Grid Bids FAQ (updated for 2010)

[Waldorf]

1. How many drivers can I pick?
You can choose as many drivers as you can afford with your 30 bid points.

2. Who decides the price for each driver?
Each driver's price is the average of his points for the previous five races. If a driver's previous five classifications are 9th, 3rd, 5th, DNF, and 7th, his price for the next race will be (2+10+6+0+4)/5 = 4.4 points.

3. Can I save my bid points for the next race?
No. Your 30 points are only valid for the current race. Any amount that you do not spend on drivers is lost forever.

4. If I am going on vacation, can I make my picks for the next two or three races?
Because the driver prices change unpredictable from race to race, it is impossible to make picks 'normally' in advance. However, to prevent players from taking a 'zero' when they miss a deadline or are travelling, picks will automatically be carried over for one race. If you have made no picks for the current race, your picks from the previous race will be used (up to a maximum of 30 points at the current driver prices).

5. What if I have made my picks, but then I change my mind?
No problem! You can change your picks as many times as you like until the deadline, with no penalty.

6. Should I make my picks at the last second so nobody can copy me?
The features that allow people to see your picks are disabled until the deadline has passed. This means that nobody can see your picks before they submit their own. You should submit picks for each race as soon as possible, and then change them whenever you like prior to the deadline.

7. If one of my drivers becomes sick or injured, can I change my picks?
Sorry, but anything that happens after the deadline is part of the unpredictability of Formula 1. Car failures, collisions, penalties, disqualifications, and injury are all part of the game.

8. Why are no points awarded for pole position, fastest lap, or most laps led?
Everything the drivers do on a race weekend is designed to give them the best possible finishing position in the race. Pole position is only valuable because it helps to increase a driver's chance of winning the race. He gets no points for taking pole position, so neither do you.

9. What strategy should I use when making picks?
The easy answer to this question is "pick the drivers who will score a lot of points for you". This always seems easy in hindsight, when you look back at the race and say "I knew I should have picked Kubica!", but it is really not that easy. What you need to do is play the percentages.
i. Pick drivers who have been having bad luck; avoid drivers who have been having good luck;
ii. If the weather forecast calls for rain, pick good rain drivers and/or cars with good rain tires;
iii. Some drivers do very well at certain tracks (e.g. Monaco), and you can take advantage of this;
iv. Pick undervalued drivers even if you don't like them; avoid overvaluing the drivers you like (Many people thought Montoya was worth much more than Ralf, but in all of 2002, Montoya averaged 6.8 points and Ralf averaged 6.0 points.);
v. Make sure to take reliability into consideration. If a driver always finishes on the podium, but his car fails half the time, it would be foolish to expect him to score 10 points for you.
vi. It is tempting to pick all backmarkers, because you can "own" 14 drivers for the race. But this is almost never the way to score well.

10. How much of the game is skill, and how much is luck?
This is hard to say, but there is a great deal of luck involved. If the F1 season was ten thousand races, the players who are really good at making predictions would certainly come out on top. But in a nineteen race season, a little bit of luck can go a long way.