Does Valtteri Bottas Win in Melbourne Herald a New Era For F1 in 2019?

Last weekend saw the traditional curtain raiser to the Formula 1 season take place in Melbourne Australia, with Finnish ace Valtteri Bottas producing a flawless drive from start to finish in the race to finish well clear of his Mercedes team mate, current World Champion Lewis Hamilton, in second.

It was a bitterly disappointing race though for Ferrari who, despite appearing to be the fastest of the teams during testing prior to the season, saw their two drivers finish in fourth and fifth place, almost a minute off the pace being set by Bottas at the front and almost 30 seconds behind second placed Hamilton.

Bottas also claimed the point for the fastest lap in the race giving him the maximum 26-point haul from the race weekend, meaning he is the leader of the first week of the new F1 season. Mercedes will also be delighted after another 1-2 for their drivers ensured that they sit well clear at the top of the constructor’s championship with a maximum 44 points from the opening weekend.

So, does this mean that Lewis Hamilton’s reign as the undisputed king of Formula 1 is coming to an end? Will Bottas now emerge as an equally potent threat for the all-conquering Mercedes team, or is this weekend simply a flash-in-the-pan result which will not likely be replicated in the remaining races in the season?

We’re going to take a look ahead and give you our predictions for the F1 season ahead. Remember, if you fancy a bet on the F1, then bet365 Sport offers excellent betting throughout the year on each race and on all the key outright winner markets. Sign up today with bet365 with the bet365 New Customer Offer and you can also receive up to £100 in bet credits when you start betting on site.

The 2019 F1 Season

A total of 10 teams will be competing in the 2019 F1 World Championship, each team having two drivers to represent them.

• Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari – Kimi Raikkonen, Antonio Giovanazzi
• Ferrari – Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc
• Haas-Ferrari – Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen
• McLaren-Renault – Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz Jr
• Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas
• Racing Point-BWT Mercedes – Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll
• Red Bull Racing-Honda – Pierre Gasly, Max Verstappen
• Renault – Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg
• Toro Rosso-Honda – Alexander Albon, Danil Kvyat
• Williams-Mercedes – George Russell, Robert Kubica

The teams and drivers will compete over a season of 21 races, each race being a minimum distance of 305 kilometers (189.5 miles), apart from the Monaco Grand Prix which is raced over 260 kilometers (161.6 miles).

The 21 Races of the 2019 F1 Season

• Australian Grand Prix – Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit – 17^th March
• Bahrain Grand Prix – Bahrain International Circuit – 31^st March
• Chinese Grand Prix – Shanghai International Circuit – 14^th April
• Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Baku City Circuit – 28^th April
• Spanish Grand Prix – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya – 12^th May
• Monaco Grand Prix – Circuit de Monaco – 26^th May
• Canadian Grand Prix – Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – 9^th June
• French Grand Prix – Paul Ricard Circuit – 23^rd June
• Austrian Grand Prix – Red Bull Ring – 30^th June
• British Grand Prix – Silverstone – 14^th July
• German Grand Prix – Hockenheimring – 28^th July
• Hungarian Grand Prix – Hungaroring – 4^th August
• Belgian Grand Prix – Spa Francorchamps – 1^st September
• Italian Grand Prix – Monza – 8^th September
• Singapore Grand Prix – Marina Bay – 22^nd September
• Russian Grand Prix – Sochi Autodrom – 29^th September
• Japanese Grand Prix – Suzuka – 13^th October
• Mexican Grand Prix – Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez – 27^th October
• United States Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas – 3^rd November
• Brazilian Grand Prix – Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace – 17^th November
• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina – 1^st December

World Champions

With Fernando Alonso not driving in F1 this year, this means that there are just three drivers on the grid who have been proclaimed World Champions. Lewis Hamilton has won four of the last five years and five times in total. Sebastian Vettel is a four-time World Champion winning every year from 2010 to 2013 inclusive while Kimi Raikkonen’s sole World title came when driving for Ferrari in 2007.

Current Drivers Championship Betting (at bet365)

• Lewis Hamilton – 10/11 favourite
• Sebastian Vettel – 11/4
• Valtteri Bottas – 6/1
• Max Verstappen – 9/1
• Charles Leclerc – 12/1
• Pierre Gasly – 200/1
• Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen – 500/1
• Daniele Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg – 1000/1
• Carlos Sainz -2000/1
• Lance Stroll, Sergio Perez, Lando Norris, Danil Kvyat – 3000/1
• Antonio Giovainazzi, Alex Albon, Robert Kubica, George Russell – 4000/1

As you can see, despite finishing second in the opening race of the season, Lewis Hamilton remains the hot favourite to win what would be his sixth World Driver’s Championship. Sebastien Vettel’s odds have lengthened following a poor display for Ferrari in Australia, while Bottas’ win has seen the odds on the Finnish driver shorten slightly.

Max Verstappen may be the man to watch this season. He was chasing the two Mercedes cars the hardest and gave Hamilton a real battle for second spot in the race and at 9/1, he may well be worth an each way punt to finish in the top three at least this season.

How will the 2019 Formula 1 season unfold?

One of the things that we do know about the F1 season is that the first few races may not necessarily be an indication of how the rest of the season will go. Once the F1 caravan starts to get into European races, many teams will introduce a number of new developments onto their cars and that can impact how they perform.

However, given the performance by Mercedes two drivers in Australia, it is hard to see how the German team will not claim another constructor’s championship this season as their car looked the best on the track by a considerable margin. However they are such short odds to win this, that they are hardly worth backing in truth.

The driver’s championship is more open and while I can’t rule out Sebastian Vettel just yet, I think the Ferrari driver does look to have a job at hand to haul in the two Mercedes drivers and Max Verstappen who once again showed great pace in the Red Bull. For me, this season will see two Mercedes drivers and Verstappen likely compete in the top three, with Vettel not far behind.