ITS LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO!
After a 2 week break Formula One’s back and back down under for the first time since 2019! This week’s race will be held over 58 laps and it will be interesting to see how the track changes affect the race this week.
Last time out in Jeddah Saudi Arabia we saw some fantastic racing and after some frantic last few laps Max Verstappen finally came out on top. Safe to say Red Bulls fuel pump issues that plagued them in Bahrain look far behind them. The Ferrari remained dominant though, as both drivers finished on the podium and at this stage look the team to beat.
Here at FanTeam, we have you covered for this week’s Australian Grand Prix. This weeks’ contest will cover qualifying and the race. There is no sprint race at this Grand Prix, but we will discuss the sprint format and how this impacts scoring once we get to the races where this will feature.
This weeks’ contest features two buy-ins, €2/£1.68 and €12/£10.08. The main contest features a prize pool of €1,000/£840.
Remember this week’s race is from Australia so the start time will be early! 7.00am BST Saturday 9th
RULES
The contest will cover this weekend’s grand prix only. You must select 6 drivers to fill out your team, working within a budget of 110.0m. You will also be required to select a captain and vice-captain in the process. Your captain will score x2 points, your vice-captain will score x1.5 points. Your captaincy selections do not count towards your budget figure, which should make your captaincy choices a little easier. This allows you to tailor your captaincy choices to which drivers you think will perform well at this weeks’ track.
No bench required, so the selection headache is removed for you here!
You can multi-enter this contest, with a maximum of 30 teams allowed per user.
Standard fantasy scoring will apply (the scoring can be accessed within the contest itself), and qualification and race scoring will apply to this contest. If two teams are tied in this contest once the Chequered flag is waved, the team with the most remaining funds will win.
BUILDING YOUR TEAM
For anyone new to the single race Formula 1 weekend contests on FanTeam, you will notice a bit of a difference in line-up construction when compared with the full season contest. In the full season contest, you can select any 6 drivers within budget, along with a constructor. The weekend contests however are a little different. Here’s how…
Within your team of 6, there are 4 tiers that you will be selecting drivers from. Tier 1 and Tier 2 requires you to select 2 drivers from each tier. Tier 3 and Tier 4 require you to select only 1 driver from these tiers.
In an ideal world, you could select the top priced driver from each tier. The catch is, your budget won’t allow you to do this! You will have to select a more balanced line up if you are selecting a top Tier 1 and Tier 2 driver for example. The Drivers Tiers are set out as follows:
TIER 1
Max Verstappen (31.8m), Charles Leclerc (31.5m), Carlos Sainz Jr. (29.0m), Lewis Hamilton (27.5m) and Sergio Perez (27.2m).
TIER 2
George Russell (22.2M), Fernando Alonso (17.5m), Kevin Magnussen (17.2m), Esteban Ocon (15.8m), Valtteri Bottas (15.4m) Pierre Gasly (14.4m)
TIER 3
Lando Norris (10.2m), Mick Schumacher (10.2m), Daniel Ricciardo (9.5m), Guanyu Zhou (8.8m) and Yuki Tsunoda (8.5m).
TIER 4
Sebastian Vettel (5.8m), Lance Stroll (5.4m) Alexander Albon (4.0m) Nicholas Latifi (3.5m)
As you can see from the pricing, it is impossible to stack the top drivers from every tier. Doing this will leave you short on budget by 22.6m!
This was a much bigger gap than we had in Saudi Arabia, so it shows the difference in pricing this week. Finding the right balance is going to be key in this contest, to ensure you have the drivers you want without hampering your line up too much.
LINEUP SELECTION
TIER 1
On the evidence of this season’s races there is nothing to separate Red Bull and Ferrari. It’s difficult this early in the season to divine the strengths and weaknesses of each car but from the outside it looks as if the Red Bull is faster down the straights and the Ferrari is faster around corners and the exits.
Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen have marked themselves as the early title favorites and it was a great watch last time out with them dueling in Jeddah. Their teammates seemed marginally off the pace but there were signs that Perez had moved closer to Verstappen with a pole in qualifying, and if not for the safety car, who knows what would have happened.
Mercedes have struggled in the first 2 races but Lewis Hamilton still shows what an elite driver he is and if it was not for the safety car last time out he would probably found himself higher up the pack. There have been rumors of an upgrade coming for Mercedes but as of Friday’s practice nothing seems to have changed. Nonetheless Hamilton has to be respected.
I like the idea of stacking both Ferrari and Red Bull drivers in lineups this week, if you want to get different I’m not even against Hamilton but a lot would have to go his way to return down under.
TIER 2
Much like Hamilton I need to see what Mercedes do this weekend, and although George Russell has been doing well with what he has I will be avoiding him in this race.
It’s Team Alpine that interests me. It was fantastic seeing 2 teammates going at it like Ocon and Alonso did in Jeddah. A fantastic duel that might have been the reason that Alonso had to retire with engine issues towards the end of race. Nonetheless I love both Alpine drivers again this week down under.
Magnussen is flying in the Haas and that’s probably the reason for the increased price. He has to be respected though and if I can get to him I most certainly will. The last 2 drivers in this tier are Bottas and Gasly. Bottas is another driver who is getting so much out of a middle of the pack car, much like Magnussen he has seen an increase in price but if I could get there I most certainly would. Gasly is a fantastic driver but the car he has Alpha Tauri has had a ton of reliability issues. It’s unfortunate because he really is a fantastic driver, and for that reason with salary relief I will be going back.
TIER 3
I don’t like alot in this range outside of Lando Norris and the Mclaren who looked like there were some improvements to the car in Jeddah. Now these improvements were not world changing, but the car certainly looked like it had some extra pace. Norris has all the talent in the world so I don’t mind paying up for him this week.
Mick Schumacher is coming off a horrible crash in Jeddah that saw him miss the race on Sunday, so it will be interesting to see how he comes back from that. He has a great car behind him but I do wonder if he will be hesitant back in the seat.
Just pay up in this tier for driver talent!
TIER 4
I’m going to keep this short and sweet here. My pick is Lance Stroll. The Aston Martin’s and Williams have been way off the pace at the back of the grid. Stroll’s teammate Vettel is coming off a layoff from Covid so there might be some rust from the veteran or he would be my pick.
I have been impressed with what Albon has been able to do in a poor Williams car but I trust the Aston Martin garage a little more than I do the Williams garage at this stage.
Aston Martin are adamant there is performance to unlock in the green car so maybe we see a slight improvement down under.
TEAM REVEAL
Although I will be entering multi entries in the Formula one full weekend cash games, this is one of my lineups on FanTeam.
As you can see, the lineup is built around my player selections above.
Formula One Full weekend cash contests start Saturday 9th April 7.00am BST , so be sure to enter your lineups early to avoid missing out.
Please feel free to message me on Twitter @JackHumphreyKM if you have any questions – all support queries should go to @FanTeamOfficial.
Best of luck with your line ups this weekend race fans. Hope to see you on the leaderboard.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
If you’re new to FanTeam then you’ll need to create a new account here – alternatively, head on over to fanteam.com and click the green ‘Register’ button in the top right corner.
Existing users can click the graphic below for direct access to the weekly monster or head on over to the Formula One lobby.
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