Formula 1 DFS Race Week: Imola, Italy April 2022

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This was a mixed bag of a weekend. It was a sprint race weekend, meaning the starting grid for Sunday was set by the winning positions of the sprint race held on Saturday, not by qualifying like it usually is. 

It’s an attempt to shake things up, but I don’t know…I’ll keep my opinions out of it. One thing it does do is limit the teams’ ability to properly tune the race car. So typically, what we see is what we get.

It rained during the Friday sessions of Practice 1 and sprint qualifying so that added another layer of complexity to this weekend. We were gifted a demonstration of each constructor’s capabilities and each driver’s talents. This should make breaking down this race weekend a little more straightforward. For this reason, I changed the format for this race week article with an emphasis on each team more so than price point plays.

Team Breakdowns for Formula 1: DFS Race Week Imola

Ferrari $11,600 and Red Bull Racing $11,00. This is where the battle is. This race should come down to which one of these 4 drivers puts it all together. The Red Bull of Max Verstappen $10,400 and Sergio Perez $9000 are the team to beat this weekend.

The Ferrari’s of Charles LeClerc at $11,000 and Carlos Sainz at $10,000 will be right in the mix, I would do my best to have a share of drivers and constructors in every DraftKings lineup I make. 

Merc long shots

If you’re playing multi-lines and want to get different, the Mercs looked off in the speed traps. Mercedes finds itself in no firm position going into race Week 4: Imola, Italy, and can try different strategies that the Red Bull and Ferrari probably would not make. 

Mercedes $9000 seems to be set up for long runs. George Russell starts P11, 3 spots in front of his teammate he is also less expensive at $8600. Compared to Lewis Hamilton at $9600, I would err on the side of George.

The rest of the field???

We have no idea how the McLarens $8000 is going to perform on the medium tire. Due to issues overall we have not seen the Mclaren in race pace, and during the final laps of the sprint race, they were falling back on the timesheets. If McLaren has the race pace combined with their overall speed, Lando Norris $8000 and Daniel Ricciardo $7600 make for roster-worthy drivers.

Alpine $6400 performs better on the soft tire. A trend we had seen in Australia. Esteban Ocon, $6400, starting in P16, Imola being an older circuit and has fewer overtake spots, Esteban might find it hard to move up.

Fernando Alonso, $5800 has been experiencing reliability issues and that’s concerning so I wouldn’t go crazy, but he should be strong in the speed runs.

With a good strategy, Alonso could stay in the positions he should gain on Sunday while beating his teammate for maximum points.

Valtteri Bottas, $6800, is in the same boat as the Mclaren’s; we just don’t know how well his long-run race pace is. Too bad Zhou Guanyu is starting in P20, the Alfa Romeo $5200 would make for an intriguing constructor play.

The Hass’ of Kevin Magnussen, $5400 has shown pace on the soft tires. However the Haas is slow in long-run form, so it feels like the Haas was set up more for the sprint race on Saturday.

He and teammate, Mick Schumacher $4400 started on the medium tires during the sprint race and after being beaten in the first half, the medium tire held up and helped the Haas gain starting positions in the top 10, P10, and P8.

The Haas $4600 should be a good low-owned value constructor play.

The Last Guys In

Yuki Tsunoda $4800 might be the sleeper play of the weekend.

Yuki and his newfound long-run pace in the Alpha Tauri, and Yuki’s teammate Pierre Gasly’s $7200 getting into an accident in the sprint race making him start in P17 are all positives in Yuki’s favor.

Yuki’s team in Alpha Tauri, $3800 will be a team I take a few shots with if I need a cheap constructor to fit the top drivers in my DraftKings lineups.

Alex Albon $3600 will be a driver I’ll be heavy on until his price is in the $5000s. He is just better than Nicholas Latifi and should earn the 5 bonus points every week

Aston Martin is a team full of “last guy in” options. The Aston has not shown much this racing season, but with a capable veteran driver like Sebastian Vettel, $3400, and to a lesser degree, Lance Stroll $3200, the Aston can take advantage of strategies and limited overtaking and could find its way into good fantasy scoring positions.

A team I won’t be featuring, but if I need salary savings, the Aston makes for potentially low-owned punt plays

In Conclusion

Should be an interesting weekend, let’s see what kind of impact the sprint race weekend has for the real race this coming Sunday morning. As always thanks for reading, catch me in the discord chat @tcuz86. Best of luck.