How Hamilton's former karting rival took F1 Fantasy crown in 2023

“I don’t watch the practices, but I do look at the results. F1.com have qualifying and race pace simulations after FP2. If someone is looking like they do really well in qualifying but then the race pace is poor, I would avoid that as the game doesn’t reward you for starting high and going backwards. It’s just simple things like that which can make a big difference over the course of a season.”

Jurca began the season with a predictable line-up of names — which included Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll — while rotating in a variety of budget drivers starting with Zhou Guanyu. The Alfa Romeo driver scored a remarkable 135 points across his second F1 campaign — 92 more than experienced team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Despite his effectiveness, Zhou also only gained $2.6m in value across the season, making him a reliable budget option throughout.

“I think Zhou would have been the right one to just stick with and not make changes,” says Jurca. “He typically didn’t qualify well. He didn’t do well against Bottas. But then he would avoid DNFs and he’d usually pick up places. If anything I probably traded out of him more than I should have in the beginning. I got burned at one point by using Logan Sargeant as one of the budget driver choices and so I eventually sort of realised that I shouldn’t make changes for the sake of it. I then stuck with the same team from Miami to Silverstone.”

At this point, Jurca admits he was still “well down the order”.

David Jurca: 2023 early season line-up

Up to this point, Jurca had used no chips as he patiently waited for a moment when each would become the most effective. His rigid approach toward his line-up had also cost him valuable places in the global standings, but as racing reached Hungary, he made his first key changes of the year.

“I chose McLaren [for Hungary] as that was the first weekend where it made any sense to include them while trying to maximise my probability of success,” he says. “If you read the rules correctly and you sort of understand it, you can always find out new ways of scoring more points. For example, if two drivers [from the same team] finish in the top 10, you get 10 bonus points.

“I’d had that advantage with Red Bull and Aston up until that point, and then it switched from Aston Martin to McLaren. Getting that timing right and not waiting, say two or three races, was key.”

With the value of Alonso, Stroll and Aston Martin soaring as a result of six podium finishes through the first eight races of the season, Jurca was able to trade them in for a resurgent McLaren just as it began its run of incredible form.

From Hungary to Abu Dhabi, the Woking marque scored a combined total of 1124 points compared to Aston Martin’s 640.

But McLaren — alongside some clever research and good timing — wasn’t the sole reason for Jurca’s success. “Entering the final third of the season is when I started to think I could actually win it,” he says. “As long as I played my chips right.”

The final moments that helped crown an F1 Fantasy champion

In a detailed analysis of his season, Jurca revealed five key moments that defined his eventual claim to the F1 Fantasy crown.

Belgian Grand Prix

The first moment came at Spa, where a simple piece of research and reading helped turn the tide of his season.

“I chose to use my Triple DRS Boost [which triples the points earned by a selected driver] on Verstappen,” he recalls. “The view there was that it’s a sprint weekend, so you’re tripling more points as there are more available and then he also had a penalty of five positions which was also beneficial. 

“The way the scoring system works, I still got the points for him qualifying well but then I didn’t get penalised for the fact that he started fifth. Then as he climbed to first, I got all the benefits from him climbing through the field via overtaking points.”

Jurca’s simple strategy paid out big, as the Dutchman scored 204 points across the weekend — courtesy of back-to-back wins in Saturday’s sprint and Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Dutch Grand Prix

“It’s not particularly exciting or interesting, but for the Dutch Grand Prix I then picked Pierre Gasly as part of my line-up,” said Jurca. “I never chose him once outside of that race but he seemed like a decent budget option to pair with Red Bull and McLaren. He ended up finishing third.”

The 15 F1 Fantasy points Gasly scored for finishing on the podium were joined by an additional 24 for positions gained and overtakes performed, giving the Frenchman a season-high total of 39. Jurca’s Red Bull and McLaren trios earned him another 276 points, which catapulted him up the global standings.

Italian Grand Prix

Next came Monza, where a return to simple research saw him exploit Ferrari’s low downforce advantage to take another step toward the top of the F1 Fantasy leaderboards. “I knew from reading the pre-qualifying and pre-race simulations that Ferrari were going to be good there,” said Jurca. “So I used my Limitless Chip“. This allowed Jurca to make unlimited changes with no cost cap, giving him a team of Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and the Ferrari constructor, alongside Verstappen, Perez, Hamilton and Red Bull.

Once again, the research paid off as he had all of the top four drivers, resulting in a massive F1 Fantasy payout.

Points earned from key moments

Singapore Grand Prix

Jurca retained Sainz for the following round in Singapore, where due to the uncertain nature of the circuit, pundits and fans alike were unsure of who would come out on top. While others guessed and some hoped for another Red Bull whitewash, Jurca used the confusion to his advantage by utilising his Autopilot Chip, which assigns DRS boost to your highest-scoring driver.

“I had always chosen Verstappen in every single race for 3x or 2x DRS boost,” he said. “The only time I didn’t was in Singapore where I let Autopilot choose for me as no one really knew what was going to happen after FP2. Luckily, I’d kept Sainz after Monza.” 

The Spaniard’s pole position and second career victory handed Jurca’s team a massive 90-point advantage over the majority of F1 Fantasy players who perhaps leaned more toward street circuit specialists such as team-mate Leclerc or even Perez — winner of the Singapore Grand Prix in 2022. But it was only in the final rounds where Jurca’s attention really turned toward winning it all.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

“Once I got into the last three races, I was paying closer attention to those around me. Going into Vegas I think I was around the top ten, then I picked the same team as the leader so moved up into second. But my last critical thing that contributed to me winning in Abu Dhabi was that I had my Wildcard Chip left, so I could make as many changes as I wanted. 

“But I couldn’t do the same strategy as I had done in Vegas. If I picked the same team as the guy ahead of me, I knew I definitely wasn’t winning. But he didn’t have any chips left so that was my only advantage. I changed my team quite a bit.” 

Alongside Verstappen, Jurca added Norris, Piastri, George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda while keeping Red Bull and McLaren as his constructors. As the chequered flag fell, the line-up combined to score 334 points — enough for Jurca to leapfrog into the title lead by just five points.

“I tried to make it as track specific as possible [by looking at previous form etc] but I was heavily debating whether I should do kind of a Hail Mary or not. 

“In that moment I think a lot of people were choosing the same teams and you would see largely the same line-ups with modest differences. So I wondered ‘do I need to be different enough from the status quo just in case?’. But then I went back to my probability thinking and stuck with what had worked for the entire season. Thankfully, it all paid off.”