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The summer break is over and Formula 1 is all set for the Dutch Grand Prix. Will the month off help some other team figure out to win an F1 race? So far, Red Bull has been victorious in all 12 races this season, with Max Verstappen winning 10 of those, including the last eight in a row.
Verstappen is on pole for Sunday's race, starting beside Lando Norris in a mixed-up grid, with six different teams making up the first six spots in the field. This has a chance to be a pretty weird race. For example, we've got two Williams cars in the top 10. We never see that kind of thing.
Below you will find our Formula 1 DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the Dutch Grand Prix on 8/27/23, 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 ($14,100)
Starts Second
No one's beaten Red Bull yet this season, but if someone does, my money at this point is on it being Lando Norris based on how he's run lately. After a slow start to the season, Norris has finished in the points in four consecutive races, including a pair of runner-up finishes. He was seventh in the Belgian Grand Prix, struggling on the opening lap but fighting back to finish where he began the day.
This weekend, Norris was sixth in FP1 and first in FP2. On Saturday, he turned the second quickest lap with a 1:11.104, behind only Verstappen's 1:10.567.
He's also earned the "defeated teammate" points in four consecutive races as well. Oscar Piastri has definitely improved as well with McLaren's overall uptick in performance, but Norris is still consistently outrunning him.
Constructor: Aston Martin ($6,400)
Part of me wanted to be really risky here and go with Williams at constructor for just $3,100, but the chances of that working out feel slim. Instead, I'm taking Aston Martin. There are five teams that have a viable chance at scoring double-digit DFS points and in a race where the starting grid is this shuffled, my idea here is to take the cheapest of the five, giving you a little more salary room to mess around with.
Max Verstappen ($15,400)
Starts First
Verstappen's won eight races in a row. He's also the only driver in this field with a win at Zandvoort, as F1 didn't race here between 1986 and 2020. When the series returned in 2021, Verstappen won from the pole, leading 64 of 72 laps.
Then, one year later, he qualified on pole again. He only led 58 laps that time, but he came away with the victory again. His performance on this track has been consistently strong. Barring mechanical issues or an unexpected crash, it's really hard to see anyone dethroning Verstappen this weekend. There will be a time for him to lose, but I'm not predicting Sunday to be that time.
Pierre Gasly ($5,200)
Starts 12th
Alpine has had an uneven start to the weekend. The cars were 10th and 12th in FP1, sixth and 13th in FP2, and 11th and 16th in FP3. In the end, both cars qualified outside of the top 10, with Gasly starting 12th and Ocon 17th.
I do think there's some upside here for Gasly, though. In addition to outqualifying Ocon, he was faster than Ocon in two of the three practice sessions.
He hasn't finished in the points in three consecutive races, but he came just short of that last race, finishing 11th in the Belgian Grand Prix. Little risky here, but with his advantage over Ocon this weekend, he's worth a shot.
Alexander Albon ($4,600)
Starts Fourth
My worry with Albon here is that he'll lose points for place differential, which is a valid concern. But he's also shown that he's tough to pass this season, and his performance lately has been really solid.
It's also worth noting that this wasn't just a qualifying fluke. Albon has been consistently fast all weekend. He was fifth in FP1, third in FP2, and sixth in FP3. This isn't a case of Albon running a couple of lucky laps during the qualifying sessions. He's on track to have his best race of the 2023 season.
Yuki Tsunoda ($3,800)
Starts 14th
Daniel Ricciardo won't be racing this week because of injury, and AlphaTauri has put Liam Lawson in his car to make his Formula 1 debut. Lawson's an intriguing prospect, but it's hard to make an argument that he's ready for an F1 spot start. What that means to me is that Tsunoda is a pretty easy option if you're looking for someone who can earn points for defeating his teammate.
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