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 favorites are:
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) @ 1.66 (4/6)
Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) @ 5.00
The three outsiders are:
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) @ 6.50
Paul Riccardo (Red Bull) @ 10.00
Valterri Bottas (Mercedes) @ 11.00
The long shots are:
Fernando Alonso (Mclaren) @ 26.00
Kimi Raikkonnen (Ferrari) @ 41.00
to
Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) @ 2001.00
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.
Recommend bets are:
Sebastian Vettel to win - 20 points
Max Verstappen to win - 15 points
Kimi Raikkonen E/W (1/5 odds for place 1,2,3) 5 points = 10 points (2 bets @ 5 points)
The Constructor’s Championship
Which team will win the Championship?
The market is:
Mercedes @ 1.40 (2/5)
Red Bull @ 4.00
Ferrari @ 5.00
Mclaren @ 21.00
Renault @ 101.00
Force India @ 251.00
Williams @ 401.00
Haas @ 501.00
Sauber @ 1001.00
Torro Rosso @ 1001.00
Recommended Bet:
Red Bull @ 10 points
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)
Recommended:
Marcus Ericsson @ 2.00 (Eve) vs Charles Leclerc @ 1.72 (8/11)
Max Verstappen @ 1.50 (1/2) vs Paulo Riccardo @ 2.50 (6/4)
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)
Recommended:
Lewis Hamilton Under
Max Verstappen Over
Paul Riccardo Under
Fernando Alonso Under
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:
Recommended:
Red Bull Over 7.0 @ 6.00 @ 3 points
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!
