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Review of Bahrain Grand Prix

Welcome to the Formula 1 DFS Raceweek for March 27th. First of all, A huge Congrats to @josh.barzal in his week 1 take down! Happy to see WDS at the top. Lets keep it going, into Round 2 of the Formula 1 season.

In the first race of the F1 season we saw Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc battle in Bahrain for the top position. Charles was very strategic in his driving, allowing Max to overtake him in positions on track where Charles knew his Ferrari could easily take the position back. The battle upfront was fun until the late stages of the race, where the Red Bull of Max and his teammate, Sergio Perez suffered mechanical issues and did not finish the race. If the season continues like this, we should be seeing some thrilling racing for the rest of the year.

After a clean start from all 20 drivers; Valterri Bottas $7600 dropped out the top 10 early due to a poor start. Meanwhile his teammate Zhou Guanyu $4600 moved through the field earning a solid 5 total points for his race efforts. Zhou wont be one I’ll roster a lot. If he continues to qualify in the rear of the pack then he’ll be a value driver for DFS.

Ferrari resurgence:

Ferrari, Haas, and Alfa Romeo made up 50% of the top 10 finishing positions as they finished 1,2,5,6,10. Depending on where and how much they are race to race, these drivers and teams might be the teams we need to focus on early for DFS purposes. The rest of the field have some work to due. Speaking of the rest of the field…

Red Bulls DNF:

After Max Verstappen $10,800, Sergio Perez $9200, and Red Bull junior team, Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly $7200 all failed to finish the race. They should be bouncing back in force this weekend as they were consistently in the top 10 on Friday in Free Practice 1 & 2. Red Bull Racing is properly priced at $9800 this weekend, but if AlphaTauri continue their top performing practice pace, then $4800 is going to be a price tag that should allow us to get higher priced drivers. (but maybe not this weekend) One set of top priced drivers we might want to avoid…

Mercedes’ Woes:

The Mercedes’ Silver Arrows were definitely the 3rd best overall team on the race track last week. As a result, the price tags of Lewis Hamilton $10,200 and George Russel $8600 are tough to stomach. Williams and McLaren Mercedes did not do much to be excited about. Alex Albon $3200 looks like an easy “defeated teammate” automatic 5 points right now; And McLaren look to have started on a better foot this weekend compared to their disastrous one last weekend in Bahrain. Daniel Ricciardo did beat his teammate and finished, so he did score 8 points; this week he is even cheaper by $3000 ($4200) and if he outscores his teammate again, he could be another key value piece.

The other runners:

The Alpine $5200 were battling for the last two points paying positions for majority of the race with AlphaTauri $4800. Both teams are cheap so they should present good value this weekend in Saudi Arabia. Aston Martin looks to be in shambles right now, so I would use Lance Stroll for the 5 defeat teammate points, but leave the rest of Aston Martin alone…Embarrassing James Bond.

DK Scoring top plays

LeClerc 38.90 points, Hamilton 21, Sainz 19.10, Russell 16, and Magnussen 16. The Top 5 teams were: Ferrari 61 points, Mercedes 34, and Alfa Romeo 16, Alpine 15, and Haas 12. Of the top 5 overall scorers, we had 2 teams, (finishing 1,2 and 3,4) and the three drivers on the podium.

Looking at the scoring we should be prioritizing the constructor position for our DFS lineups after we choose our captains. The amount of fantasy points that can be achieved from the constructor spot could be higher than any driver, even in the captain position.

For Raceweek: Saudi Ariba it’s going to be Red Bull/Ferrari. Alpine will be in the DK lineup mix too, they are just too cheap.

Formula 1 DFS: Raceweek Saudi Arabia Preview

Jeddah is nothing like Bahrain. With high speed corners and flowing turns that are basically a straight. It made it’s debut to the F1 calendar last year and was controversial on and off the race track. Jeddah was originally constructed to be narrower, with less visibility going into upcoming turns. Consequently we saw 2 red flags and 3 safety car periods due to incidents. The circuit directors have made improvements to those concerns, so we shall see how the race plays out, but honestly its tight high speed track, anything can happen. We have already lost a car for Sunday as Mick Schumacher crashed out during qualifying.

Formula 1 DFS: Raceweek Saudi Arabia Top Captain Options

Charles Leclerc $17,400/$11,600 has the overall quickest times in both Friday practice sessions. He was the quickest Ferrari in qualifying, but did not do enough to put his Ferrari on pole. Leclerc starts 2nd behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. He could be in position to overtake Sergio, dominate in P1, lead laps, beat his teammate and be worthy of his most expensive driver price tag on Draftkings.

Carlos Sainz $14,700/$9800 starts 3rd on the grid. Even though he has shown more speed than Perez over the weekend, he failed to beat Perez in qualifying. He also has Max Verstappen right behind him. Consequently, Carlos will be in my pool, but I cant say Ill be using a lot of Carlos Sainz this weekend.

Sergio Perez $13,800/$9200 Pole Sitter. Sergio has shown speed all weekend, but mainly in position 4. He put together a gem of a lap and qualified at the top spot. I don’t see him staying there and falling back, but he should not be anywhere less than P4 unless something crazy happens.

Max Verstappen $16,200/$10,800 Verstappen and his Red Bull have every chance of over taking all 3 drivers ahead of him and ending up in the top spot. I’m going to rotate through the top 4 drivers in the captain spot, have the Red Bull Racing and Ferrari teams in the constructor spot, and build the rest of my DFS lineups from there.

Formula 1 DFS: Raceweek Saudi Arabia Top Mid-priced Options

Valtteri Bottas $7600 showed up in the top 10 times in fp1, fp2, fp3 and qualified 6th. Valtteri is firmly in play for positioning and beat teammate bonus points.

Pierre Gasly $7200 is in the same boat as Valterri, he should be able to get max points for Alpha Tauri and as long as nothing catastrophic happens, he should be a good mid priced play. The AlphaTauri was 2nd quickest team in fp1 and in the top 10 fp2. If Yuki, Pierre’s teammate did not have fuel issues, the AlphaTauri would have been my heaviest used value team in DraftKings.

Fernando Alonso $6200/Esteban Ocon $5600 Esteban and Fernando have been pretty even all weekend, so I would use both in my player pool and rotate between them for pricing and points. The Alpine and Alpha Tauri have been battling for the 4th best team all weekend; due to Alpha Tauri’s late weekend issues, the Alpine drivers and team have won that battle. Of the top 10 drivers on the grid, the Alpine drivers are the least expensive, making for great values.

Mid-priced DFS honorable mention:

Kevin Magnussen $8000 had reliability issues on Friday. He set the 10th quickest speed in qualifying so his car looks good enough to be raced. His Hass already demonstrated hydraulic issues last week’s weekend and the issue continued this weekend during practice. A cautionary tale, to say the least. His teammate, Mick Schumacher had a major crash in qualifying so Kevin will get the automatic 5 points for beating his teammate. If he stays in position 10 he would get a total of 7 points, which isn’t much for 8k. An honorable mention just in case wild stuff happens in front of him, but he will be one of my lower owned plays in DFS lineups.

Formula 1 DFS: Raceweek Saudi Arabia Top Value Options

Lance Stroll and Alex Albon should both beat their teammates, so getting that 5 points, and a point for finishing at $3400 and $3200 is good value.

Value DFS Honorable Mentions

Daniel Ricciardo $4200 Mclaren have shown a pulse this weekend. He is cheaper than his teammate and just like the Alpine’s there has not been Ricciardo and his teammate Lando Norris. Ricciardo is very worthy of roster consideration this weekend.

Yuki Tsunoda experienced reliability issues in FP3 so he was unable to qualify. He has shown pace all weekend so Im not opposed to putting him in some DFS lineups for differentiation.

Formula 1 DFS: Raceweek Saudi Arabia Constructor Options

The Ferrari $10,800 and Red Bull $9800 teams should be the focus on the roster spot for Draftkings. These two teams were clearly the top teams all weekend, and their drivers should occupy the top 4 positions on Sunday.

Value DFS Team Options

The Alpine $5200 was in the top 12 all weekend. I can see both drivers finishing in the top 10 making the Alpine a great value in the constructor position.

Formula 1 DFS: Raceweek Saudi Arabia Final Thoughts

Due to the wild nature of this track, I’m looking to enforce some serious bankroll management. I’m going to rotate through the top 4 guys the most mixing in the value plays. Constructor will be my second position filled as a dominant race weekend from a team can give you the most points in Formula 1 DFS.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out @tcuz86 in the Win Daily Sports NASCAR Discord Chat.

Thanks for reading Formula 1 DFS: Raceweek Saudi Arabia and Good Luck

Theodore