Piastri: in the zone in ever way
McLaren
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Oscar Piastri: he’s the F1 Fantasy gift that just keeps on giving.
The young Aussie pulled out another stunner of a result in Miami to outfox Max Verstappen and then charge off to a third consecutive victory.
This weekend in Imola, not only could the McLaren man make history by winning four times in a row for his team (something last done by Ayrton Senna) but, more importantly, he’ll be on his way to becoming an F1 Fantasy legend.
Until the last race Piastri was cheaper by some margin than Lando Norris, Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, but has scored far better results (and therefore Fantasy points) than any of them.
Have you followed Motor Sport’s winning advice so far?
Mercedes
With that extra money in your pocket, now is the time to make that cash count with a radical new strategy in Italy – while there’s also a driver change that could be crucial, meaning you need to pay attention to avoid losing points.
Though Imola can be a little tricky for overtaking, today’s slightly ungainly modern cars on a narrow circuit, plus the slight chance of rain, can sometimes throw up chaos.
You need an expert to guide you through such choppy Fantasy waters, but never fear as Motor Sport is here to help you plot that path to success.
With Miami being a sprint event, we advised players to go all in with the Limitless chip, giving us an unlimited budget – and it paid off with 374 Fantasy points.
Florida’s Sunday victor Piastri was clearly the lead pick, and with DRS boost he took home a healthy 116 Fantasy points, while team-mate Norris scooped up 55 after claiming the sprint and finishing second in the GP.
2025’s Mr Reliable George Russell took fourth on Saturday and third in the main race to claim a handy 30 Fantasy points, while Verstappen’s disastrous sprint race was tempered by his pole position and fourth-place GP finish, meaning he chalked up 12.
Championship leader has a bit of a moment as he tries to do the maths on our strategy below
McLaren
Leclerc had less good fortune: he crashed out during the monsoon on the formation lap, while having an unremarkable GP resulted in a -12 Fantasy point hit.
Setting the Ferrari pilot aside, our Constructor choices delivered too, with McLaren hauling in 118 Fantasy points and Mercedes 51.
The 374 Fantasy point total showed how important it is to largely save your chips for the sprint weekends, delivering extra payback for betting on success both on Saturday and Sunday.
As a result, the Motor Sport official team now ranks 352 out of our 31k+ league – almost in the top 1%. Not bad, eh?
Stewart shares his F1 Fantasy epiphany with Andretti in Miami: “It’s all about Mercedes”
Grand Prix Photo
Several players matched our recommended team, using the Limitless chip, but dHass Auto chose Kimi Antonelli (11 Fantasy points) instead of Leclerc, to chalk up 393 on the weekend and 1609 in total, putting them at the top of the Motor Sport league.
The highest player in our table who didn’t use a chip at Miami is the now infamous Dixie Normus Racing (apparent real name Hue G Rection) who ranks eighth with 1548 points, but took a canny 274 last race weekend.
‘Dixie’ (‘Hue’ to their friends) utilised bargain basement Jack Doohan ($5m, -14) to also afford Mercedes ($24.5m) along with McLaren. He also picked Piastri, Isack Hadjar ($5.5m, 0 points), Esteban Ocon ($9.3m, 7 points) as well as Ollie Bearman ($8.7m, -4 points).
Luckily Hue’s worst performers didn’t cancel out the benefit of being able to afford Mercedes. We theorised previously that choosing super cheap drivers to afford two top teams could be the way to go – we’ll explore this more below.
The big news: Colapinto struggles to contain his joy at being announced in our new line-up
Grand Prix Photo
As we head to Imola and the F1 title race hots up, it’s also time to pull the pin on some big changes to your Fantasy team.
We previously posited that so big were the gains from pairing Mercedes with McLaren as your constructors, that it might be worth taking extreme measures in your driver line-up to make it happen.
Motor Sport has crunched the numbers, and all the evidence so far this season supports this theory.
Our most recent line-up was Piastri ($24m), Albon ($12.8m), Ocon ($9.3m) Bearman ($8.7m) Hadjar ($5.5m), McLaren ($31.8m) and Haas ($10.6m) leaving us with $0.3m in the budget.
Whether he’s at the wheel of a Lego car or Sauber (similar lap times admittedly), get Bortoleto in your team
Sauber
If we were to get rid of Ocon, Bearman and Haas for Colapinto ($4.5m), Bortoleto ($4.5m) and Mercedes ($23.4m), that would leave us with massive $0.0m left over in the budget. But would it be worth it?
Looking at the season up to this point, Ocon, Bearman and Haas have scored 272 Fantasy points.
For now we’ll assume Colapinto will perform roughly similarly to Doohan, so taking the Aussie’s scores along with those of Bortoleto and Mercedes would have brought in 318 Fantasy points – and that’s in spite of the fact the Alpine and Sauber drivers are both currently in minus numbers.
The Fantasy points benefit from the latter strategy is clear, and because we’re on the budget limit, it means the swap might not be possible at the next race due to price changes – so do it, now! Even if it means taking a -10 penalty for using an extra transfer.
The Final Fix chip wouldn’t do much for you in avoiding the penalty, as one that selected choice would revert back to your original driver after the race, and you might not be able to afford them after Imola.
If you’d already hit upon the above, ahem, genius strategy and had Doohan in your team, you need to swap him for another driver to avoid a penalty.
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