RADIO
Formula 1 heads to Spain this weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix. Max Verstappen is on the pole for this race and was the winner here last year, starting second and leading 24 laps. Polesitter Charles Leclerc led the first 26 laps before a mechanical failure ended his day.
Last week, F1 was at Monaco, a track where passing is tough, which is part of why Max Verstappen led every lap and why the top three drivers at the end of the race finished in the same order they qualified. Spain's not Monaco, so things could move around some, especially with some good cars not making the final round of qualifying.
Below you will find our Formula 1 DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the Spanish Grand Prix on 6/4/23, 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: Carlos Sainz Jr. ($11,100)
Starts 2nd
You might think Sainz is struggling this year, as he hasn't had a podium yet after having nine of them last season for Ferrari. But inconsistency also plagued him last year in a way it hasn't this season, as Sainz has a higher average finish this season. He's been running at the end of the race in all six events so far, and he has just one finish outside the points.
This week, Sainz starts on the front row, his best start of the year, and teammate Charles Leclerc starts 19th, giving Sainz a huge edge when it comes to earning points for defeating his teammate.
On the bad side, Sainz has finished lower than his starting spot in all but one race this year, as he started and finished fourth at Bahrain. But negative place differential points don't kick in until you lose three positions, and Sainz has only lost that many twice this year. Best chance of the season for Sainz to get a podium, and best chance to lead some laps if he's able to either get a better start than Verstappen and lead a couple early or lead during pit cycles.
Constructor: Alpine ($5,500)
Alpine is in a really intriguing spot right now, as the team has seemingly found some speed that wasn't there before. The team has finished with both drivers in the points in back-to-back races, and both drivers start in the top seven for this race, putting Alpine in a position to have its third double-points finish in a row.
It seems that this team's bringing a car to the track that's challenging Mercedes for the fourth-best spot on the grid. It's likely that Mercedes ends up winning that battle, but being the fifth-best team is nothing to scoff at.
Max Verstappen ($14,600)
Starts 1st
When Verstappen's on the pole, you should play him, because chances are he'll dominate the race. His current salary makes it a little prohibitive to captain him though, so we're using him as a normal driver this week.
Verstappen has won four of the six races so far this season. The only driver to beat him is Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, who starts back in 11th on Sunday, putting him out of position to really challenge Verstappen.
The pole has also been good for Verstappen. This is his fourth of the season, with the previous three all leading to victories. Last week, he led all 78 laps from the pole in Monaco, and before that he led 94.7% of the laps in Bahrain and 81% of the laps in Australia.
Lance Stroll ($6,600)
Starts 6th
Fernando Alonso has been the best Aston Martin driver all season, earning the "defeated teammate" points in every race so far. But this is a good week to bet on that changing, as Lance Stroll has his second-best starting position of the season, and Alonso starts a few spots back on the grid in ninth.
Risky play here because Alonso has consistently done better than Stroll, but at $6,600 to Alonso's $10,000, this is a week where I feel decent about taking this swing. Stroll has finished in the points three times this year, including a fourth in Australia. In 2020, Stroll was fourth at this track in the only race at this track where he's started in the top 10.
Lando Norris ($5,800)
Starts 3rd
Great qualifying session for Norris, who starts a season-best third. It's just the third time this season that the McLaren driver has made the final round of qualifying.
McLaren as a whole looks to be improving. Last weekend was the second double points race of the year for McLaren as Oscar Piastri has begun to find speed as well.
But Norris is also consistently outperforming Piastri. Just once this season has Piastri finished ahead of Norris, which came in Saudi Arabia when both cars struggled, as Norris finished 17th, two spots behind Piastri.
Pierre Gasly ($5,600)
Starts 4th
While Esteban Ocon third-place finish last week was Alpine's first podium of the season, Pierre Gasly had finished ahead of Ocon in the three races prior, and he starts Sunday's event three spots ahead of his teammate.
Like I wrote above, Alpine's really found speed lately, and I love the idea of playing Alpine drivers right now because they're both still priced really well for what their recent production has been. Gasly is now cheaper than Ocon after Ocon's showing at Monaco, which has me pivoting over to Gasly as my favorite Alpine play. (Obviously, the jump he has over Ocon on the starting grid is an argument in his favor as well.)
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