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It's been a while. After the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the past few years of racing, Formula 1 returns to China this weekend for the first time since 2019. That race saw Mercedes take the top two spots with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Max Verstappen was fourth.
That was a long time ago, though. It's probably not a race that's very predictive of what to expect in 2024. What could be predictive is the Sprint race that ran on Saturday. That race was won by—well, by who else than Max Verstappen, who started fourth but still won the 19-lap race by 13 seconds.
Below you will find our Formula 1 DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the Chinese Grand Prix on 4/21/24, with the slate locking at 3:00 a.m. ET. If you have any questions or want to talk about Formula 1, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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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 (finished 90% of the race, essentially), and points for place differential.
Finish three spots higher than your grid position and you 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. Now that we've gone over that, let's talk drivers. Here's what I've put together as a kind of base lineup.
Captain: Oscar Piastri ($11,700)
Starts Fifth
McLaren has looked fast this weekend. Oscar Piastri was second in practice, then Lando Norris was on the pole for the Sprint. Piastri started eighth on the Sprint grid, gaining one spot to finish seventh while Norris, who was on pole, dropped to sixth. Then, both McLaren cars qualified in the top five.
Norris is the better option on paper, but I see more value in Piastri this weekend as far as lineup building goes. As a captain pick, he's $2,400 cheaper than Norris is and he starts just one spot behind his teammate. He's only finished ahead of Norris once in the first four races, but it hasn't been because Piastri has been bad. His worst finish this season is eighth.
Constructor: McLaren ($9,000)
Let's try stacking the McLarens this week. If Lewis Hamilton wasn't starting 18th, I might see more value in paying down for Mercedes, but I worry about Hamilton getting mired back in traffic.
The McLaren cars, as I mentioned above, have been strong this weekend. The Sprint itself wasn't great for them, but the two cars still both finished in the top seven. They should both be competitive in the battle to finish in the top five on Sunday.
Max Verstappen ($16,400)
Starts First
Could this be the track that finally ends Max Verstappen's dominance? (And yes, I know he DNFed in Australia, but he was running second went the car broke, so I don't count that against Verstappen.)
Sprint win + pole position = a lovely Saturday in China 🇨🇳
Thank you, unreal support! On to race day @redbullracing 👊 pic.twitter.com/mgEozRYDIr— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) April 20, 2024
Verstappen was just fourth in qualifying for the Sprint, so it looked like this could be a weekend where he wasn't just going to run away with things. Then he won the Sprint by 13 seconds. Then he took the pole for the race itself. Now I'm right back where I usually am, which is expecting Verstappen to lead the full race and win. Last time F1 was here, Lewis Hamilton led all 56 laps.
Esteban Ocon ($4,400)
Starts 13th
Alpine remains significantly behind where the team has been in the past, but Esteban Ocon hasn't been awful this year. Sure, he's yet to score points, but he's outperformed teammate Pierre Gasly in three of the four races so far. He also finished two spots ahead of Gasly in the Sprint.
Ocon has made two starts here, running the 2017 and 2018 Chinese Grand Prix for Force India. In 2017, he started 17th and finished 10th. Ocon's a reliable driver who can keep this car clean and take advantage of any issues from the cars ahead of him on the grid.
Valtteri Bottas ($4,200)
Starts 10th
Shanghai is likely a welcome sight for Valtteri Bottas. The veteran driver has a pair of podium finishes here and an average finish of 6.6. He was the runner-up in 2019, the last time F1 was here.
As far as the battle to be the highest Sauber driver in the running order and get five additional points for that, Bottas starts 10th while Zhou Guanyu starts 16th. Bottas has been the top driver for this team in three consecutive races. He finished behind Zhou in the Sprint race, but I'll still take the chance on Bottas based on his performance this season.
Daniel Ricciardo ($4,000)
Starts 12th
Daniel Ricciardo is a former winner of the Chinese Grand Prix, taking home the 2018 victory. That doesn't necessarily matter this weekend, since this RB F1 Team car won't have the speed to win.
DANIEL RICCIARDO IS COOKING pic.twitter.com/HNkGguwACr
— Bethany (@beth1814) April 20, 2024
But with Yuki Tsunoda starting 19th, there is a chance for Ricciardo to beat his teammate this weekend, something that's happened just once so far this season. Ricciardo has experience here and a seven-spot advantage on the starting grid. He was 11th in the Sprint while Tsunoda was 16th.
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