A new season. New technical regulations, new look cars – but with one glaring exception – the same superstars.
The 2017 Formula One campaign roars into life in Melbourne this weekend, the first race of a marathon campaign.
Plenty will be different but it would be a brave punter who bet against the established names dominating again.
Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull will be the dominant teams, with Lewis Hamilton ($2 with Sportsbet to win the title), Sebastian Vettel ($4.50) Valteri Bottas ($6) Daniel Ricciardo ($10) and Max Verstappen($9) likely to be the men to follow.
Last year’s world champion Nico Rosberg sensationally quit shortly after securing the title.
The man in pole position to secure his fourth world title is his team-mate Hamilton, a three-time world champion already.
The mercurial Brit, with his flashy diamond studs and penchant for controversial statements, is not everyone’s cup of tea, but there is no doubt that behind the wheel of a Formula One car he is a class act and the man to beat this time round – as his odds of $2.25 to win on Sunday reflected.
He will not have things his own way, though, with his new team-mate, the Finn Valteri Bottas, determined to make an immediate impact having stepped up to the champion team after impressing for several years at Williams.
Filling a world champion’s shoes (he takes Rosberg’s seat with the Silver Arrows) is never easy, but Bottas has the talent and the application to take the fight to his illustrious team-mate.
Germany’s former World Champion Sebastian Vettel (a four-time title winner between 2010 and 2013 inclusive) and his maverick team-mate Kimi Raikkonen (another former world champion and, like Bottas, a Finn) will be desperate to atone for a frustrating 2016 season when neither man won a race.
Vettel managed three second places and three thirds, suggesting that if the Ferrari has found some pace in the offseason then he could give the dominant Mercedes something to think about. He is a $4.33 chance with Sportsbet for Sunday’s race.
On the only two occasions, neither Hamilton nor Rosberg won the race, it was the Red Bull Racers of Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo and Belgian/Dutchman Max Verstappen, who stood on the top step of the podium.
Ricciardo won in Malaysia late in the season when Hamilton retired and Rosberg ran third.
Verstappen, who holds a swathe of records for being the youngest man in history to achieve several F1 milestones, made his mark early in the campaign when he won in Spain.
There is no doubt that the youngster – he is still only 19 – will be a world champion one day, and that is likely to be sooner rather than later, but it would be a surprise if he could find the consistency to go with his pace to trouble the Mercedes team leader at this point of his career.
Ricciardo, a $12 shot on Sunday, might make it appealing for those barracking for a hometown hero to make the top step of the podium.
