No driver has ever dominated a Formula One season to the extent Max Verstappen did in 2023. With 19 victories in 22 races (a phenomenal 86.35%-win record), the 26-year-old Belgium-born Dutch national blew away all challengers.
Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing were even more dominant in the Constructors’ Championship, winning 21 races.
It’s therefore no surprise to see Verstappen and Red Bull installed as short-priced favourites again this year, with Verstappen available at best odds of 2/7 with Livescore Bet for the Drivers’ Championship and Red Bull at 7/20 with Unibet to secure a third straight title.
However, there are several changes in the sport going into the new season that raise hopes of a more competitive campaign on both a driver and team level.
To begin with, there will be a record-breaking 24 races this year, with the return of two races that were cancelled last year.
The Chinese Grand Prix is back on the calendar for the first time since being cancelled after the COVID pandemic in 2019, with the is the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix also back, having had to be cancelled in 2023 because of heavy flooding in the region.
There will be six Grand Prix events run under “sprint” rules – Miami, the US, China, Austria, Brazil and Qatar – with qualifying held on the Friday, the Saturday allocated to the sprint format and the Grand Prix on the Sunday.
Surprisingly, for the first time in Formula 1 history, the driver line-up going into the first race of the new season will be the same as the last race of the 2023 season. However, there are quite a few drivers who are in the final year of their contracts, so there is the potential for a number of changes. Sergio Perez’s future at Red Bull certainly looks less than secure.
McLaren showed significant signs of progress in the latter stages of the championship last year, and Mercedes and Ferrari will have been working tirelessly to ensure that, at the very least, they close the gap on Red Bull this year.
The constructors have been launching their new cars throughout the last week, which gave fans and bettors alike an early opportunity to take a view of the season ahead.
The launches started with Sauber (reverting back to their original name this season from Alfa Romeo) and Williams on 5th February, followed by Alpine (7th), Visa Cash App RB (8th - a name change for Red Bull’s sister team from Alpha Tauri), Haas (11th), Aston Martin (12th), Ferrari (13th), Mercedes (14th), McLaren (14th) and Red Bull (15th).
In reality, we probably will need to wait until the first weekend of the season before making any informed judgments on how the year will pan out. The season gets underway with first practice on 29th February, with the Bahrain Grand Prix in Sakhir taking place on Saturday 2nd March.
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