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Each season, fantasy strategists look for the prime opportunity to gain more points than the competition. Many recent podium finishers in the Global League, including 2023 champion David Jurca and 2024 champion Andrew Harris, took bold chances that launched them to F1 Fantasy stardom. One overlooked scenario may be the key to a huge score, so what should we look to capitalize on this season?
For the past three seasons Max Verstappen provided the highest single-race score on a weekend at which he took an engine penalty. Since F1 Fantasy Tools began recording fantasy scores in 2022, the reigning World Champion served four power unit-related penalties: two in 2022 at Spa and Monza, one in 2023 also at Spa, and one in 2024 at Interlagos. Remarkably, in all four cases Verstappen went on to claim the race victory and delivered three of the highest scores by a single driver in F1 Fantasy history.
Verstappen's brilliant 2022 Belgian Grand Prix included 13 positions gained, 7 overtakes, Driver of the Day, and the Fastest Lap en route to a race win and the second highest score of his career. While he finished on the top step at Monza later that season, he started higher on the grid and only needed to gain 6 positions to win. Spa hosted a Sprint in 2023, where Max posted the Fastest Lap and won the Sprint, started P6 after the penalty, and claimed both the victory and Driver of the Day in another season-high performance.
Last season, McLaren and Ferrari caught up to Verstappen's Red Bull. His early-season dominance faded and Verstappen hadn't won the previous ten Grands Prix heading into Brazil. After taking his final allocated combustion engine, turbocharger, MGU-K, and MGU-H earlier in the season, Verstappen succombed to taking an engine penalty. On a historically wet weekend, Verstappen qualified P12 for the Grand Prix and lined up P19 with the penalty. Betting lines and race simulations predicted a difficult weekend for Verstappen and the odds were stacked against him.
In response, Max turned in an all-time performance, storming through the grid to gain 16 positions and win his fourth straight Grand Prix after taking an engine penalty. He recorded the Fastest Lap and was awarded Driver of the Day in a drive that defined his legacy. Verstappen scored 77 fantasy points and set an all-time record for a single race, a handsome reward for strategists that bet on the reigning champion.
What can we learn from these examples? First, if an elite driver elects to replace engine parts late in the season they possess a unique advantage that enables them to move up the grid. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Red Bull continue to select the optimal weekends for Verstappen to take the penalty and move up the grid. If Verstappen takes a grid penalty in 2025, consider selecting him and using the 2X DRS Boost with the hopes that lightning strikes again. While difficult to predict, lining up a Verstappen engine penalty with the Limitless chip reduces the number of transfers required to bring Max into your lineup, allows players to double-dip on these positions gained by running the Red Bull constructor, and enables a hedge through selecting other top drivers in the event that Verstappen fails to reach the podium.
With 2024 yielding mixed results from the Limitless chip and the field tighter than ever before, look out for the Verstappen engine penalty as a key differentiator this season.
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