SaloolaS is the 2009 F1 Fanatic Predictions Champion

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A perfect prediction at Monaco put SaloolaS on course for the championship

SaloolaS has beaten competition from over 1,000 F1 Fanatic readers to become the first ever F1 Fanatic Predictions Champion.

A final score of 270 points means SaloolaS is the 2009 champion with 20 points more than closest runner-up, Dank.

Richard Evans takes third place and the second runner-up prize with 245 points.

But the final prize-winning place of fourth had to be decided on a count-back. In the end Dougie narrowly beat PJA – the pair both scored 240 points and both also predicted the same number of race winners (five) and second place finishers (four). Dougie took the place by dint of correctly predicting more third place finishers – four to PJA’s two.

That seems a harsh way to deprive PJA of a prize, so I’ll see if I can rustle up a worthwhile consolation gift. Here’s what the winners will receive:

First place: SaloolaS

  • An original F1 painting by Rob Ijbema
  • Five F1 DVDs from Duke Video: “Formula One 1970: The uncrowned champion”, “Formula Villeneuve: A tribute to Gilles Villeneuve”, “The World’s Greatest F1 Cars”, “Champion: Hill” and “Nine Days in Summer”
  • £60 to spend on F1 merchandise at Onpole.com

Runners-up prizes: Dank, Richard Evans and Dougie

Thanks to everyone who joined in the predictions championship and special mentions go to all of you who entered every round and the 33 that out-scored me!

Thanks also to Ian Haycox for creating his excellent software that allowed me to run the championship much more effectively.

We’ll be back with a bigger and better competition next year so please offer any thoughts on how we can improve the contest.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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55 comments on “SaloolaS is the 2009 F1 Fanatic Predictions Champion”

  1. Keith, Just want to thank you for taking the time and energy to organize the predictions contest. Great idea and thouroughly enjoyed by me and I’m sure all that participated. Congrats to SaloolaS and everyone else who bettered my predictions this season. I’ll have to work on my deductive skills over the winter and try to do better next year! Thanks for running a really fun interactive site for all of us F1Fanatics!

  2. thanks Keith, really fun contest. Perhaps you could make a quick predictions contest all about the 2010 season. which teams will succeed, what will be the next scandal, which drivers will drop out etc.?(something fun to do in the off-season!)

  3. This year has been hard to predict. Made it very interesting. Especially since I have lost the chance to get full points a few times due to late race changes.

  4. Keith, here is a suggestion: Add a couple of pre-season items to the contest. (a) Which driver will win the WDC and (b) which team will win the constructors’. This will account for some extra points. Deadline for entering picks would be the day before the 1st Friday of pre-race practice.

    1. nah that’s ages away though. everyone would have to wait till all the winter testing is finished to make their predictions. we need something now.

  5. Another suggestion : Points for guessing who will run out of fuel.

  6. Our attorneys wish to inform you that we’ve launched a formal complaint with the FIA on behalf of the guy who lost on the tie-break.

  7. First of all a big thank you to Keith & Ian of course. Congratulations to Saloolas,Dank, Richard,Dougie & PJA. Really feel sorry for PJA. And for all those who didn’t make it through:———> “There is always a next time” :)

    69th isn’t too bad considering the fact that I scored only 10 points in the first 5 races :P

  8. 24th is a pretty good place to be in…….Will break into top 10 by next year…….:)

    1. Great job with the predictions championship.I especially love the automatic system which was introduced in the later part of the season.

  9. Thanks Keith for this wonderful game.Congratulation to SaloolaS & all the other prize getter.
    15th for me is not bad when I see 1000 Fanatics out there fighting & I am one of that 33 who beats Keith.

    Hope you run this championship next season from the start of the season.

  10. Very happy with 24th, may not win anything but it’s quite high.

    Thanks for doing all this Keith :)

  11. Congratulation to SalooaS and all runner up, but not pretending minimize their success, big congratulations to Keith.

    1.000 people making their predictions is lot of people. You are a working-machine!

    Keith, I’m afraid we need to raise the level for saying you “Congrats” because you must feel yourself little bit conceited with those too much flatteries. :-) :-) :-)

  12. Congrat Saloolas, no one had an answer to you all seasn, im just happy with third woo!

    Thanks keith its a great competition, I think the 2010 comp will be even more hotly contested

  13. Woohoo! I came second! :-D

    Congratulations to SaloolaS and the other runners up, plus thanks to Keith for hosting the competition next year.

    Look forward to challenging for the top spot in 2010!

  14. HounslowBusGarage
    4th November 2009, 8:13

    Congratulations to all, in particular Saloolas, Dank and the others. And many thanks to Keith and Ian(?) for managing such a huge enterprise.
    I think I ran them pretty close, y’know . . . a mere 150 points behind.

  15. Thanks Keith and Ian it is a wonderful idea.
    Congrats Dank, Richard and Dougie. Big congratulations to SaloolaS though, you’ve done brilliantly.

  16. Equal 39th, not too bad. I’m rueing my mid season slump! Congrats to SaloolaS and everybody else who beat me!

    Thanks for such a great feature this year Keith and Ian!

  17. Great competition, Keith!!!
    Congrats to the winners!

    Here are some thoughts…

    How about adding a prediction concerning:
    – who will make the fastest lap
    – who will make the most overtakes

    Another thing if possible, is to let us predict:
    – the pole position time
    – the fastest lap time
    Points for this will take whoever is within 1 second.
    For example, if someone is 1 second or more off, he would take 0 points, if he is 100% correct he would take all the points, if he is 0.5 seconds off he would take half of the points and so on.

    If you add this last suggestion, then next year I don’t think that there would be any tie in any place.

    I have to say also that this has worked perfectly in another similar prediction championship that I took part!

    What do you think Keith?

    1. only to add that the prediction times should be entered with accuracy up to 1 millisecond and that is why there would be no ties, since within a second there would be 2000 different points awarded for the pole position time and another 2000 different points awarded for the fastest lap time!
      Their combination is 2000*2000=4000000 different awarded points.
      It would be 1 out of 4000000 to have a tie :-D

    2. It would be 1 out of 4000000 for a tie in a single race!
      How about the whole championship?

    3. I say “NO!” to all of your ideas.
      The game has to be pure – just the important results, no nonsense and things that don’t matter.

      1. At least the driver that sets the Fastest Lap matters in real F1.
        There is also a prize in real F1 for this achievement.

        Concerning the lap times I suggested the perfect prediction could be awarded 5 points (for each pole and fastest lap time) with the current point rules. Not too many points but enough to avoid ties.

      2. Sebastian Vettel wins DHL Fastest Lap Trophy
        http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/11/10190.html

    4. Adding a prediction for the driver with the fastest lap might add a bit of randomness. We have seen a few times this year drivers who finished out of the points stick a couple of fast laps in near the end of the GP. RAI, WEB, ROS off the top of my head.

      For pole position time – you could get points for within 1%, 5% or 10% ? of the time. With low fuel qualifying next year it might be interesting.

  18. Well done SaloolaS =), i only started the predictions in the last 2 gp’s, so i hope next year i can give you competition :D

    1. yeah I only started from Hungary.

  19. I just want to say thanks to Keith for running the Predictions Championship and to Ian for coming up with the software later in the season, I am sure it made things a lot easier.

    Congratulations to SalooaS and the runners up Dank, Richard Evans and Dougie.

    Keith there is no need to go to any trouble to find an extra prize just because I lost out on a count-back as it seems perfectly fair to me, after all that is what would happen in the actual F1 Championship.

    I never thought I would even be close to the top ten so fifth is a great result, it will be very hard for me to better it next year. I suppose predicting pole should be easier next season, as this year you always had to take into account what race fuel the cars would be on.

  20. Great concept Keith, and congrats to the winner.

    i know i ranked somewhere in the bottom.. only played once and admire those who persisted.

    I’ll probably pay more attention next year… all the best

  21. I wasn’t too interested in the competition at first since I don’t think one can say much from Friday practice alone, but I did get caught by the betting virus for the latter half of the season.

    Even if it’s often a quite uninformed prediction. It’s still a lot of fun.

    Would be nice if we could get till just before qualifying to enter our predictions. Gives one a bit more facts to actually base the prediction on.

    1. Agreed. It also gives me a bit more of time to sleep before I make my prediction.

  22. Congrats SaloolaS and the other winners!!!

  23. Great idea Keith, really entertaining and really well run by you.

    Looking forward to next year championship, I was 22nd this year and only around 30 points from the top. I actually missed two races, potentially costing me a shot at the prizes :(

    Next year guys, next year!

  24. Congrats Saloolas! :-)
    I’m 84th with 140 points. Too bad I missed two races, one of which would give me 35 points :/ But still, it was great fun and I’m happy with the performance of my car :]
    Damn, Keith, you beat me!
    Btw, could you make a graph for how the championship was shaping up throughout the season?
    Dougie had been the leader for a long time.

    1. Dougie had been the leader for a long time.

      Aye! Harrumph!! ;-)

  25. Congratulations to the prize winners, and thank you Keith for organising this! I was also delighted to come 84th, especially as I didn’t manage to submit an entry for quite a few rounds. Hopefully I’ll make the top 50 next year!

  26. Well done SaloolaS and the other winners!

    Nice to see I got 255th even with my last submission not being counted! I hope to be in it from the start next year ;)

  27. Congratulations SaloolaS on 1st place great job! And congratulations Dank, Richard Evans, and Dougie for being runners up :)

    Thank you Keith for an amazing job and all your efforts :) I think it’s great as it is, F1Fan had some nice suggestions as bonus stuff pre-season.. Would give us something to look fwd to

  28. I can’t help but feel a little deflated, a bit like Jenson had he lost the championship after leading it for all but the last few races.

    But anyway, Woohoo!! and a big congratulations to all those above me, especially SaloolaS, big UP!! to you, you made it count across the year, well done!

    Apologies to PJA, I chose my last prediction based on securing 4th place at worst, judging that the countback would work in my favour. Keiths idea of a countback was not what I had in mind, so it could easily have gone the other way.

    Thanks to Keith for a great idea and ultimately championship, and for Ian for making it easier to enter and faster to getting the results, a job well done. As for making it better, I don’t think you can, the attraction is in its simplicity. You make your entry for each race, job done! …no juggling drivers, teams etc around all year. Brilliant!

  29. Thank you everyone. Congratulations to Dank, Richard Evans and Dougie. Also thanks to Dougie for a fantastic fight throughout the whole season.
    Thank you Keith for this championship – and one suggestion – next year the predictions could be hidden. I think it would be much better.

    1. What I ment was that it would be hidden until the deadline

      1. I agree, although i did check what the other top guys put for the final race, just to make sure i wasn’t being too risky

    2. Well done!

  30. Well done :)

    I was 9th not too bad at all :)

  31. I only found this site after the Istanbul GP, so I was late this year. Next year, however, you can count on my votes.

    I also think it would be nice to have indivitual predictions secret. Maybe ater 100 predistions a graph could display what drivers have been voted on most?

    It would be nice to be able to bet on who manages the fastest laptime.

    Also, since you already make those graphs displaying who manages the most overtakes during the first lap, that could be a nice addition too. 2pkt awarded for guessing the correct driver and if more than one driver have the same amount of overtakes only one point is awarded.

  32. Well done SaloolaS. I only started with 3 races to go, so 542nd isnt surprising to me!

  33. Thanks Keith and Ian!
    Way to go SallolaS!
    That was fun….I managed 160 points this season,watch out next year…I am running KERS!

  34. I missed this for the 2009 season – as I saw no point in starting predicting when there was only 4/5 races left (which was when I found this).

    But I will definitely be predicting for every race next season :)

  35. This predictions championship is a great asset for this fan site! Great job Keith, particularly for making the nice change to the way we enter predictions during the second half of the season.

    Congrats to Saloolas!

  36. Congrats to Saloolas, I couldn’t make my final prediction due to a holiday (stupid timing!)

    Bring on next year.

  37. Hey Hearty Congratulations to SaloolaS for winning the championship !!!
    Loved playing the game and look forward to playin it again next season !!!! hope these 6 months pass by quickly

  38. :-) congratulations to the winners :-)

    I’m 61 of 1000….not so bad, next year a will be far more ahead with Alonso ;-)

    Cheers ;-)

  39. Mike "the bike" Schumacher
    4th November 2009, 23:17

    YESSSSSSSSSS!!!! 188th (I only started towards the end). I wish I had started from the begining of the season. Great championship Keith. Bring on 2010!

  40. With regards to any changes for next year I don’t think much needs to be changed honestly, the simplicity of predicted pole and the podium works, and they are the main results to predict anyway.

    Some possible changes too consider would be to keep other peoples predictions secret until the deadline, and possibly changing the deadline to before qualifying starts.

    Also while I don’t think you need to change what needs to be predicted, if you did decide to add something else such as fastest lap, or the number of classified finishers, I would only have them for one bonus point.

    So while the main prediction scores wouldn’t be affected that much it may change the rankings slightly so not all the scores are multiples of five and so people may not be tied on the same points at the end of the season, which may help if you do not like using the count-back method.

    Also I assume as the Predictions Championship is now established it will start from the first race next year and you won’t need to use it to test the system.

    Thanks again for all effort gone into running the Championship this year.

  41. Congrats to the winners, impresiive stuff, Ill be entering next year – this is so the best F1 site …

    I take it you guys play on betfair, if you dont, you should be!

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