With the first race of the 2023 season behind us, we can finally get a glimpse of what’s to come and why. According to the Mercedes AMG F1 team, team Red Bull is the favourite to claim this year’s championship. Will Mercedes’ prophecy ring true? Or will Aston Martin and Ferrari take the fight to Red Bull and claim this season’s F1 title? UK bookmaker William Hill has the latest odds!
※ Current Odds Date & Time: March 15th, 6:00 A.M. (EST)
Our previous article on the race winner odds featured Max Verstappen at a price of 1.80 and Fernando Alonso at 23.00. For this weekend’s race however, the bookmakers have prepared something rather special.
As if the current odds on the reigning champion, Max Verstappen, weren’t low enough, this time round they’ve priced him at only 1.50 to win the Saudi Arabian GP. It would seem as if Red Bull truly doesn’t have any real competitors to challenge them for race wins and ultimately, the title. At least for now.
Fernando Alonso, who was priced at 23.00 for the previous race weekend in Bahrain, has now fallen to a mere 10.00. A significant change but an expected one given how well the Aston Martin team has performed so far. His teammate, Lance Stroll, also dropped quite a bit with his price decreasing from 201.00 to only 51.00. A contender well worth keeping an eye on!
The Circuit
The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is a race track unlike any other. It is the fastest street race to feature on the F1 calendar to date and average speeds reach a surreal 250 km/h. The race itself features 50 laps with the average race distance covering 308.45 km. Lewis Hamilton is the current lap record holder with a time of 1.30.734 set in 2021.
This Saudi Arabian street circuit is a 6.174 km long track with 27 corners and 3 DRS zones making this the ultimate street racing spectacle! Since it was introduced to the F1 calendar in 2021, there are currently only two drivers to win at this track and they are Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
What to Expect
As it stands, Red Bull is the team to beat in the 2023 season. So far, nobody came even close to beating them in the season inaugural race, let alone match the mastermind of Hannah Schmitz, the senior strategist of Red Bull Racing.
In an interview for Sky Sports F1, Mercedes’ driver George Russell said the following: “Red Bull have got this championship sewn up, I don’t think anyone will be fighting with them this year. They should win every single race this year, is my bet.”. Does the rest of the grid agree with this assessment?
On a more positive note, which promises good racing and exciting on-track battles, we have Aston Martin and Scuderia Ferrari. Even though Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari suffered a DNF in Bahrain, the prancing horse is still one of the strongest teams on the grid. Their boss, Frederick Vasseur, claims Ferrari will be “back on track” at the Saudi Arabian GP.
Aston Martin won’t go down without a fight though. With a P3 finish at the Bahrain GP, Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin gained a new pair of wings (the kind that Red Bull gives, pardon the pun) and kept the momentum going for races to come. As it stands, Aston Martin is a serious contender for Ferrari and who knows, maybe even Red Bull. If they can keep upgrading their 2023 challenger, everything is possible.
The race starts on March 19th at 5:00 p.m. UK time.
