F1 2019 Spanish Grand Prix Odds & Preview

The FIA Formula One World Championship enters its fifth week of racing, this time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix. This is a course that all of the drivers should know well, because it is the site of winter testing and has been part of the Formula One racing schedule since 1991. The course runs 4.6 miles and, as currently laid out, offers a variety of slow and fast corners, with Turn 3 providing the greatest challenge for car balance. In years past, the end of the course was quite fast, but then the organizers put in a chicane in that part to bring the pace down. Valtteri Bottas leads the Driver’s Championship with 87 points, just one ahead of Lewis Hamilton, the 2018 champion. Sebastian Vettel is in third with 52 points. In the Constructors’ Championship standings, Mercedes has 173 points, 74 ahead of Ferrari with 99. Red Bull is in third with 64 points. We have the F1 betting odds for each driver as well as insights for your wagering choices.

F1 2019 Spanish Grand Prix Odds & Preview

 

Driver Odds the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix

• Lewis Hamilton                                                                                                6/4
• Valtteri Bottas                                                                                                              9/4
• Sebastian Vettel                                                                                                5/1
• Charles Leclerc                                                                                                21/4
• Max Verstappen                                                                                                           22/1
• Pierre Gasly                                                                                                                 150/1
• Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz 1500/1
• Lance Stroll, Alexander Albon, Kevin Magnussen, Romain Grosjean, Danill Kvyat, Lando Norris                                                                                                                2000/1
• Antonio Giovinazzi                                                                                                      3000/1
• George Russell, Robert Kubica                                                                          7000/1

While it seems that Mercedes is running away with both the driver and constructor titles this year, Spain is the first race of the year when major upgrades come into play, because it is easier to ship items there than it is to some of the more exotic locales a few weeks earlier in the season. Ferrari and Renault have both brought in engine upgrades. The fact that Mercedes have pulled off four 1-2 finishes to begin the year is somewhat surprising given that Ferrari had the faster vehicle in preseason testing. However, Mercedes has proven more reliable over the course of the season. Even so, Mercedes has been fortunate, with Ferrari suffering mechanical issues in Bahrain, and with Ferrari hanging right with Mercedes in Azerbaijan. Given the fast speeds that Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull have shown in testing this week, this should be the most interesting race thus far. Another element of potential chaos for Mercedes is the fact that Hamilton and Bottas are just a point apart. Bottas was the second fiddle for Mercedes last year, but he has shown terrific form this year, and this could make it hard to get one of them to work in the support role for the other, should that become necessary. In 2016, Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were driving for Mercedes, and in their own competitive haste against one another, they crashed, meaning that Mercedes would not win the race. It would be interesting to see history repeat itself. Ferrari’s cars have shown a need to add just a little more pace to catch Mercedes; Sebastian Vettel told Motor Sport Magazine that it takes more effort for Ferrari to slide into the right slot than it does for Mercedes. It will be interesting to see how the engine upgrades impact finish. Red Bull has tended to run well in Spain. Since the turbo-hybrid era began, Red Bull is the only team that has beaten Mercedes at the Spanish Grand Prix, and that was that contretemps back in 2016 when Max Verstappen took advantage of chaos to grab the win. Red Bull is using the Honda “spec 2” engine upgrade which has the team’s race pace increasing since the beginning of the season.