Race our Writers! – How Oliver Bearman became the F1 Fantasy MVP

Oscar Piastri may have won two of the last three Formula 1 grands prix but, much like in the drivers’ championship, it is his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris who still leads the way at the top of the F1 Fantasy points scorers.

Victory last time out in Bahrain for Piastri does make the Australian an intriguing prospect ahead of the next race, in Jeddah this Sunday, especially given Piastri remains the cheaper option – costing players $23.4million as opposed to the lofty $30million required to have Norris.

The F1 Fantasy algorithm respectively lists Norris and Piastri as the second and third value for money drivers so far in this year’s game – but neither of them comes close to Oliver Bearman, who continues to impress for Haas.

Points finishes in his last three races have seen the 19-year-old catch the eye and he is currently the best value driver in the world of F1 Fantasy. Bearman is also currently owned by 53% of players (only Isack Hadjar has more), while his valuation has increased by $1.2million since the start of the season.

Here, the current best-performing journalist in the Race our Writers league, Filip Cleeran offers his advice for this weekend – as does Mark Mann-Bryans, who is some 163 points behind his colleague.

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Peter Fox – Getty Images

Filip Cleeran, F1 reporter, Motorsport, Somebody Fuel Fil: “I recently swapped out Norris for Piastri and that switch paid dividends in Bahrain. Don’t get me wrong, I do back Norris to find his form again with the 2025 McLaren, but with Piastri being cheaper it makes the Aussie an easy pick.

“Alongside Piastri and McLaren, the other slots are harder to fill due to budget constraints. For Jeddah, which is a vastly different circuit than Bahrain, I will be hedging my bets rather than going all in on Racing Bulls. I have switched from Alex Albon to his Williams colleague Carlos Sainz, which is giving me the budget headroom to both keep Pierre Gasly and draft in Esteban Ocon.

“Hadjar stays in, but I have gone for Haas as my second constructor to have a nice spread of midfield teams in my line-up.”

Mark Mann-Bryans, F1 business correspondent, Autosport, MMB Racing: “I was well up with the frontrunners after the first couple of races but have fallen off a cliff in terms of point scoring in recent rounds, well done to Fil…

“I’m going to keep faith with Norris this weekend because I have a feeling that he knows he needs to deliver to shake off any questions surrounding him at the moment. Piastri is the man on form, but I think his McLaren team-mate will be on the top step come Sunday night.

“In terms of actual changes, I’ve dropped Fernando Alonso as even he is struggling to get a proper tune out of the 2025 Aston Martin, jumping on the bandwagon by replacing him with the altogether more upwardly mobile Bearman. My other change is bringing in Alpine to replace Racing Bulls as my constructor, although having Sauber as my second team is becoming a growing concern.”