F1 2019 Season Preview & Winner Odds

Hamilton gunning for third straight title

Sports Betting

Testing for the new Formula 1 season began this week with its usual hosting in Barcelona. There have been some team changes, drivers swapping positions and during the season at the China Grand Prix, the sport will be celebrating its 1000th World Championship race.

Here we take a look at some of the early odds for the Formula One 2019 season.

2019 Formula One Drivers World Championship odds*

Lewis Hamilton 8/11
Sebastian Vettel 10/3
Max Verstappen 5.1
Charles Leclerc 8/1
Valtteri Bottas 14/1
Pierre Gasly 33/1
Daniel Ricciardo 66/1
150/1 bar
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on February 18th, 2019 at 3:09 pm)

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Team and driver changes

Really the biggest change during the offseason have been Red Bull moving over to Honda power units away from Renault. Force India will now be known as Racing Point while Sauber gets a name change to Alfa Romeo racing.

The biggest driver change that happen ahead of the new season was Daniel Ricciardo moving from Red Bull over to Renault. That of course left a big open seat at Red Bull which has been taken up by Pierre Gasly, clearly leaving Max Verstappen as top driver with the team.

Carlos Sainz, who Ricciardo replaces at Renault, will be having a drive with McLaren this season as he comes in to replace Fernando Alonso who has stepped away from the sport this season. There has been a change at Ferrari to with Kimi Raikkonen going back to Sauber (now Alfa Romeo), meaning that Charles Leclerc goes the other way from Sauber to Ferrari.

Full Teams/Drivers List

Alfa Romeo racing – Kimi Räikkönen, Antonio Giovinazzi
Ferrari – Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc
Haas – Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen
McLaren – Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz Jr
Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas
Racing Point – Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll
Red Bull – Pierre Gasly, Max Verstappen
Renault – Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg
Scuderia Toro Rosso – Alexander Albon, Daniil Kvyat
Williams – George Russell, Robert Kubica
*(British drivers in bold)

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed his fifth World Championship last season with some imperious driving over the second half of the season. He did have a bit of a patchy start to the season with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel looking the stronger of the two. But once again it was Hamilton who held his nerve the better of the two. When tricky situations like rain came around, Hamilton just got better and better throughout as his German counterpart fell away, Vettel failing to get a win in any of the last eight races of the season.

Overall last season Lewis Hamilton took 11 pole positions, 11 wins and he finished on the podium in 17 of the 21 races. It was really the second half of the season that his dominance came to the fore as he won eight of their last 11 races for the season. Sebastian Vettel trailed Hamilton home in second, with Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen taking third place. The win last season for Hamilton was his second in a row.

The British driver is at 8/11 odds to win the 2019 Formula One Drivers World Championship. The last man to win three consecutive world titles was Sebastian Vettel (who actually did four in a row from 2010 through 2013). Hamilton was in the same position in 2016 having won the two previous World Championships, but he missed out on the hattrick to his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg. Still it leaves Hamilton with having won four of the last five editions of the Formula One Drivers World Championship. Hamilton is just now two titles from matching the world record of seven titles set by German legend Michael Schumacher.

Formula 1 Constructors Champions 2019

Mercedes 8/13
Ferrari 11/4
Red Bull 7/2
200/1 bar
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on February 18th, 2019 at 3:09 pm)

Sebastian Vettel

The German look really up for the fight last season through the early stages, firing out of the gates winning the first two Grands Prix of the 2018 season. But then team errors, technical errors and an apparent lack of mental focus, saw Vettel lose his grip and give way to Hamilton. It was really Vettel’s retirement at his home Grand Prix in Germany halfway through the season, which really started the shift in power away from him and on to Hamilton.

But still for the flaws which he did show last season, he does once again look the strongest challenger to Hamilton for the world title this year. But once again you get the feeling that he needs to come out strongly, to boost his self-belief that he can hold ground with the British driver. In many regards, Ferrari had the much quicker car last season, but still, Vettel couldn’t quite deliver.

He will be fully aware that Hamilton comes on strongly over the second half of the season, really when the European swing starts. Vettel is the 10/3 odds second favourite for this season’s title* (betting odds taken from bet365 on February 18th, 2019 at 3:09 pm).

Full race Calendar 2019

March 17 – Australian Grand Prix
March 31 – Bahrain Grand Prix
April 14 – Chinese Grand Prix
April 28 – Azerbaijan Grand Prix
May 12 – Spanish Grand Prix
May 26 – Monaco Grand Prix
June 9 – Canadian Grand Prix
June 23 – French Grand Prix
June 30 – Austrian Grand Prix
July 14 – British Grand Prix
July 28 – German Grand Prix
August 4 – Hungarian Grand Prix
September 1 – Belgium Grand Prix
September 8 – Italian Grand Prix
September 22 – Singapore Grand Prix
September 29 – Russian Grand Prix
October 13 – Japanese Grand Prix
October 27 – Mexican Grand Prix
November 3 – United States Grand Prix
November 17 – Brazilian Grand Prix
December 1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Other contenders

Looking at the team and driver lineup for this season’s Formula One action it is a little hard to see who will come through to prevent either Hamilton on Vettel winning the championship. You have to look to the Red Bull team. Now they have one principal driver in Max Verstappen, now that Daniel Ricciardo has departed, and so it is the Dutchman who represents the best value beyond the top 2 to muscle his way to the title.

Verstappen is at 5/1 odds to win outright* (betting odds taken from bet365 on February 18th, 2019 at 3:09 pm) but with only two Grand Prix wins last season, he still looks to have a fair bit of distance to close in on Hamilton and Vettel.

The only two other drivers besides Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen to win a Grand Prix last season was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. With both of them having moved onto teams who are likely to pose less of a challenge, that could, in turn, shift things even further in the favour of the big two this season of Vettel and Hamilton.

Following his big move up to Ferrari, Charles Leclerc, who took ten top-ten finishes last season with Sauber is at 4/9 to win a race during the 2019 calendar* (betting odds taken from bet365 on February 18th, 2019 at 3:09 pm). Lewis Hamilton’s teammate at Mercedes Valtteri Bottas hasn’t really impressed in his time there and barely registers at 14/1 odds to win outright* (betting odds taken from bet365 on February 18th, 2019 at 3:09 pm).