Home

Welcome to this year's F1 Fantasy League Challenge.
06/07/2025 After the British GP
It's refreshing to watch a really interesting race. The rain, safety cars, tyre strategy and nerve all played a big part. In the end, the McLarens took the top spots with Lando P1 and Piastri P2. Hamilton charged late in the race but couldn't quite catch Hulkenberg in a Sauber (yes, that's right) for P3. Hulkenberg got the Driver of the Day award, quite deservedly after finishing P3 from a P19 start! Stroll looked promising for a podium finish, even after 2 pit stops while everyone else had one, but dropped to P7.
Winners today were:
  1. Nick's Carrots team took the honours with 77.7 points, but nowhere near the best team score of 131.7
  2. Gary's Melly F1 and Andrew's ARCHBISHOP teams tied for 2nd with 77.5 points
That's shuffled the teams at the head of the field overall.
  1. Danny's t3rribl3 team stays in the lead with 842.2 points
  2. John's Racing around in circles team' good outing today moves him up 4 places into 2nd with 839 points
  3. Gary's Ripponden Racers team drops a place into 3rd with 835.4 points
We now have a 3 week wait for the next race in Belgium on 27th July, and it's not yet the holiday season. No doubt it's a time when the drivers start firming up contracts for next year, eh Verstappen?
02/07/2025 After the Austrian GP
Apologies for the lateness of the Austrian GP report. For some inexplicable reason, I seem to have more demands on my time now that I'm retired! Or the fact that I went on a 50 mile bike ride yesterday from Scarborough to Whitby and back, which I really enjoyed.
Anyway, McLaren and Ferrari did well at the weekend, filling the top 4 spots. One might say the main highlight was that Antonelli locked up on lap 1 and took out Verstappen. All unintentional and Verstappen accepted it as a racing incident but I'm sure that would have been different if Verstappen was leading the drivers championship; the McLaren drivers are looking too strong at the moment.
Tsunoda had a bad race, as last classified finisher and the only driver to be lapped twice. That's dropped him behind Lawson in the drivers championship, who he replaced in the RBR team. More woes for Tsunoda and RBR!
Top scorers after the Austrian GP were:
  1. Will's Lando-on’t stop believin’ team takes the spoils with 69.1 points
  2. Danny's t3rribl3 team is anything but with a score of 65.1 points
  3. Nick's Carrots team finished off with 64.7 points
The same 3 protagonists are leading the challenge overall.
  1. Danny's t3rribl3 team moves up a place into the lead with 802.1 points
  2. Gary's Ripponden Racers team drops a place to 2nd with 799.4 points
  3. chris' Chimpy team holds on to 3rd with 776 points
There's also no change in the top 3 in the Team Group challenge.
  1. Gary's Large Plate of Sausages team group extends their lead with 732 points
  2. Ian's SPEED! POWER! team group consolidates 2nd with 712 points
  3. Lisa's SS&C team group holds on to 3rd with 677 points
Next race is the British GP at Silverstone. Let us know if any of you are attending. Looks like there will be rain during qualifying on Saturday and a possible shower during the race on Sunday. But there's nothing more predictable than the unpredictability of British weather!
16/06/2025 After the Canadian GP
Oh Lando! Later in the year he may think back to this moment and regret it. That incident brought out the safety car but as they only had a few metres before the chequered flag, it didn't change the main result.
Mercedes did well in Montreal, claiming P1 and P3. Antonelli getting his first taste of F1 podium champagne, and joining Verstappen on the podium.
Local Canadian Stroll might want to forget this race, being the last car to cross the finish line!
Winners today were:
  1. David's Clutching at Straws team almost had the perfect team, scoring 96.4 points out of a best possible score of 99.2.
  2. Simon's Another bash team grabbed 79 points to raise himself up from 10th to 7th overall
  3. Rik's Rik....just Rik team claimed 3rd with 76 points
Danny and Gary are still the leaders overall but it's all quite close between the top 5.
  1. Danny's t3rribl3 team is anything but as he leads with 729 points
  2. Gary's Ripponden Racers team are not far behind with 720.2 points
  3. Chris' Chimpy team move up to 3rd with 718 points
There's no change at the top of the Team Group challenge.
  1. Ian's SPEED! POWER! team group lead with 664 points
  2. Gary's Large Plate of Sausages team group hold 2nd with 656 points
  3. Lisa's SS&C team group stay 3rd with 637 points
Interestingly, we've not had any negative scores in any races so far, so that tells me you're all taking this challenge seriously and have picked a decent set of drivers! Well, it looks that way anyway :-)
We have 2 weeks to wait for the next double header starting with Austria on 29th June and Great Britain the following weekend on 6th July. Until then, take care.
Lastly, some interesting news if you have an Android phone, I've created a Racing Challenge app. I've been testing it for a short while now but I will try to release it as a download from this website soon. It won't be available via the Play store though as I don't want to make it available to the world. I'll send an email out when it's ready and instructions are on the website.
01/06/2025 After the Spanish GP
Another race where McLaren dominated, but the action really started with 11 laps to go when the safety car came out after Antonelli's engine let go. That prompted drivers to pit but oddly Verstappen was given a set of hard tyres, the worst compound for this track! It closed up the field which Hulkenberg, in his Sauber, then took advantage of by overatking Hamilton's Ferrari to take P5!
I suspect Verstappen saw the red mist as he drove into Russell which ultimately resulted in a 10 second penalty, dropping him to P10. 1 point for RBR today.
Alonso finished P9 in his home race. His team mate, Stroll, was withdrawn from the race before the start for medical reasons. Potentially, he could miss the next race, and possibly more. If that happens, for this challenge, Stroll will get the points gained by his replacement in those races.
In today's race, 7 teams squeezed onto the top step of the podium.
  1. Chris' Chimpy,
    Chris' 2024 Champions,
    Peter's Junker,
    Ian's Checkered Past,
    Richard's Norris to Lando the Championship?,
    Victor's Italian Strotegy and
    Dan's Forza 4711 teams all tied with 67 points
We have movement in the overall positions which look like this:
  1. Danny's t3rribl3 team team is anything but as they storm into the lead with 680.9 points
  2. Gary's Ripponden Racers team holds on to 2nd with 677 points
  3. Ian's Checkered Past team moves up to 3rd with 676 points
However, it's quite tight up at the sharp end overall as Peter's Junker and Chris' Chimpy teams are only 1 point behind in 4th place. And there's 15 more races to run.....
It's all close and topsy-turvy in the Team Group challenge too.
  1. Ian's SPEED! POWER! team group moves into the lead with 615 points
  2. Gary's Large Plate of Sausages team group holds onto 2nd with 608 points
  3. Lisa's SS&C team group drops from the lead to 3rd with 600 points
No doubt we'll be hearing words from Verstappen and Russell about today's driving standards before the next race in Canada in 2 weeks time. An evening race for us in the UK, starting at 7pm. Let battle commence again.
25/05/2025 After the Monaco GP
Sigh, Monaco is Monaco. Norris wins ahead of Leclerc and Piastri, the same order they started the race.
Teams had to use 3 sets of tyres during the race, a new rule for this year, which brought out some interesting, if not controversial, strategies. Williams highighted it by having both drivers in P9 and P10, each taking it in turn to drive slowly to back up the field enough to open up a gap of 20 seconds so their team mate in the lead could pit and not lose their position. It's a strategy that worked but not for the benefit of the paying spectators. Even Russell got fed up behind Albon and overtook him by cutting a chicane and said he wasn't going to give the place back and would rather take the 5 second penalty!
Other notables were DNFs for Alonso and Gasly, and both Racing Bulls scored points with Hadjar in P6 and Lawson in P8, the latter easily beating Tsunoda in P17. The crazy world of F1!
OK, so winners today were:
  1. Chris' Chimpy team took top honours with 77 points
  2. 6 teams tied for 2nd place with 75 points. They were
    Ian's Checkered Past
    Peter's Junker
    Victor's Italian Strotegy
    Richard's Norris to Lando the Championship?
    Chris' 2024 Champions
    and Dan's Forza 4711
John, Gary and Dan still occupy the top slots but the order has changed:
  1. John's Racing around in circles team move into the lead with 635.5 points
  2. Gary's Ripponden Racers drops into 2nd with 630 points
  3. Dan's FOne team just keeps 3rd by 0.4 point with 620.2 points
Likewise, the lead positions in the Team Group challenge haven't changed but the order has. It's still pretty tight between all 3 of them.
  1. Lisa's SS&C team group move into the lead with 557 points
  2. Gary's Large Plate of Sausages team group drop into 2nd with 553 points
  3. Ian's SPEED! POWER! team group stay 3rd with 550 points
The 3rd race in the triple header is next weekend just down the coast in Spain. Normal racing service will no doubt resume!
19/05/2025 After the Italian GP at Imola
Despite the pundits saying this was a track where overtaking was difficult, some drivers seemed to shun that and take every possible opportunity to overtake. Verstappen made a daring overtake on lap 1 to get into the lead that he kept for the rest of the race. The McLarens were quick but the Red Bull seems to have gained some upgrades that work really well for Verstappen. A safety car towards the end of the race closed up the field and facilitated more overtaking in the closing laps, especially with Ferrari and Hamilton.
Last year, Williams were the team trailing at the back of the field. What a turnaround in this race where they finished P5 and P8! Sainz even topped the times in Q2 while both Ferraris were knocked out.
Anyway, top performers in this race were:
  1. Nigel's Russelling Alon for a Stroll and Dan's Tea Racing teams topped the podium with 83.1 points
  2. Andy's Youngun Motorsport team finished 3rd with 80.5 points
Overall, Gary had a tough race which has cut his lead dramatically to just 1.7 points, and there's just 6.8 points separating the top 3 now!
  1. Gary's Ripponden Racers team hold on to the lead with 568 points
  2. John's Racing around in circles team have closed the gap with 566.3 points
  3. Dan's FOne team took a great score in this race to move up to 3rd with 561.2 points
In the Team Group challenge, the top 3 groups are so close now with just 5.6 points separating them.
  1. Gary's Large Plate of Sausages team group stay in the lead with 496 points
  2. Lisa's SS&C team group move up a place and are now only 5 points behind with 491 points
  3. Ian's SPEED! POWER! team group drops a place, but only just, with 490 points
We're now in a "triple header" with the next race in Monaco this weekend before moving to Spain for the following weekend. A busy time for us!
11/05/2025 Doohan/Colapinto driver swap in the Alpine F1 team
If you've been keeping a close eye on F1 news, you'll have seen that the Alpine team have replaced Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto for the next 5 races. What happens after that those 5 races will depend on how Colapinto does compared to how Doohan did in the first 6 races this year. Colapinto isn't a fresh rookie; he drove in 9 races with the Williams team last year when he took over from Sargeant. And not too shabby either, gaining 5 championship points, but also had 3 DNFs.
As always, I haven't changed the driver cost for Doohan/Colapinto, which is 1 point. So if you want to change your team due to this, please ensure it's done before the end of Thursday 15th May for it to take effect for the next race in Italy.
I'll leave it to you to judge how he might do in your team, if you decide to take him. There are 3 teams that have already chosen Doohan so if you are one of them you don't need to do anything if you want Colapinto in your team. For everyone else, you'll need to use the Change Team page in the website.
Thank you.
05/05/2025 After the Miami GP
Another McLaren demonstration race as Piastri and Norris finished over 30 seconds ahead of Russell's Merc. Judging by the TV footage, Ferrari's sponsors got more airtime than McLaren's as Leclerc and Hamilton obeyed team orders to swap places twice! Hamilton summed it up by commenting over the radio to his race engineer, "have a tea break while you're at it". Sainz had a go at overtaking Hamilton on the last lap (actually after the chequered flag considering how far Piastri was ahead) and the 2 cars brushed against each other, but thankfully both finished the race. Sainz was summoned to the stewards after the race to get a warning from the FIA. Ooops.
If you haven't watched the sprint race, it's a good one to watch. It had everything you might expect in a full race. Leclerc aquaplaned into the wall on the formation lap so never started the race, a wet start but it dried out enough for a pit stop to switch to slicks, a safety car, and an unsafe release for Verstappen. Oh and the rookie Antonelli started on pole! Amazing.
So who won today? Well quite a few of you got onto the podium!
  1. Oscar's Everything's coming up McLaren team got a cracking score of 119.3 points
  2. Gary's Ripponden Racers team added 115 points to his total to keep him in the top spot overall
  3. Then there were 6 teams tieing for 3rd on 112 points. They were:
    Ian's Checkered Past
    Peter's Junker
    Victor's Italian Strotegy
    Richard's Norris to Lando the Championship?
    Chris' 2024 Champions
    and Dan's Forza 4711
Overall, we still have the usual 3 protagonists in the lead.
  1. Gary's Ripponden Racers stretches further into the lead with 520 points
  2. Danny's t3rribl3 team moves up a place into 2nd with 496.6 points
  3. John's Racing around in circles team drops into 3rd with 496.1 points, only 1/2 point between them!
Unusually, there's a good battle at the head of the Team Group challenge.
  1. Gary's Large Plate of Sausages team group leads with 448 points
  2. Ian's SPEED! POWER! team group are only 0.9 points behind with 447.1
  3. Lisa's SS&C team group hold on to 3rd with 425 points
The F1 teams take a hop back across the pond for the next race in Italy in 2 weeks time. Ferrari's home track so let's see how they get on there, or will it be another McLaren domination?
21/04/2025 After the Saudi Arabian GP
Norris' crash in Q3 on Saturday added to the spice in Sunday's race, finishing P4 after starting in P10. It took him 3 attempts to overtake Hamilton due to the latter letting him past just before a DRS detection point, which allowed Hamilton to regain his place. Try again next lap Lando!
The pundits predicted a safety car for the race, and it duly came out on the first lap after Tsunoda and Gasly came together.
Piastri took the win, with Verstappen and Leclerc joining him on the podium. Piastri now leads the drivers championship, for now.
Hamilton fans might find it disconcerting that the rookie that took Hamilton's seat at Mercedes, Antonelli, has now beaten Hamilton in 4 of the 5 races so far. Oh dear....
We have 3 winners today, all sharing the top spot!
  1. Chris' 2024 Champions, Peter's Junker and Victor's Italian Strotegy teams all scored 87 points out of a maximum possible of 87.6. Well done guys!
No change at the top overall.
  1. Gary's Ripponden Racers team stays in the lead with 405 points
  2. John's Racing around in circles closes the gap a little with 400.1 points
  3. Danny's t3rribl3 team had a good outing on Sunday to also close the gap with 388.5 points
It's more intersting in the Team Group challenge as Lisa's "blue" team members took 5 of the 6 top scores in Jeddah! That's pulled them up in the challenge by a fair margin.
  1. Gary's Large Plate of Sausages team group maintains the lead with 352 points
  2. Ian's SPEED! POWER! team group stay 2nd with 344 points
  3. Lisa's SS&C (Insert better team name here) team group move up to 3rd with 329 points
We now have 2 weeks to wait for the next race across the pond in Miami. You know, the one with the fake marina :-)
I hope you enjoyed the Easter break.
13/04/2025 After the Bahrain GP
That race was more interesting than the previous one in Japan! Lots of overtakes, different tyre choices between the teams, one retirement, and a safety car that compressed the field for more close racing. Even an Alpine was beating both Red Bulls until the last lap; a great performance from Gasly.
This time round, Russell split the 2 McLarens on the podium and the Ferraris did well, finishing P4 and P5.
Lawson and Doohan received post-race time penalties that demoted their results and Hulkenberg was disqualified due to the car's rear skid being less than the minimum thickness. We're starting to see more disqualifications after races these days!
Winners today were:
  1. Gary's Ripponden Racers team excelled with 86 points
  2. Danny's t3rribl3 team scored 83.1 points
  3. Ian's Checkered Past team rounded off with 80 points
That's shuffled up the teams at the sharp end of the challenge.
  1. Gary's Ripponden Racers team pushes into the lead with 335 points
  2. John's Racing around in circles team drops a place with 329.1 points
  3. Danny's t3rribl3 team moves up a place into 3rd with 313.4 points
In the Team Group challenge, Ian's good outing in Bahrain pushes his team group up into 2nd. The leaders now are:
  1. Gary's Large Plate of Sausages team group stay in the lead with 286 points
  2. Ian's SPEED! POWER! team group move up with 278 points
  3. Andy's We’re Looking 4 a 44 SussexOvertake team group drop a place for now with 256 points
As it stands now, Gary's the one to beat as he won in Bahrain, and is leading the overall and team group challenges! The grand slam at this point in time.
The next race is a hop across the border to Saudi Arabia so is next weekend. Enjoy!
06/04/2025 After the Japanese GP
Yawn. Just my opinion but the race in Japan looked a bit boring, certainly up at the front. I base my opinion on the fact that the top 10 drivers in the race finished in the same position they started, except for Hamilton and Hadjar who swapped places when Hamilton overtook Hadjar. Interestingly, Verstappen held his lead ahead of the 2 McLarens in the closing laps.
Tsunoda failed to impress in qualifying and the race but crucially finished ahead of Lawson.
Winners today were:
  1. Chris' Chimpy team takes the spoils with 79 points out of a best possible score of 82.7 points
  2. John's Racing around in circles team followed closely with 77 points
  3. Dan's FOne team completed the podium with 76.1 points
Overall, the same 3 challengers occupy the top 3 spots.
  1. John's Racing around in circles team hold the lead with 265.1 points
  2. Dan's FOne team move up into 2nd with 258.3 points
  3. Gary's Ripponden Racers team drops a place to 3rd with 249 points
Both John and Dan have made changes to their teams so they seem to be working well for them.
The Japanese GP has resulted in no change to the top 3 in the Team Group challenge.
  1. Gary's Large Plate of Sausages team group hold the lead with 219 points
  2. Andy's We’re Looking 4 a 44 Sussex Overtake team group closes the gap to 11 points with 208 points
  3. Ian's SPEED! POWER! team group drop a few points but hold on to 3rd for now with 199 points
Me personally, I've had a disastous start to the year and will be making some changes during the week!
The next race is in Bahrain next weekend. Back to a more suitable viewing time for those in the UK at 16:00. Enjoy!
31/03/2025 Lawson / Tsunoda - Red Bull team swap
Most of you will be aware that due to Lawson's disastrous performance in the first 2 races this year, Red Bull Racing has pushed him into the sister Racing Bulls team and promoted Tsunoda up into the Red Bull Racing team. Driver swaps like this have been quite common over the past decade in F1 where a non-performing driver gets the push and another driver takes their place. So I've updated the site to show these 2 drivers have swapped teams. There are no changes to the points you've gained in the races run so far this year.
As in previous years, I haven't changed driver cost of Lawson and Tsunoda as that might make some teams exceed the maximum driver cost limit. So their costs remain the same, that is Tsunoda costs 7 points and Lawson 12 points. Those of you that have Lawson in your team may want to consider reviewing your set of team drivers as he's now racing for a weaker team. Those with Tsunoda in their set of team drivers should be OK if Tsunoda performs better with Red Bull Racing, although that's no mean feat as it's believed the car is harder to driver than the sister team's. None of you have both Lawson and Tsunoda in your team.
I thought I'd give you advance notice about this so you have time to review your team drivers. Even those who don't have either of these drivers may want to review too as Tsunoda should now be a cheap driver that scores well (famous last words!). Next race is this weekend so if you want to make a team driver swap for the Japanese GP, do it before the end of Thursday 3rd April.
23/03/2025 After the Chinese GP (and disqualifications)
After the action in Australia, the Chinese race seemed quite uneventful. Norris had a brake issue in the closing laps but held on to 2nd against a fast approaching Russell. However, as is becoming more common these days, post-race scrutineering checks resulted in disqualifications for Leclerc, Gasly and Hamilton. Leclerc and Gasly were due to the car being under the 800kg minimum limit at the end of the race, and Hamilton was due to the rear skid block being under the minimum thickness. "Nil point" for Ferrari!
This racing challenge shows that all these 3 drivers finished in 20th place, which is as close as I can get to showing them as disqualified. Extraneous circumstances!
Winners today were:
  1. John's Racing around in circles team takes the spoils with 107 points
  2. Gary's Ripponden Racers team grabbed 102 points
  3. Chris' Chimpy team completes the podium with 101 points
That changes the positions overall which now stands like this:
  1. John's Racing around in circles team jump into the lead with 188.1 points due to their good outing today
  2. Gary's Ripponden Racers team moves up into 2nd with 187 points
  3. Dan's FOne team also moves up a place into 3rd with 182.2 points
It's a bit turbulent in the Team Group results at the moment. We'll need a few races to see how this settles but for now, the leaders are:
  1. Gary's Large Plate of Sausages team group leads with 155 points
  2. Andy's We’re Looking 4 a 44 SussexOvertake team group climb up to 2nd with 142 points
  3. Ian's SPEED! POWER! team group hold on to 3rd with 140 points
The teams move across the East China Sea to Japan for the next race in 2 weeks time on 6th April. Another early start for those in the UK at 06:00.
23/03/2025 Controversy after the Chinese GP
Just a quick update. I'll provide a full update shortly.
After the action in Australia, the Chinese race was quite straight forward and uneventful. However, as is becoming more apparent these days, post-race scrutineerng checks resulted in disqualifications for Leclerc, Gasly and Hamilton. Leclerc and Gasly were due to the car being under 800kg at the end of the race, and Hamilton was due to the rear skid block being under the minimum thickness.
These drivers therefore score no points in the race. Unfortunately this racing challenge doesn't cater for disqualifications as yet so I've set all 3 drivers as finishing in 20th place, which is close enough to a disqualification.
16/03/2025 After the Australian GP
After practices and qualifying in the dry, the race was quite the opposite! But the rain brought lots of excitement and action for the viewers. Hadjar will be eating humble pie as he spun out and retired from his first F1 race on the formation lap. Rookie Doohan also spun out and retired on on lap 1, bringing the first safety car out. Even seasoned Sainz did the same on lap 1.
On lap 34, Alonso spun into a wall and brought out the second safety car. This was a good time for everyone to pit and switch to slicks. Rain soon returned though and so did the incidents! Both McLarens at the front of the field went off on the same turn. Norris held on to the lead, but Piastri ended up on some very wet grass. After a lot of wheel spinning, he regained the track, much to the delight of the spectators, but had dropped to P15. Hamilton had a brief moment in the lead before pitting.
Norris held off Verstappen at the front while Russell completed the podium. After all this, Mercedes rookie, Antonelli, finished P5. After the race, Mercedes challenged a penalty he'd gained, which was successful, reinstating him up to P4; what a drive from him in his first race!
After all this topsy-turvy action, winners and current leaders today were:
  1. Gary's Melly F1 team lead with 89.1 points
  2. John's F83Photos team were 2nd, only 1 point adrift, with 88.1 points
  3. Gary's Ripponden Racers team rounded off with 85 points
It's early days in the Team Group challenge but current leaders are:
  1. Will's Always Wright team group of 2 lead with 76 points
  2. Andy's We’re Looking 4 a 44 Sussex Overtake team group of 3 are 2nd with 68 points
  3. Ian's SPEED! POWER! team group hold 3rd, just a fraction ahead of Lisa's, with 61 points
The next race is in China next weekend. Thankfully it starts at a more civilised time for us in the UK. I'm hoping for a dry race so we can see a more realistic view of the team's performance. But if you're wanting to change some of your team drivers, and I can see John B has already done so!, you need to make those changes by the end of Thursday 20th March for them to take effect in the next race.
14/03/2025 Welcome to all challengers
Welcome to everyone! We have 38 challengers this year which is an excellent turn out. Thank you to all of you for entering. I'm sure it will be an interesting year with several drivers having a great chance of winning the Drivers Championship, and if luck comes their way. Only time will tell, and with 24 races it's going to be a busy year! Let's see what happens on Sunday.
I've made quite a few changes to the site, mainly in the background rather than things you'd get to see. If you spot any oddity or something doesn't appear right, let me know and I'll take a look.
Enjoy!