The 2018 Silly Season

It’s that time of the season that some team bosses really look forward to, the silly season. It’s been in place for many seasons now with the format remaining broadly similar since the FF1M phoenix rose in 2012, and it has also appeared in pre-season Classic FF1M in a truncated form, but how does the silly season work?

The Contract Renewal Phase

Before the silly season begins, there is a period where team bosses have the opportunity to renew driver contacts for the following season. For 2018, this began just after the Austrian Grand Prix, round eight, and teams can request a brief statement from their race drivers as to how they feel about staying with them for the following season.

Four races later, nine of the 22 seats have been confirmed with Gojira, Willows, and Shake ‘n’ Bake all filling both seats with unchanged line-ups with the exception of Willows, who decided to promote FF2M champion contender Daisuke Sekiya to a full-time FF1M race seat in the place of Max Verstappen. The Dutchman will therefore be hot property when all teams head to the auction room to place their bids.

Another driver who will be highly sought after is Kevin Magnussen. The Dane has spent his entire FF1M career so far with FJR and has amassed a total of five wins and finished runner-up in the 2016 championship, but with each passing season comes increased salary demands and the additional complication of FJR being a manufacturer team means that they haven’t been able to renew Magnussen’s contract for 2019 and he will therefore be available for the silly season. FJR may yet be able to successfully resign him for a sixth season during the bidding phase, but it is an unlikely prospect.

The three other drivers who have confirmed seats are Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon, and George Russell, all of whom are 2018 rookie drivers who have resigned for their teams as their salary demands were relatively modest and therefore easier to retain.

The Bidding Phase

The bidding phase is essentially a silent auction where teams privately message the AFIA to inform them which driver they bidding for and how much for. A roster of available drivers is posted to all teams taking part with drivers and their minimum amounts displayed. A driver’s salary would naturally increase the more successful their careers have been, so expect world champions Vaino Kimminen and Sebastian Vettel to be expensive, while the likes of Mason Taylor and Antonio Giovinazzi won’t be asking for too much.

Teams can bid for the minimum amount, but higher bids give them a better chance of signing their preferred driver. If teams place identical bids for a driver the team highest in the teams championship at the time will prevail.

There are usually more than two bidding phases due to teams only being able to bid for one driver at a time. The first bidding phase typically lasts around five days, plenty of time for teams to get their bids in, and then one by one, a news story is published confirming the driver’s choice. The following bidding phases are usually reduced by a day where the process is repeated until all seats are filled in.

2019 will see fewer seats available due to the team limit being reduced from 13 to 11, so at least four drivers from the current line-up will miss out on a drive, and with 13 seats remaining, we could be seeing a few very surprising drivers being left out.