Here's what's new for the 2023 F1 Losers League.
These are just the year-on-year changes for contestants already familiar with the League. To see all of the rules and systems, go to the How It Works and the Track Points pages.
NEWS & RESULTS
Each time we publish results, we tend to produce four reports on this website: Track Points, Losers team commentary, a full data page, and a page with the latest standings.
This year, we will add to this: a fifth post dedicated to that race's Forecasts and Punts. It'll make the Losers team commentary more focussed on the teams themselves.
The Podium of Shame will have slightly different 'rewards': three teams will get Ejected, as opposed to a mish-mash of Ejectors, Forecasts and Punts.
YOUR TEAM
We'll make some minor tweaks to your personal team pages, partly to make things clearer, and partly to make the pages quicker for us to update
The raceday special Track Points element is replaced by the unlucky dip Track Points element. It's now way more chaotic.
Beige Flags have halved in value and are now worth 5 points each. Like Russians meddling in the US election, they had too much influence. That said, we'll try to reach most of last year's point levels, with more flags distributed across more drivers and constructors.
Losers teams now get one Ejector Seat for every race. They'll be launched after the first race of the season, so that means a potential 23 changes throughout the year.
Bribes are gone. They are replaced with an Ejector Bonus, which is skewed towards helping Losers teams climb up the standings.
There will be more automatic Ejector Seats in 2023. Your team line-up is not safe.
Boosts now last for three races. Rather than automatically trigger Buttons throughout the season, we're now going to wait until the end of the season to press unused Boost Buttons. This means there will be loads of teams on six-times Track Points in the last three races!
Boost Bribes are gone.
Punts are now limited to three per race. That means no more than three new bets between each grand prix. Choose carefully.
In 2022, Punts accounted for 10% of all points earned, compared to 3% for Forecasts. Too much. We're reigning them in again. The risks will be higher and the rewards will be lower.
Automatic Pitlane Punts are gone, as are Bribes.
FAST FORECASTS
We've overhauled Forecasts. The Grid Position, Opening Lap and Race Result Forecasts are replaced by the Last on Grid, Lost on Lap One and Last in Race Forecasts. Tweaked parameters and clumsier names, but truer to the spirit of loserdom.
Point rewards are lower for Forecasts, but now you lose nothing if you make an incorrect guess.
Automatic Fast Forecasts are gone, as are Bribes.
LOOKING BACK TO 2022
Here is a summary of the changes we made between 2021 and 2022, just for the record.
We introduced Track Points, replacing the previous season's Race Points. This worked well, and the system survives into 2023.
We ditched the minus-25 point penalty for race wins. This remains in the bin: it ruins any possibility of creating meaningful season stats.
Beige Flags became more focussed on non-racetrack activity. This works because it's not duplicating fails rewarded by other Track Point elements.
Punts and Forecasts were slashed in points rewards. We've done the same again in 2023, but to a less radical extent.
The Qualifying Forecast became a Grid Position Forecast, and the Biggest Drop points element was adjusted too.
There were some deadline tweaks. These remain in place in 2023.
We introduced Bribes, which were complicated and annoying, so didn't last more than one year.
