Formula 1 Betting Basics
Making a bet on a Formula 1 race can be a great way to add a little bit of excitement and increase your interest in the results. It can also be a great way to turn a tidy profit if you bet your money wisely. However, it’s important to know about how wagering on Formula 1 races works and the different types of bets that are available in order to make smart decisions and hopefully turn a profit.
When you bet on a Formula 1 race, there are many different ways to place a bet. You can bet on which team is going to win the race or bet on individual drivers. Betting on a certain team will give you odds that aren’t as strong as betting on individual cars for an obvious reason: betting on a team’s chances gives you twice the chances of winning than if you bet on a particular driver.
There are also different ways to bet if you are looking at placing action simply on the driver who is going to win the race. You can typically get odds on the top five or six drivers who have the best chances to win the race. However, how betting is handled for the other drivers can depend on many aspects. In some cases, you can place a bet on each individual driver, all the way down to the best long shots in the field. For example, a bet on HRT driver Karun Chandhok winning the upcoming German Grand Prix returns astounding 5,000-to-1 odds.
The drivers outside of the top contenders can also be bet on as the “field,” meaning you are betting on any driver outside of the select few drivers with individual odds to win that race. Many sports books have odds on five individual drivers at the German Grand Prix: the two team cars from Red Bull and McLaren, along with Fernando Alonso. A field bet would put money on any of the other 19 drivers to win the race, which is a 16-to-1 bet.
Many sports books will also let people bet on head-to-head match-ups between two drivers. The concept is simple: you are given a choice between two drivers and must bet on which one will finish the race in a better position. This is frequently done to match two drivers with similar track records and who are at similar levels. This means that while you can place a bet on who out of Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button will finish ahead, you can also lay money down on which of the Toro Rosso team cars will have the better race.
Much like horse racing, you can bet on results other than just the winner. You can place a bet on if a certain driver will have a podium finish and be in the top three at the end of the race. You can also bet on which driver will clock the fastest lap during the race or set the quickest time in qualifying.
There are other bets which are a little more fanciful. This would include propositions like how many teams or different countries will be represented on the podium at the end of a race.
Along with betting on individual races, you can also make bets on the overall series titles. Throughout the year, bettors can place money on which teams and drivers will win the Constructors’ Championship or the Drivers’ Championship. The odds will change throughout the year as certain teams and drivers fall out of contention while others make a push for a championship.
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