Final of Fantasy F1

By Karl King
October 21 2005

The BAR-Talk.com Fantasy Formula One competition has finally drawn to a close and, just like the real thing, there were only ever two people in the running.

Before we get to the winners though, a word or two about the other entries.
Thanks to every single one of you running a team, even if you weren't as
successful as you'd have liked - so that includes all BAR Honda fans this
year!

Each race saw a total of 500 points up for grabs, roughly split 20/80 in
qualifying AND the race, and three teams got close to the maximum. The
Drunken Munkeys, Petronas Dream Team and Marco Due all managed the highest
score of the year - 444 points at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Congratulations
to them.

A hugely disappointing Spanish Grand Prix saw the lowest score of the year.
Both Minardi drivers retired, as well as three of the four Cosworth engines
on the grid, and that meant that Minardi fan Go Minardi! had a pointless
weekend. In fact, they had to hand some back, getting a weekend total of
minus five!

BAR Honda fans struggled through the season, with a three race ban and early
season performance issues leaving the team so far behind that, even with ten
consecutive points finishes at the end of the year, the damage was too much
to overcome.

Also damaged were McLaren fans, as the unreliability of both the Mercedes
engine and Montoya's end of race accident avoidance skills all conspired to
drop a lot of points. However, the McLaren's had a bargain price at the
beginning of the season, leaving the more dominant (at least in FF1) Renault
chassis too expensive to consider.

Each of the SportNetwork sites that participated in the championship had a
team entered, although each was ineligible for prizes, and that team
mirrored their real race team, even if that took the team over budget.
Minardi Magic brought up the rear, scoring just 1206 points, while the
midfield was closely fought between Sauber Speak (3000), Williams F1
Supporters (3177) and your very own BAR-Talk.com (3191).

That leaves the two over-budget teams on the network slugging it out for the
championship and, despite being gifted one win at Indianapolis, it's
Ferrari1 that takes the runner up spot with 3708 points. It's therefore
Totally Toyota F1 that wins the SportNetwork competition, with Karl King's
site scoring 4123 points over the season.

The overall championship was even closer, with just 403 points separating
the Top 10. From tenth to seventh, Statoil, Star Dust, The Drunken Munkeys
and Nanotechnology each got perilously close to the 5000 point mark, but
couldn't quite break through. Sixth placed SPARK Motorsport Mercedes got
close to a top five finish, but WonderWingsF1 and Marco Tre held him off,
although all were within just 54 points of each other.

No Idea F1 proved a misnomer, dragging their team to third place with 5227
points, less than 100 points from the overall winner. Their Red Bull-Toyota
car on Michelin tyres, driven by Alonso and Raikkonen was a valiant effort,
but not quite enough to take the win.

Which brings us to second place, and that's where there's a surprise - they
tied with first. Both eVince and The Dragon's Fang scored a massive 5325
points - that's a stunning 333 a race. Unsurprisingly, both teams selected
the same combination, taking a gamble on Bridgestone tyres in order to save
some money to spend on their drivers. It worked.

The bargain priced McLaren-Mercedes combination was fast, although fragile,
but secured enough points to get the team towards the front. With the money
saved there, and the extra $10 million saved on tyres, meant the teams were
able to secure Raikkonen AND Alonso as drivers. It looked unbeatable, and
proved to be.

However, there can be only one winner, and the decision came down to names
out of a hat. Literally.

Congratulations, therefore, to Canada's own eVince!

Well done from BAR-Talk.com, and all at the SportNetwork F1 sites - it's a
well deserved victory. Commiserations to The Dragon's Fang, but you should
be equally proud of your achievement.

Totally Toyota F1 would like to extend it congratulations and thanks to Phil Huff for providing us with such a successful competition this year!

Chinese GP

398    [TOY] JC Racing A
357    [TOY] Fisico F1 powered by Renault
328    [TOY] SPARK Motorsport Cosworth
323    [TOY] Team Barnett UK
314    [TOY] JC Racing C
312    [TOY] I Trulli dislike Button
312    [TOY] SPARK Motorsport Mercedes
311    [TOY] winning this would make me verry APPY
302    [TOY] Yuro
293    [TOY] SPARK Motorsport Toyota

Season to Date

5118    [TOY] SPARK Motorsport Mercedes
4918    [TOY] Fisico F1 powered by Renault
4740    [TOY] Nico Tre
4740    [TOY] SASRacing
4726    [TOY] SPARK Motorsport Cosworth
4704    [TOY] No Hope racing
4565    [TOY] Team Jarson Truton
4564    [TOY] JC Racing C
4464    [TOY] Team Barnett UK
4386    [TOY] Nico Due

For the full seasons results, please visit our FF1 site and click Results