The opening race of the season is behind us, but we’ve barely recovered and now we have race 2 in Saudi Arabia at the scary fast Jeddah circuit. Before we get into the next race, we thought it would be useful to go over the Winners and Losers from the first race, aka ‘Podium or Pits’. Grab a cuppa and read on. It might just help you, if not it will make you smile!

PODIUM – Derek in Scotland

First on the podium has to Derek from Scotland who won the Bahrain Fantasy Grand Prix in the PRO Championship. He had a solid team of points scoring drivers and cars with some pretty much spot on predictions to boot. It was an epic win and he received his Lego McLaren on the Monday after the race, barely 24hrs after the flag fell. Well done Derek, the tough bit now is keeping it up for the next 22 races!

Win on Sunday, get a prize on Monday.
It's how we roll.

*not a guaranteed service, the stars aligned with delivery availability and Derek's address! https://t.co/3S0OWCNLKB

— Fantasy GP (@Fantasy_GP) March 21, 2022

PITS – Aston Martin & McLaren

2 massive names, 2 successful teams and they both have rather hefty price tags after a solid midfield performance in 2021 – McLaren of which were at the front of and looking to challenge the top teams for 2022. Not to be, well not in Bahrain anyway. Players with McLaren, Aston Martin or any of their drivers will have been left with barely a point after Bahrain. We can’t imagine either team being at the back for long, but can they recover at all before Saudi Arabia – it’s a tricky one. Personally I’d keep more than 2m distance from both teams for my Fantasy GP line up. Prices are likely to drop after race 2 as well. Unless they can work a miracle… Let’s see.

PODIUM – Stats & Charts

This is always interesting and it only gets more interesting as the season goes on – full, interactive charts and data for the game. Below are the numbers for all cars and drivers after Bahrain. There’s a lot more too, including Prediction trends, market value fluctuations, popularity swings and so much more in the Stats area. This is a PRO perk and one of the most popular features of going PRO, so if you’re not already PRO or Elite, it’s worth considering – it also loses the pesky adverts and makes the game faster too.

PODIUM – Haas & Alfa Romeo

These two were tussling with Williams over last place for much of 2021 but BOOM, come 2022 and they are at the front battling in the points on merit. Even F1 rookie, Zhou Ganou pocketed a point on his first appearance in an F1 race for Alfa Romeo. If it weren’t for some first lap contact, Mick Schumacher would have likely scored points for Haas as well as Kevin Magnussen. Haas are crazy cheap since they were so poor in 2021 and it’s a no brainer to have them in your team. The same could be said for Alfa Romeo, but they are a few million more – so it depends on where else you’re spending your budget.

PITS – Red Bull

Super fast, could have won the race, but came away with a double DNF. Over half of the 14,000+ players in Fantasy GP had the Red Bull car in their team and the sighs of despair were heard throughout homes across the land when both Max and Checo’s car conked out. Now the big question is, do you keep them or put them in for race 2, knowing they are quick, possibly the quickest – or do you avoid because of the reliability question marks hanging over them… Hmm. Maybe not put all your eggs in the Red Bull basket, that’s for sure.

PODIUM – Wild Predictions

Making predictions is all part of the fun with Fantasy GP and there’s nothing more fun than a wild prediction coming good. Ahead of the first race, Ferrari looked strong but only 9% predicted a Charles Leclerc podium – it pays to make less obvious predictions because when they do come good you’re not only bagging 10pts, but everyone else making safer predictions loses theirs – it’s a 20pt swing and it’s good fun too. Magnussen for the podium in Saudi Arabia? It’s not completely out of the question…

And finally

This week we discovered the rather fun “Engine Failure” Newsletter – compiled and written by F1 fan, Lily Herman – it’s a great read and we recommend you subscribe. It was our friend, Chainbear who shared it last week and we liked what we saw – have a read and subscribe to it here, it’s really good fun, thank you Lily!