The Tifosi may be celebrating the promising pre-season testing results in Barcelona and Bahrain, but if one goes by the official F1 Fantasy game algorithms, Ferrari are firmly the fourth favourites. Case in point: Lewis Hamilton, a 100-plus race winner and a seven-time world champion, is priced lower than Mercedes number two driver Kimi Antonelli.
With the official 2026 driver and constructor prices finally announced, managers are being forced to rethink their $100 million budget strategies, and the bearish outlook on the Scuderia is an eye turner.
The Constructor Gap
The scepticism towards Maranello is most obvious in the constructor market. While the top three teams are tightly packed at the premium end, Ferrari trails with a significant gap in valuation. Mercedes leads the pack at an eye-watering $29.3 million, closely followed by McLaren at $28.9 million and Red Bull Racing at $28.2 million.
Ferrari, meanwhile, sits at a comparatively modest $23.3 million, giving managers a much cheaper, albeit potentially riskier, entry point into the elite tier.
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Veterans vs. The New Generation
This dynamic trickles down to the individual driver evaluations. Hamilton has been priced at $22.5 million for his second year in red, placing him slightly lower than his team-mate Charles Leclerc ($22.8 million). Meanwhile, Mercedes prodigy Antonelli commands a hefty $23.2 million, making the young star noticeably more expensive than the veteran legend he replaced at the Silver Arrows.
The Premium Tier Battle
At the very top of the grid, Red Bull's Max Verstappen remains the ultimate premium asset, demanding a grid-topping $27.7 million. However, the gap to the rest of the field has narrowed significantly. Mercedes' George Russell has been handed a blockbuster valuation of $27.4 million, pipping McLaren lead driver and defending world champion Lando Norris by a razor-thin margin of $0.2 million to establish himself as the second most expensive driver in the game.
Photo Credit: NotebookLM
The Ultimate Budget Enabler
For managers desperate to buy into those consensus top four constructors without completely destroying their budget, Red Bull's Isack Hadjar has emerged as the definitive pick. As the absolute cheapest option among the elite teams, Hadjar enters the market at an accessible $15.1 million and is expected to be a staple in top-heavy roster builds.
Midfield Slides and Bargain Basement Buys
Further down the grid, the struggles of pre-season testing have brutally impacted midfield valuations. Aston Martin's deeply problematic winter run has been swiftly captured by the fantasy market, with veteran Fernando Alonso seeing his price slashed lower than both of the Williams drivers.
Finally, at the absolute floor of the budget spectrum, managers will be looking closely at the grid's newest entry. The Cadillac F1 Team offers the ultimate cut-price enablers. In their intra-team pricing battle, Sergio Perez officially pips his team-mate Valtteri Bottas, entering the game at $6.0 million while Bottas is available for a bargain $5.9 million.
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