So Your Friends Convinced You to Join the F1 Fantasy League

The beginning of the Formula One season is right around the corner and you are now faced with the daunting task of selecting drivers and constructors to carry you through the season and maybe, just maybe see your name at the top of the list when the dust settles. Welcome to fantasy Formula One, the incredibly low stakes test of fandom!

Step 1: Pick a team

You suddenly find yourself wealthier than you could have ever imagined with a fresh 100 million sitting in your pocket. Rather than retiring off to an island somewhere your going to buy the contracts of five formula one drivers and two teams. Your first step will be allocating your budget to construct a balanced team. Top drivers demand higher prices so you will not simply be able to just stack the front of the grid. Also keep in mind your money has to account for two constructors as well. Suddenly not feeling so rich after all? This may be your first exercise in having to take the actions of the entire field into considerations. Dot be afraid of lower priced drivers they are the ones who will likely be your best financial gainers.

Balance

While the objective of the game is to score the most points at the end of the season. A weather eye needs to be kept on your constantly moving budget. A driver and teams value will adjust up or down depending on the quality of their performance over the weekend. Any value you driver gains is added to your budget, but be cautious if your driver looses value so does your budget. The key is going to be finding a balance between constantly performing top points winners and the lesser value drivers that are improving on track and filling your coffers. There is also one "Boost" (Formerly DRS) Bonus available every week. This boost double the score of the selected driver.

Scoring

Drivers and Constructors score and loose points based on the events of the weekend. Points for the drivers are awarded got qualifying position, race finish position as well as the opportunity for bonus points. The bonus points are awarded for positions gained from starting position, a point for every overtake, 10 points for Fastest Lap, and 10 points for being voted for driver of the day. A driver can loose points by falling back in position, one point lost for every position lost. DNFs and disqualifications will also loose a driver points, 10 points for a race DNF/DQ, 5 points for a sprint DNF/DQ or a Quali DNF.

Constructors earn points by adding the finishing and Quali points for both of their drivers, as well as some Constructor specific bonus points. Teams get points in Quali by one or both drivers advancing beyond Q1. They also earn additional points during the race by completing quick pitstops. Faster pit stops get more points, and if your team breaks the 1.8 second pit stop record there is a massive 15 point bonus heading your way.

For the full Scoring breakdown, as well as other helpful notes, check out the official F1 Fantasy FAQ site F1 Fantasy Game

Transfers

You can make as many changes as you want to your team line-up before the first race weekend, but afterwards, you can make up to two transfers after each weekend. If you need to make extra transfers, you incur a 10-point penalty. You can carry over one transfer per weekend, but they do not compound- you must use it the following weekend, or it disappears. There is some strategy in potentially taking an intentional -10 to get a line-up fixed after a potentially bad race versus using your free transfers chip.

CHIPS!

The F1 fantasy game has six built in one-time-use "power ups" you can use through out the season. Using these chips effectively can prove to be real difference makers at the end of the season. You are limited to only one chip use during a race weekend, so no stacking. Only three chips are available for the first weekend, the rest will be available for week two.

-Wild card

Wild card allows you to make unlimited transfers to your team for free. Essentially, it allows you to rebuild your entire team in one race weekend. Typically this gets used within the first four or five races once the pecking order is established and the favorites have made their way to the front. If you need an overhaul and bet wrong this is a free way out. However if you bet right early you can save it for some late season big moves.

*Tip- Save it for a full overhaul! Taking a -10 or even a -20 for extra transfers can be overcome if your moving into the right drivers.

-No Negative

The No Negative chip removes the possibility of you scoring negative points at all. This is really effective for high-risk race weekends, especially street circuits and wet races, where the risks of a DNF are highest.

*Tip - WET RACES equal more DNFs

-3X Boost

This token gives you an extra boosted driver for the weekend. You will be allowed to assign one driver with a 3X for the weekend. It cannot be stacked with the regular 2X, so you will have two different boosted drivers for the weekend.

*Tip - Ensure you remove your regular boost from your top driver to assign the new 3X, then assign your regular boost to your number two driver. Best saved for later in the season when your budget has allowed you to have two higher performing drivers.

-Autopilot

Autopilot automatically applies your 2X Boost to your highest-scoring driver. For example; you for some reason have Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen in your line-up and you put 2x boost to Stroll; this chip automatically allocate it to Verstappen (because he will clearly be the higher scoring driver).

*Tip - Also best saved for later in the season when your budget has allowed you to have two high performing drivers that both have the potential to be top scorer.

-Limitless

The most powerful chip in F1 Fantasy! Limitless allows you not only to get unlimited transfers, but also allows you to have no cost cap for a race. Effectively, you can pick the top drivers and constructors, put them all in your lineup, and run up the scoresheet. It is worth noting, you will lose any carryover transfers you have banked and your previous legal team will be used to allocate your budget changes and is what your team will revert back to for the next weekend. This chip WILL swing the scoreboard! Using it to its maximum has the ability to make you almost untouchable.

*Tip - There are two schools of thought for how best to use this chip. 1. Use it on a sprint weekend. There are twice the opportunities to score points so frontloading the field for what is effectively two races can bank you a lot of extra points. 2. Use it on low scoring, low overtake tracks (Monaco, Singapore...) Here the strategy is about increasing the differential. In a race where even the best normal teams are going to score low, creating a super team that can score a lot by comparison makes the chip play that much more valuable.

-Final Fix

This bonus allows you to make a single change between the end of Qualifying and the start of the Race without any penalties. This is the "Break Glass in Case of Emergencies" chip. You have selected a top driver that has crashed during Q1, they are now stuck at the back of the grid and unlikely to advance into a points paying position. You get to swap them. Note, you cannot use this to change your boost without changing the driver, and your team will revert to the original line-up before the next race.

*Tip - Best used for low overtake tracks where a top driver is not likely to advance. There is a real possibility you may never use this chip.

Some Strategy Talk.

This game is a mix of pick-em and accounting. Building your budget especially in the early game is key. The first half of the season should be less points focused and more money focused. Especially in this new era, no one fully knows who the usual suspects really are yet. The early front runners may burn out or get passed as other teams begin to sort out their cars.

Don't be afraid to do a little math. Here's where we get a little technical. The driver and team price changes are based on a three race trailing average. That means a drivers budget adjustment is based on the average points of the last three races. The most recent result replaces the oldest and if the average goes up enough, more money, Goes down, less money. That means if a driver DNFs he is not likely to gain any budget value for at least the next two races since he is burdened with a -20, keeping the average low. However, the after third race the -20 is no longer going to be counted so there is very high likelihood they will gain value since the average will rocket back up by comparison. So keep and eye on trending drivers. The money is made in the midfield. (There are online calculators out there that do the math for you, I will leave you to find them for yourself If that's your speed)

Squad Goals.

The prevailing strategy in building a team is have one top driver and one top team, the rest being filled out by constantly rotating mid and back fielders. These top drivers/team are your points mules. They are the ones that will constantly be up at the front gaining large amounts of points and keeping you competitive in the league standings. As the year goes on and if you are successful in growing your budget you can begin to regularly have two top drivers or teams (and you can swap between them). Its very competitive between teams with one top driver and two top constructors versus a team with two top drivers and one top constructor. There is no one right way to build your team.

Drivers at the bottom are just as viable.

Eventually some driver will hit the minimum value posable in this game. Last year it was 4.5M. The great part about this driver is they are an extremely cheap spot filler with almost no downside. The driver that hits the price floor is likely constantly at the back of the grid and remains there during the race. This means from a points side they likely wont be gaining you much but could come through with 1 to 5 points a race. The best part about the price floor driver is that they cant possibly loose you money. They are at them minimum the only place to go is up.

The first race is right around the corner and your interest in watching the race just changed dramatically. You are still going to cheer your favorite driver across the finish line, but now your going to also be watching the midfield battles because you have points riding on the extra overtake, or you going to be glued to the pit stop timer seeing if your team can set the fastest stop to get you a bonus. The fantasy game is a fun way to get involved in the whole race and see how your guesses stack up against your friends.

Good Luck!