How The Odds For The 2013 Drivers' Championship Have Changed Since Pre-Season

Early season movers in the betting market...

Before the Australian Grand Prix I took a look at how the odds for the 2013 Drivers' Championship had changed since the market first opened.

Although it's still too early to have a categoric idea of the pecking order for the season just yet, the last two races have at least given us a reasonable idea of the general form of the teams.  To help me cope with the three week gap between the Malaysian Grand Prix and the Chinese Grand Prix, I've therefore decided to track the latest odds again to see how things have changed since pre-season and see if any trends are emerging.

	Early Odds	Pre Australia	Current Odds
Sebastian Vettel	2.25	2.5	1.91
Fernando Alonso	3.25	4.0	4.0
Kimi Raikkonen	11.0	12.0	7.0
Lewis Hamilton	15.0	9.0	13.0
Mark Webber	17.0	19.0	21.0
Jenson Button	9.0	7.0	29.0
Felipe Massa	51.0	51.0	34.0
Nico Rosberg	41.0	41.0	51.0
Sergio Perez	17.0	15.0	101.0
Romain Grosjean	51.0	41.0	101.0
Nico Hulkenberg	67.0	251.0	1001.0
Rest of the field	81.0	251.0	1001.0

As you'd expect given McLaren's unimpressive start to the season, Jenson Button and Sergio Perez are the biggest movers and have drifted out quite considerably.  Jenson was in fact the 3rd favourite when the market opened but is now down to 6th in the odds table.

Mark Webber's odds have also lengthened slightly, which I found slightly surprising given that Red Bull look to have the fastest car on the grid at the moment.  Obviously team-mate Sebastian Vettel's form, not to mention his ruthless streak in disobeying team orders, has convinced both the bookies and punters that Vettel is once again going to have the upper hand over his team-mate this season.

Sebastian Vettel is one of only three drivers who's odds have shortened since pre-season, and in fact SkyBet now have Vettel as the odds on favourite to make it four championships in a row.

As you'd expect after his fairly comfortable victory in Melbourne, Kimi Raikkonen is another driver who's odds have shortened and SkyBet make Kimi a serious contender at odds of 7.0.  Also, despite Fernando Alonso's early exit and zero points haul from from the Malaysian Grand Prix, the bookies still rate his chances as his odds have remained unchanged at 4.0.

It's still too early to draw any firm conclusions, but hopefully we'll have another season long close battle like we did last year and I'd love to see the same variety of winners like we witnessed in the opening seven races of 2012.

. . . . . . . .

Next up on the calendar is China, so as usual I'll be making a selection of pre and post qualifying tips for the Chinese Grand Prix and then comparing which set of tips performs best.


Other recent posts:
Driver Odds For The 2013 Formula 1 Season 
Formula 1 Betting Markets: Part 4 - Top Ten Finish
What Are The Most Popular Worldwide Sports Based On Google Searches?
Which Formula 1 Driver Is The Most Popular In His Home Country?


Follow F1Tips on twitter:
@F1TipsBlog


SkyBet are currently offering a completely free £10 bet for any new customer who signs up for a new SkyBet account, so if you fancy a free bet on formula 1 or any sport then check out the link below:


Legal note: This page contains affiliate banner links.

Odds were current at time of publication but are subject to change.