Formula 1 2018 Betting Markets and Tips

The new F1 2018 season starts on Friday 23rd, March with two practice sessions, then on Saturday 24th with qualifying in the afternoon, the qualifying starts at 5 p.m. (Melbourne time) and the race starts at 4.10 p.m. (Melbourne time) on Sunday 25th.

There are 21 races this year with France (on the 24th of June) added to the Championship, there will not be a Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Ante-Post Markets

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

The World Driver’s Championship
The Constructor’s Championship
Season Match Bets

Other markets available include:

Race Win Specials
Team Specials

The World Driver’s Championship

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

The situation:

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton won the World Championship for a British record 4th time last year and is looking to break another record and equal the Argentinian Fangio’s record of 5 World Championship wins.

Mercedes are looking to win their 4th Constructor’s Championship in a row. This has been done twice before (Mclaren, Ferrari). Both Mercedes and Hamilton have said that improvements have been made to the car which cost them speed at specific tracks last year.

Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari

Sebastian Vettal 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. Both he, and Ferrari, are determined to not let that happen this year. Ferrari have made improvements to improve their cooling system and lengthened the car to that similar to Mercedes to increase better airflow.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull

Max Verstappen had problems early in the season in 2017 because his Red Bull let him down but he was very strong at the end of the season and won two races easily. There is no doubt he is as fast as both Hamilton and Vettel and will be a World Champion it is just a matter of when. Red Bull have been quiet about their improvements and chances.

The Constructor’s Championship

Which team will win the Championship?

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 accumulators and insurance bets.

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

Fernando Alonso @ 1.22 (2/9) vs Stoffel Vandoorne @ 4.00 (3/1)

Ericsson and Verstappen Double - 10 points wins 20 points (30 points returned)

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.

Here are some examples:

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) Over 9.5 @ 1.91 (10/11) Under 9.5 @ 1.91 (10/11)

Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) Over 5.5 @ 1.91 (10/11) Under 5.5 @ 1.91 (10/11)

Max Verstappen (Red Bull) Over 2.5 @ 1.53 (8/15) Under 2.5 @ 2.38 (11/8)

Paul Riccardo (Red Bull) Over 2.5 @ 1.80 (4/5) Under 2.5 @ 1.95 (19/20)

Valterri Bottas (Mercedes) Over 2.5 @ 1.72 (8/11) Under 2.5 @ 2.00 (Eve)

Fernando Alonso (Mclaren) Over 2.5 @ 2.75 (7/4) Under 2.5 @ 1.40 (2/5)

Kimi Raikkonnen (Ferrari) Over 2.5 @ 2.63 (13/8) Under 2.5 @ 1.44 (4/9)

4 fold accumulator @ 5 points wins 34.89 points.

Team Specials

As above, but you bet on the team to win over the number of races they will win:

Final Word

We tried to place “double” bets of - Max Verstappen to win the World Championship and Red Bull to win the Constructor’s Championship but all of the bookmakers we tried would not allow this double bet.
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!