Lewis Hamilton will begin his F1 title defence at the Australian Grand Prix in late March, 2018. After the winter break and the rigorous testing of newly designed cars, the F1 season will be roaring back into action. There are 21 races to come across the course of the new season which will run through all the way to the end of November. There was plenty of drama abound throughout the season as Hamilton managed to overcome early pacesetter Sebastian Vettel in the Drivers World Championship battle.
Who will reign supreme for the 2018 season? Here we take a look at the teams, the drivers, the courses and the F1 betting odds for the new season.
2017 F1 Review
It was some season in 2017. It was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who was doing most of the early running, winning three of the first races and getting pressure on Hamilton. The British driver took wins in just three of the opening races of the season and it didn’t look too good for him until really the British Grand Prix which he won from Pole Position. With that victory included, Hamilton won six of eight races in a tremendous burst during the European swing half way through the season, and with Sebastian Vettel pretty much self-capitulating in his Ferrari, Hamilton steadily and efficiently, eased his way to the title.
Vettel won just one of the final nine races of the season and ended up 46 points behind Hamilton. It was a tremendous shift of momentum that Hamilton managed to pull off and Mercedes also swept their way to the Constructors Championship. The only thing missing? A tense, dramatic showdown at the end.
2018 F1 Calendar
1 Australian Grand Prix – 25 March
2 Bahrain Grand Prix – 8 April
3 Chinese Grand Prix – 15 April
4 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – 29 April
5 Spanish Grand Prix – 13 May
6 Monaco Grand Prix – 27 May
7 Canadian Grand Prix – 10 June
8 French Grand Prix – 24 June
9 Austrian Grand Prix – 1 July
10 British Grand Prix – 8 July
11 German Grand Prix – 22 July
12 Hungarian Grand Prix – 29 July
13 Belgian Grand Prix – 26 August
14 Italian Grand Prix – 2 September
15 Singapore Grand Prix – 16 September
16 Russian Grand Prix – 30 September
17 Japanese Grand Prix – 7 October
18 United States Grand Prix – 21 October
19 Mexican Grand Prix – 28 October
20 Brazilian Grand Prix – 11 November
21 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – 25 November
The big changes for the season were the retirement of the Malaysian Grand Prix and the return of the French Grand Prix. This will be the first time that the season has gone to France since 1990. The German Grand Prix is back after being skipped last season, while a big move sees the Russian Grand Prix switch from April to September.
2018 Formula 1 Drivers Championship Teams
There are four changes to the team sets ups from last season. Toro Rosso have signed Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley as their principal drivers. They were both given a run out for the team at the back end of the last championships. Reigning Formula 2 champion Charles Leclerc gets a drive with Sauber. Sergey Sirotkin comes in to join Wiliams after Felipe Massa retired.
Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen
Force India: Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon
Haas: Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen
McLaren: Stoffel Vandoorne, Fernando Alonso
Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas
Red Bull: Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen
Renault: Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz Jr
Sauber: Marcus Ericsson, Charles Leclerc
Toro Rosso: Pierre Gasly, Brendon Hartley
Williams: Lance Stroll, Sergey Sirotkin
McLaren have gone with Renault for their engines this season, ditching Honda, while Toro Rosso went the other way, ditching Renault and working with Honda. Sauber will be using Ferrari engines still, but current spec ones instead of year-old power unit specs.
Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton is at 4/6 with Bet365* (betting odds taken at 20:16 p.m. on March 12th, 2018) to get another F1 Drivers Championship title, what would be his fifth title. He has finished top of the pile three times since the last four season, the one exception a second place finish and it’s hard to imagine that he will be outside of those places again. He is the one to beat but could find himself on more of a level playing field this season with Ferrari.
Sebastian Vettel
The German kind of threw things away last season after leading the Championship for the first half of the season. He had the red mist come down at times when things weren’t going his way and that speaks to a bit of fragility that he has which may deter punters. Now with Hamilton having moved on to four titles, it is a great showdown in prospect between the two drivers the season to see who can get there first. If the car can hold up over the second half of the season he’ll be in the top two.
Fernando Alonso
It was a rough season because of reliability (or lack thereof) for Alonso last season with McLaren. There is much stronger chance that he will be back on top of his game this season with McLaren switching to Renault which is more on a par with the Ferreri’s and Mercedes’ power units. He had no reliability and no power behind him last season and it’s a testament to him that he didn’t just walk away. There was promise from him during testing in terms of speed, even though reliability was still an issue.
Max Verstappen
The young Dutchman still has the world at his feet, but Red Bull couldn’t find the power to match the top two teams last season. They really need to get the season off with a bang to bolster them. They have the reliability there with no question and is a future champion in waiting. When will his time come though?
Daniel Ricciardo
Underdog to Verstappen? Probably, even if the Red Bull team wouldn’t admit it. He probably is not going to outshine his teammate in what will probably be his last drive for the team. It may be interesting to see if impending departure actually fires him up to put him in the spotlight of other potential teams like Mercedes.
Valtteri Bottas
He didn’t really get the best out of the superb drive that he was given last season alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. Much has been touted about his abilities and it’s hard to judge after one season, but you get the feeling that if Verstappen was in his seat then he would be pushing in the title race consistently whereas Bottas isn’t likely to be.
2018 Formula 1 Drivers Championship Odds
Lewis Hamilton 4/6, Sebastian Vettel 7/2, Max Verstappen 6/1, Valtteri Bottas 8/1, Daniel Ricciardo 11/1, Fernando Alonso 25/1, Kimi Raikkonen 40/1* (betting odds taken at 20:16 p.m. on March 12th, 2018)
2018 Formula 1 Constructors Championship Odds
Mercedes 1/2, Red Bull 10/3, Ferrari 10/3, McLaren 33/1, bbar 250/1
2018 Formula 1 Drivers Championship Prediction
The big story for this season is the race to a fifth Drivers World Championship title between Hamilton and Vettel. That really should be incentive enough to push this rivalry to great heights this season but still. The cars are probably too close to call and that is where it will come down to the drivers. Hamilton is the calmer and more collected of the two and will handle things better through the tough times of the season. Look for the Brit to get there first.
