F1 Fantasy: top picks & predictions for the 2025 Miami GP

Oscar Piastri is now the fourth-most owned F1 Fantasy driver asset at 35%, and at the Saudi Arabian GP the ice-cool Aussie showed exactly why.

The Fantasy points payout was sizeable as Piastri took a consummate grand prix win in Jeddah, while his far more expensive team-mate Lando Norris floundered again by crashing in qualifying.

Now this weekend’s Miami GP sprint event offers the chance for a big carving of Fantasy points with extra prizes handed out for the shorter race – and we’ll guide you through it all the way.

Though the semi-permanent Florida circuit is yet to mark itself out as a classic, its street track characteristics can make for some slightly unusual results.

The 2022 edition saw some late-race carnage in a safety car restart, and last year Norris was able to capitalise on a yellow flag caused by a collision between two backmarkers, allowing him to convert a quick pitstop into a debut win.

Heeding this race track trait is even more crucial due the fact it’s a sprint weekend, with serious chip choices to be made.

With three wins in five F1 races and still being significantly cheaper than most of his rivals, Piastri has now made himself a must-pick in Fantasy – but who else to select?

There are big decisions to be made between two midfield chargers, a pair of young guns and whether to hang onto an ageing legend who’s still got it when it counts. Additionally, there’s the driver pick who’s just so bad, he could be the key to your Fantasy team being very, very good.

Meanwhile, which budget team is going to bring in the big Fantasy points? Read all about it in our 2025 Miami F1 Fantasy guide below.

How did Motor Sport’s 2025 Saudi Arabian GP Fantasy picks do?

Lead Motor Sport pick Oscar Piastri delivered the Fantasy points in Saudi’s desert night (76 with DRS boost), our team giving us a very reasonable 203 points overall and putting us 1326th place out of 30k+, in the Motor Sport league, well within the top 5%.

The Melbourne kid might have erred in qualifying, allowing Max Verstappen to snatch pole, but the former put things right by ultimately taking the win in the race.

It meant both scored 38 Fantasy points but the McLaren man comes in at a much cheaper $23.7m to the Dutchman’s $28.9m.

Alexander Albon delivered a solid if unspectacular 10 Fantasy points, garnered by hauling himself up from 11th on the grid to ninth at the end.

Isack Hadjar grabbed eight Fantasy big ones after a canny drive took him from 14th to 10th in the GP, while the two Haas men were reliable also – Esteban Ocon took 6 Fantasy points by gaining five places from 19th at the start, while Ollie Bearman scored five after a two-place race gain.

There are two crucial conclusions to observe from the above results.

The first is that though all our selected drivers other than Piastri might not have scored the big Fantasy hauls in Saudi, they did still score. Each of them gained places in the race, there were no DNFs or disastrous tumbles down the order.

This is key in keeping yourself in contention week after week. The second is that the Haas boys bore out our prediction pre-Saudi – i.e. that their points scored came in light of a bit of a rubbish qualifying, but making up for it in the race.

It’s tricky to know how long this is a viable strategy, but with the minnow squad continuing to somehow make it work (and its assets going up in value as a result) you might as well cling on to them until the magic formula stops.

McLaren pulled in a reliable 86 Fantasy points, such is its dominance, while Haas garnered 12. Not massive for the latter, but it’s reliable hauls we’re looking for, and the team’s still delivering.

Who’s top of Motor Sport’s F1 2025 Fantasy league? And why Doohan could be key

While DoohanThaMost, the best-performing player in Motor Sport’s league over the Saudi weekend, used the Limitless chip (giving you an unlimited budget for one race) to score the biggest points, the most useful data can be found in who tops our table currently – from players who didn’t use any chips in Jeddah.

The risqué moniker of Dixie Normus Racing (real name apparently Hue G Rection) also went with Piastri (DRS boost), Hadjar, Ocon and Bearman, but used the budget choice of Jack Doohan ($5m, 1 Fantasy point) to also pair Mercedes ($24.2m, 46 points) with McLaren.

The beleaguered Doohan is yet to finish in the top 10, but could he in fact be the key to a new F1 Fantasy hack? I.e. get one or two drivers who are so useless that their rock-bottom price means you can afford another team which is regularly chalking up strong results and gaining that crucial double Q3 appearance Fantasy points bonus too — a benefit that more than makes up for the minimal points from your bargain drivers.

It could all go wrong of course if the bargain rookies start getting minus scores, or if Ferrari and Red Bull get back ahead of the so-far very consistent Mercedes team.

To make it work you’d have to get rid of assets like Albon and Bearman ($12.6m) and Ocon ($9.1m) for Doohan ($5m) and Bortoleto ($4.5m). We’d give it a couple more races before opting for this slightly more ‘out there’ strategy.

Motor Sport’s 2025 F1 Fantasy choices: Time to have your chips

There are two ways to go this weekend: it really is stick or twist time in F1 Fantasy.

Most of your chips should be used over sprint weekends, with the added session giving more opportunities to score points.

With F1’s formbook looking pretty well established for now, we’d advise capitalising by using your Limitless chip at this event. Although your No Negative chip could be used to negate any minus scores on the sometimes-unpredictable nature highlighted above, that should be saved for sprint events that could be prone to adverse weather which can cause even more chaos, like Belgium or Brazil.

It also results in you being less reliant on front-runner to do well – and means selecting Piastri, Norris, Verstappen, George Russell and Charles Leclerc for Miami, with McLaren and Mercedes as your teams.

McLaren’s car is thought to suit Miami, and Mercedes has been next-best in terms of consistency, having scored the second-most Fantasy points so far this year.

However, if you want to keep your chips powder dry, we’d advise sticking with the same team as Saudi – which we’ve included below.

Alternatives would include saving a couple of million by switching Albon for his team-mate Carlos Sainz, or Esteban Ocon for a traditionally more consistent driver in Pierre Gasly ($8.8m), but there isn’t enough evidence to suggest doing this quite yet.

While Isack Hadjar and Ollie Bearman are the most owned drivers in the game at 53%, Fernando Alonso is incredibly the fifth-most selected at 35%, despite having scored -20 Fantasy points this year.

If you haven’t got rid of ‘Nando, do it now – he’s now so cheap at $6.2m, there’s ample time to buy him back.

Motor Sport 2025 F1 Fantasy Miami GP unchanged line-up