The First Bleacher F1 Championship

Welcome to the first Bleacher Report F1 world championship. This is a virtual Formula 1 driver game (based on this season) where we all compete against each other as drivers, as well as working as a team with another driver.

For each race weekend, you will have to set up your car and test it in practice; set your qualifying and race tactics; and then see how the drama unfolds. This game only requires 10-15 minutes of your time every day.

It’s easy to pick up and learn the tricks of the trade and it’s a good laugh. It’s a good opportunity for us all become closer as a group and have some fun and competitive spirit.

All you have to do is register at www.batracer.com and then simply follow the instructions below to join the private game that I have set up for us. This game will involve Bleacher creatures and readers of the site only.

If you are not registered, then still feel free to join and introduce yourselves. We can play the game with 10 players but it’s much better if we have a full grid of 22 drivers so this is what we will aim for.

Please look at the joining instructions below. You have to register first before you follow these instructions. The registration progress only takes a few minutes.

Players will need to be registered and logged in before they can enter the private game. When logged in, clicking the following URL will take you to the join game page:

http://batracer.com/-cj?&D&30821

Alternatively, you can select "private games" from the menu and enter the number "30821" into the box. The game password is "coulthard". Take care not to accidentally join a public game by mistake.

As you join the game you need to choose two driver characteristics that you will be strong in. These include pole sitter king, wet weather king, rule bender, consistent, thinker along with a few others. Choose these wisely.

Once you have joined, it’s time to start setting up your car. You have around 11 different parts to setup, including wings, suspension, ride height gearing, etc. Your challenge is to get your setup as spot-on as possible so that your car is the quickest it can be.

Use the Engineer’s advice as a starting point and as you do runs in practice, you should narrow down what the spot-on figures are for each parameter. You need to share info with your teammate to get the most out of your car and have the perfect setup.

Once setup runs are over, you have to adjust your tactics for qualifying. When are you going to go out, how hard will you push on each run? How risky do you want to be?

After qualifying you have more runs to setup your car ready for the race. Then you need to set your race tactics. What tyre will you start on? When will you make your pit stops? Don’t pit on the same lap as your teammate!!

This may all sound a bit complicated at first but trust me, it’s easy and great fun. When you have joined the game, have a good look around at the drop-down menus at the top of the page and have a look through at everything in your racing office. Over the first few races you may make a few errors, but you will soon get to grips with things.

Some say I may have a big advantage in this game because I have batracer experience. Well it will help to some degree, but there is a luck element to this game and I have never won a batracer championship in my life. I have only a handful of race wins to my name.

The advantage won’t last long. I am sure we will see lots or racing talent here at Bleacher (well, virtual racing talent anyway).

Another question I hear is, does the team you enter make a difference? Well, not as much as in real life F1. The McLarens and Ferraris will be a bit easier to get wins in, but I have been in championships where players have won in backmarker cars.

We can all chat to each other as we play and of course you can chat to your team mate privately which is vital to you and your team’s success. There is the drivers championship, but of course the constructor’s championship too.

No race weekends will start until the grid is either full or I opt to start the game. The first competitive session (Melbourne qualifying) will take place 12 hours after the game has started. The race will then take place 24 hours later.

Basically, it’s one competitive session a day at the same time. Qualifying one day, race the next day then the same all the way through till the end.

Feel free to ask me questions on this article or in the game domain itself.

Please give this arcticle as many STARS as possible so the championship gets as much exposure and promotion as possible and that we can have a full grid.

I hope that once this first championship ends we can keep on having championship after championship.

Will a bleacher ever make it to 7 world titles?

How many bleachers will win races in their debut season?

Ben Auty is the F1 community leader here, but will he be the leader of our championship?

Don’t be shy and take part in the championships to find out. I promise you will enjoy it. Please have a go.

Remember the password is coulthard.