WELCOME GTP 2024!!
ROUND 1 DEADLINE is THURSDAY 29th FEBRUARY!
@Michael Ferner trounced the field last year claiming both Accuracy and Points titles. Who's up for taking him on this year?
Do we finally believe the pre-season testing times? Is the pecking order the same or do we need to adjust for sandbags? The RB took a design page from the Mercedes and Mercedes did the same in return. Will that give either an advantage or disadvantage?
Oh yeah, just like last year there are 6 Sprint races this year! :sad trombone sound: China, Miami, Austria, USGP, Brazil, and Qatar will host sprint rounds. However, F1 has changed the format so we will still have Qualifying on the Saturday after the Sprint race concludes. Let's see how that goes!!
THE GTP RULES (Last updated in 2022)
1. Your guess must be entered in a 1:23.456 format (please use all 3 decimal places).
2. You can change your time guess as many times as you wish prior to the cutoff time (start of the first free practice).
3. You must not edit your time after the deadline as I will count any edit after the deadline time as a DNF. If you need to fix the grammar, please add another entry comment (unless you really want to change your entry time).
4. Points payout uses the older F1 points format and consists of:
1st = 10 Points (with a +10 point bonus for exact guess to the thousandths place for a total of 20 points)
2nd = 6 Points
3rd = 4 Points
4th = 3 Points
5th = 2 Points
6th = 1 Point
5. Any duplicate time guesses will score that place to the first person who entered it in this thread. The second person will finish one place down, etc...
(Example: If 3 people guess the winning time the same, the first place goes to the person with the earliest guess time, 2nd goes to the next guess time and third goes to the last. The next slowest unique time will score 4th place.)
6. If you edit your time and end up with a duplicate, the last time you entered a guess will be counted as your guess time used in rule 5 (regardless if you changed back to an earlier guess or not).
7. The Accuracy Championship is calculated based on how far your guess is from the actual pole time. Your total accuracy is a sum of all your guess differentials for the season. Often the Point Champ is different from the Accuracy Champ.
8. This year we will trial allowing each player to drop a round. If you miss a round or completely screw it up, your Accuracy score will be based on best of 21 rounds
9. In order to be considered for the Accuracy standings, you must enter a guess for 21 of the 22 qualifying events (aka rounds). You can miss up to a single round this year. However, if you miss multiple rounds, you will be dropped from the Accuracy Championship. (Often there are only a handful of players in the running at the end of the season.)
10. The deadline for guess entries is always the start of First Practice. Friday's for most rounds. Thursday for Monaco. Please note that many of the Asia/Pacific Rim races have deadlines late Thurs night or VERY early Friday morning relative to Europe and North America.
11. No username needed. Just enter a guess in the thread. Your board username will be your GTP player name.
12. The winning time will be taken from the official qualifying session used to set the grid for the first race of the weekend. This means that if a sprint race is called, the qualification session used to set the grid for the sprint race will count as the pole time and the winning GTP time. (I am hoping we will not need this rule much longer as Sprint races will go away as the gimmick they are.)
13. If an official qualification session is delayed or rescheduled (Saturday or Sunday), GTP will use the results of the official qualification session no matter when it is run (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday). If the session is red flagged, scrubbed, or cut short, GTP will use the final session of the official qualifying time used to set the grid (example: they only run Q1). However, if the session is cancelled and not rescheduled, GTP will use whatever official timed session the FIA uses to set the grid (example: FP1, FP2, etc...).
14. In the case that no timed session is used to set the grid (example: cars are placed in WDC points order), then the round of GTP will be null and void and no winner will be declared for that one race weekend. Additionally, the Accuracy Championship will be shortened by 1 round.
Please PM me if you have any issues or questions.
I will post a new thread for each round of the season for track information, results, comments, and discussion. Good Luck!
=================================================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Round 1 - FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX 2024 - 29 Feb -2 March
EDIT: JUST FINALLY CAUGHT THAT THE ENTIRE WEEKEND IS SHIFTED FORWARD 1 DAY. Practice (and the deadline) is THURSDAY! Qualifying is FRIDAY! And the Race is SATURDAY (Edit 2 - I can't calendar)! Please keep this in mind!
Track Length: 5.412 km
Race Laps: 57 (308.238 Km)
2023 Pole time:Max Verstappen (RedBull) 1:29.708
The deadline for entries is before the start of THURSDAY First Free Practice (Friday 11:30 GMT/11:30 UK time)
Place your guess by posting a reply in this thread. Please complete all edits before the start of the Free Practice deadline!!
Links of Interest:
Official F1 Site
Bahrain Weather Forecast
Best of luck to you all!
XCraigX
2019 GTP Accuracy Champion 
