As the North American leg of the Formula 1 calendar approaches, interest continues to build for the upcoming races. It certainly helps that the prospect of waking up at an ungodly hour on Sunday mornings to watch the races becomes a nonissue, with most U.S. races happening during peak viewing hours.
And with more eyeballs on these races comes the inevitable interest by sports bettors. A lack of familiarity in the sport makes choosing winners, or picking prop bets with better returns, a daunting task.
That’s where we come in. We’ll let you in on the trends from this year’s competition, and share some tips and tricks we’ve picked up to make you more comfortable with the sport.
How do F1 betting trends differ from NASCAR?
If you read our NASCAR betting article, then you’ll already have some familiarity with how betting in the racing world works. F1 is like the champagne to NASCAR’s beer, with more complexity, a smaller field of competitors, and a much sleeker car design.
This design helps the supercars be better at things like braking, getting up to top speed at a quicker rate, and allows them to tackle courses with much more complex and challenging layouts (that’s right, they make both right and left turns).
Some added complexity comes at the hands of the different tire compounds, an additional barrier to F1 knowledge. In the majority of races, there are three compounds used: Hard tires (sporting a white band) which are able to go the longest, but have the slowest speed, Medium tires (sporting a yellow band) which are the goldilocks choice, and Soft tires (sporting a red band) which are incredibly zippy, but don’t have much longevity.
But perhaps the most striking difference between F1 and NASCAR is that each car comes in a pair. Two teammates drive for each team on the grid, of which there are 10. Each team is responsible for every aspect of design, testing, and improvements that are made to the car throughout the season. The teams, while constrained to the same budget, are not equal in terms of performance. We’ll help guide you through that issue and many other nuances of the sport in the following sections.
Basic F1 Bet: Race Winner
This is the most basic, straightforward bet you can make on an F1 race. Putting money down on your preferred candidate and hoping they make it to the finish line first. A simple prospect to some, but made even more complicated by crashes, slow pit stops, car durability, and tire strategy.
Luckily, this season of F1 feels similar to having Tom Brady behind center for the New England Patriots. Max Verstappen, a driver for Red Bull, has been absolutely dominant this season, losing in only three races this season. Two of those came at the hands of his teammate, Sergio Perez.
Our analyst correctly chose Max to win the Japanese Grand Prix in our 5 Bets article last week. I would be hard pressed to think another performance like Red Bull had at the Singapore GP a week prior (with Verstappen finishing 5th and Perez finishing 8th) would repeat itself. Verstappen will have the chance to win his third consecutive Drivers Championship next weekend in Qatar, something that has become more of an inevitability with each race this season.
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Hedging Bet Types
Still not confident about the prospect of Verstappen as winner? You can also bet on which team you think will come out on top, making Red Bull an even more attractive bet, with just one race this season being won by a non-Red Bull team member.
Want to hedge your bets in a different way? Caesar’s Sportsbook also offers bets on the winning nationality. Bets under this category have already opened for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
LVGP Nationality Winner odds:
- Dutch: -350
- British: +450
- Mexican: +1100
- Spanish: +2000
Finishing Position
If you’re feeling more confident about your grasp on F1 and want to cast a wider net, look no further than the finishing position props. Many sportsbooks offer prop bets for drivers to finish in a podium position (Top 3). Also available are Top 6, or points position (Top 10).
This group is going to contain drivers who are vying for better placement in the Drivers Championship. Teams like Ferrari (Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz), Mercedes (Lewis Hamilton and George Russell), McLaren (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri), and Aston Martin (Fernando Alonso). Look for fierce battles between any of these names as the season draws nearer to a close.
Additionally, look out for head-to-head bets leading up to the race weekend if you’re especially high on one specific driver over another.
Next week we will look at some specialty bets, including prop bets, for Formula 1.
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