Our Australian GP recommended team got in and around the top 10% of every league with 159 points, and were very close to doing even better.

Lando Norris took a lights-to-flag win from pole (118 with DRS Boost), our back-marker bet Nico Hülkenberg (20) rose to seventh, while Yuki Tsunoda (0) and Fernando Alonso (-20) were both set for points before late-race disasters.

Only Isack Hadjar (-20) – who managed to crash on the formation lap – was the unmitigated disaster by not even making it to the actual race.

The French driver had promising pace in the dry sessions prior though, and with the forecast looking good this this weekend’s Shanghai contest, it bodes well for sticking with our above selection for another race.

Our constructor picks of McLaren (71) and Racing Bulls (-10) were solid, and would have pulled in even more points but for the circumstances mentioned previously.

However, choices for other players that looked nailed on for results sadly failed their Fantasy team principals.

Oscar Piastri spun off while in second, steady hand Carlos Sainz ended in the wall on lap one, while Lance Stroll – a driver who hadn’t scored a point in 12 grands prix – suddenly turned up trumps with a sixth-place finish, as rookie Kimi Antonelli stormed through from 16th to fourth in one of the best F1 debuts ever.

A dry qualifying followed a by wet race meant Saturday night predictions went out of the window. It would have been reasonable to think Q3 heroics by Williams and Racing Bulls would translate into a solid points finish – but only one car from that four managed to do so.

Others like Ferrari flattered to deceive too. Charles Leclerc topped one of the practice sessions on Friday, but never looked a threat on Sunday, eventually finishing eighth.

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How did Motor Sport’s 2025 Australian GP Fantasy picks do?

To put it bluntly, if you’d have followed our first team picks last week, you’d have done pretty well.

To get in amongst the very top scorers, you would have had to get rid of McLaren or sacrifice a decent second team like Aston Martin or Racing Bulls (and replace them with Haas or Sauber) to be able to afford a reasonable midfield asset like Alex Albon and give him the DRS Boost – before handing Norris the ‘triplifier’ Extra DRS boost.

Throwing all caution to the wind, this is exactly what the ‘Iain’s sausages’ team (340) did to top the Motor Sport magazine league (join here). Plucky Iain’s strategy was a high risk one, as siding with Norris (177 with Extra DRS Boost) and Albon (34 with DRS Boost), he was only able to afford F1’s newly crowned worst team Haas (14) along with McLaren. Haas racked up said points by virtue of, well, not crashing and finishing last with both its cars. It’s unlikely the Banbury kids will hit such heady Fantasy heights again soon, but it worked this time around.

His other picks were Nico Hülkenberg (20), Lance Stroll (16) and Esteban Ocon (8). Though we’d suggest sticking with The Hulk, it is unlikely these drivers will pull in such similar scores either again soon or on a regular basis.

As we stress, going for the triple points Extra DRS boost one was super high-risk – and you’re missing out on a Sprint weekend too. Norris nearly ended his race after skating through the gravel trap, and it could have so easily been Alex Albon who ended up in the barriers after a torque surge, rather than his Williams team-mate Sainz.

Who should I pick for my 2025 Chinese GP Fantasy choices?

Make Norris your first choice – and give him Extra DRS Boost

Lando Norris is our number one pick for Shanghai. If he’s already in your team, leave him there. If not, find a way to make it happen. At the very least, Norris should be your DRS pick to double his race weekend score.

The McLaren man has said he expects to be quicker in China than in 2024, after a strong showing last year in a car that was slightly off the pace. He took pole in the Chinese GP sprint last year, before finishing second in the GP. Armed with a better, more well-balanced MCL39 this season, he should do even better this time.

If you’re feeling extra confident, we’d advise putting the Extra DRS Boost triple points chip on Norris due to the increased points garnered from the sprint format. The McLaren has a clear performance advantage over the rest of the field. Now’s the time to make hay.

As we predicted pre-race for Australia, it wasn’t really worth compromising your line-up with overpriced midfield assets – unless you were prepared to have Haas as your second team, which was a pretty risky way to go (although it paid off this time).

Carlos Sainz (now $12.5m) crashed on the first lap in Melbourne, Pierre Gasly finished out of the points ($11.2m), and Alexander Albon ($12.6m) was behind Tsunoda until the latter’s Faenza friends did him dirty by keeping him out on slicks while it was, err, raining.

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Avoid Verstappen till Red Bull sorts out its car

Verstappen looks like he’s challenging the McLaren man by out-driving his Red Bull, demonstrated by going off at one point in Australia. Unless updates bring his Milton Keynes machine to the fore soon, we’d advise avoiding the Dutchman.

Stick, don’t twist with your 2025 F1 Fantasy team – if you followed our Australia advice

We’d also advise sticking with the rest of our Australian GP choices for now because, as highlighted above, four out of five looked set to score points until the final third of the race.

If you removed Alonso ($8.2m) the next best driver you can afford is Lance Stroll. Despite his sixth in Australia, he’s not exactly a reliable choice.

Therefore the same goes for the other drivers – all have a decent chance of doing well judging by their speed in the dry sessions, particularly in light of the fact they’d showed similar/better pace than above mentioned more-expensive assets.

To be able to afford either Sainz or Albon for example, you’d have to remove the current best driver or team in the shape of Norris or McLaren, or go for slower-than-a-slow-thing Haas – it’s not advisable to do any of those just yet.

Though three of our picks have gone down in value due to their respective non-scores, a highly competitive championship will likely see them score at this race or the next.

And so, your budget should come back to you. If you stick with our current recommendations, a competitor could be able to afford Williams ($12.9m) relatively soon (if you view that as an upgrade on Racing Bulls), and then if the Grove team keeps scoring points, you could then afford an asset like Sainz or Albon.

Alonso qualified third for last year’s Chinese GP – we’re going to put our standard DRS on the Spaniard this time around.

2025 F1 Fantasy budget choices

Last week we also advised players to split their choices with a ‘Value Pack’ second team (F1 Fantasy lets you choose up to three squads), with the aim of the picks appreciating value, therefore making you stronger in the transfer market further along in the season.

We’ll admit it, our ‘Value Pack’ team didn’t too well at the weekend, mainly due to Lawson, Alonso and Sainz all crashing out, as well as Tsunoda snatching a non-score from the jaws of fifth place.

We’d advise a slight tweak if you still wanted an alternative to the Route One method of Norris and McLaren.

Lawson ($17.4m) looks like he could continue to struggle, so why not swap him for fifth-place finisher Alexander Albon ($12.6m)? That then means that as far as constructors go, you can also swap Racing Bulls for the slightly more reliable Williams ($12.9m).

As Antonelli – who is still learning on the job – is your strongest driver, we’d suggest saving the Extra DRS Boost for another sprint weekend for now.

How will the 2025 Chinese GP sprint affect my F1 Fantasy chip choices?

You gain more points over a sprint weekend so, if you think Norris or whoever your top pick is to blitz the field, you could use your Extra DRS Boost to maximise their points, then use your normal DRS for your next best choice.

There are other chips you could use instead. If you don’t look the like of what you saw in the sprint proceedings, you can use the Final Fix chip to change one asset between the sprint and qualifying or between qualifying and the GP.

We also advised to choose constructors that would get through to Q3, but these points gained were then negated by an unusually high number of non-finishers, particularly at Williams and Racing Bulls.

If you think the chaos seen in Australia will continue and wanted to avoid a similar fate, you could use your No Negative chip which erases all negative scores – handy!

Last-minute super subs

There’s something else to be noted for this sprint weekend.

If one of your selected drivers competes in the sprint but is replaced before qualifying for the grand prix, you’ll be given a transfer suggestion to avoid a ‘Not Classified’ penalty.

However, the suggestion still comes out of your transfer limit – so it will result in a -10 point penalty if you exceed your transfer limit.

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