F1 Fantasy Winners and Losers: 2026 Japanese Grand Prix

Winners

Limitless Chip Users

Chips have been more popular early on this season than almost ever before, and yet again, players who used them were rewarded. The top six Formula 1 drivers from the top three teams finished first through sixth, so any combination of five of those drivers yielded positive results for Limitless chip users. In fact, with no DNF’s or DNS’s at the top of the grid, top Limitless scores exceeded 300 points in a non-Sprint weekend, a very respectable haul. The ideal lineup would have included both Antonelli and Piastri, with one of them as the boosted driver. Together they scored almost 100 F1 Fantasy points alone.

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Pierre Gasly

Qualifying: P7

Race: P7

Last year, Alpine was oftentimes at the price floor when they were solidly backmarkers, but this year Alpine has made leaps and bounds to be a solid midfield team and F1 Fantasy lineup option. Gasly, in particular, has quietly been having a rock solid start to the F1 Fantasy season, scoring more than 10 F1 Fantasy points at each outing thus far. His Alpine had been reliable, and with that on-track performance came budget gains. In Japan, he finished as the top F1 Fantasy points scorer in the midfield with 14 points and a $0.2M price increase (he fell just one point shy of a $0.6M increase). 

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Kimi Antonelli

Qualifying: P1

Race: P1

The young Mercedes driver took his second win in a row and is the highest scoring F1 Fantasy driver so far this season, and it’s not particularly close, with Antonelli’s total at 150 and Russell/Leclerc at 111 each. By qualifying on pole, winning the race, and earning the fastest lap with some overtakes in between, Antonelli took home 50 F1 Fantasy points from the weekend. The next highest scoring driver was Piastri with 43 who also absorbed a $0.6M price drop. After that, Leclerc only scored 31 points. Even while slightly helped by the safety car, Antonelli looked on top form and still remains a less expensive option than several Tier A drivers. He’ll be a must-have on teams so long as he can keep this form up.

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Audi

Qualifying: P9 (Bortoleto) and P13 (Hulkenberg)

Race: P11 (Hulkenberg) and P13 (Bortoleto)

While neither Bortoleto nor Hulkenberg were able to score championship points, they were able to score a combined 23 F1 Fantasy points, making them the second highest scoring midfield fantasy team from the Japanese Grand Prix. They have been plagued by a good amount of reliability issues to start the season, but have shown flashes of solid speed in the midfield. Additionally, the teams’ mechanics should be praised, as they received 5 F1 Fantasy points for the fastest pitstop. 

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Liam Lawson

Qualifying: P14

Race: P9

Racing Bulls has had a solid start to the season overall, but Liam Lawson is the stand out F1 Fantasy asset on the team as he was the overall highest scoring midfield driver from the first three races. He gained another $0.6M in value in Japan and 10 F1 Fantasy points.

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Losers

Lance Stroll

Qualifying: P22

Race: DNF

One Aston Martin car was finally able to finish a Grand Prix distance this weekend, but unfortunately it wasn’t Lance Stroll’s. He ended the first three races of the season with 3 consecutive DNF’s and a total of -54 F1 Fantasy points. Aston Martin has no choice but to hope that the upcoming break gives them time to work out these issues to get both cars finishing races consistently.

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Haas

Qualifying: P12 (Ocon) and P18 (Bearman)

Race: P10 (Ocon) and DNF (Bearman)

Haas had spent much time in the first two race weekends of the season being the class of the F1 Fantasy midfield, but unfortunately Oliver Bearman’s scary crash and Estebon Ocon’s sole championship point for race position meant the team scored negative F1 Fantasy points for the first time this season. Despite the disappointing -4 F1 Fantasy points haul for the team, they were still able to appreciate in value due to their extremely high scoring weekends previously. 

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Alex Albon

Qualifying: P17

Race: P20

The Thai driver seemed to have been plagued by issues throughout the Japanese Grand Prix, where he had to pit six times and finished two laps down. While he hopefully  gathered data for Williams and can say he completed the race, this can’t be the start to the season that Albon had hoped for. He finished with -1 F1 Fantasy points and a $0.6M price drop.

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Isack Hadjar

Qualifying: P8

Race: P12

Redbull has had a difficult start to the season on many fronts, and Hadjar unfortunately fell four additional spots in the race from where he qualified. He has been the lowest scoring F1 Fantasy driver of the A-tier teams thus far and has consistently lost budget as well. At one point, Hadjar’s price may be low enough to make him a viable option for teams, but as of right now he remains solidly in the sell category.

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