F1 Fantasy: top picks & predictions for the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix
The top three were covered by 2sec in the previous race, and big points were scored elsewhere – who's in your 2025 Bahrain GP Fantasy team? Here are our predictions; tips on drivers to avoid; which chips to play and further analysis
Will you be swayed by Verstappen's Japan victory?
Red Bull
To join the official Motor Sport magazine 2025 F1 Fantasy league, click here.
Each of the four F1 races so far in 2025 has been won by different drivers – we did say it would be competitive, after all…
That’s meant making your crucial F1 Fantasy choices even trickier. Now’s the time to pay ever more attention to our race-by-race guide.
Max Verstappen was superlative at Suzuka, paying back just the 17% of those who owned him with a 36-point Fantasy haul.
He was closely followed by the two McLaren drivers in a finish covered by just 2.1sec.
With barely a Paddock Club napkin between them, this all makes choosing the right F1 Fantasy team this weekend all the more important.
How did Motor Sport’s 2025 Japanese GP Fantasy picks do?
Cheer up Oscar, you’re a top Fantasy pick
McLaren
Motor Sport’s recommended team clocked up a respectable 149 points – and this was without any chips used.
Oscar Piastri, who is owned by 30% of players, scored 24 Fantasy points, which was then turned to 48 by our DRS Boost.
Isack Hadjar finally got the top-10 finish his pace so far this season with eight Fantasy points for his eighth-place finish, as did Alexander Albon for finishing ninth.
Fernando Alonso was given four Fantasy points for dragging his recalcitrant Aston Martin from 13th to 11th, while our outside bet Liam Lawson sadly landed on a -4 after finishing 15th on his Racing Bulls return.
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Currently F1’s fastest team, McLaren delivered a solid 71 points after P2/P3 in both the race and qualifying, while Racing Bulls came in with 14 points following Hadjar’s Q3-plus-points finish.
While it was a largely uneventful race which followed the performance patterns so far this year, the one standout driver was from Ollie Bearman who came home 10th.
Though he only scored four Fantasy points, his relative value ($6.7m before Japan) combined with a storming drive in China made him worth a pick.
In terms of the Motor Sport league, we’re still currently in the process of many players simply blitzing through all their available chips (and therefore racking up huge scores), and the same being true again of Suzuka.
After using their No Limit chip, 777team777 racked up 293 points by selecting Verstappen (72 with DRS boost), Norris (27) Oscar Piastri (24), Kimi Antonelli (23) and Charles Leclerc (20), with McLaren (71) and Mercedes (56) selected as constructors.
Motor Sport’s 2025 Japanese GP Fantasy choices – Changes in the midfield?
Now’s the time to purchase Bearman
Haas
Looking ahead to this weekend’s race, it appears again like Oscar Piastri will be right there with McLaren team-mate Lando Norris – at $7m cheaper, we’re sticking with the Australian.
If you don’t have Alex Albon in your team, then you should. At $13m and rising, this consistent Fantasy point scorer could soon be as valuable as assets who have much faster cars, such as the Mercedes drivers.
The same goes for Isack Hadjar, who clearly has the car and pace for top-10s, but is only priced at $4.5m. Buy him now!
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Fernando Alonso hasn’t exactly been a Fantasy points machine so far, but he did score in Japan, and priced at just $7m has a much higher potential than many of the other similarly priced assets. Alonso and Aston usually go well at Bahrain, which puts sticking with the Spaniard in his favour. Furthermore, McLaren and its drivers are so expensive, you don’t have many other options.
We would advise one change though. Liam Lawson ($7.8m) didn’t show the fight everyone was hoping for in Japan, qualifying 14th and finishing 15th. Therefore, we’d advise swapping him for Ollie Bearman, who costs $7.3m and looks likely to rise further with two-star performances so far this season.
Though Haas hardly set the world alight in Bahrain during testing, buying Bearman now could well pay dividends in the future.
With McLaren still bringing in the biggest points, it would definitely pay to stay with the championship-leading Constructor. Currently, Racing Bulls ($8.6m) looks like the best bet for other team you can afford with the money left, but that could change if Haas keeps punching above its weight.
Should I use any chips in the 2025 Bahrain GP F1 Fantasy round?
Due to this not being a sprint weekend and, with no adverse weather scheduled, likely not to be a topsy-turvy contest on the form side, we’d advise not using your chips this weekend.