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Justin Carter's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the 2025 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix. Read our daily fantasy F1 advice and sleepers analysis.
Formula 1 heads to Japan this weekend for the Japanese Grand Prix, the third race of the season. Max Verstappen will start on the pole, upsetting the two McLaren cars to earn the top position on the grid.
Last race in China, Oscar Piastri picked up the win while his McLaren teammate Lando Norris came in second. It certainly looks like the two McLarens are going to be two of the top three title contenders this year, with defending champion Verstappen joining them in the title chase.
Below you will find our Formula 1 DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the Japanese Grand Prix on 4/6/25, with the slate locking at 1:00 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.
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Captain: Alexander Albon ($8.7K)
Starts Ninth
I think pretty much everyone expected there to be a spirited battle between Alexander Albon and new teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. to be the lead driver at Williams, but so far Albon is blowing Sainz away.
In the Australian Grand Prix, Albon finished fifth while Sainz crashed out of the race. Then at the Chinese Grand Prix, Albon was seventh while Sainz finished 10th.
Back-to-back-to-back-to-back q3's!! Crazy track, cool crowd, excited for tomorrow! ✌️ @williamsracing
เข้าQ3 เป็นครั้งที่4 ในฤดูกาลนี้ เป็นสนามที่บ้าบิ่นและแฟนๆที่นี่เจ๋งสุดๆไปเลยครับ รู้สึกตื่นเต้นกับการแข่งขันในวันพรุ่งนี้แล้วสิ pic.twitter.com/tEUGuC3tQS
— Alex Albon (@alex_albon) April 5, 2025
This weekend, Albonn has another top 10 starting spot, while Sainz was unable to make it into Q3, going out in Q2 with a 15th-place starting spot. This sets Albon up for another run as the top Williams driver.
Let's also factor in that Albon has been quick all year, so it's not impossible that he earns place differential points, which begin by finishing three spots ahead of your starting spot.
Constructor: Red Bull Racing ($9.3K)
Spoiler alert: I'm going to talk extensively about Max Verstappen later in this article, so for this section on Red Bull Racing, I'll be focusing on the second Red Bull car and why Yuki Tsunoda, who struggled to a 15th-place starting spot, should improve on Sunday.
First, if you're someone who doesn't follow F1 news during the week, you might be confused right now. Tsunoda...at Red Bull? Isn't he a Racing Bulls driver?
Yeah, it's complicated. After two very poor showings to start the year, Red Bull opted to put Tsunoda in its second car this weekend and demote Liam Lawson down to Racing Bulls.
Tsunoda was sixth-fastest in FP1 and ninth in FP3, though he was among the slowest cars in FP2. It's been a hit-or-miss weekend for Tsunoda, but he should be a threat to sneak into the points on Sunday, helping out Red Bull's DFS points haul.
Lando Norris ($12.6K)
Starts Second
McLaren won't win every race this year. Heck, McLaren might not even win this race, even though the team has drivers starting second and third. But McLaren will likely be the fastest team each week and Lando Norris will have a great shot at the victory in every grand prix.
Norris was dominating the weekend before Verstappen took the pole. He turned the quickest lap in FP1 and FP3. In FP2, he slipped just a bit, and I mean bit in a very literal sense, because he fell from first to second on the speed chart.
Make no mistake about it: Unless another team steps up big time, Norris is the top contender for the 2025 World Drivers Championship. If he keeps the car clean, he'll leave Japan with a podium finish at worst.
Max Verstappen ($11.6K)
Starts First
Surprise! Despite the consensus that McLaren is faster than Red Bull this season, Max Verstappen managed to put himself on the pole for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.
Verstappen is no stranger to leading the field at lights out in Japan. He won this race last year from the pole. He also won it from the pole in 2023. Oh, and he won it from the pole in 2022.
WHAT A SESSION!
Max Verstappen. Take. A. Bow.#F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/w72EgQ5ICD
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 5, 2025
Beyond Verstappen, the pole position has been crucial here. Since the 2009 F1 return here, the winning driver has started first or second in all but one Japanese Grand Prix. The only exception was in 2019 when Valtteri Bottas won from the third position.
And in recent times, starting first has been a big advantage, even over starting second. The polesitter has won six of the last seven races here. The last time a driver starting second won at Suzuka was in 2015.
Ollie Bearman ($3.6K)
Starts 10th
The Haas F1 cars have had a strange start to the year. In the season opener in Australia, the cars started 19th and 20th and finished 13th and 14th. That might not sound awful, but they were the last two drivers to finish the race, which saw six DNFs.
But in China, the team suddenly found something, with both cars scoring points. Esteban Ocon was fifth and Ollie Bearman was eighth.
While Ocon has been the top Haas in both races, I lean toward Bearman this week in DFS for a couple of reasons. First, he qualified 10th while Ocon starts back in 18th. At a track where passing can be tough, that's a strong advantage.
Then there's the price. Bearman costs $3.6K while Ocon is $4.2K. That extra $600 can be really crucial when it comes to building a winning lineup.
Isack Hadjar ($3.4K)
Starts Seventh
Racing Bulls seems to have speed this season, though Liam Lawson only qualified 14th in his return to the team. Rookie Isack Hadjar qualified seventh, though, and it certainly looks like he should enjoy a strong weekend.
We need to give Isack Hadjar his flowers for being the fastest non-McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari driver in qualifying for the 2nd straight race. Best of the rest.
Plus, in China he outqualified a Mercedes. At Suzuka he outqualified Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari. pic.twitter.com/ZT6Ol6WNxz
— Daniel Valente 🏎️ (@F1GuyDan) April 5, 2025
No offense to Lawson, but with Yuki Tsunoda on this team, Hadjar's path to the defeated teammate points relied almost entirely on hoping that Tsunoda ran into some kind of issue. But with Lawson in the other seat this weekend, Hadjar is suddenly a much more appealing DFS option.
Defeated Teammate Picks
Trying something new this week, which is predicting each team's top driver. Let's see how it goes:
- McLaren: Lando Norris
- Mercedes: George Russell
- Red Bull: Max Verstappen
- Ferrari: Charles Leclerc
- Racing Bulls: Isack Hadjar
- Williams: Alex Albon
- Haas: Ollie Bearman
- Sauber: Nico Hulkenberg
- Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso
- Alpine: Pierre Gasly
Last race's record: 6-4
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.
