The 2023 Formula 1 season kicks off on March 5 with the Bahrain Grand Prix, and once again, all eyes will be on Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen is going for his third consecutive Drivers Championship, while Hamilton goes for a record eighth title. DraftKings has posted odds for the 2023 Drivers Championship, so let’s preview Formula 1 betting odds for the teams and drivers and see where there may be value.
2023 Formula 1 Betting Odds Preview & Predictions
Check out the odds to win the Drivers Championship below, from DraftKings Sportsbook:
Verstappen is the clear favorite coming off the most dominant season in Formula 1 history. He cleared second-place Charles Leclerc by nearly 150 points in the standings and ended up winning a record 15 races. He also led Red Bull to its first Constructors Championship since 2013 — which also happened to be the last time any team other than Mercedes finished as the top constructor.
Hamilton is not far behind at +275. He had a disappointing 2022, failing to win a single race for the first time in his career, but Mercedes was plagued by car troubles all season. With a new car in 2023, the hope is that Hamilton can be more competitive as he goes for championship No. 8.
Then there is Leclerc, who finished second in the standings but underperformed relative to how many pole positions he won (9) and his expectations of keeping the chase with Verstappen close. Now Leclerc and Ferrari are fighting tooth and nail to keep pace with Verstappen and Red Bull, and the pressure on Leclerc to be in the mix for the Drivers Championship is higher than ever.
George Russell at +650 seems awfully short for a longshot, as he did not get the first win of his career until late in the 2022 season. It would make sense for his odds to be closer to those of Carlos Sainz (+2200) and Sergio Perez (+4000) given they both ended up with more podiums than Russell and were quite close in the standings — Perez took third, Russell fourth, Sainz fifth. That said, Perez just had the best year of his career and is on the other side of 30, while Russell is still on the rise.
All told, the best longshot play here is Lando Norris at +15000. Taking into account the quality of the car, Norris was probably a top-3 driver last year, and if McLaren gets the car at least into the ballpark of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari, Norris could be a sleeper pick to compete hard for the title.
Formula 1 Team Changes & Newcomers
These teams are arranged in order of their placing in the 2022 constructor standings.
Red Bull — Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez
Driver Changes: None
The clear favorite, Red Bull returns both of its podium-finishing drivers, led by the dominant Verstappen. As long as he and Christian Horner are the faces of the team, Red Bull will be at the top of the odds board.
Ferrari — Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz
Driver Changes: None
Despite finishing second last year, in many ways it was a disastrous season for the flagship team. Sainz performed well when he finished races, but he also had numerous DNFs that were largely due to bad luck and/or team error. Leclerc’s season also looks good on paper, but he too should have had a much higher point total given the number of won poles. As a result of the underachieving, Ferrari and team principal Mattia Binotto parted ways and brought in Alfa Romeo’s Frederic Vasseur.
Mercedes — Lewis Hamilton, George Russell
Driver Changes: None
Hamilton had a ton of trouble with the car last year and failed to win a single race for the first time in his career. Russell fared a little better, but the consensus was that Mercedes dropped the ball with the car in 2022. Toto Wolff is one of the greatest principals in modern history, however, so expectations remain high for a bounce back.
Alpine — Emmanuel Ocon, Pierre Gasly
Driver Changes: Gasly Replaces Fernando Alonso
This team has some of the highest upside with the widest range of outcomes. By all accounts, Ocon and Gasly are not particularly fond of each other, though they have made up enough to join forces with Alpine. That said, things could get interesting once they hit the track. Both drivers are very talented, and with Gasly now getting a higher-end car, he should far outproduce his 14th-place finish from 2022.
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McLaren — Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri
Driver Changes: Piastri Replaces Daniel Ricciardo
Again, Norris is a flier to compete for a podium in the Drivers Championship standings. He does not have anything much left to prove — beyond getting a seat in a more competitive car so that he can push the Verstappens and Leclercs of the grid. Piastri is the much greater mystery since he is a 21-year-old rookie. He served as a reserve driver for Alpine last season, but a dramatic falling out moved him to McLaren. He has, however, been a champion in Formula 3 and Formula 2.
Alfa Romeo — Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu
Driver Changes: None
This team is the dictionary definition of steady but unremarkable. Bottas is extremely reliable — he was Mercedes’ second driver who helped Hamilton take down a bunch of championships last decade — but it is tough for him to get on the podium in an Alfa Romeo. Guanyu, meanwhile, is coming off a Rookie of the Year campaign that was a bit dampened by the fact that he was the only rookie on the grid. Expectations are around the 5 to 7 range for this team.
Aston Martin — Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso
Driver Changes: Alonso Replaces Sebastian Vettel
As volatile as Alpine seems on the surface, this situation could be even worse. Alonso is an all-time great who is now past 40 and has not been one to hide his emotions, both on and off the track. That led to a few rough situations on the track last year when Alonso was with Alpine, including ones involving his new teammate in Stroll. Stroll is polarizing for a c0uple of reasons: For one, he has been reckless at times, leading to bad crashes. Two, his father is an owner of the team. But even with the potential nepotism angle, Stroll has undeniably been a competitive driver in a mediocre car. If he keeps his and Alonso’s cars on the straight and narrow, Aston Martin could make some moves.
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Haas — Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg
Driver Changes: Hulkenberg Replaces Mick Schumacher
Entertaining team principal Gunther Steiner keeps this team in the headlines, but the drivers are extremely milquetoast. Magnussen won a pole in 2022, and that was about the only thing Haas had go its way last season. The team parted ways with young-but-uninspiring Mick Schumacher to replace him with older-and-uninspiring Hulkenberg, who holds the record for most race starts without a podium.
AlphaTauri — Yuki Tsunoda, Nyck de Vries
Driver Changes: De Vries Replaces Pierre Gasly
It is tough to get excited for a junior team, but there is some real talent here that may make noise when they get seats in other cars. Tsunoda finished 17th last season and probably will not improve much standings-wise this year, so 2023 may be more about auditioning for potential open seats next season. De Vries is in a similar boat, albeit with far less experience. He is essentially a rookie, having raced once last season for Williams in place of Alex Albon, who was out with appendicitis. De Vries picked up a couple points in the process. Keep an eye on this team, but do not expect great results.
Williams — Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant
Driver Changes: Sargeant Replaces Nicholas Latifi
Williams finally cut bait with Nicholas Latifi, who was without question the worst-performing driver in the grid last season. Albon did a little better but still only grabbed 4 points all year, and Williams had 8 in total. For reference, Schumacher and Tsunoda (16th and 17th of 22 drivers) had 12 by themselves, and AlphaTauri as a team had 35 and finished just one spot ahead of Williams in the constructors standings. But now Williams gets Sargeant, the only American in the grid and the 2022 Formula 2 Rookie of the Year. It is difficult to expect anything from this team and from Sargeant in 2023, but things cannot get much worse and Sargeant is almost certainly an upgrade from Latifi.
