Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix DFS: DraftKings Daily Fantasy F1 Lineup Picks

September 2, 2023

Justin Carter's DraftKings and FanDuel DFS lineup picks for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix. Read our daily fantasy F1 advice and sleepers analysis.

Formula 1 heads to Italy this weekend with Max Verstappen chasing history. Last week, he tied the record for consecutive wins, recording his ninth straight victory in the Dutch Grand Prix. On Sunday, he has a chance to be the first driver in F1 history to win 10 consecutive races.

But Ferrari has shown speed all weekend, and this might be the best chance all year for another constructor to beat Red Bull straight up on speed. With Carlos Sainz on the pole and Charles Leclerc firing off from third, there's a good chance that we see Ferrari get the upset victory at its home track. Although, there's a better chance Verstappen just goes out and wins again.

Below you will find our Formula 1 DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the Italian Grand Prix on 9/3/23, 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.

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:

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: Carlos Sainz Jr. ($10,500)

Starts First

The end of qualifying was incredibly exciting. Charles Leclerc set the pole time, then seconds later Max Verstappen took it from him, and then Sainz came across the line and snatched it away from Max, giving Sainz his first pole of the 2023 season.

Sainz has been fast all weekend. He went second fastest in P1 and then was fastest in P2 and P3. Both Ferrari cars have shown speed at Monza, but Sainz has been the better of the two in every session. For fantasy purposes, the fact that he costs $10,500 as a captain while Leclerc is $11,100 helps a little with lineup building, though I'd suggest mixing and matching the two of them around as captain in various lineups.

Constructor: Ferrari ($7,700)

As suggested with my Leclerc comment at the end of the above section, I'm high on Ferrari this weekend. They're in Italy. They're fast. They occupy two of the top three starting positions. And, for DFS purposes, they're surprisingly affordable. At $7,700, they're fourth in price among constructors, behind Red Bull, Mercedes, and McLaren.

Totally understand them being fourth, but a little surprised the price isn't closer to McLaren. Home race at a track where pure speed matters more than it does other places. That plays into Ferrari's strengths.

Max Verstappen ($15,400)

Starts Second

Of course, no matter how good Ferrari is, it might not matter with how Verstappen's been running. Winning nine races in a row in Formula 1 is almost unheard of—winning a 10th is actually unheard of, as its never happened before.

And while I think Sainz and Leclerc both have a chance to knock him off the throne, I'd be lying if I didn't say I expect a Verstappen victory. Red Bull's won every race this season and I don't see the team doing any strategy that would give Sergio Perez a chance to end Verstappen's win streak. They'll want the record, and they'll likely get it—remember, Verstappen won this race last year despite starting seventh, leading 34 of the 53 laps on his first Italian Grand Prix title.

George Russell ($8,200)

Starts Fourth

Last weekend was a nightmare for Russell, as he ended up finishing 17th after starting all the way up in third place. But that was such a weird race. Russell didn't pit for wet tires early on like the team called for him to do, which put him behind, and then a late tire puncture ended any shot of a comeback.

Russell comes into this race having failed to defeat teammate Lewis Hamilton in four consecutive races, another worrying sign. But Russell starts four spots ahead of Hamilton today and he just barely fits into a lineup build based on going Sainz-Ferrari-Verstappen. You can't fit Hamilton into that nearly as cleanly, so I'm betting on a Russell bounceback. He was third here last year, two spots ahead of Hamilton.

Yuki Tsunoda ($4,200)

Starts 11th

Tsunoda's 17th-place spot in the driver standings really doesn't show how well he's run this season. His average finish of 13.0 is better than three drivers ahead of him in points, for example.

He's shown speed this weekend, and while he starts just one spot ahead of temporary teammate Liam Lawson, I think Tsunoda will have the edge on race pace over the young driver. Though, I said that last week as well, and then Lawson finished two spots ahead of Tsunoda. Still, you have to take some risks on the lower end of the pricing.

(One risk could be playing Lawson instead, as he's $1,200 cheaper. Then you could afford Valtteri Bottas instead of having to play a Haas driver.)

Niko Hulkenberg ($3,800)

Starts 13th

I said I'd stop playing Haas drivers and I did for a bit, but this week shakes out just right for Hulkenberg to be considered a value option. He starts six spots ahead of teammate Kevin Magnussen and has finished ahead of Magnussen in three of the last four races. Mick Schumacher had one of his best runs of the year at Monza last year, finishing 12th. Hulkenberg can get more out of this car than Schumacher could.