This Week in Racing + Zandvoort Fantasy League Strategy Review

TL;DR News 🗞️

We’ve found the most important and least important news stories in motorsports, so you don’t have to. 😘

Formula 1

• Max Verstappen drove slow in a fast car and might be in trouble.

• The FIA wants to put mud flaps on F1 Cars.

• Felipe Massa is still pissed about his 2008 championship loss.

• Martin Brundle is now part of a rap song.

• Kimi Raikkonen rode motorcycles when he wasn’t supposed to.
  

NASCAR

• NASCAR is getting its own documentary a la “Drive to Survive.”

• Scott Dixon told Bubba Wallace to “Shut the hell up,” but kindly.

• NASCAR is trying to make entering the sport easier for drivers.

• The overtime model currently in place is so confusing that NASCAR can’t keep track of it.
  

Indycar

• McLaren is suing Alex Palou. And Zack Brown is the Ariana Grande of Racing.

• Grosjean says Indycar is 30yrs behind F1 in technology.

• Grosjean says F1 cars aren’t very durable.

• Indycar had a successful test of its new Hybrid power unit.

Zandvoort F1 Fantasy League Preview 🏎

Summer break is finally over! Zandvoort is here, and given it’s been four weeks since you touched your fantasy lineup, we’re here with some hot takes and a gentle reminder.

Hot Takes:

Oscar Piastri is priced $7.2M less than his teammate. This is the 2nd largest salary gap between teammates on the grid (Aston Martin in 1st @ $8.5M and Ferrari boys in close 3rd @ $6M between LeClerc & Sainz.)

Given McLaren’s recent upgrades have provided an obvious increase in performance, we believe that If Piastri can continue to put in performances like he showed us at the Hungarian and British GP, he’s poised to rise in salary so long as he can make it to the checkered flag.

As you can see from the chart below, until his lap 1 DNF in Belgium, his salary was trending in line with Lando’s. Solid performances from Piastri will also come with some nice improvement points.

Logan Sargeant might maybe potentially be in the same position. We’re not ready to commit to the statement yet because… well, he’s a rookie with a solid track record of finishing at the back of the field (and also into walls, rocks, and other people’s rear wings.)

But after the Williams upgrade, like Piastri, it appeared as though he was about to go through a rare mid-season salary hike by finishing 13th and 11th in Austria and Britain. Then… a regression back to 18th and 17th place. If those last two races are the exception and not the new normal, Logan might perhaps probably be a great underdog pick for your fantasy team… maybe.

HaaS has been on a downward trajectory for some time. Kmag has gone from $14M to $5.8M in the last 7 races. Hulk was worth $12.4M in Baku and can now be picked up for $7.4M. Both might be in “rock bottom” territory, but any sort of upward momentum looks unlikely.

Carlos Sainz isn’t far behind, as seen in the chart below (PS, never show a chart like this to your boss.) Unlike the HaaS guys, Sainz might be able to turn things around and be a great pick to capture some team value if he makes a comeback. Watch him closely.

Gentle Reminders:

Don’t wait until Saturday to fill out your lineup. Get it done early. You can change it as much as you want until qualifying starts!

Cool Stuff! 😎

At the 12 hours of Sebring way back in 2021, GridRival had a fully sponsored Porsche GT3R thanks to a generous donation from one of our investors and co-drivers of the car. We discovered just last week that Spark Models made a scale model of the car! They only made 300 of them, so grab one soon if you want one!

The real deal:

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