The FoletonF1 FAQ

Click on one of below titles to jump immediately to the chosen topic, or scroll down to read the whole thing.

What is the F1Manager?
What is different from last year?
What is the same as last year?
What can I win?
How do I join?
How do I manage my team?
Why can't I change my team?
How many points do I get?
How do I earn new budget?
What are clubs?
Can I discuss points or news somewhere?
What else should I know?
What if my question is not in this FAQ?

What is the F1Manager?

The F1Manager from FoletonF1 is a very simple Formula 1 management game. You get a starting budget, which you use to buy two drivers, a chassis and an engine. Depending on how these perform in the actual qualifying and race, you score points, which are used to determine the leaderboard in this game. Per scored point and for having the Driver of the Day in your team, you will also earn extra budget, which you can use to improve your team over the course of the season. Until you run into the budget cap, that is. At the end of the season, the player with the most points is crowned champion. That's all it is.

What is different from last year?

There is only one change this year. We are now more comfortable in using a variable deadline and re-open time for the driver market. This means you can now change your team up to (planned) start of the first points-paying session of the weekend. In normal races, this will be qualifying, and in Sprint weekends this will be the Sprint Race. So if qualifying starts at 16:00 CET, then you can change your team up to 15:59:59. Our server time is leading, so give yourself a few seconds or minutes margin. If the session is delayed (for example due to rain), this does not change the deadline. If the session is re-scheduled before it's planned start, we will use the new time.

The Sprint Shootout (aka Sprint qualifying) does not pay points on FoletonF1, so you can still change your team after this session.

Our points become final 24 hours after the race, even if there are still pending protests or appeals. Previously you had to wait until midnight on Tuesday morning to change your team again. But now we re-open the market 27 hours after the planned start time of the race. Since a race can not last beyong 3 hours after the planned start date, that should always be enough to cover the 24 hours after the finish.

What is the same as last year?

Most things really worked well, so we decided to keep them for this year.

First of all, during Grand Prix weekends, the transfer market is closed. Obviously you can look at your team and even sample new teams, but you will not be able to complete the transaction. If you miss the deadline, the next opportunity you have to change your team will be 27 hours after the planned start of the race.

You still can not look at anyone else's team between Grand Prix. On the other hand, during the Grand Prix weekends all teams will be published, whether you like it or not. People will see what team you used during a Grand Prix, and you will be able to check if the points someone scored are correct for the team he/she raced. Not only do we consider this an essential part to prevent cheating, more importantly we think it is more fun if you can see what your closest competitors are racing with during the weekend.

We have decided to keep the costs fixed again this year. With variable costs, there is a big risk that winners get richer and losers get poorer, resulting in an unbalanced, unfair and unfun game. We still reserve the right to update the costs after an evaluation period if we deem it necessary. You will be notified in advance and be able to join in the discussion whether an update is needed and how it should be handled.

We've also kept the system where you score points for each car with the engine you run in your team. This turned out to be pretty well-balanced relative to chassis and return-on-investment. And although it gives you less choice than having 10 engines to choose from, it adds a different strategy consideration which makes the game more diverse than treating engines exactly the same as chassis.

We've also decided to keep the variable transaction cost paid over drivers, chassis and engines, based on overall ranking. This is done to slightly counter-act the "rich get richer and the poor get poorer" dilemma that inevitably arises becasue of the prize money system. It turned out to be an unobtrusive but effective way to keep players closer during the season.

Finally, we're keeping the penalty point system, where the amount of penalty points is depending on the number of seconds or number of grid places that make up the penalty. This is much more fair than giving the same amount of penalty points regardless of the offence.

What can I win?

Absolutely nothing. This game is for fame and fun only.

How do I join?

Make sure you have an account at FoletonF1. If you do not have one, register. Make sure you use a valid e-mail address, as you will need the password that is mailed to you to log in.

After you've registered and logged in, go to the team management page. You will be asked to create a team. All you need to do is come up with a name for your team, and submit it. If the name is valid (being unique is usually the toughest requirement), your team will be created, you will get a load of money from us, and you can start manageing. That's all there is to it.

How do I manage my team?

This is easy. In the team management page you will see your current team and statistics on the left. On the right, you will see an edit area. Here you can select new drivers, chassis and engine, and see what those changes do to your budget. If you are satisfied with the team in the edit area, you can click the "PURCHASE TEAM" button to complete the transaction. In order for the button to work, your team needs to be valid, you need to be able to have enough budget to pay for it, and the transfer market needs to be opened.

An important feature to know about, is that you can change your team any amount of times before the first race you participate in, without paying transaction costs. You will only pay the cost of the new driver or parts, and get the money from the old driver or part back. After the first race, however, you will not get a full refund. The driver or manufacturer you're parting with charges up to 2% of their cost to terminate their contract. The severance fee depends on your ranking; if you rank lower, you pay a smaller percentage because the driver or manufacturer is less sad to leave you). So you better think twice before you fire an expensive driver or tell a top-notch manufacturer that you will no longer require their services, as that can cost a lot of money!

If a driver is substituted by the team after the deadline, that driver will not be able to score any points for subsequent sessions, and you will not score points for the substitute. If there is doubt whether a driver will be able to race and we know who the replacement would be, we will make the replacement available as soon as possible. But this is a manual action so there is no guarantees. When in doubt, pick another driver, or roll the dice...

A final tip, in the results section of the site you can find all kinds of important metrics about how drivers, chassis and engines have performed this year and in the past. For example, you can see how many points a specific item scored last year, or if a driver offers good value for money.

Why can't I change my team?

This can be due to a number of reasons. Maybe the tranfer market is closed. During Grand Prix weekends, you can not change your team. The deadline for changes is (planned) start of qualifying (or Sprint Race). Another reason could be that your team is not valid. Remember, you will need two different drivers, a chassis and engines to go racing. And you need to be able to afford it all. There will be error messages in the screen to tell you why you can't complete your purchase, if one of the before mentioned conditions is false.

How many points do I get?

The below table lists how many points are awared for a specific position in qualifying or the race.

pos drivers chassis engines
Q S R Q S R Q S R
14065130304060152030
23657115273654131725
33252105243248111522
429459021253991219
527428520243791117
625408019233581015
72337751822338913
82135701721317912
91932651620297811
101730601519277810
11122550121523556
12112245111320555
13102040101117545
14917359914444
15815308711434
1641225458233
1731020345223
182715233122
191510122112
20025011011
dnq/dnf000000000

A bonus of 15 points will be awarded after the race to the driver who set the fastest lap, the chassis (team) that set the fastest pitstop time (measured from pitlane entry to pitlane exit) and the engine that set the highest topspeed at the speedtrap.

Besides earning points, you might also loose points. Any time a driver, chassis or engine is given a performance penalty by the FIA (i.e. a drive-through penalty, a grid penalty, a time penalty etc, but not fines or warnings), a number of points are subtracted from the score:

  • 1 point for every position in case of grid penalty
  • 20 points for the penalty "starting at the back of the grid" (even if a driver does not actually start last because other drivers got the same penalty). NOTE: starting from the pitlane does NOT give any penalty points, because this is a choice the team makes and not a penalty as such. This means that a team can get a "free" illegal engine change if they decide to start from the pitlane.
  • 1 point for every second in case of a time penalty during or after the race.
  • 10 points for a drive-through penalty.
  • 20 points for a 10-second stop&go penalty (equal to 10 seconds + a drivethrough peanlty)
  • 25 points for a disqualification.

It is possible to get multiple penalties, for example if a driver both gets a 3-place grid penalty and a drive-through penalty, 13 points are subtracted from that driver's score. Note that for the purpose of this manager, a penalty given to a team will be considered to be a penalty given to a chassis.

We will use the results as they are published on the FIA site 24 hours after the finish of the race. Changes to the official result after that time due to appeals for example will not be corrected in our game. Points are subtracted from the session in which the action that resulted in the penalty being given was committed. In case of doubt when or where a penalty should result in points being subtraced, the crew of FoletonF1 tries to make the most sensible decision.

How do I earn new budget?

For each point your team scores, you will be given 13.500 credits.

You will also receive a cash-bonus of 250.000 if one of your drivers is crowned Driver of the Day.

What are clubs?

Clubs are groups of players that like to play the F1Manager together. Inside the clubhouse you can compare each other's scores and you have a club ranking. Club members also contribute to the club score over the weekend, and the clubs have a ranking in a club competition. This will not affect a member's personal scores. A club must be founded and a member must have joined before the deadline of a race to be able to score points that weekend.

Any player can start a club, by selecting the appropriate option from his or her profile page. The founder of a club can decide whether the club is public (anyone can join), or private (only players with the password can join). The founder can also decide to expel misbehaving members from his or her club.

Players can join a club, by selecting the appropriate option from his or her profile page. They can be a member of any number of clubs, and can resign and rejoin a club whenever they like, as long as they've not been expelled from that club. Being expelled is permanent and non-reversable, so you better behave in someone else's club.

Can I discuss scores or news somewhere?

We do not have our own news feature. Autosport.com is the absolute leader when it comes to quick, reliable and high-quality news items, and we do not feel the need to compete. Instead we have a RSS tracker and send you over to their site with pleasure. We will create posts on our home page after the race where you can discuss both the results of this game and the real life news.

What else should I know?

Maybe some rules that will be pretty common sense, but just to be sure:

  • The rules can be adjusted, whenever we feel this is necessary for a balanced, fair and fun game. We will always communicate this cleary, beforehand on the home page.
  • We can cancel the game if we feel that for whatever reason it is impossible to continue.
  • We do stupid things. We try not to, but we're human. Try not to whine about it. If you let us know what we did wrong, we will try to fix it. If we can't, we apologise in advance. But please don't bear a grudge untill the end of times. Really, it's not worth it.
  • We can kick you out. We will not do so lightly, and you will probably deserve it if we do. Be kind to us and other contestants, we'll be kind to you.
  • Do not create a zillion accounts. As a matter of fact, we request you only register once and play with one team. At the beginning of the season you'll have choice of dozens of unique teams. What fun would it be to manage them all? Would you really be proud if you got maximum points with one of them?
  • Crew is not excluded from playing. We like the game as well, so we play as well. We don't cheat. If you have doubts about crewmembers, you can recalculate his/her score yourself. If it's not what it should be, just let us know and we'll be happy to take care of it. Should there be any prizes in the future, the crew will not be eligible for them.
  • We decide what to do if a situation occurs that is not covered by the rules. Probably we will ask for feedback before a final decision is made, but the final decision is made by us, and once we make it we are not likely to change it.
  • You agree to these rules if you want to play the game. If you don't, go play somewhere where they have rules you can live with, or start your own manager.

What if my question is not in this FAQ?

Please contact us. You can use the feedback form for all your questions.