downwards... Kev's great result today still leaves him at the foot of the table after his unfortunate issue with the first race - but now very close to Zoonie in 15th. Next up is Japan, so another early start. That's in 2 weeks time, with qualifynig at 7am on the Saturday, the race at 6am on Sunday.

So... Did P1 and P2 give us anything useful to base our predictions on? Or just confusion? Norris headed P1, but was 9th fastest in P2. Leclerc was fastest in P2 but 4th in P1. Verstappen was 2nd in both. The Mercedes duo of Russell and Hamilton were 3rd and 9th in P1, but only 6th and 18th in P2! And Stroll and Alonso put their Aston Martins 4th and 5th in P2 after 7th and 18th in P1. Make of all that whatever you will! But whatever you reckon; Don't forget your predictions! As already mentioned, qualifying is at 5am tomorrow, Saturday, morning.

Evening all! I thought I'd better get an early reminder in for this weekend! We've gone from the last 2 race weekends being a whole day 'out-of-sync' with normality, to now being only about half-a-day adrift. So although it's still only Thursday evening here in the UK, P1 kicks-off in a little over 4 hours from now, at 01:30 Friday morning, UK-time. P2 follows while most of us are still asleep at 05:00. P3 and qualifying occupy those same time-slots, 01:30 and 05:00, in the early hours of Saturday morning. So don't leave those predictions too late! And Sunday's race is even earlier at 04:00 UK-time. So, just one parting thought tonight; Don't forget your predictions! (It's probably worth getting a 'banker' set done now. You can always change them tomorrow after seeing how P1 and P2 go.)

Very sad news indeed, John. I recall Chris had mentioned health issues in the past, but this news comes as quite a shock. R.I.P. Chris. We will certainly miss you.

Evening all! Busy day... I haven't watched the race yet, will do that tomorrow. Channel 4 highlights are still underway, and hopefully anyone who doesn't want to see their league results until after seeing the highlights will be actually watching those highlights, and not browsing the web! Look away NOW if you don't want to see today's league positions! So first, out scores today; Pos League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 1 9 Mannschaft Carl Brotherton 201 2 3 0 GASTON Formula Chris McG 161 = 5 2 Revers Racing Pete B 161 = 6 3 Essex Racing Tony Clark 161 5 2 0 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 152 6 7 2 PSS Power Flyer 146 7 8 4 Iqonic racing iqon 140 8 9 3 Hidden Cucumber fat brownie 134 = 11 2 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 134 10 10 1 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 133 = 4 3 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 133 12 13 2 Torque of the devil Stu 128 13 12 0 teewrex John Tee 121 14 16 0 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 115 15 15 1 Hans Brake Zoonie 102 16 14 6 Pitts Specials john stones 83 And it's Carl who takes top spot today with a very respecatable 201 points! There's a 3-way tie for second place with Chris, Pete and Tony each scoring 161 points. Well done to today's top 2, 3, or 4! Our overall placings now look like this; Pos League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 1 9 Mannschaft Carl Brotherton 324 2 2 0 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 310 3 3 0 GASTON Formula Chris McG 303 4 4 3 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 301 5 5 2 Revers Racing Pete B 289 6 6 3 Essex Racing Tony Clark 284 7 7 2 PSS Power Flyer 279 8 8 4 Iqonic racing iqon 275 9 9 3 Hidden Cucumber fat brownie 264 10 10 1 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 254 11 11 2 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 243 12 12 0 teewrex John Tee 237 13 13 2 Torque of the devil Stu 231 14 14 6 Pitts Specials john stones 211 15 15 1 Hans Brake Zoonie 207 16 16 0 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 135 We have a new leader, as, with a 9-place leap up the table, it's Carl who now sits in top position. Simon and Chris retain their 2nd and 3rd positions, with Charles dropping off the top spot down to 4th. Lots of changes further down the table, as we'd expect for only the second race of the season. Next up it's Melbourne in 2 weeks time. Back to normal with qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday, though both at silly o'clock in the morning (UK time) so they might as well be on Friday/Saturday! Qualifying is at 5am, with the race at 4am!

Evening all! Saudi Arabia this weekend, and again - we're running 24 hours ahead of the usual schedule. So qualifying is tomorrow, FRIDAY! P1 saw Verstappen setting fastest time, ahead of Alonso, followed by Perez, Russell, the two Ferraris, then Norris and Hamilton. P2 saw Alonso fastest, with Russell second and Verstappen third. Next up was Leclerc with Perez, Stroll, Sainz and Hamilton in the next positions. P3 is at 13:30 UK-time tomorrow (Friday) and qualifying at 17:00 The race is at 17:00 on Saturday. So, it just leaves me to remind you all; Don't forget your predictions!

Evening all! With the Channel 4 highlights programme drawing to a close, it's time to take a look at our league table after today's season-opening race; Pos League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 1 0 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 168 2 2 0 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 158 3 3 0 GASTON Formula Chris McG 142 4 4 0 Iqonic racing iqon 135 5 5 0 PSS Power Flyer 133 6 6 0 Hidden Cucumber fat brownie 130 7 7 0 Revers Racing Pete B 128 = 8 0 Pitts Specials john stones 128 9 9 0 Essex Racing Tony Clark 123 = 10 0 Mannschaft Carl Brotherton 123 11 11 0 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 121 12 12 0 teewrex John Tee 116 13 13 0 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 109 14 14 0 Hans Brake Zoonie 105 15 15 0 Torque of the devil Stu 103 16 16 0 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 20 Taking top spot today with an impressive 168 points is Charles. 10 points adrift in second today is Simon. And our podium today is completed by Chris, taking third with 142 points. Well done to today's top three! Behind the top 3 there's a cluster of us on 135 to 121 points before a slight gap and four more scoring 116 to 103. I can only assume Kev didn't manage to pick a team in time for today's race... 😕 Next up, in a week's time, is Saudi Arabia. And again, we're a day ahead of normality with Qualifying at 5pm (UK-time) on Friday, and the race at 5pm on Saturday.

Right then... running a bit behind myself with everything being 24 hours ahead of normal! Don't forget your predictions! As I mentioned a couple of days ago, qualifying is on FRIDAY! FP1 and FP2 have given us lots of reasons to be confused or misled, with Verstappen managing only 6th fastest in both. Ricciardo, in the newly-named Red Bull "B" team, headed FP1, ahead of the two McLarens and Tsunoda in the second B team car. FP2 saw Hamilton and Russell setting best times in their Mercedes, with Alonso third fastest... FP3, at 12:30 UK-time may give us more of a clue - or not! Either way, qualifying is at 16:00 on FRIDAY. Now get those predictions done.

Less than a week to go now until the first race of the season, and we're up to 14 players in our league. And just a quick reminder that the timetable for next weekend is a day ahead of a normal F1 weekend. P1 and P2 are on Thursday, with P3 and qualifying on Friday. The race is on Saturday afternoon. Now, for anyone who hasn't yet done so, get your team picked, and for all of us - Don't forget your predictions!

You shouldn't need a code if you're still using your fantasygp account that you setup last year - just click the rejoin option. But if you do need the code it's 8397165.

Welcome aboard!

So, one new team so far in the 10 currently in our league. Who is going to own-up to being "fat brownie", manager of the "Hidden Cucumber" team? 😁

Simon - things are looking up. I just looked at (my view of) the league again, and it's moved you up to 5th - I'm still top of course! 🤣 Meanwhile, I've now picked my team. $75 million spent in a few minutes. We'll see how badly I invested my money in the coming months...

No, no, no, Simon.... Please check the screenshot in my post above. I think you'll find you're in last position! 😁

And just a quick reminder for anyone who needs the code to join the league; The league name is Modelflying Forumites and the code is 8397165 and it's all on https://fantasygp.com/

Evening all! (OK, so ten past midnight isn't exactly "evening", but what the heck...) Our League is now reactivated, and there are 10 of us onboard so far. I'm sure each one of us appears to be at the top of the league in our own view of it - I certainly am in my view of the league... But then it does say "Rankings are random until after the first race" at the top too! 😉 I just need to select my team now. We have just 3 weeks until the first race in Bahrain, and there's pre-season testing in a couple of weeks - also at Bahrain. There's 24 rounds scheduled this year, with the final race on 8 December in Abu Dhabi.

Thanks, Charles, and everybody else for your comments - much appreciated! And it certainly adds an extra element of fun to my GP weekends too, running this. Some famous person once said that there's a very fine dividing line between genius and madness. I don't think they were talking about fantasygp predictions and team selection, but I believe we've demonstrated many times that they might as well have been! 😁 Here's to next season 🏎️ 🏁 🍾

Evening all! With the Channel4 highlights programme coming towards the end, it's time - for the last time this year - to see how we all scored today. Remember that Tony needs to score 56 points more than John S to catch him at the top of the league, and more than that to beat him... Pos League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 1 0 Pitts Specials john stones 191 2 3 0 Iqonic racing iqon 184 3 4 0 GASTON Formula Chris McG 180 4 6 1 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 167 5 2 0 Essex Racing Tony Clark 165 6 8 0 PSS Power Flyer 156 7 15 0 teewrex John Tee 154 8 5 1 Revers Racing Pete B 152 9 10 0 Hans Brake Zoonie 145 10 12 1 Mannschaft Carl Brotherton 144 11 11 0 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 127 12 9 0 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 120 13 7 2 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 119 14 13 1 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 111 15 14 0 Oyster f1 Glenn Philbrick 99 16 16 0 Torque of the devil Stu 68 And top spot today is taken by John S with 191 points. Second today is Iqon with 184 points. And third today is Chris with 180 points. Well done to today's top three! Well I think we all know that John S must have held on to top place overall, but let's check the chart for confirmation; Pos League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 1 0 Pitts Specials john stones 4220 2 2 0 Essex Racing Tony Clark 4138 3 3 0 Iqonic racing iqon 4006 4 4 0 GASTON Formula Chris McG 3948 5 5 1 Revers Racing Pete B 3701 6 6 1 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 3694 = 7 2 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 3694 8 8 0 PSS Power Flyer 3545 9 9 0 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 3485 10 10 0 Hans Brake Zoonie 3362 11 11 0 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 3278 12 12 1 Mannschaft Carl Brotherton 3266 13 13 1 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 3245 14 14 0 Oyster f1 Glenn Philbrick 2948 15 15 0 teewrex John Tee 2804 16 16 0 Torque of the devil Stu 2588 And it is indeed John S who takes the title as winner of the Modelflying Forumites Fantasy GP league for 2023. Well done, John. And well done to Tony in second and to Iqon in third. There were a few place changes in the table today though. Both Pete and Simon move up a place to 5th and 6th, with GrumpyGnome having a good excuse to live up to his name today due to his 2-place drop to 7th (or maybe 6th equal - I'm not entirely sure what the difference is supposed to be between 'position' and 'League Rank'!) A little further down the table there's a place swap with Carl grabbing 12th from Kev, who drops to 13th. And so the 2023 season has come to an end. 2024 has a 24-race schedule, starting on 2 March with a Saturday night race in Bahrain, and followed by another Saturday night race in Saudi Arabia. Pre-season testing is scheduled for the week before the first race.

Evening all! Sorry for being a bit late today... It's the last race of the season, and we're in Abu Dhabi. P1 saw a lot of unfamiliar names, as many teams were providing their reserve drivers with the mandatory session in a GP weekend. Russell set fastest time in P1 from Drugovish (Aston Martin) with Ricciardo, Bottas and Stroll setting the next best times. Hamilton and Verstappen (amongst others) sat-out P1, with reserve drivers taking their places. P2 saw a bit of a return to 'normality', though the session was shortened to 20 mins due to repair work being needed after a crash by Sainz. Leclerc set fastest time from Norris and Verstappen. Bottas, Perez and Russell were next fastest, with Hamilton 8th. P3 is on Saturday morning at 10:30 with qualifying at 14:00 (UK-time) Which leads me to remind you all - for the last time this year; Don't forget your predictions! Sunday's race is at 13:00. Good luck, everyone!