Promoted article in association with GridRival
With the 2025 Formula 1 season-opener in Australia imminent, it’s time to pick your initial line-ups in GridRival - the original fantasy app dedicated exclusively to motorsport.
But there are more tricks to choosing your line-up of five drivers and one team than just looking at the best form coming into the new season.
When picking the best-possible drivers for your fantasy Formula 1 team, you might think ‘I need to fill out my line-up with as many world champions as possible’, but that’s not necessarily the best strategy.
That’s because GridRival isn’t just about scoring as many points per weekend as possible, it’s also about making investments that are going to make your team more money.
GridRival is free to join and to play - download the app here and then take us on in The Race league here.
You’ll sign a driver at whatever price their salary is at the time, but that salary will change based on how they perform.
With the opportunity to keep changing your driver line-up throughout the season, the more money you accrue on your budget, the stronger the line-up you’ll be able to get as the year goes on.
If you sign a driver and that driver’s salary increases by the time their contract expires, you’ll earn that added salary and have more money to spend next time you pick your team. But if you sign a driver and their salary decreases by the time you release them, that difference will be deducted from your budget.
That’s why contract lengths are important too. You can sign a driver for anywhere between one and five races. So you’ll want to base the contract length partly on when you think that driver will come good and increase in value.
For example perhaps you think one of the 2025 rookies will have increased their value after the first four or five races so they’d be a smart longer-term investment.
Ahead of the 2025 season, reigning champion Max Verstappen is the most expensive driver with a salary of £30million, nearly a third of your available budget.
By comparison, his Red Bull team-mate Liam Lawson is priced at £21.6million.
If you think Lawson’s likely to impress he’d be a smart investment now. Or if you think Oscar Piastri will lead McLaren’s charge in the early part of the season rather than Lando Norris, then take a look at Piastri as he’s £4.2million cheaper.
When picking your team you’re essentially partly picking drivers you think have been undervalued.
So look out for those drivers who seem surprisingly cheap compared to your pre-season expectations and consider filling your team out with some of them versus exclusively going for the six drivers who performed best in 2024 and fit in your budget.
But remember you’re also trying to score maximum Fantasy Points - so don’t take the quest for undervalued drivers too seriously and sign a group of backmarkers who may increase a little in value but won’t score much for you along the way and leave you in a points hole. Aim for a good spread of drivers from the top, middle and bottom.
The same is true for teams - and their value can fluctuate a million dollars more per race than drivers, with a $3million value gain (or loss) possible in a single race for your team.
So take a look at which teams have ended pre-season testing in better shape than you might’ve expected based on 2024. Could Williams or Alpine be worth a look? Would you tip any of the frontrunners to repeat McLaren’s early-2024 trick and suddenly surge forwards with an early upgrade?
Make sure you’re varying your contract lengths too. Having your whole line-up on five-race contracts won’t leave you much flexibility if you want to take advantage of someone’s form surge - or slump - and make a change but are still locked in.
GridRival is free to join and to play - download the app here and then take us on in The Race league here.
