Rules

What you predict

For every round, pick:

• who takes pole position for the Grand Prix, and
• the top five finishers of the Grand Prix, in order.

On Sprint weekends, make the same six picks for the Sprint as well.

Each of the five places needs a different driver. Your pole pick can also be one of your top five. You don’t have to make every pick, but an empty pick scores nothing.

Pole means the driver who tops the final qualifying classification, even if a grid penalty means they start somewhere else.

When picks close

Grand Prix picks close one hour before Qualifying. On a Sprint weekend, Sprint picks close earlier, one hour before Sprint Qualifying, while your Grand Prix picks stay open until theirs close. The round page shows each deadline in your own time zone.

You can change your picks as often as you like until they close; the last picks you saved are the ones that count. Our server’s clock decides: a save that arrives after the deadline is not accepted, even if you pressed the button in time.

If qualifying is moved after picks have closed, they stay closed. Missed a round? You score nothing for it, and you can pick again in the next one.

Points

A pick scores in full when your driver finishes exactly where you picked them. A driver you picked for the top five who finishes in the top five, but in a different place, still scores something.

A perfect Grand Prix is worth 28 points, and a perfect Sprint weekend 56.

Bonus picks

Some rounds have bonus questions from the hosts of The Downshift Podcast, such as “Huppy’s pick: first driver to retire?” or “how many safety cars?”. You answer with a driver, a team or a number, on the same pick board, and they lock with the Grand Prix picks.

Each question says what it’s worth. Some number questions also give fewer points for being close, for example “5 points, 2 if within 1”. No answer scores nothing, and a question that can’t be settled isn’t scored for anyone. Bonus points count on every ladder, like any other points.

Results and corrections

Points are added once a round’s results have been checked and published. Until then, a pick waiting on a result shows as pending, never as zero.

If a session is cancelled or has no result, picks for it are not scored, and it does not count towards the round’s maximum. If a result changes after we’ve scored it, for example after a penalty, we issue a correction and every score and ladder is updated together.

Your picks name a driver, not a seat. If a driver is replaced before picks close, we’ll ask you to choose again. After picks close, your pick stands and scores whatever that driver scores, which is nothing if they don’t race.

Ladders and leagues

One set of picks counts everywhere you appear:

• Global: every player.
• Your country: optional. Choose it once for the season in your account; it counts from the next round that closes after you choose.
• The Downshift Podcast league: you against the podcast’s hosts. Every player is in it.
• The AI league: you against ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude and Perplexity. Before each round we ask each AI for its picks and its answers to the bonus picks, under the same deadline as yours, and score them with the same points. Every player is in it. It counts the rounds the AIs have played.
• Your leagues: private leagues with friends. Rounds count from the next one that closes after you join; earlier rounds are not added.

Players on the same points share a place, and the next place is skipped: two players tied first are both 1st, and the next player is 3rd.