F1 Fantasy Round 2: Jason Wildcards into Hope, Clark Wildcards into Depression

Jason's Hope and Depression (Current Race: 402 / 1st, Overall: 529 / 3rd) (Wildcarded)

Jason wildcards into my recommended team structure and is handsomely rewarded with a monstrous 402 points. The only thing missing from this dream team is Bearman (34), but Jason has definitely set the bar high for the top weekly score.

It was unfortunate to have two of his drivers involved in an incident, with Ocon (24) crashing into Colapinto (18), causing both of them to lose positions. Thankfully they were both able to continue on and finish the race, avoiding disastrous negative points.

Josh's Just in time for WW3 (Current Race: 397 / 2nd, Overall: 554 / 2nd)

Josh's starting team was already in theme with the recommended team structure after getting unlucky with the B tier drivers and constructors. Josh redistributed his funds from Williams (22) into Bearman (34) and basically had an optimal line up.

The only thing Josh refused to do was take a 10 point hit to also transfer out Bottas (3), who at least scored positive points, but dropped another $0.6m in price to $4.7m.

Pit Strategy

It is clear that the current optimal lineup comprises of 3 assets from Ferrari and Mercedes. The strategy going forward is to generate enough budget to convert Hamilton/Leclerc into Mercedes, leaving you with a trio of DRS boosted Antonelli, Ferrari and Mercedes.

The fundamental team structure in a successful F1 fantasy team is one DRS boosted A tier driver (Antonelli is currently the most value for money) and two A tier constructors (currently Mercedes and Ferrari, with McLaren and Red Bull becoming options once they improve their performance).

Keven's Cope and Delusion (Current Race: 343 / 3rd, Overall: 592 / 1st)

Having the extra budget for Russell (45) instead of Antonelli (68) did not work to my favour this race. Bortoleto (-14) was my main disappointment, and following F1 fantasy principles, is an immediate trade out for the next two weeks to prevent further budget losses.

Just to reiterate, once a driver DNF's, they essentially need to make up all the negative points and more to prevent further budget losses. For Hadjar owners who held onto him for points over budget, Hadjar will essentially need to get a podium to not fall again in price next race. That being said, Hadjar's DNF only impacts his price for the upcoming race in Japan and goes away in Miami (price being calculated on the previous three races).

Tim's Trolley Cart Racing (Current Race: 318 / 4th, Overall: 505 / 4th)

Tim displays his F1 knowledge once again, transferring in Gasly (20) for a solid result. A well constructed and balanced team with P2, P5, P6 and P8 from the race, but the P5-P10 zone simply isn't impactful enough compared to the P1-P4 zone currently occupied by Mercedes and Ferrari.

All that money spent on Hadjar ($13.9m, 19) and Gasly ($12.8m, 20) consumes $12m in budget which could have been used to take punts on drivers such as Lawson ($6.9m, 35) and Colapinto ($7.0m, 18) to enable an extra A tier asset like Hamilton ($22.9m, 48).

Yes, it is hard to pick the right B tier assets that are cheaper, but an extra A tier asset also means that you only need to pick 4 B tier assets instead of 5 B tier assets, reducing the likelihood of getting unlucky with someone like Bortoleto (-14).

Clark's Team (Current Race: 306 / 5th, Overall: 468 / 5th) (Wildcarded)

Clark decided to wildcard and ditch both Ferrari and Leclerc to go all in on the uber-premium nature of Russell and Mercedes only for Antonelli (66) to outscore Russell (45) and Ferrari (119) to outscore Mercedes (115).

Clark had a great team structure from the first race with an A tier driver in Leclerc and two A tier constructors in Ferrari and McLaren (missed the mark compared to Mercedes), albeit making sacrifices on the drivers by selecting both Bottas and Perez to afford it.

Having to start with Bottas and Perez to get that dream structure was extremely risky as it was hard to pivot out of it if anything went wrong. This meant a more optimal structure was to get two A tier drivers and one A tier constructor until you build enough budget to transition into one A tier driver and two A tier constructors.

Brendan's B-Team is the A-Team (Current Race: 301 / 6th, Overall: 410 / 6th)

A noble move to give up on Piastri (-7) who DNS'd again and is yet to do a single lap after two races 😭.

Similar to Clark, Brendan transitioned into a double Mercedes team structure only to lose out to the triple Mercedes and Ferrari team structures.

It just occurred to me that this is actually Brendan's B team, while his A team is doing better. If you do happen to make a second or third team, let me know and I'll add you to another league so I can see what you're experimenting on the side.

Vinny's Jacqui's Favourite Pole (Current Race: 239 / Last, Overall: 402 / Last)

The highest of highs last week when Verstappen scored 50 points outscoring Russell's 39 points for qualifying and finishing first, into the lowest of lows this week when Verstappen DNF'd while coming relatively close to finishing the race.

A disappointing 28 (14 x 2) points and the only saving grace is that it wasn't negative.

Vinny also joins Brendan, Clark, Tim and me in the Bortoleto club.

Bless up,

Keven

Tracker

Highest Race Score: Jason’s 402 points in Round 2: China GP