Analyzing community feedback | 2024 F1 Fantasy Community Survey

Over the past several weeks we conducted the inaugural F1 Fantasy Community Survey

More than 600 F1 Fantasy strategists from the broader community came together to complete The Fantasy Formula's player feedback survey. We asked for input on the most impactful changes for 2024, the features and gameplay updates you want in 2025, and so much more. These results are important to so many stakeholders including the fans, the commentators who play along with us, and Formula 1 themselves!

So, hit play on the video and use the notes below to complement our live reactions!

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Before we begin: 'Thank You!' one more time

Over the time that we ran this survey, we had well over 600 responses across the F1 community!

A special thanks to all of you who had a chance to respond to this survey, particularly so late in the season when a lot of players might be disengaged or have other commitments this time of year. Also, a big shout out to our team at FanAmp because this was a very professionally developed and analyzed survey. This was a real community effort with all of the F1 Fantasy content creators. So, a special thanks to everyone listed here, because they really helped us reach each and every one of you. - Adam, Terry, and Rob

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[1:14] Who responded to the 2024 F1 Fantasy Survey?

There were no real surprises!

• A younger audience - generally below the age of 35
• Players were primarily from North America and Europe, led by the United States and United Kingdom
• Generally male respondents

I definitely expect the bulk of the respondents to be in the male demographic, BUT it's on different F1 Fantasy forums. I have noticed in the last year or two, an increase in the number of females engaging with my own accounts on Twitter and YouTube in a really exciting time for gender diversity in F1 Fantasy. When the likes of Laura Winter and Ruth Buscombe Divey are talking about F1 Fantasy on F1TV, it hopefully inspires a few more women to jump on and join us in this conversation. - Rob

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[2:25] How many other fantasy games were played?

It was split roughly 50/50 on only playing F1 Fantasy and playing F1 as well as other fantasy games. This could be due to the popularity of fantasy sports in the U.S. as opposed to other countries.

• 53% played ONLY F1 Fantasy - Terry falls in this bucket
• 46% play other fantasy games - Rob and Adam fall in this bucket
• 1% do not play at all

In the UK we've obviously got football or soccer, but looking back to the statistic of F1 Fantasy being played more in the U.S. - It's probably representative of that as well with Fantasy Football [NFL] bigger in the States than the U.K. -Terry

I play Fantasy Premier League. I've doubled in Fantasy Football in the U.S. and other variations of fantasy games as well. I do see in F1 Fantasy, a lot of similarities in terms of the user interface and the gameplay that overlap with Fantasy Premier League specifically. I know there's a big contingent of F1 Fantasy players that also dabble in FPL. - Rob

This question is so important because it will give context to what some of the best fantasy games in the sports industry are and what best practices can be translated and adopted for Formula 1.

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[4:26] How long have respondents been playing F1 Fantasy? How active are they?

Many respondents have played F1 Fantasy for more than a year - seeing different iterations of the game. This will impact feedback as the game changed drastically from 2022 and the seasons prior. However, there isn't necessarily a correlation between time playing and success with rankings.

• 48% have played F1 Fantasy through multiple gameplay changes
• Prior iterations of the game included some gameplay nuances that will come up later. E.g.,:
  • Streaks for qualifying or finishing a Grand Prix in the top 10
  • Points for beating a teammate (e.g. Carlos beating Charles)
  • Different scoring and price change algorithms

This segment of players who have played since at least 2022 have likely responded to the survey differently than newer players.

I think it was a completely different game during the PlayOn days of 2020, 2021, 2022. I joined in 2021 and took it more seriously from '22 onwards, and I think it's a very different game now. It's evolved in ways that many of us probably wouldn't have foreseen three, four years ago. - Rob

• 94% of respondents were in the top 100K (top <5%) of players

This makes sense because people who filled out this survey follow and engage with fantasy experts like the Fantasy Formula, regularly.

When Terry posed the question of whether tenure correlates with rank:

I can see it from two perspectives. I've played with some friends who have played this game for multiple years, but they've never taken it seriously. They show up once a month, change their team a little bit, and then they disappear for a while. Meanwhile, we've talked to some of the most successful players in the game that started last year, some even this year.
-Adam

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[7:13] Why do people play F1 Fantasy?

First and foremost, people opt to play F1 Fantasy to compete with their friends. 57% of respondents said this was their main motivation.

While competing with friends is clearly important, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the main motivation once their in the game. One possible opportunity for F1 is expanding prizes so people feel the need to check back in every week rather than just setting a team and forgetting about it.

The 57 percent for me was why I was introduced to the game in 2021. I think since that time, my point of view has certainly changed. I think part of that is due to the fact that all three of us have our own platforms to converse with other fans and members of the fantasy community. There's still an element of competitiveness that exists with you guys, other content creators and friends of mine as well. - Rob

As we've heard from the guests we've had on over the season. A lot of the conversation has been about that, rather than actually how many points you've got, what ranking you've got - it's been where you place against the people you're playing with. -Terry

There is a HUGE area of opportunity with prizes. They are presently so limited such that you need to be in the top few positions to win something. This is changing, however, with the introduction of more prizes for mini leagues, but there is more work to do including making those prizes more predictable.

I think that's also part of why engagement drops off after the first two months or so. If you're not in the running for Paddock Passes, there's only three prizes globally. What's holding you onto the game? If it's to talk trash with your friends, then that'll keep you going for longer. If you only care about the prize, that could lead to some of the drop off we've seen later in the season. -Adam

The team suggests that there should be more avenues for prizes. F1 can outfit a lot of different scenarios and cheaper things, too. It doesn't have to be as expensive as a Paddock Pass, but just some way to acknowledge and recognize some of the top performers.

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[10:30] What were the most important things changed or added to F1 Fantasy this year?

Implementing live scoring and changing the No Negative chip were the most improved elements of the game. Navigating the F1 Fantasy platform is still difficult and an area for improvement BUT pinning leagues has certainly been a good first step.

• The number 1 response was provisional points

Closing that gap between the end of a Grand Prix and knowing how your fantasy team did is so important, but I still think this is an area that has some room to grow. -Adam

I think provisional points and the projected points which were introduced later in the season has certainly gone above and beyond what I was expecting from live scoring. It's going to be somewhat hard to calculate overtakes accurately, but I think even directionally to have an estimate of those, and then give them the flexibility to adjust for live points and such after the weekend wraps up is a great thing. -Rob

• F1 Fantasy can be difficult to navigate and pinning leagues is a great first step to improvement

I dabbled with it last year, I didn't really notice the changes because I put my team in and left it for the whole year to come back to it for the last three races last year. I think, for me, anything that helps you navigate around that home screen is a bonus because at times it was hard to navigate when I first went on it. It was really confusing to see what league I was looking at, where to find my global rank, etc... -Terry

In general, anything that allows players to load F1 Fantasy and immediately see their league, ranking, stats, etc... is a useful change.

I think so many people voted that as a positive change because the UI locating your leagues is so difficult without it. Rob and I have spent most of the year coaching people into going to leagues, then starter leagues, and then global is the first thing you see there. It takes a few steps, and even with the pinned leagues - they're not the default view. So I think there are still a few ways they can make the user experience around finding your league rank is a little bit easier - especially for those of us that are in so many. -Adam

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[13:05] What 2024 changes or additions need improvement?

The new Head to Head (H2H) feature was cool to see but fell short because of the lack of variety. There was little incentive to return when you were paired against the same person each week.

Rob and I were in a Head to Head league. When I think back to my experience in Fantasy NFL - I'm in a head to head league - we have 12 guys in the league and then we rotate every week. We play a different person and there's a win or a loss. Whereas in this, it's just two people in a league of only two people for the whole year, and it didn't feel like a different gameplay other than that. -Adam

As soon as you and I started up a Head to Head league, I knew there was a lot that was still to be desired of what the potential for that particular battle mode was - you could use any other fantasy sports where there's a head to head element to compare. You face a different opponent in a league of 10+ participants, and you get points for winning, for drawing, and none for losing. I do think having that flexibility or variety to battle or match up against different teams and different people every week does encourage some of those folks that naturally come from a fantasy football in the U S or a fantasy football in the UK to join. - Rob

It's all about the bragging rights here! There's an element of this that's missing from the Head to Head as it stands, but could be improved!

We are very excited to that The Fantasy Formula was one of the Featured Leagues, but we'd love to see more functionality to engage with our leaderboard all season (and we think other leagues would agree).

When I think of our own Featured League, as grateful as I am that we had such an opportunity, I would have loved to have given out prizes specific to our league. If we could have given one for The Fantasy Formula League, I think that could have been a real value add. -Adam

I think given ours is one of the biggest, maybe having a rivalry - you, Terry, or I go up against one of the fantasy strategists from one of the other featured leagues, for bragging rights is another idea. That would promote and hype the game a lot more and maybe put a few more eyeballs on that rivalry and those kind of branding opportunities that, that F1 are obviously moving towards. - Rob

I think for me, you have more of an opportunity to maybe create some competition with leagues - going back to what you're saying about the head to head leagues. Is there something within our own league where actually we can do something a little bit different, to enhance things. "Join our league because we are different". They're great for exposure - getting your name out there. It's how do we make that exciting so that people want to join up again next year! - Terry

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[17:10] What are the most requested features and improvements for F1 Fantasy in 2025?

Scoring speed is being addressed and that's excellent! The focus should now turn to the user interface and player experience. For example, navigating the app is difficult. There are also bugs, and player support needs improvement in terms of speed and transparency.

Logan Sargeant and other seat changes such as Daniel Ricciardo post-Singapore and Ollie Bearman stepping in showed real issues with the communication between the F1 Fantasy support team and players.

There were no real comms or dedicated F1 Fantasy support regarding drivers when deactivated from the game. Logan Sargent, obviously, drew the most attention because of how affordable he was in the game. There's also the likes of Riccardo when he left after Singapore, Ollie Bearman going from Ferrari in Saudi Arabia and to Haas. I do think there isn't really a clear idea of what that means for these deactivated drivers and their price changes, their scores for the weekend, and how that affects their season total and their points. I think F1 Fantasy needs to find a way to figure out, that it penalizes people for owning these drivers without obviously affecting their total season score. There wasn't really a clear framework in place for that and it created a lot of problems throughout the season that, the three of us and others had to act as the conduit for F1 as a result of what our best guess was. - Rob and Adam

The F1Help account is light on natural support for fantasy issues. Many creators had to step in as conduits of information based on best guesses.

• Locating your team and bugs related to gameplay

There were many times throughout the season where players would log in and teams appeared to be completely blank - with no real solution to this bug. I wonder how many people who may have been new to the game didn't bother after an incident like that to log back in. It happened to me three or four times. It's so frustrating, as a 'newish' player, I thought I was doing something wrong. Also with not being able to lock in your team on certain devices - I heard it was very painful especially to new players of the game. - Terry

Luckily, we have The F1 Fantasy Formula community - so if you ever need guides or other support we're here to help!

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[20:58] What F1 Fantasy gameplay changes are most requested for next season?

Focus gameplay changes for next season on rewarding skill by optimizing scoring and pricing. The suggested changes include reducing Driver of the Day, decreasing penalties for DNQ/DSQ, introducing streaks, and pricing transparency.

• DNF and DSQ penalties are too severe

The last two seasons, they've been at minus 20 as a result of various changes to the scoring metrics. Before that, I understand, it was a minus 10 and those massive swings can be absolutely detrimental to your drivers, to your constructors, and to your weekend score. As a result of that, your rank for the weekend. It has just been one of those years where it's been a pretty rough fantasy season on all accounts for me. I do wonder if the scores or the penalties weren't quite as swingy, what that could have looked like for my strategy, my team structure heading into the back half of the year. -Rob

Particularly for those owners that were affected more by DNFs and disqualifications. I think back to some of these Sprints where all the points for finishing P1 through P8 are scaled down, but the DNF penalty is still minus 20. Minus 20 is more negative points than finishing P2 in a race is positive points. It's not instituted in a 'fair way'. -Adam

I think a sprint race should carry less than a normal race as a given because it's different distances.... therefore, different way it's done in terms of the score. Ultimately, do you make them actually separate? So a disqualification carries more weight than the DNF because the disqualification is something a team's done or driver's done that's got them disqualified. Whereas a DNF is normally something mechanical or impact. - Terry

All in all, it seems that for DNF and DSQ points there should be a weighted system that is implemented for many scenarios to make gameplay better and not as detrimental for one bad call out of even the driver's hands.

Bringing back point streaks for selecting certain drivers or teams was another hot topic:

A lot of folks, particularly with that history in the game, want to bring back streaks. For anyone who wasn't around at the time of streaks, if your driver completes five straight qualifying sessions or five straight Grand Prix in the top 10, there was a streak bonus. So you'd have a lot of these top 10 drivers that might not have been invoked this year, like Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Carlos Sainz - all of a sudden become high powered assets that you want to bring into your team. This makes your transfer decisions harder (in a good way) instead of just subbing out with your back markers. -Adam

Streaks, points for beating teammates as well. You're inclined to pick the better of the two drivers on a team, and it creates a bit more variation week to week and ultimately does incentivize those people who are active in paying attention to these every week, the opportunity to capitalize on those extra points. - Rob

It was also mentioned that the pricing model needs more transparency so players can better strategize.

I've thought about the wider player population here. There's only about 1 percent of us that know how the scoring model works through the work that F1 FantasyTools did and some of the articles we've published. Imagine the rest of the players figuring out there is a prescribed way of how price changes work, and only a few of us know about it and the rest of you don't. It's weird that it's not more public than just the niche few of us that have figured it out. -Adam

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[26:47] What other fantasy games did people play?

EPL and NFL were most popular, with MotoGP having some representation.

Mostly EPL and NFL, like Rob and I talked about earlier. There's definitely a core group that plays GridRival, which is another popular F1 Fantasy game, although it's an unofficial one. There are a few people that play MotoGP fantasy who tell me that it's quite fun as well. -Adam

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[27:44] Final thoughts from the 2024 F1 Fantasy Community Survey

Feedback was thematically in line with what we expected. I think it's just nice to have a larger contingent of folks also provide a point of view on things that are pain points for them and things that they like about the game. F1 can take this feedback on board in the off season and implement some positive changes in the right direction for 2025. - Rob

I'm really pleased because these are a lot of the frustrations people have been reaching out over the course of the year. So it's great that people have found a platform to reach out over the course of the year with all the platforms we're obviously now on as well as doing the show. This is a really good idea of what everyone can do to move forward in the positive direction. It's a really good representation of some really common things that could be easily fixed to make the game even better going forward. - Terry

We'll see what changes are put into place for 2025, and we'll be back to preview everything as soon as the game drops in February. -Adam

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That's all for now. Thank you all so very much for watching and reading all season long! We hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season, and Rob, Terry, and I will be back to guide you to fantasy success in 2025.