Simply after we thought the mud had settled on Logan Sargeant’s mid-season exit from Williams, it appears the American’s unceremonious dumping continues to be impacting one surprising pocket of the F1 fanbase. For the 1.7 million folks taking part in the F1 Fantasy sport, a weird loophole emerged within the wake of the announcement that Sargeant would get replaced by Argentina’s Franco Colapinto for the rest of the 2024 season.
For these uninitiated, fantasy gamers draft 5 drivers and two constructors to their groups on a $100m funds every race weekend, with costs set based mostly on driver efficiency. For instance, throughout the Dutch Grand Prix — Sargeant’s last race with Williams — he crashed throughout observe and wasn’t ready to participate in qualifying, leading to a fantasy rating of -5 factors for that session.
Naturally, many gamers had been proactive in eradicating the 23-year-old from their lineups earlier than the crew lock deadline, and he proceeded to hit a season-low worth of $4.8 million after ending P16 within the race. Though Sargeant was arguably one of many worst belongings given his persistently disappointing outcomes, proudly owning him allowed gamers to afford costlier drivers like Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, who include a considerably greater price ticket.
So, when Williams confirmed that Sargeant had been dropped forward of the Italian Grand Prix, his profile turned ‘inactive’ and gamers weren’t in a position to draft him. Then the gaping loophole emerged when those that already had Sargeant of their lineups might preserve him of their crew at a really reasonably priced worth whereas drafting Colapinto for a equally low price.
Sargeant clearly received’t be scoring any factors over future race weekends, however he additionally has no threat of dropping worth as the results of a DNF, so retaining him is a no brainer for these with the flexibility to take action. These gamers even have additional funds to draft three top-tier drivers, leading to a major benefit over these with out the axed American on their crew.
Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are two of one of the best belongings within the F1 Fantasy sport.
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photographs
In contrast to Grid Rival — an F1 Fantasy competitor with a a lot smaller participant base — that swiftly eliminated Sargeant from the sport altogether, Components 1 didn’t instantly verify whether or not the loophole could be rectified.
Motorsport reached out to F1 and we perceive the sport might be up to date to handle the problem forward of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
It is definitely a step in the proper course after followers expressed their frustration on social media, with many lamenting the group’s obvious disconnect from the fantasy neighborhood.
“Feeling very flat about this week’s fantasy. Builders must type out the Sargeant fiasco or the sport is damaged for me,” the person @potpanmanF1 wrote on X (previously Twitter).
“There’s tons they should modify subsequent yr for me to be taking part in past this yr sadly,” person @Ifcdan__ chimed in.
“After all of the work all of us put on this sport… appears like a kick on the abdomen,” @souslik27 added.
Robert Beaumont, who runs the YouTube channel F1 Fantasy Hub and co-hosts the Fantasy Components podcast, mentioned F1 has made some proactive adjustments over the previous two years however nonetheless has points with “communication and transparency.”
“F1 has made immense strides ahead with the person interface, the performance of the sport and switch technique,” he informed Motorsport. “However I believe considered one of their largest shortcomings, significantly up to now 12 to 18 months, has been communication round driver conditions like Nyck De Vries final yr and Sargeant this yr,” he went on, referencing an analogous problem that arose when De Vries was axed by AlphaTauri throughout the 2023 season.
Because the fantasy sports activities market ballooned to a world worth of round $30 billion, F1 upped its efforts to advertise the sport on F1TV and its F1 Nation podcast. Additionally they tried to extend engagement by organising public leagues with influencers and content material creators for gamers to hitch. Nonetheless, it appears a number of easy fixes to the sport itself might go a good distance in retaining the present participant base and encourage confidence in potential new customers.
