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Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes ended another season on top
Photo: Octane Photography |
As the sadly recently-departed Clive James once noted, the next Formula 1 season begins at the same moment the previous one ends. Not least for the betting-minded F1 fan, considering where’s best to place their money such as by scanning this
Bodog review. Bodog is a big name in the sports betting industry and usually provides great odds for F1 races. So, with the 2019 campaign just finished, minds turn immediately to 2020.
The 2019 F1 season
looked more of the same. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes won the titles again, the team winning 15 of the 21 races; Hamilton 11 of them. There are not major regulation changes for 2020, meaning the ‘feed in’ to next year should be fairly direct. And all this is reflected in
Hamilton’s odds to be 2020 world champion, just
4/6.
Yet scratch the surface of 2019 and Mercedes’ dominance was not as the headline figures suggested. It often was not the fastest car, and instead relied on consistency, organisation and avoiding errors to beat its Ferrari and Red Bull foes. Hamilton indeed only got five pole positions – two fewer than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari appeared often to have the raw material to challenge Mercedes much more closely in the table. If for 2020 it can sort out its organisational problems – big ‘if’ – titles are plausible. And, with this,
Leclerc is a possibly-generous
6/1 to be next season’s champion.
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Can Max Verstappen (left) or Charles Leclerc (right)
topple Hamilton in 2020?
Photo: Octane Photography |
His team-mate
Sebastian Vettel is even longer at
15/2. His 2019 year was trying but he wasn’t outclassed by Leclerc, and is not to be written off.
Neither is the prodigious Max Verstappen, and some rated his personal 2019 as better than Hamilton’s. The key is whether his Red Bull will be up to the task. It often looked that way in the latter part of this year, with its Honda power unit appearing a match for the rest.
Then again
Red Bull has a habit of starting seasons slowly which leaves it too far off the championship pace.
Verstappen 2020 champion odds still look decent at 7/1.
And with Hamilton the clear 2020 favourite there’s another tantalising set of odds on offer – who will
‘win’ the drivers’ championship without Hamilton? Those odds look tempting:
Leclerc is 7/4;
Verstappen 2/1 and
Vettel 3/1.
But what about the ‘incumbent’? Hamilton’s team-mate
Valtteri Bottas was a comfortable runner-up behind Hamilton in the table this year. He’s a full
5/2 to be another to deliver more of the same in 2020.
