Formula 1(F1) 2019 Betting Markets and Tips

The new F1 2019 season starts on Friday 15th, March in Melbourne, Australia with two practice sessions, then on Saturday 16th with a final practice session in the morning followed by qualifying in the evening - qualifying starts at 5 p.m. (Melbourne time) and the race starts at 4.10 p.m. (Melbourne time) on Sunday 17th.

There are 21 races this year with the season finishing in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marinas circuit on Sunday, December 1st.

The Ante-Post Markets

There are three main markets available at most good online bookmakers this year. They are:

Other markets available include:

The World Driver’s Championship

There are two “favorites”, two “outsiders” and the rest of the market is made up of “long-shots”:

The favorites are:

The two outsiders are:

The long shots are:

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) @ 23.00
Pierre Gasly @ 51.00
Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) @ 81.00
Kimi Raikkonnen (Ferrari) @ 101.00
to
Alexander Albion @ 1001.00

The situation

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton won the World Championship for the 5th time in 2018 equalling the Argentinian Fangio’s record of 5 World Championship wins after Ferrari and Vettel made a catalogue of errors while in control of the first half of last season while Verstappen showed his inexperience by handing him a “free” victory in Brazil. Hamilton may not be so “lucky” this year and has already expressed concern that after testing the Ferraris maybe about 0.5 seconds quicker than Mercedes.

Mercedes are looking to win their 5th Constructor’s Championship in a row which would be a new record in the modern era as no team since the 1950s has won five constructor’s championships in a row. Mercedes have said that the improvements they have made to the car this year are designed to reduce tyre wear which caused them problems last year at more than a few circuits.

Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel led the 2017 World Championship from the first race in Australia until September when his own errors and Ferrari’s reliability and team errors allowed Mercedes and Hamilton to win. Pretty much the same thing happened in 2018. Both he, and Ferrari, are determined to not let that happen this year - especially with the super signing of Charles Leclerc. In addition to Ferrari making a statement at testing with the general opinion that they have the fastest car, Charles Leclerc made his debut season last season in the Sauber and destroyed his team mate and showed tremendous ability. He is going to be putting huge pressure on Vettel and as we all know by now - Vettel doesn’t do so well when under pressure.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull

Max Verstappen had problems early in the season in 2018 because he let himself down but he was very strong at the end of the season after winning in Austria and won the Mexican race easily and should have had a third victory at Brazil. There is no doubt he is fast and is showing more maturity of late but can the Red Bull with its new Honda engine provide the power and the reliability they desperately crave having become tired of Renault’s faults over the past two seasons?

Recommend bets are:

The Constructor’s Championship

Which team will win the Championship?

The market is:

Season Match Bets

This market is where the bookmakers select drivers and match them and you choose which driver will have more points than the other driver at the end of the season. This is a great market for accumulator bets.

Different bookmakers offer different driver matches, some match team-mates and others match different team’s drivers so look around to find value.

Race Win Specials

This market is where you choose how many races the driver will win - over / under, again different markets will have different over and under odds so look around.

Selected Specials

Most on-line bookers offer #My odds specials, this is where punters request bets and the bookmakers offer odds and make them available to bet on. Here are some selections we recommend:

Final Word

We tried to place “double” bets of - Charles Leclerc to win the World Championship and Ferrari to win the Constructor’s Championship but of the bookmakers we tried they would not allow this double bet but it may be possible to find combination type bets in “specials” as quoted above.

Please note that the odds will not change much after the first race but the first race can give you some idea of which teams may do better - especially the smaller teams, you can use this information to find value “points” scored or “points” finishes for individual race betting.

The odds will start to move after the second race and after the third you may see a significant change in the odds from the ante-post markets.

Good luck and enjoy betting on F1 in the 2019 season!