Spice Up the Season with F1 Predictions and Games
As spectator sports go, Formula 1 is not exactly one that needs much more excitement than what is presented on the track but with at least a week between races, a summer break to contend with and even an off-season to navigate, there is plenty of time to fill when you’re as big a fan of Formula 1 as we are! Today, we’re going to take a look at exactly what you can do to fill that time, all while maintaining the F1 buzz and you won’t even need to leave the house to do any of it!
F1 Betting
As a wise man may once have said, if something has an outcome that is not set in stone, you can bet on the outcome. Heck, you can even bet on professional wrestling nowadays and we all know the story behind that one! As one of the most competitive sports out there, with massive teams contributing to every success and failure there is always something to bet on during race season and even outside it. The best part of this for F1 fans is that the sport is not traditionally considered as one of the bigger betting opportunities in the way that the likes of horse racing and football are, so if you have impressive knowledge about the sport as a whole, a certain team or even a certain driver, opportunities to find an edge are not hard to find.
Formula One - Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Abu Dhabi GP 2017. Lewis Hamilton
There is much more to it than betting on the race winner too nowadays – indeed, if you had blindly followed Lewis Hamilton to win every race last season such were the odds that you’d have barely scraped a profit! Fortunately, the betting options in F1 are every bit as intriguing as the sport itself. You can certainly back the winner or even the top three much like in a horse race but that does of course only give you any action during the season. Outside of it, you can back teams and drivers for all sorts of purposes including the next team a certain driver races for or even the number they choose for their car in the following season – and that can be where a bit of knowledge goes a long way.
When the season is on, the opportunities are non-stop with action offered on everything from qualifying to the final lap. Back a driver to finish ahead of another, speculate who will finish last and even bet while the race is running – similar to betting on the first goal scorer in a football match that is already in play.
Fantasy F1
Fantasy sports are everywhere nowadays and while many of our readers probably have a fantasy team for the Premier League, you might not even know that Fantasy F1 exists. It did indeed grow out of the popularity of fantasy football in the mid-90s, and before the boom of the internet you’d be able to participate in newspapers and magazines.
There are two different versions of F1 too, with one being more accessible and the other being for those that have a truly in-depth perspective on the inner workings of their chosen team. The simpler version simply tracks drivers, with them being split into pools based on their expected performance. Each driver has a price and every participant has a budget. it is then up to the player to choose who will represent the best value for money as scores are totted up for practice times, qualifying and, of course, where they end up finishing in the race. This version generally runs for the whole season but players are invited to make changes at certain point, often during the summer break.
The other version also requires players to make ‘purchases’ within a certain budget but this time they are choosing not only from race drivers, but also test drivers, engines, tyres and cars. This can be a lot of work to keep track of, but it is always handled by whoever is running the competition and players can be as involved or passive as they like!
There are plenty of free fantasy F1 operators out there, but players can also go for a bit of cash with their predictions too. As with sports betting, if something makes any sense at all as a fantasy sport, the internet makes it possible. Paid leagues generally require an entrance fee, but the bulk of the money taken in is then divided up among the top performers at the end of the season – and fantasy F1 gaming opportunities are even available on a per race basis too if you don’t want to wait around. Many of the paid providers will also cover an entry or two off their own back, effectively allowing players to get involved and win cash without committing any of their own. Online portals like nodepositbonus.co.uk list a wealth of operators that give players the chance to enjoy the action with cash without putting any in.
F1 2017 – The Official F1 Video Game
To be fair, if you are heavily into F1, you have probably played the video game at some point. As with many sports franchises, it is released on an annual basis and has been in the hands of Codemasters for decades. You can play it on all manner of devices, including PCs, Macs and consoles, and it is one of the few sports game series that almost always receives high praise from reviewers.
It always feels like an extension of the real thing, along with a few fantasy elements of its own. You could, for example, take on the role of the driver and complete the season just like a real one. You can roll up your sleeves and get involved in the engineering side of things as you look to tweak your setup for optimal performance. You can even dive back into the past, with the current iteration of the game not only featuring all of the current cars, but also a selection of F1 cars from between 1988 and 2010.
We certainly don’t want this feature to be all about the money, but if you’re not quite there as a real F1 driver but can
Start Belgian GP F1 2017 Spa Francorchamps, Belgium.
master the video game, you might be able to earn some here too! F1 2017 is the first game in the series to be supported by a proper network of eSports events as part of the Formula One eSports Series. The inaugural competition ran from 4th September this year to 25th November, with the final serving as a support category to the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The event mirrored real life somewhat, crowning Brendon Leigh of Great Britain as the first ever champion with a score of 74 points from races at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Yas Marina Circuit and Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
So, even when the cars aren’t on the track, the interest in F1 never needs to end and if you know your stuff or love video games just as much, there might even be something in it for you too!
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