F1 Fantasy Round 1: Australian GP
Round 1 is complete and it was heartbreak for our hometown hero Piastri who DNF’d before the race even started. Leclerc must have transferred his curse to Piastri after winning his home race in 2024. How could he do such a thing 😭.
The first 10 laps were absolute cinema until Ferrari strategists didn’t pit any of their drivers during the virtual safety cars…
New year
New cars
New teams
Same old Ferrari
Roses are red
Violets are blue
We thought it’d be different
No, Mercedes 1-2
Russell takes out the race, and we might be seeing a lot of that this year.
But just you wait, HAM-VER-BOT might return at some point in the season.
From the rest of the pack, it was a brilliant showing by Audi and Lindblad to get points on debut. Gotta feel for Lawson though.
Finally, it was trippy to see +12 laps on the timer when Alonso returned to the racetrack to help Aston Martin perform some testing in ‘Free Practice 4’. They’ve moved their goalposts from scoring points to just completing the race 😂.
Onto F1 Fantasy, a lot of teams experienced less than ideal starts to the season.
Tim’s Trolley Cart Racing (187 / 2nd)
Tim’s Formula 1 knowledge was proven to be exceptional in the first race with DRS boosted George Russell scoring a cool 78 (39 x 2) points.
Tim agreed with my Bearman (20) recommendation to great success and Ferrari (69) was just a great premium constructor that was underpriced.
The double investment in Lindblad (15) and Racing Bulls (35) was a piece of fine work, especially while leaving $7.3m in the bank.
Very unfortunate with a double DNF with Hadjar (-8) and Hulkenberg (-20) which otherwise ruined a potentially amazing week.
Vinny’s Jacqui’s Favourite Pole (163 / 3rd)
Jacqui’s favourite pole is Max Verstappen and boy did it deliver.
Max went from P20 to P6 and that earned him 50 points, 11 points more than George Russell btw, who qualified and finished first. Max is really doing the heavy lifting for Vinny’s team, scoring 100 out of his 163 points.
That means his remaining 4 drivers and 2 constructors combined for 63 points. Oof. Could be a good angle to get Jacqui to provide a second recommendation.
Bearman (20), Bortoleto (13) and Racing Bulls (35) were the positives, while the DNFs to Hadjar (-8) and Bottas (-16) disappointed.
Paying up for McLaren (19) hurt as well.
Clark’s Team (162 / 4th)
Clark went for the four cheapest drivers just to afford Leclerc (29 x 2 = 58), Ferrari (69) and McLaren (19). If only he stuck with Mercedes over McLaren, it would have been a massive success.
That one decision cost him 77 points which would have potentially had Clark at a massive 239 points. Depression.
Clark’s rag tag budget misfits of Lindblad (15), Bortoleto (13), Perez (4) and Bottas (-16) almost worked if it weren’t for that Bottas DNF.
Josh’s Just in time for WW3 (157 / 5th) (Auto Pilot)
We have our first chip used, and it’s Josh using the Auto Pilot chip to DRS boost the top scoring driver in his team.
In Josh’s case, it was between Hamilton (25) and Antonelli (32), and it went to Antonelli (32 x 2 = 64).
An overall well balanced team with unlucky DNFs to Hulkenberg (-20) and Bottas (-16).
Jason’s Hope and Depression (127 / 6th)
The biggest Williams believer in our league with Albon (8) and Williams (20).
Also our most balanced team with the spread of funds with Hamilton (25) being the most expensive driver and Ferrari (69) being the most expensive constructor.
The double Cadillac was an interesting gamble. Clark did it out of budgetary constraints, while Jason intentionally opted into it.
Brendan’s B-Team is the A-Team (109 / Last)
The B-Team really is the A-Team isn’t it? Letting that bias flow with Piastri only for heartbreak (-14 x 2 = -28).
Picking Alonso (-14) was certainly a decision as the only owner of an Aston Martin asset in the league.
Brendan is also the only Mercedes (96) owner in the league, which was his main saving grace this week.
Keven’s Cope and Delusion (249 / 1st)
I got a bit lucky when I didn’t get a single DNF and selected 5 drivers who all placed in the top 10, and I’ve come to realise I need to share more of my knowledge in the strategy of F1 fantasy as an enthusiast of multiple fantasy sports. So we’re going to head into a strategy corner session.
Strategy Corner
To put simply, in F1 fantasy, you obviously want to maximise points, but you need to do so in a way that maximises the efficiency of your budget.
We first take the assumption that the big 4 teams (Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren) will most likely occupy the majority of P1 to P8. That means we want to start with as many big 4 assets as possible, which is currently 3.
Aside from Josh and Clark, the Baddy League did it through a discounted Hadjar ($15.1m). Hadjar was definitely unlucky to DNF, but that introduces the concept of always having an out.
Before we go into that concept, once a driver on your team DNFs, they are pretty much always a must transfer out, unless you’re fine with losing more money.
Using Bottas as an example, he scored -16 points in the first race. If he scores 12 points in the second race, he is still averaging -2 points per race and will lose more money. The price is calculated on the previous 3 races, so the DNF will impact Bottas’ price for the next two races.
From the first race’s results, the only two scenarios where Hadjar doesn’t lose money next race is if he replicates George Russell’s performance or Max Verstappen’s performance.
Assuming you don’t fancy those odds and agree that Hadjar is a must transfer out, you either need to somehow find at least $8.1m to get to Hamilton (the cheapest big 4 driver), or downgrade Hadjar whilst trying to make sure you maintain at least 3 assets from the big 4. You’ll notice this is extremely hard to do with just 2 transfers at such an awkward price point.
This also explains why I almost never pick anyone between the $10m-$15m range (Williams and Alpine). Why pay over $10m for someone fighting for 6-10th when I can just gamble on someone cheaper to do the same (Racing Bulls, Haas, Audi).
Benchmark Team
With the benchmark team I recommended, it has a core of Leclerc, Antonelli and Ferrari, and then I had to select the best budget options, to which I highly recommended Haas.
After the first race, Racing Bulls and Haas are the clear front runners alongside Bortoletto.
If you are tight on budget and want to gamble a bit, Lawson, Colapinto and Perez are the best of the rest (basically the cheapest options who didn’t DNF).
It’s honestly not too late to wildcard or do 3 transfers (with a 10 point hit) to a variant of this recommended team, and I think it’s the only optimal line up left after the first race’s price changes, optimal line up being 3 premium assets + good budget options i.e. not Bottas.
I wouldn’t worry about having a similar team to your competitors because there will definitely be differences in DRS boost (Antonelli or Leclerc?), your budget picks (gamble on Lawson, Colapinto or Perez?) and there will be more decisions to make in the future.
The recommended team has already risen by $3.3m so you can see how fast the price changes in F1 fantasy, and with the data from the first race, it’s really not a good idea to fall further behind in budget.
Even Tim, who almost picked a perfect starting team got absolutely shafted by Hadjar and Hulkenberg’s DNF, and it looks like he’s been priced out of upgrading Hadjar to Hamilton.
Another potential strategy which mainly applies to Tim and Vinny is to keep Verstappen or Russell and get Mercedes as a constructor, which saves the wildcard and hones in on two uber premium assets.
Bless up,
Keven
Tracker
Highest Weekly Score: Keven’s 249 points in Round 1: Australian GP