F1 Fantasy Race 4: Papaya Paradise
Keven’s Cope and Delusion (Current Race: 223 / 1st, Overall: 1017 / 1st)
An awful weekend for the entire Baddy League when I top scored with 223 points, even through absorbing a Hulkenberg (-29) and Lawson (-12) DNF. To put it into perspective, Jason scored 402 points last sprint weekend in China, and I was 179 points short of that this sprint weekend.
Mercedes (104) alternative McLaren (110) are so back. If you can afford a core of Antonelli, McLaren and Ferrari, I would recommend hopping on board before the Canadian Grand Prix.
Clark’s Team (Current Race: 213 / 2nd, Overall: 844 / 4th)
Clark gets the second best score of the weekend with 213 points, all because he only had one negative score on the team, being Lindblad (-4).
The four A Tier teams are clearly showing their worth in Miami as the prime candidates for P1 to P8, with Alpine rounding out the top 10. If you're not able to get two A tier constructors soon, it'll only be more hurt for every race that goes by.
There may be a judgment call to full send it and get Bottas at $3.9m to afford two A tier constructors, with Ferrari being one of them because they're $4.4m cheaper than the next cheapest constructor at $28.9m.
For what it's worth, the price floor is $3.0m, so Bottas only has room to go down $0.9m more.
Brendan’s B-Team is the A-Team (Current Race: 191/ 3rd, Overall: 791 / 6th)
Brendan was the last one to have a somewhat salvageable weekend, with Lawson (-12) being his only negative score.
The big difference that enabled me to outperform Brendan and Clark was having two A tier constructors. While Clark had Racing Bulls (2) and Brendan had Haas (23), the additional points I had for having both Mercedes and Ferrari helped minimise the damage from Hulkenberg.
Vinny’s Jacqui’s Favourite Pole (Current Race: 154 / 4th, Overall: 715 / Last)
Vinny arguably stumbled into the fourth best score this weekend through Antonelli (84) and Mercedes (104) hard carrying him through the Hadjar (-16) and Audi (-27) DNF's.
Still a strong believer in Hadjar, I would normally say it's time to give up on him, but the other budget alternatives don't look much better.
To explain how this table works, if Alonso scores 5 points in the next race, he will go up in price by $0.6m. Hadjar needs 46 points to not fall in price, which is normally a sell if it weren't for the lack of good options in this price range.
Josh’s Just in time for WW3 (Current Race: 153 / 5th, Overall: 916 / 2nd)
Josh fell asleep at the wheel to experience the depression of Ferrari (57). It was a 'good' weekend for Mercedes (104) owners in the Baddy League who were able to outperform the teams doubling up on Ferrari assets.
Hamilton's mediocre 20 points simply don't matter that much when Mercedes is outscoring Ferrari by 47 points.
Tim’s Trolley Cart Racing (Current Race: 132 / 6th, Overall: 792 / 5th)
The no double up team was one McLaren asset away from greatness. If you replaced Mercedes with McLaren in my team, that's what potential greatness could have looked like.
Baddy League differential Gasly (-8) was super unlucky to get taken out by Lawson's mechanical failure, and Hadjar (-16) is super unlucky to be the second seat for Red Bull.
Jason’s Hope and Depression (Current Race: 121 / Last, Overall: 876 / 3rd)
Great minds think alike, when both Jason and Vinny used their brotherly bond to transfer in Audi this weekend. The -27 points was an absolute disaster, and Jason doubled up on this pain with Hulkenberg (-29).
Highest Race Score (Sprint Weekend): Jason’s 402 points in Round 2: China GP
Highest Race Score (Non-Sprint Weekend): Keven’s 249 points in Round 1: Australian GP