So, I got this idea a while back, thought it’d be cool to run a little prediction game for the F1 season with some friends. You know, like a ‘toto’ pool. Just for fun, bragging rights mostly.
First off, I poked around online. Figured there must be an app or a website ready-made for this. Found a few options, yeah, but honestly, they were kind of a mess. Some looked way too serious, wanted sign-ups, personal details, or even cash. Others were just buggy or hard to figure out. Didn’t really like any of them, felt too corporate or just clumsy.
So, I thought, alright, how hard can it be? Let’s just DIY it. My first plan was super simple: just use a basic spreadsheet. Like Excel or Google Sheets. Made columns for each race weekend, driver names, spots for predictions – you know, who’d finish P1, P2, P3, maybe fastest lap, that kind of thing.
Getting it Rolling (and the headaches)
Making the sheet was easy enough. The hard part? Getting everyone else on board and keeping it updated. Here’s what turned into a bit of a pain:
- Chasing People: Man, getting everyone to send in their predictions before the deadline? Nightmare. People forget, send them late, text them to me randomly. I was spending more time nagging than enjoying the F1 buildup.
- Scoring: After each race, I had to sit down, check the official results – who finished where, who got the fastest lap point, did pole sitter convert? Then manually compare all that against everyone’s predictions and calculate the points. Took way longer than I expected.
- Keeping Track: Updating the overall league table after each race. Someone would always message asking “Did you add my points right?”. Double-checking everything constantly.
Trying to Make it Easier
Okay, the manual spreadsheet thing was getting old fast. So, I moved it to a shared Google Sheet. That helped a bit, people could technically see it anytime. I even tried adding some basic formulas to automate the scoring slightly. Used stuff like SUMIF and VLOOKUP to tally points once I punched in the actual race results. Still needed me to input those results manually, though.
We also got stricter with deadlines using our group chat. Put reminders out. Helped a little, but you always have those one or two latecomers.
What I Figured Out
Running even a simple prediction game like this is more work than you’d think. It’s not rocket science, but it’s fiddly admin stuff. Chasing people, checking results, updating scores – it eats up time.
Automation is key, but building something truly automated needs more than just basic spreadsheet skills. You’d probably need some coding or a dedicated platform, and I wasn’t about to learn Python just for a casual F1 pool.
Honestly, the best part was always the banter and discussion in the group chat before and after the races. The actual points table sometimes felt secondary.
So now? We still kind of do it, but it’s way more relaxed. Sometimes we just predict the winner in the chat, no complex points. Less admin for me, still keeps the F1 chat lively. Maybe that’s the best way – keep it simple and focus on the fun part, not the bookkeeping.
