With the first Formula 1 race of 2014 this weekend in Australia and you have until Friday afternoon to register your fantasy F1 team to maximise the (essentially guaranteed) FREE RedSpottedHanky train tickets and your chances to win a variety of Hilton Honors points and prizes.

The Hilton and RSH versions of the game are almost identical – as they are operated by the same third-party outsource provider of fantasy league games.

For those who played last year, there are some subtle differences this year.

Where to find the games:

The Hilton Honors version can be found at:
https://fantasyracing.hiltonhhonors.com/

– Login with your existing Hilton Honors login details.

The Red Spotted Hanky version can be found at:
http://fantasygp.games-redspottedhanky.com/

– The the RSH version you need to register again on the game site. NOTE: You need to use the same email address that you use with your main RSH account to ensure that the points you earn get credited to your account, and this year RSH will be awarding you your points from the game at the end of each quarter of the competition.

Creating your team:

After you register and login, you will be invited to give your team a name and have a choice of whether to set-up the team yourself or have it done automatically – I would suggest doing it yourself.

You can then access your ‘My Team’ page, where you will find that you have a budget of €100m from which need to pay for:

• 4 Drivers
• 2 Constructors (Teams)
• 1 Engine Supplier

NOTE: Your game team sheet must be complete with all 7 components above to earn points. If you have spent too much on some components, you will need to change your selections so that you have all spaces filled within your 100m spending cap.

In the RedSpottedHanky version, you will also have the opportunity to select a free double points circuit (top right in the screenshot above). All points you score in that race will be doubled.

Unlike last year you can only pick one double circuit for the whole season in the RSH version, and also unlike last year the Hilton version now doesn’t have double points circuits at all.

Changes

You can make changes to your team during the season, with 3 transfers possible before each race weekend (to be used on any of the components).

Note: Unlike last year it looks like you will not be able to make changes to your team between qualifying and the race this year.

Scoring Points:

Please see the game websites for full details, but essentially you score points for where your driver qualifies, where they finish, positions they gain or lose in the race, laps completed in the real GP.

For the constructor (team) and the engine manufacturer your score points based upon how their real drivers perform in the real GP, your own driver choices don’t matter for these points.

The Hilton prizes:

The Hilton version offers HHonors points prizes for the top 30 players after each race.

The season is also divided into quads, where each quad winner will get a 3 night any hotel stay, and the overall winner a 5 night any hotel stay.

The RedSpottedHanky prizes:

Now the lucrative bit, RSH will give you 1 loyalty point (1p of loyalty credit) for each point you score in the game, up to £20 maximum. If you join before the start of the season you should be able to easily maximise this out with even a vaguely sensible team.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each quad will win Kindles and iPods. The overall winner will get an iPad air.

Mini-legaues:

Both versions of the game allow you to be a member of up to 10 mini-leagues, if you want to play against friends, family or colleagues.

If you would like to take part, I’ve setup UKpoints.com mini-legues in both competitions:

Hilton mini-league name: ‘UKpoints’, Password: ‘david’
http://fantasyracing.hiltonhhonors.com/league.aspx?page=league&id=11352

RSH mini-league name: ‘UKpoints’, Password: ‘david’
http://fantasygp.games-redspottedhanky.com/league.aspx?page=league&id=10426

I might see if I can find a prize for the winner of the mini league, no guarantees at this stage (and this is a personal blog, so everything is on a non-commerical personal endevours basis). If I can, it would probably be the Hilton version I would use, but you should enter both, even if you are not normally a Hilton person – in the first few races there will be a lot of luck involved as the real teams cope with new regulations and new engine types in 2014.

Finally a third version of the game will shortly be appearing!

Operated by the people who run the league software system for Hilton and RSH, last year this one had a simple overall prize of an iPad: (it is launching very shortly for 2014 I am told)

https://www.profantasyf1.com/

And don’t forget:

If you are collecting RSH loyalty points it is not too late to enter their Fantasy Football competition, but it is a lot harder to win points with this one, as (unlike the F1) you can lose points. Not knowing the first thing about football, I’m only up about £8 I think.