Formula 1 2023 – Grand Prix Weekend

Which Grand Prix weekend is coming up next?

The cards are set up for the last race of the 2023 season, the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2023, which will be run at Yas Marina on 24th -26th November. The F2 season also ends (after a lengthy gap) and although the Formula 1 championships are long since decided, in Formula 2 it’s all still to play for.

Formula 1 will be back for pre season testing in late February 2024 followed by the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday March 2nd and Jeddah on March 9th; both these races are being run on a Saturday to avoid the start of Ramadan on March 10th.  See you then!

What’s on the bingo card?

The items on the bingo card get refreshed for each Grand Prix weekend and are a mixture of non track specific events, track specific events and topical references, sometimes with a few “you choose” events thrown in.

Let’s face it, Abu Dhabi is usually a snorefest even with the track changes that were made last year so we can expect the commentary to go off topic many times.  Score for any mention of the F2 championship fight, next year’s race calendar or of Abu Dhabi 2021 (the year when it wasn’t a snorefest for all the wrong reasons), as well as for any discussion of the WCC 2nd place fight between Ferrari and Mercedes.  And don’t forget to watch out for doughnuts after the race finishes.

Non track specific events

These are things that could happen anywhere – we swap them in and out to keep things fresh.

• Russell says Crikey or Blimey on radio
• Driver complains about tyres or grip
• Driver complains about strategy 
• Driver complains about rival’s driving
• Pit stop goes wrong
• VSC
• Qualy red or yellow ruins laps
• Grid penalty
• Time penalty
• Rain affects at least one session – i.e. wets/inters used at some point.  Included if rain forecasted.
• Plan B – you may hear this on team radio when they are having a coded discussion of strategy options.

Track specific events

These are things that can only happen at one track or at a certain type of track (night races, street races).  For example:

• Under the lights – night races only
• In the gravel or in the barrier – depends on runoff areas
• Race restarted (SC/Red Flag) more than once – for tracks with a history of it
• Track limits – for tracks like the Red Bull Ring where there’s lots of previous
• Fake marina (Miami)
• Imola Cat
• Something happens in the tunnel (Monaco)
• Winner hasn’t won F1 or F2 at (insert name of track) before
• Hamilton Straight (Silverstone)
• Eau Rouge (Spa)
• Banking (Zandvoort)
• 130R (Suzuka)
• Stadium section (Mexico)

Feel free to make up your own!

Sprint events

These are things that are only useable for a Sprint weekend.  There are SIX of these in 2023, the first being at Baku at the end of April. Last year’s Sprint specials were:

• Sprint race – it’s a Sprint not a Race – but someone’s bound to slip up and call it a race in the commentary
• Driver loses 5+ grid slots in sprint – a mistake, a penalty, a bad start or simply putting the car where it shouldn’t be in qualy means the driver starts the grand prix 5 or more grid slots lower than the sprint
• Driver gains 5+ grid slots in sprint – Hamilton did 15 in Brazil in 2021 so this should be easy enough for someone
• No retirements in sprint – can everyone last even that short distance with no crashes or mechanical failures?
• Driver a lap down in sprint – this nearly happened at the Red Bull Ring last year (and again this year)
• Sprint and grand prix have different winners

As the Sprint format has now been changed to have its own qualifying session instead of determining the grid for the Grand Prix, some of these items will end up being quite different this year!

Topical references

These are things that could happen or be mentioned in the commentary that are related to current talking points in F1.  For example:

• Anything to do with how a driver performs at their home race
• Anything to do with a driver’s recent performance (e.g. Russell’s streak of top 5 finishes in the early part of 2022)

We expect 2023 to throw up many more talking points!

You choose

“You choose” was first introduced for the 2022 race in Monaco (home of one of the world’s most famous casinos) and the idea is you have some items with two alternatives and choose which of them to cross out.  The crossing out can be done before you generate the cards (so everyone who gets the item gets the same version of it), or the players can do it before the start of qualy (in which case you might get different versions). “You choose” items are usually but not always topical or track specific.  For example:

• Charles Leclerc does/doesn’t finish race (Monaco)
• Heroics into Ste Devote / No heroics into Ste Devote (Monaco)
• No DNFs / 5 or more DNFs (Baku)
• British driver on podium / No British driver on podium (Silverstone)
• Both French drivers score points / Neither French driver scores points (France)
• Russell’s streak continues/ends – Russell was top 5 in every race he finished in 2022 until it all went wrong in Singapore
• Verstappen wins/doesn’t win – introduced for his home race Zandvoort but could be anywhere

“You choose” items don’t appear every weekend, only when there’s something suitably topical to include. And of course, we’ll have them for Monaco and Las Vegas!

How To Play Grand Prix Weekend Bingo

The Formula 1 2023 Grand Prix Weekend bingo cards have been set to a 3×3 grid size with 9 items to mark off which we think is plenty for a single Grand Prix weekend (the Formula One 2023 Season bingo cards, which are meant to be played over several months, are bigger at 5×5).

• Tap to start
• Now, you have the opportunity to change the background and colours, add some items of your own to the list of events and/or remove any of ours you don’t like. We update the items on the cards for the current race weekend a couple of days before it starts – if you want to generate cards further in advance than that you’ll need to edit the list of items to remove anything unsuitable (e.g. under the lights if it’s not a night race, in the gravel if it’s a street race, anything related to Sprint if it’s not a Sprint weekend, stuff related to qualy if you’re only planning to watch the race itself).
• If the list has any “you choose” items you can delete the alternatives you don’t like at this stage (or replace with regular items if you don’t like “you choose”)
• Press Generate Bingo Cards.
• Choose the number of cards you’d like to print and press Generate Printable Cards.
• You’ll be taken to a page of cards, all different from each other and unique to you
• Print from your browser (adjusting the scaling via the printer settings if necessary) or save the URL for printing later
• Don’t want printed cards? Invite through email.  Each person you invite will receive a link to their very own bingo card, and you’ll get your own card too. (We don’t keep their email addresses).
• If there are any “you choose” items on your card that weren’t edited earlier on, cross out the alternative you don’t like before the start of qualy.

Once you’ve got your cards, daub the events as they happen, are mentioned in the commentary or shown on screen over the race weekend.   If you’re playing online, you can mark your card by touching or clicking on the grid square.  If you mark a square during qualy (or the sprint) it will still be marked when you return for the Grand Prix.

The winner is the first to complete a line but as this has been known to happen before the Grand Prix itself even starts you will probably want to play on to see who completes the most lines or gets full house.

PRO TIP – Print out more cards then you need so you can pick one with something you think is extremely likely to happen in the centre square (swearing on radio and driver complains items are usually pretty safe bets).  That will give you an especially good chance of completing at least one line!

Want to play solo? – Set the grid size to 4×4 and print just one card with all 16 items on it!