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Justin Carter's DraftKings and FanDuel DFS lineup picks for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix. Read our daily fantasy F1 advice and sleepers analysis.
Formula 1 heads to Austin this weekend for the United States Grand Prix, starting a run of three consecutive races in the Western Hemisphere. If you haven't been watching F1 because of the early start times, this is your chance.
Max Verstappen clinched the driver's championship last time out in Japan, but there's still a tight fight for second place, with Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc currently one point apart for second. While the title is decided, the Perez and Leclerc battle will be a strong one to watch down the stretch,
Below you will find our Formula 1 DraftKings DFS lineup picks for 10/23/22, with the slate locking at 3:00 p.m. ET. If you have any questions or want to talk about Formula 1, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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How Does Formula 1 Fantasy Work?
If you're familiar with using DraftKings for NASCAR, this Formula 1 format is going to feel really, really different from what you're used to. It's a lot closer to the NFL single-game showdown slates than it is to anything on the NASCAR side.
So, here's how the scoring and format work. 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 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: Carlos Sainz Jr. ($13,800)
Starts 1st
Ferrari has been really fast this weekend, and if there's a week left this season where a Ferrari driver will find a way to beat Max Verstappen, I thought this might be it, but the grid penalty for Charles Leclerc does add some extra doubt into that, as it moves Verstappen up ont0 the front row.
Still, with Sainz starting on the front row, he has a really good chance to either win or, at the very least, get a podium finish. Before crashing on the first lap in Japan, Sainz had two podiums in a row. Leclerc has gotten a lot of the attention when it comes to Ferrari this season, but Sainz is running well: he's ahead of Lewis Hamilton in points and has a career-high nine podiums this season.
Constructor: Mercedes ($10,300)
I was going to go with Ferrari here, but a 10-spot grid penalty to Charles Leclerc has me off of Ferrari now, as there's just a little too much worry there. Instead, I'm going in on Mercedes here, because they've got two drivers starting in the first two rows, more than any other team has this weekend.
Last year, the top four finishers in this race ended up finishing in the same order as qualifying. The biggest mover in the race was Sebastian Vettel, who started 18th and finished 10th. Every other top 10 spot was taken up by a driver who started in the top 10, and Pierre Gasly was the only top 10 starter to not finish there after a lap 14 suspension failure.
The point of this is that with Leclerc and Perez getting penalties, both Mercedes cars maintaining a spot in the top five at the end of the day seems like your best bet.
Max Verstappen ($12,800)
Starts 2nd
Look, let's just have some fun. By not captaining Verstappen, you're able to use him in your lineup along with Sainz, which can really help you build up a big point buffer with those two.
The argument for why to play Verstappen is really, really simple: he's the 2022 driver's champion, even though we still have four races to run. Verstappen was utterly dominant this year, winning 12 of the 19 races so far and posting the best average finish in the series: 3.9. The Leclerc penalty also moves Verstappen to the front row: he DNFed two of the first three races this season from the front row, but ever since, Verstappen has started on the front row eight times, with six victories.
Valtteri Bottas ($5,200)
Starts 7th
Bottas has hit a bit of a rough spot, finishing outside of the top 10 in nine consecutive races, and going through a four-race stretch at one point without beating teammate Guanyu Zhou. But he's beat Zhou in two consecutive races and has a big buffer over him this weekend, as Bottas starts seventh and Zhou starts 19th. Barring a DNF, it should be pretty easy for Bottas to get those points.
And while he's been struggling, I'm excited to see what he can do from a top 10 starting spot. In the five races earlier this season where Bottas started in the top 10, he finished there four times, including a best run of fifth at Imola after starting seventh.
Lance Stroll ($4,400)
Starts 5th
Stroll starts five spots ahead of Aston Martin teammate Sebastian Vettel for this one and he's earned the "defeated teammate" points in three of the last four races.
This is Stroll's best start by far this season, as his prior best was ninth at Spa, when he finished 11th. Other than that, I don't have a lot to say here. Stroll's a mid-pack driver who looks like he might be in line for his best run of the season. That's enough reason to play him at $4,400.
Mick Schumacher ($3,400)
Starts 18th
This is really the one big risk you have to take to afford two top drivers and a top constructor: you have to really make some reaches on value drivers.
Of those three (Schumacher plus Guanyu Zhou and Nicholas Latifi), Schumacher by far has the most upside. I mean...Latifi was ninth in Japan last time out, but before that, his best fantasy total of the season had been eight points.
Schumacher is thought of as a worse driver than teammate Kevin Magnussen, but he's earned the "defeated teammate" points 11 times this season, and he has an average finish that's almost right there with Magnussen, at 13.9 to Magnussen's 13.7. That's despite Magnussen having a 12.5 to 13.8 advantage in average starting spot.
The point of all that: if you have to take a chance on one of these rock-bottom pricing drivers, make it the one who has actually shown he can consistently outrun his teammate.
