Here are SofaF1 we like to be the last of the late breakers, with practically only a day to go I realised that a) I haven’t launched the new Pole Poll and b) I haven’t worked out a way to do a second year in the new SofaF1 Pole Poll dragy-droppy-super-selector™ oh and c) I’m not well at the moment. Will it be ready for this beginning of the season? I’m writing this bit before I know… Exciting stuff. I’m writing this instead of doing the coding I need to do.

So will this turn out to be a late breaking incident like the one where Vettel took out Webber and put a dent his team-mate’s car and his own reputation or where Lewis and Jenson zigged and zagged corner after corner with some inspirational driving?

[Cut to later]

It’s ready!!! So maybe I’m more like McLaren than Red Bull nice driving but too polite to win?

So anyway by this point you probably want to stop reading my waffling and get on with taking part. So what do you have to do?

What do you have to do if you want to take part?
For each race, before qualifying starts you have to predict who will be on pole and also the top 10 finishers in the race.

You get 2 points if you get the pole sitter correct. You get 4 points for getting the winner right and you get 2 points for each of the other places you get correct.

Also, if you have a ‘near miss’ eg. the person who you predicted to win comes second, or fifth comes fourth, you get 1 point.

But there is one extra factor.

Before qualifying starts in Bahrain Australia this weekend you need to also predict the top ten finishers in the whole season and who will have the most polls. This works in the same way as though the season was a race except you get double points, rather like ‘playing your joker’. As these points are added at the end of the season, this can become the crucial swing factor in the year.

Also before the season starts we want you to pick a MAIDEN winner (i.e. someone who has never won a F1 race before). If the driver you choose wins a race at any time during this season, you will get a 4 point bonus applied immediately to your score. You can of course say “nobody” if you expect that there will be no maiden winners; in this case, you would get the points at the end of the season, if that proves to be the case.

So to enter you need to give your season predictions here: http://aaserver.co.uk/widgets/poll2011.cgi?race=20

And your race predictions here: http://aaserver.co.uk/widgets/poll2011.cgi?race=21

Good luck!