RADIO
Formula 1 heads to Singapore this weekend for what might be the most exciting Grand Prix of the year. Many teams have made upgrades this weekend, Red Bull looks down, and there was an adjustment to the track layout ahead of this season's race.
A little more on that Red Bull part: for the first time all year, neither Red Bull car made it to the final round of qualifying. Both went out in Q2. The last time that we had a Q3 without at least one Red Bull car? The 2018 Russian Grand Prix. Is this the weekend that Red Bull's winning streak comes to an end?
Below you will find our Formula 1 DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the Singapore Grand Prix on 9/17/23, with the slate locking at 8:00 a.m. ET. If you have any questions or want to talk about Formula 1, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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: George Russell ($12,300)
Starts Second
There's one Ferrari ahead of George Russell at the start of this race, but this track feels like it really fits the Mercedes better, so I expect Russell to get the lead. He's my pick to end the Red Bull dominance. He was the last non-Red Bull driver to win an F1 race, winning last November in Brazil.
That Russell victory is the only time a driver other than Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez has won a race since July 10 of last year. It's just such a wild run from that team. But the speed isn't there this weekend. I'm riding hard with George Russell this weekend.
Constructor: Ferrari ($7,600)
Ferrari starts first and third on Sunday, with Carlos Sainz on pole and Charles Leclerc behind him. Last race at Monza, Ferrari finished three/four, and the team was a good bit ahead of every non-Red Bull car.
I think Mercedes should have good speed on Sunday so I don't think Ferrari just walks off from the field, but with the Red Bull cars buried on the starting grid, Ferrari should be in contention for two of the top four spots in the final finishing order, unless Red Bull just magically discovers something between now and then.
Mercedes is a good constructor pick as well, but Ferrari at $7,600 vs. Mercedes at $9,300 is why I lean toward Ferrari. I can build a star-studded lineup with Ferrari as my constructor.
Lando Norris ($9,000)
Starts Fourth
If you can't tell by now, I'm going full fade on Verstappen. He's $15,800 and doesn't have speed this weekend. Maybe I'll look stupid when he ends up inevitably winning again, but I just think this is the chance for us to finally build some interesting lineups.
Lando Norris rolls off fourth on Sunday, giving him a big edge over teammate Oscar Piastri, who was trapped on his qualifying lap by the Stroll crash and ended up out in Q1. Norris has finished in the top 10 in six consecutive races, and has beaten Piastri in all six of those.
Fernando Alonso ($8,800)
Starts Seventh
After his qualifying crash, Lance Stroll starts 20th. That gives his Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso a great shot to finish as the top Aston Martin driver for the eighth race in a row.
Alonso has finished in the points in all 14 races this season. While he isn't displaying the speed he did earlier in the year, when he had a podium in five of the first six races, he's still running consistently strong races.
Carlos Sainz Jr. ($7,400)
Starts 1st
With how they're priced, you can take your pick with which Ferrari driver you trust more. I lean toward Carlos Sainz over Charles Leclerc since Sainz has the pole and will have a clearer track ahead of him, but I expect both drivers to be competitive and compete for podiums.
Sainz has finished as the top Ferrari driver in both races since the end of the summer break, something that's worth noting. He led 14 laps at Monza and looked like a threat to end the Red Bull winning streak. It didn't happen, but maybe this week is the week for Sainz to get his first win of the season.
Liam Lawson ($4,000)
Starts 10th
AlphaTauri put more improvements into the car ahead of this race than any other team and it showed in qualifying. Yuki Tsunoda topping Q1 might have been mostly a timing thing because of when the Lance Stroll crash happened, but Liam Lawson outqualified Max Verstappen on speed in Q2.
Lawson has impressed in his brief F1 tenure, finishing 13th in the Dutch Grand Prix and 11th in the Italian Grand Prix. He was head of Tsunoda in both of those races. Lawson's got a good chance to earn one of the AlphaTauri seats for next season, and a good chance to get his first F1 points on Sunday.
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