Following the introduction of F1 power predictions, this post explains how the reader should interpret the information provided on power.f1-predictor.com. As a reminder of the legal disclaimer, the website exists for entertainment purposes only and does not provide sports betting tips. Betting is discouraged.

As mentioned in the introductory post, the focus of the power predictions dashboard is on highlighting certain predictions for the upcoming race before the qualifying and the practice sessions have been completed and showcasing their historical accuracy. For each race and confidence level, up to two predictions will be provided. Currently, all predictions refer to whether a driver will finish in the top 3, 6 or 10 positions. Other types of predictions may be added at a later point.

Upcoming race – power predictions table

The table above shows some example power predictions for a given race. It shows three confidence levels/strategies, each having different predictions and characteristics. The table shows that according to the very high confidence level prediction (strategy 1), Verstappen will end up in the top 10 places with 97.2% probability. Similarly, the high confidence level prediction (strategy 2) shows that Ocon will finish in a point-scoring position with 82.4% chance while strategy 3 suggests that the probability of Kvyat finishing in the top 10 positions is 73.6%. Once that race is completed, the same predictions will be moved to the historical power predictions along with the actual results. The goal is to provide total transparency over the historical performance of the power predictions.

Upcoming race – historical performance per strategy

This section shows how the historical power predictions would have performed assuming certain betting odds. The three confidence levels (i.e. strategies) of power predictions were selected because they have different performance characteristics.

As seen in the hypothetical image above, the very high confidence predictions (strategy 1) would have provided a positive average yield (i.e. average amount of return for each unit invested) which is lower compared to the other two cases. Medium confidence (strategy 3) would have provided the highest yield among the given predictions. Partially, this happens due to suggesting higher odds events, i.e. more improbable events, as seen in the ‘median odds’ chart. The yield above assumes all bets equal a single unit of money and remain constant across races.

While very high confidence predictions (strategy 1) would have offered a lower yield, they had the highest hit rate, i.e. the percentage of races where they were accurate. This means that very high confidence predictions have been right more often but with a lower return. In contrast, medium confidence predictions (strategy 3) have been right less often but with higher returns. The same thing is also shown on the ‘gain deviation’ chart which shows the standard deviation of the net gain or loss across the historical races. This again confirms that the very high confidence predictions would have the smaller deviation (which is better) while high confidence and medium confidence would have a higher deviation.

Historical power predictions

In our effort for maximum transparency over the historical performance of our power predictions, we are providing the full list of historical predictions along with the actual betting odds and the result.

As shown in the screenshot above, the table is filterable. The screenshot shows that the high confidence prediction (strategy 2) had suggested Ricciardo to finish in the top 10 positions in the 2020 Russian GP with 80.9% probability. Ricciardo did finish 5th and this meant that the net gain in that case would be 0.35, assuming a bet of a single unit of money. The bet percentage column shows how this single unit of money was split between the predictions of that row (if more than one).

The plots on the lower part of the dashboard are meant to visualize various aspects of the predictions across the seasons in which power predictions were provided. Certain races may be missing entirely because F1-predictor did not have the historical betting odds available for those races.

Feel free to come back with suggestions, feedback and comments. As always betting is discouraged!