Welcome to Fantasy Formula 1! The newest sport on Fantrax is here, so grab your friends, start a league, and get to select your drivers. It’s Round 3 and the third race is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne this coming weekend. We are here to help get your driver selection correct for Round 3! For a thorough explanation on how the sport and fantasy sport of Formula 1 works check out our explanatory piece from last week.
Australian Grand Prix: Driver Power Rankings
Instead of like previous weeks, where we made our top choices for each tier in the default Fantrax tiers version of F1 Fantasy, this week we’ll rank all 20 drivers in order of how we think they’ll score down under! These rankings should be applicable for nearly everyone playing Formula 1 on Fantrax this week! Note that these are not in order of expected finishing position but instead in order of expected fantasy points scored. That means they’re incorporating all the scoring categories like finishing ahead of your teammate, places gained and lost, etc.
1. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari (DrvB)
The Leclerc vs Verstappen rivalry this season is really heating up and even though Verstappen edged out Leclerc in Saudi Arabia via some “hard but fair” racing, we’re picking Leclerc for our top driver of the week. Verstappen is the oddsmakers’ favorite to win this week, but he’s also the favorite for pole position. If he does indeed land himself on pole, he’ll be more likely than Charles to lose places and thus lose more points. We also like the consistency of Ferrari’s cars more so far, so Leclerc is the #1 driver by a smidge and certainly the leader in Tier B.
2. Max Verstappen – Red Bull (DrvA)
As mentioned above, Verstappen is the favorite to win this week and to qualify on pole. You almost have to pick him in Tier A this week, as he far surpasses Hamilton and his struggling Mercedes team.
3. Carlos Sainz Jr – Ferrari (DrvB)
Next up we have Leclerc’s Scuderia teammate, Sainz. He’s scored back-to-back podiums in 2nd and 3rd so far, and we’re backing him to be the most consistent driver on the grid this year. He might not have the pace of the 2 in front of him, but the Ferrari package looks to be phenomenal and Sainz is a great driver.
4. Sergio Perez – Red Bull (DrvB)
Arguably robbed of a podium last week due to some unfortunate safety car timing, Perez will be looking for his first podium down under. The Red Bull car is easily top two and Perez has been close in pace both weeks to the eventual race winners. His race and luck are coming.
5. George Russell – Mercedes (DrvB)
Our 5th pick is the first semi-surprising pick of the week. The rookie Russell may not be as well regarded as his 7-time world champion teammate Hamilton, nor is he expected to finish as highly this weekend (according to the oddsmakers), but we still think he’s the 5th best driver on the grid to pick this week. The main reason being that he’s worse at qualifying than Lewis Hamilton. It may seem counterintuitive, but that means more potential places gained during the race, and those count as well in fantasy!
6. Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo (DrvC)
Yet another insult to the 7-time champion, Hamilton is picking his former Mercedes teammate Bottas ahead of him. Bottas and Alfa Romeo have looked strong to start the year with a 6th place in Bahrain and on pace for another 6th place in Saudi Arabia before dropping out with gearbox issues. Bottas should be a near-lock for the points this weekend with plenty of upside due to his relative quality in racing compared to qualifying. He also has the fantasy advantage of being very likely to beat his rookie teammate, Guanyu Zhou.
7. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes (DrvA)
Behind his current and former teammates is the usually Tier A Brit who has had an up and down season so far. After qualifying in a lowly 16th last race, he was able to fight his way back into just inside the points, P10. The Mercedes driver has admitted his team’s cars are a step or two behind Red Bull’s and Ferrari’s, and yet, he still might be the most talented driver on the grid and has the 4th highest odds of winning at the weekend. You can expect Hamilton to be one of the biggest movers in these rankings this season.
8. Kevin Magnussen – Haas F1 (DrvD)
Magnussen has hard a remarkable return to F1 thus far this season, placing 5th and then 9th for the usual back of the pack Haas team. Seeing Magnussen go toe to toe with Hamilton in Saudi Arabia was truly an impressive sight. The Dane and his American team look to have found their groove under the new regulations and will be one of the more intriguing stories this season.
9. Fernando Alonso – Alpine (DrvB)
The former champ raced well in Jeddah and had some of the best battles on the track with his teammate Ocon but was unfortunate to have battery issues and was forced to retire. Alpine looks to be a competitive middle of the pack team this season and Alonso should float at the edge of the points consistently.
10. Esteban Ocon – Alpine (DrvC)
Ocon has done well to place 6th and 7th this season and finally has the car to prove his talents in. He’s managed to beat his teammate Alonso in both races, but the odds are still on Alonso to finish higher this weekend ever so slightly.
11. Pierre Gasly – Alpha Tauri (DrvB)
Gasly is a great driver, who on his day can compete with anyone. But the Alpha Tauri cars have been seriously inconsistent and untrustworthy so far, so the Frenchman’s ranking does not necessarily match his talent.
12. Lando Norris – McLaren (DrvB)
Speaking of rankings not matching talent, Lando Norris has been one of the most promising young drivers of recent times, but McLaren are experiencing serious pace issues this season. Their cars appear to be significantly worse than last season and that’s been visible in qualifications and races. Norris does, however, have the talent to make up places during the race as well as often beating his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo.
13. Yuki Tsunoda – Alpha Tauri (DrvD)
In comes the other Alpha Tauri of Tsunoda. After a solid P8 in Bahrain, the Japanese driver suffered a devastating engine failure on the formation lap in Jeddah. He’s not expected to qualify particularly well but ought to beat the slower teams on race day.
14. Guanyu Zhou – Alfa Romeo (DrvC)
F1’s sole rookie of the season, Zhou has had a steady start to the year with 10th and 11th place finishes. He’s been a bit fortunate though, with theoretically superior drivers and cars needing to drop out, and him mopping up the places gained and points. Being so far off his teammate Bottas also seriously limits his ability to move up this list.
15. Alex Albon – Williams (DrvD)
We’re now into the “probably do not pick unless forced to” area of the rankings. Albon has the unique advantage of having Nicholas Latifi as his teammate however, meaning he’s got a 75% chance of finishing in front of his teammate.
16. Sebastian Vettel – Aston Martin (DrvC)
Aston Martin have been surprisingly poor this season. Their cars lack serious pace and they look to be fighting with Williams for last place in the Constructors’ Championship. Vettel was unfortunate to miss out on the first 2 races with Covid-19, so his he may be a bit rusty coming back to a new car. We still think he’s a better pick than his Canadian teammate, however.
17. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin (DrvC)
Stroll was a bit unlucky in Saudi Arabia when in 10th place, Alex Albon crashed into him and dropped him down out of the points. But looking forward, Aston Martin’s cars just don’t look to have the pace to consistently compete for points and Stroll doesn’t look likely to beat his former champion teammate, Vettel.
18. Mick Schumacher – Haas F1 (DrvD)
Schumacher currently holds the unfortunate title for biggest drop in rank behind a driver and his teammate. As mentioned previously, Haas have a quick car this season so expectations should be pretty high for Schumacher. The issue is that the car is fast, so Schumacher is expected to qualify well, but… his race craft is lacking so he’s expected to lose the most places of any driver at the weekend. That just doesn’t work well for fantasy.
19. Daniel Ricciardo – McLaren (DrvB)
Facing very similar issues is the local boy this week, Danny Ric. The Honey Badger has been seriously lacking his bite for some time now, and this weekend does not look much more promising. He’s expected to qualify poorly, and finish even worse, leading to a deadly combo and a nearly bottom power ranking.
20. Nicholas Latifi – Williams (DrvD)
Finally, we have the Canadian Williams driver. There’s not much to say here other than Williams are generally back of the pack, and Latifi is generally the furthest back. He’s expected to qualify and finish last. Can only go up from here though at least!
Now get picking and enjoy the third Formula 1 race weekend!