F1 Fantasy 2022: Belgian GP

We are back and it’s finally race week in Formula One again! What a dramatic summer break we’ve had, but finally we head to Belgium in the next stage of F1 2022’s world battle.

The summer break has been full of drama! First, we had Vettel confirm he was retiring from F1 just before the last race in Hungary, however, this is only where the action begins.

Alonso has announced he will be moving to Aston Martin to replace the German, which came as a surprise to all, not least Alpine.

The constructors then followed this announcement with one of their own, declaring that their junior and former F2 champion Oscar Piastri would be racing alongside Ocon for the 2023 season.

To many this would be the end of the drama however Piastri come out to declare that the announcement by Alpine was not true and he would not be driving for them in 2023.

This came as a surprise to most in the F1 community, who expected him to be driving in F1 this season let alone in 2023.

I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year.

— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) August 2, 2022

However, it appears that Oscar had been planning to make sure he was guaranteed a seat in F1 before he knew Alonso was on the move.

It appears he will be racing at McLaren next season, although this is still to be confirmed with both the driver and the team being fairly quiet on the situation.

Daniel Ricciardo, however, has since come out to confirm that he will not be continuing with McLaren for the 2023 season. This has come after all parties said they were fully committed to each other next season.

So, with all this summer break driver drama, the questions still remain as to who will take McLaren’s second seat, although Piastri seems certain. And which team will want to have Ricciardo in their car for the 2023 season?

All that is certain the driver move drama will continue into the coming weeks and months.

Even without all these driver moves, we have plenty of action to look forward to with a triple header of racing action starting with this weekend’s Belgium GP.

So, the big question is, what should you do with your F1 Fantasy team? And do you keep any of the drivers on the move in your teams?

Personally, I think we will see all the teams who are losing a driver at the end of the year start to focus purely on their driver who will be staying for 2023 – the only team who may not follow that trend could be Aston Martin with Vettel.

This for me would mean removing Alonso and Ricciardo from your teams for future weeks as Ocon and Norris will become firm number 1 drivers for their respective constructors for the remainder of the season.

A good way to start the second half of the season will be with some extra bonus streak points. So, let’s take a look at where you can pick up some extra points this race weekend.

They are currently two teams and three drivers who will be able to score you extra points this weekend. The two constructors are however the most expensive two to have in your team.

Red Bull are able to hit the race bonus streak if both drivers finish in the top 10 and Mercedes are able to pick up their small bonus points if they manage to get both drivers into the top 10 in qualifying.

The drivers to look out for are Lando Norris, who will be able to get an extra 10 points if he manages to finish this weekend in the top 10 come Sunday’s race.

Charles Leclerc is another driver who can score you bonus points with him able to earn an extra 5 bonus points by reaching Q3 on Saturday.

However, this race weekend, Lewis Hamilton is the man who can get both qualifying and race bonus streak points.

With his recent improvements and upsurge in form, most F1 Fantasy managers will be thinking about bringing him in to their teams, especially with this double bonus chance this weekend.

Lewis is however still the most expensive driver to own and is owned by 17% of F1 managers currently.

Don’t forget! As we head into the second half of the season all F1 Fantasy managers will have their Mega Driver back to play one more time this season and you will also have a new wildcard to change all selections within your team.

As always, feel free to join the FansBet F1 Fantasy league by using the code f085821697 in the join/create league section, let us know how you are getting on and if you have any tips of your own.