F1 Fantasy: Australia puts a cat among the pigeons 

With McLaren already looking like the team to beat this season, Lando Norris rocked up in Melbourne as the title favorite. Having (finally) managed not to lose the lead into turn one, he kept his nerve against a charging Max Verstappen to take a statement win in the season opener.

This made him F1 Fantasy’s top scorer by far with 59 points, underlining his championship credentials. 25% of players called it, naming the Brit in their teams. Verstappen’s runner-up finish saw him score just 29 points, the third most of any driver.

From there onwards, things get really strange. Kimi Antonelli's fightback scored him 32 points, while popular picks like Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, and Isack Hadjar spun off and finished near the bottom of the standings. This made Australia a real mixed bag for F1 Fantasy players — many of whom will now be thinking about switching things up.

The big question is: should you stick it out to see if this was a rain-affected one-off? Quite possibly. Let’s take a look at where the points were won and lost in this week’s round-up.

Unlike the Formula 2 feature race, which was called off due to adverse weather, F1 at least got underway. Sometimes changeable conditions can play into the hands of midfield drivers, but in this case the rain didn’t necessarily help many of them.

Priced at a whopping $12.5 million and $6.6 million, respectively, Sainz and Jack Doohan scored a combined -39 points. When you consider the relative pace of the Williams and Alpine last weekend, these are pretty poor (albeit unlucky) results.

Ferrari also seemed to struggle both on-track and in the virtual realm. Charles Leclerc’s 12 points was only the eighth most of any driver. Likewise, Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari debut was incredibly disappointing considering the hype around the seven-time champion’s move. The Scuderia are prone to peaks and troughs; they’ll definitely be looking for a big improvement in Shanghai.

Another disappointingly low scorer was Gabriel Bortoleto. He scored -18 points despite 24% of fans backing him with selection. However, the Brazilian performed excellently in qualifying to deny the likes of Antonelli a Q3 berth. So don’t count him out for the races to come.

One of the biggest surprises of the weekend was Lance Stroll. The Canadian frequently comes under fire from fans for his family ties, but last week he picked up an impressive 16 points. Nico Hulkenberg also grabbed 20 points in an unfancied Kick Sauber (although 36% of players predicted he’d do well, selecting him for their team).

George Russell also scored well, pushing Mercedes to within four fantasy points of the race-winning McLaren. Given that Antonelli is the cheapest of the front-running drivers (not counting Liam Lawson), he could be a decent buy for those who missed out in round one.

When it comes to future investments, F1 Fantasy players will need to consider dynamic pricing too. Antonelli’s price went up $0.6 million, as did the price of Stroll, Hulkenberg, and Alex Albon, who scored a tidy 17 points. By contrast, poor performers saw their price drop by the same amount. This could turn the likes of Sainz and Alonso into bargains as the season goes on.

Hortini Racing topped week one of the GP247 F1 Fantasy league. They actually scored minus points for four of their drivers and their two teams. Activating DRS on Norris turned out to be the key, scoring them 177 points. This year, DRS could be as important in fantasy as the real thing.

We should also give a shout-out to some of the best names in the competition so far. 'Doohan my hardest' and 'Weiner takes all' are both great efforts. Keep up the good work! It’s not too late to join our F1 Fantasy league; you can still take part here.

In the meantime, it will be fascinating to see if the order in Australia repeats itself in China. If not, we could well see a shake-up in the order — both in real life and the F1 Fantasy league.