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Justin Carter's DraftKings and FanDuel DFS lineup picks for the Formula 1 British Grand Prix. Read our daily fantasy F1 advice and sleepers analysis.
Formula 1 heads to Silverstone this weekend for the British Grand Prix. Last year, Carlos Sainz won this race, his lone win of the 2022 season and the third of three wins last season for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton has been dominant here in the past, winning eight times on this circuit, most recently in 2o21.
F1 was last in action last weekend in Austria, with Max Verstappen winning once again. It's become routine at this point, with Verstappen winning five races in a row and seven of the nine races this season. The only times he didn't win? He finished second, behind only his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez. Just domination from the two-time world champion, who is cruising to a third title.
Below you will find our Formula 1 DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the British Grand Prix on 7/9/23, with the slate locking at 9:00 a.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?
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: Lando Norris ($10,200)
Starts Second
Norris just keeps qualifying well, as this marks the fourth race in a row he's been seventh or better on the grid. His season-high second-place starting spot puts Norris in a good position to contend for his best finish of the year and, potentially, his first podium since Imola last year.
One concern is that Norris hasn't always put the best race together after a strong start. He had issues at Spain and Canada, dropping him outside the top 10. But he finally put it together last weekend in Austria, qualifying fourth and finishing fourth, though DraftKings credits him with a fifth-place finish because it marked Carlos Sainz down as finishing fourth before he was later hit with a time penalty that dropped him to sixth.
Constructor: McLaren ($5,200)
I already discussed why Norris is my captain pick above. Now, let's talk about why McLaren as a whole is my constructor pick. First, value. This team has shown a lot of speed lately, but McLaren as a whole is only $5,200. There's a huge jump from this team to Aston Martin, the fourth-highest-priced constructor, at $8,300.
Part of why they're priced like they are? Oscar Piastri hasn't been as quick as Norris. The first-year driver has finished outside the points in three consecutive races, and his best result all year was just eighth.
But Piastri has his best start of the season here, as he qualified third. McLaren looks like the No. 2 team this weekend—if there's a week to bet on McLaren as a whole finishing well, this is the week.
Max Verstappen ($15,000)
Starts First
Yeah, we've got to make room in our lineup for Max Verstappen, who is chasing his sixth consecutive Formula 1 victory. And there's not really much else to say here—he's in a class of his own and the only car capable of beating him straight up is his teammate, who'll start this race in 16th place. Who's touching Verstappen?
Really, the only anti-Verstappen argument aside from "his salary is too high" is that if you fade him and he has some kind of mechanical issue, you'll end up probably in the money just because so many other lineups have him. That's a viable move in GPPs, but in head-to-head contests you really can't risk not playing Verstappen with how his 2023 season has gone.
Charles Leclerc ($10,200)
Starts Fourth
Leclerc rolls off fourth, and I think it's reasonable to think he'll be running third by the end of the first lap—no offense to Oscar Piastri, who starts third, but my money is on Leclerc finding a way around him.
This has been a good track for Leclerc, who has three podiums in six starts. He led 49 laps here in 2021 before Lewis Hamilton got past him late and he wound up second, and his worst finish in his last five starts here is fourth. Barring some kind of issue with the car, hard to not see Leclerc finish fourth or better again on Sunday.
Alexander Albon ($5,200)
Starts Eighth
Feel like I say this every week, but if you want a guaranteed five points for defeating your teammate, then Alexander Albon is the man for your DraftKings lineup.
Albon finished 11th last week, just missing out on his second consecutive finish in the points. He was ahead of teammate Logan Sargeant for the sixth race in a row. I'm not sure Albon will have the car under him to stay in the top 10, but I'm confident that if he's running at the finish of this race, you're getting at least five points from him. That's worth something.
Nico Hulkenberg ($4,200)
Starts 11th
Every week, I say "Justin, stop recommending Haas drivers," and then every week I keep doing it. Hulkenberg, who starts 11th this week, is coming off a string of three races with a top 10 starting spot, and his best finish in any of those races was 15th.
But I think there's some upside here. Less chances for negative place differential since he starts in 11th, which is one plus, and then he also has a big early edge over his teammate in the race for the five points for defeating your teammate, as Kevin Magnussen fires off 20th.
