Move over March Madness brackets, F1 Fantasy is back.
The 2025 Formula 1 season is officially underway, which means so is the F1 fantasy league.
Unlike actual F1 teams, which consist of two drivers, fantasy teams are made up of five drivers and two constructors hand-picked by players.
With 20 drivers and 10 constructors to choose from, there are 697,680 different fantasy team combinations.
However, not every combination is financially possible.
In F1 Fantasy, players have a $100 million cost cap and the price of drivers and constructors, after being set at the beginning of the season, fluctuates based on their performance each race weekend.
Driver points in fantasy are awarded based on qualifying position and race and sprint results. Additional points can be earned by gaining positions, overtaking other drivers, recording the fastest lap time and being voted Driver of the Day.
This year, constructor points will also include points for pitstop times and fastest pitstop of the race.
Players can also assign a DRS Boost to one driver per race, automatically doubling the amount of points the driver earns for their team, but they must be careful because the boost will double negative points too.
Players have until the start of each race’s qualifying session to finalize their teams.
This season started with an exciting race at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Australia Sunday.
Heavy intermittent rain saw multiple drivers run off track, and six drivers were forced to drop out of the race.
McLaren driver Lando Norris had a much better time, converting pole position to the first win of the season.
His performance over the race weekend earned 59 fantasy points, and up to 177 if you used the 3x Extra DRS chip.
Currently, the number-one ranked fantasy team globally, Red Tiger Racing, has 347 points after one race.
This winning combination consisted of drivers Norris with 3x Extra DRS, Andrea Kimi Antonelli with 2x DRS Boost, Nico Hulkenberg, Oliver Bearman and Lance Stroll and constructors Mercedes and Aston Martin.
For my team, “Daccording to Joey,” named after Seattle Kraken goaltender and F1 fan Joey Daccord, I picked Lando Norris, Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Bearman and Isack Hadjar for drivers and McLaren and Williams for constructors.
Norris is a safe pick for points. While he is the most expensive driver at $29.3 million, in the first race he already proved he is worth the money.
Hulkenberg’s start to the season has been better than expected. In one race, Hulkenberg has outscored Kick Sauber’s entire points total from last season.
A veteran with 557 career points over 228 races, I believe Hulkenberg is a great value at only $7 million.
Alonso is another relatively low-cost veteran. The two-time world champion is valued at $8.2 million. Alonso’s value was discounted $600,000 after his DNF in Australia, but tricky wet conditions can challenge even the most experienced driver, so I’m not worried DNFs will be a recurring issue for now.
Bearman is a little bit of a risk, as any rookie is.
Though he finished outside of the points in Australia, he showed promise in three races as a reserve driver last season, earning seven points. He can only go up from here.
Fantasy depends on more than just qualifying and race results too. Bearman netted two fantasy points in Australia for gaining race positions and an overtake. At $6.1 million, Bearman is a decent gamble.
Hadjar is another rookie with promise. Despite a heartbreaking F1 debut where he crashed in the formation lap at Albert Park, Hadjar has a lot of potential with Racing Bulls. He qualified P11, the highest of the rookies, and was edged out of Q3 by just 0.063 seconds by five-time podium finisher Pierre Gasly. At $5.6 million, he’s also the second-least expensive driver on the grid.
Reigning Constructors’ Champion McLaren is a safe pick for the constructors slots.
Oscar Piastri struggled in the rain but was able to recover and score two points for the papaya team. With two title contenders in Norris and Piastri, I expect McLaren to rack up the fantasy points this season, making the $30.3 million a worthwhile investment.
Williams put in the work during the offseason after finishing second-to-last in 2024. New addition Carlos Sainz finished at the top of the timesheet during preseason testing. Alex Albon finished an impressive P5 in Melbourne to earn Williams 10 points in the Constructors’ Championship.
At $12.9 million, there’s just enough room left in the $100 million budget for the British constructor.
We’ll find out further if I’ve put together a winning team at the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend.
