RADIO
Justin Carter's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the 2025 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix. Read our daily fantasy F1 advice and sleepers analysis.
Formula 1 heads to Bahrain this weekend for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the fourth race of the season. Oscar Piastri is on the pole for this weekend's race, while teammate Lando Norris — considered the top driver at McLaren — starts back in sixth.
Last race in Japan, Max Verstappen was on the pole and led 43 of 53 laps. The only other leader was Kimi Antonelli, who led 10 laps due largely to pit strategy. Antonelli became the youngest driver to ever lead an F1 race.
Below, you will find our Formula 1 DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the Bahrain Grand Prix on 4/13/25, with the slate locking at 11:00 a.m. EDT. If you have any questions or want to talk about Formula 1, you can find me on X at @juscarts or on Bluesky.
Want to build a winning fantasy F1 lineup? Check out our How To Play F1 Fantasy (Formula 1): Overview Guide, Tips, Chips, and Rules for all the essential tips and strategies to get you started on the right foot.
Captain: Carlos Sainz Jr. ($7.2K)
Starts Eighth
The Carlos Sainz Jr. era at Williams has gotten off to a rough start, scoring just a single point through the first three races of the season. In Australia, he didn't even complete a single lap before crashing out.
But Sainz starts eighth this weekend, his best starting spot of the year. He didn't run FP1, but he was faster than teammate Alex Albon in FP2, FP3, and qualifying, setting the Spanish driver up for what should be his best run of the season.
CARLOS SAINZ P8 LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/sbSrGJLI59
— giorgia ⁵⁵ (@sopietv) April 12, 2025
If I'm looking for a value captain, it's either Sainz or Pierre Gasly, but Gasly might start a little too high in fifth. There are too many chances for Gasly to lose points through place differential, which would make it tough to win.
Constructor: Mercedes ($10.1K)
Note: Right after I published this, news came out that both Mercedes cars were given a one-spot grid penalty. This does not impact the argument below, but just note that they now start third and fifth, not second and fourth.
Mercedes cars start third and fifth this weekend, making it the only constructor with two cars starting in the top five. We'll get to why George Russell is a threat to win further down in this article, but let's use this section as a chance to talk about rookie Kimi Antonelli.
Russell is the No. 1 driver at Mercedes, but Antonelli is making a strong case for being one of the elite No. 2 drivers already. Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton are ahead of him in a vacuum, but Antonelli has gotten off to a strong start to his first F1 campaign.
Through three races, Antonelli sits fifth in points, though he's 15 points back of Russell already. The gap between the two is fairly big, but unless Ferrari turns things around soon, Antonelli has a great shot to finish in the top five in points as a rookie.
Oscar Piastri ($11.4K)
Starts First
Through three races, the polesitter has won every time out, including Oscar Piastri winning from the pole in the Chinese Grand Prix last month. Can Piastri pick up his second win of the year this weekend?
Useful place to start. Excited to go racing pic.twitter.com/ajTH1YCAZd
— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) April 12, 2025
The chances seem good. His biggest threat is teammate Lando Norris, who only qualified sixth. The Mercedes cars have shown a lot of speed, but haven't quite shown they have the chops to get a win, though George Russell has two podiums. This should be Piastri's race to lose.
Something else to keep in mind here is that the polesitter has won the Bahrain Grand Prix three times in a row. Last year, Max Verstappen was on the pole and led every single lap.
George Russell ($10.4K)
Starts Third
McLaren is the best team. Max Verstappen is the most talented driver. But after the two McLarens and Verstappen, George Russell has established himself as the clear No. 4 driver in Formula 1 this season.
He's also been a model of consistency this year. Russell was third in Australia and China before having his worst race of the year last time out in Japan, where he finished fifth.
Russell's 3.7 average finish is the best of his F1 career, though there's still time for that to slip a bit. For the time being, though, Russell has been one of Formula 1's best in the early stages of the 2025 season.
Last year, Russell finished fifth here. Russell has run four races here for Mercedes — three as a full-time driver and one as a replacement for Lewis Hamilton during the COVID season — and has scored points each time.
Pierre Gasly ($5.0K)
Starts Fourth
Pierre Gasly ended last season on a strong note, scoring points in four of the final five races and posting a podium finish in Brazil. That led to a lot of optimism for this Alpine team in 2025.
That optimism hasn't panned out so far. Gasly has yet to score a point, with his best finish being 11th. He's finished there twice, though the second one in China resulted in a disqualification.
But Gasly has found speed this weekend, qualifying fifth for the Bahrain Grand Prix. And that wasn't just a fluke run, as that speed has been around all weekend. He was second-fastest in FP1 behind only Lando Norris and then sixth in FP3 on Saturday.
Isack Hadjar ($4.4K)
Starts 12th
Yuki Tsunoda makes his second start in a row at Red Bull Racing, leaving rookie Isack Hadjar as the best driver at Racing Bulls as he continues to outperform Liam Lawson, who was demoted to the team after two poor races to open the year.
Isack Hadjar has not qualified worse than 12th this season:
🇦🇺 11th
🇨🇳 7th
🇯🇵 7th
🇧🇭 12thStill impressive despite the Q2 elimination in Bahrain. pic.twitter.com/bZ0YkJPPDh
— Daniel Valente 🏎️ (@F1GuyDan) April 12, 2025
Hadjar starts 12th on Sunday while Lawson starts 17th, putting Hadjar in good shape to earn the DFS points for defeating his teammate.
Defeated Teammate Picks
Here are the picks for who will come out on top for each constructor.
- McLaren: Oscar Piastri
- Mercedes: George Russell
- Red Bull: Max Verstappen
- Ferrari: Charles Leclerc
- Racing Bulls: Isack Hadjar
- Williams: Carlos Sainz Jr.
- Haas: Esteban Ocon
- Sauber: Nico Hulkenberg
- Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso
- Alpine: Pierre Gasly
Last race's record: 10-0, but we might need to attribute that less to my skill for picking and more to it being a boring race.
How Does Formula 1 Fantasy Work?
Here's how the scoring and format work for F1 DFS on DraftKings. You'll pick five drivers and a constructor. One of those drivers will be your captain, who earns you 1.5 times the points but also costs 1.5 times as much as they usually cost. For the constructor, you're choosing one of the F1 teams.
So here's how the scoring works. Your driver only gets points if they finish in the top 10. Here's a chart for how that breaks down:
| Finishing Spot | DraftKings Points |
|---|---|
| 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 18 |
| 3 | 15 |
| 4 | 12 |
| 5 | 10 |
| 6 | 8 |
| 7 | 6 |
| 8 | 4 |
| 9 | 2 |
| 10 | 1 |
In addition, the driver with the fastest lap of the race gets three points. You get 0.1 points per lap led, five points for beating your teammate, one point for being classified at the finish, and there are points for place differential.
Finish three spots higher than your grid position, and you will get two points. Finish five better, and you get three points. Finish 10 better to get five points. You also lose points for a negative place differential, starting at three spots.
The constructor points work the same way, with some added points if both cars do well. It's confusing, but for Formula 1 DFS to work, it probably had to be confusing, considering the huge gaps in speed between various teams and the small driver pool.
