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Euan Leith's preview of the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix for F1 Fantasy includes weather updates, differentials for your squads, and predictions for qualifying and the Grand Prix.
Happy Chinese Grand Prix, RotoBallers! So... Australia was a little chaotic. I haven't had that poor of a weekend in F1 Fantasy for several seasons. The DNFs, the rain, the rookies, everything that could go wrong did.
However, if you are reading this, you had a good weekend or are joining me for a recovery drive during the 2025 F1 Fantasy season. China allows us to bounce back, so thanks for hopping in the passenger seat and joining me on the journey!
The deadline for the Chinese Grand Prix in F1 Fantasy is Friday, March 21, at 11:00 p.m. EDT, when the Sprint Race starts. Also, check out the rest of our excellent DFS racing coverage to get you through every NASCAR and Formula 1 race. Also, if you need a refresher on the rules of F1 Fantasy, check out our How to Play guide from the preseason.
Join our 2025 F1 Fantasy League
That's right! We are putting our reputations on the line and creating an F1 Fantasy League for the 2025 season. If you go to the Leagues tab on the F1 Fantasy home page, you'll find our league in the Featured Leagues tab. Just click Join League, and you will be in for 2025. We've also got this shiny banner to stand out! Use code P1JOTPHDW09 to join the 2025 league!
Also, congratulations to our Top 10 finishers from the Australia Grand Prix.
Here is the #F1Fantasy @RotoBaller Top 10 after the #AustralianGP
Shoutout to the winning lineup with the bold Extra DRS chip play for 310 points! pic.twitter.com/epmYxAW9fy
— Euan Leith (@F1FantasyEuan) March 17, 2025
Previous Chinese Grand Prix Winners
- 2024: Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- 2019: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
- 2018: Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull
- 2017: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
- 2016: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
*The 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 Chinese Grand Prix were not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chinese Grand Prix Schedule
Thursday, March 20th
- Practice 1: 11:30 p.m. EDT
Friday, March 21st
- Sprint Qualifying: 3:30 a.m. EDT
- Sprint Race: 11:00 p.m. EDT (***F1 Fantasy lineup lock***)
Saturday, March 22nd
- Qualifying: 3:00 a.m. EDT
Sunday, March 23rd
- Race: 3:00 a.m. EDT
IT'S RACE WEEK AGAIN AS WE HEAD TO SHANGHAI FOR THE CHINESE GRAND PRIX! 📣🥳 pic.twitter.com/78z4n3k3Pg
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) March 17, 2025
Chinese Grand Prix Weather
China threw us some curveballs when it returned to the calendar in 2024. Friday was a sopping wet qualifying, but then we got dry running for the remainder of the weekend. It looks relatively dry for our race weekend this time out, but there is another threat of rain on Sunday.
| Day (Local) | Temperature (°C/°F) | Forecast |
| Friday | 23°C/73°F | Partly Cloudy |
| Saturday | 24°C/75°F | Sunny |
| Sunday | 24°C/75°F | Rain Showers |
Chinese Grand Prix Predictions
Sprint Race
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren
- Lando Norris, McLaren
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
Qualifying
- Lando Norris, McLaren
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
Grand Prix
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren
- Lando Norris, McLaren
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
2025 F1 Fantasy Pricing
After the Australian Grand Prix, F1 Fantasy announced its first price changes. Several drivers' prices went up, and several went down. The swings are, admittedly, a bit brutal. However, those swings confirmed how the pricing system works.
I hear you asking through the screen, "How do you take a three-race average after one race?" That's why the price swings have been so brutal after Australia and will continue to be brutal after China—a shoutout to the F1 Fantasy Tools Discord for putting this chart together.
This table shows us what each F1 Fantasy asset needs to score to obtain each price rise or fall. While I won't get into the nitty-gritty here, it's a great segue into our next topic.
2025 F1 Fantasy Chip Strategy: Limitless or Wildcard
The Chinese Grand Prix is a perfect race to activate your first chip of the 2025 F1 Fantasy season. The real question is: which one do you play? Let's take a look.
Limitless
The Limitless chip unlocks the budget for your F1 Fantasy squad. You have an unlimited cost cap to build a team for one race weekend. This allows F1 Fantasy managers to fill their squads with the best assets in the game.
Managers should pay close attention to the Free Practice reports from Friday and the Sprint Race qualifying results. That will give us a good indication of who is having a good time in China.
One thing to note is that your Limitless team will not build your budget. Instead, it will be the team you locked in for the Australian Grand Prix. As a result, if you had a bad Australian Grand Prix and lost budget, I would advise against activating the Limitless chip.
Pre-Practice Limitless Lineup
- Lando Norris, McLaren
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
- George Russell, Mercedes
- Constructors: McLaren and Mercedes
Wildcard
Wildcard gives your F1 Fantasy team unlimited transfers for the race weekend. If you messed up in Australia (like I did), this is a great chip to get your F1 Fantasy squad back on track. It allows you to bring in budget-building assets without a transfer penalty.
Every race week, F1 Fantasy managers receive two free transfers. However, they can also make extra transfers for a 10-point penalty. If you can fix your squad with one 10-point penalty hit, I would take it this week and save the Wildcard for another weekend.
For the rest of us (hopefully, there are not many of you), we are in the Wildcard situation. There were no on-track times at the time of publishing, so this is where my head was heading into the Chinese Grand Prix.
This gives my squad seven assets expected to rise in price after the Chinese Grand Prix. Building my budget is my No. 1 priority for the second race of the season because I don't want to fall behind any further in that department. The points will have to come later.
