Daniel Ricciardo given surprising price in F1 Fantasy return

Daniel Ricciardo has been valued at the second cheapest driver in F1’s official fantasy game on his return to racing.

Over two million users have signed up to this year’s fantasy tournament which gives players $100m to build a team of five drivers and two constructors.

Your picks are then given points depending on how well they do during a race weekend and plenty of managers may be considering a new signing ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo’s return to a full-time race seat was announced last week when, following a Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone, the Red Bull hierarchy decided to replace Nyck de Vries with the Australian.

Since then, Ricciardo has been getting ready for his return including with a seat fit in Faenza and a visit to F1’s broadcast centre in Biggin Hill but others have also been getting ready for his comeback, including the developers behind the F1 Fantasy game.

Ricciardo was recently added to the game and was given a surprisingly low price of just $4.5 million, making him the second cheapest driver alongside Williams’ Logan Sargeant.

The only man cheaper than the pair of them is Nico Hülkenberg who has already proven good value for his $3.8 million price tag.

Ricciardo’s new team-mate Yuki Tsunoda has also been somewhat of a value buy with 49 points to his name for a $5.1 million value.

But Ricciardo’s former team-mate Max Verstappen remains the most expensive driver at $28.1 million which is over six times more expensive than the Australian.

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Despite his price tag, the Dutchman has proven value for money with Verstappen collecting the most points so far at 451, 104 more than his team-mate Sergio Perez.

Ricciardo’s fellow Australian and McLaren replacement Oscar Piastri is valued at $8 million having started the season at $7 million while Lando Norris is $12.9 million.

Fernando Alonso remains perhaps the most value for money buy of them all though as the Spanaird started the year at $8.3 million and has earned 245 points. The Aston man is also the most picked driver in the game with 81% of managers having him in their team.

Read next: Former Nyck de Vries teammate on firing: That’s how it goes with Red Bull