A Bet On The Canadian Grand Prix Need Not Be For Mercedes

Whilst the drivers and teams swan across the world from the narrow twisting streets of a European tax haven to the wide open skies of Montreal in Canada, the F1 season enters its seventh race of the year with little hope of any excitement, as once again Mercedes look set to dominate, but does that mean there’s no bet on the Canadian Grand Prix that will boost your bank roll at Betfair? Let’s find out.

Grand Prix In Canada

• Hamilton 11/10
• Rosberg 9/4
• Ricciardo 6/1

When F1 Wunderkind Max Verstappen won in Spain there was a nasty little ray of hope that just maybe Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg would become so obsessively antagonistic towards each other that each and every race from that point on would include the two Mercedes drivers behaving precisely like the spoiled little rich boys they really are and ramming each other off the road. It is, after all, the only one of the six races run so far this season that Mercedes haven’t won, and frankly if you’re going to bet on the Canadian Grand Prix winner there’s little point choosing anyone else.

The Monaco Grand Prix proved that even when Mercedes are having a less than stellar day at the track the rest of F1 seems to conspire amongst itself to hand them victory. The disastrous stupidity of the Red Bull team almost beggars belief, with their star Daniel Ricciardo called in for a pit stop for which none of the tires were ready, the overly long time taken to get things sorted meaning he had to watch Hamilton blaze by instead of frothing ineffectively in his rear view mirrors. Classic. Red Bull said they’ll investigate what happened, but what happened was they gifted the win to Mercedes.

So that’s Nico Rosberg with four wins, Lewis Hamilton with one, and the embryo that is Max Verstappen with the same but only because the other two entered into an eight-wheeled suicide pact in Spain. Do you really need to ask who to back if you bet on the Canadian Grand Prix? It’ll be a Mercedes, right? You can tell. There are Amazonian tribesmen who have never seen a motor vehicle before in their lives who’d be able to work that one out, but if you bet on sports in the UK and read some of what has been written you’d think the other teams still have a chance.

Ferrari Gets A New Engine But No Hope

Take, for instance, the fuss being made of the new engine over at Ferrari, a team with an illustrious history that finds itself with two talented drivers (who differ from Mercedes drivers in that they actually have personalities) but a car that is frankly off the pace by a wide margin. The press have fallen over themselves to say that this will give the Scuderia a fighting chance, that they might now be able to take on the Mercedes cars, but even Vettel himself admitted it was more a case of “the gap is smaller, we are closer”. Which isn’t going to make me bet on the Canadian Grand Prix being won by a Ferrari this year.

Kimi Raikkonen lap record holder, is actually a point ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel in the World Drivers’ Championship, but garners just a 28/1 bet on the Canadian Grand Prix at Betfair, which is sadly all too accurate, and whilst Sebastian Vettel is getting 10/1 that tends to lose some of its sheen when you realize that means a four time World Champion who has won 42 Grand Prix over his career is getting the same odds as they’re giving Max Verstappen, a teenager who has only ever won one race. I’m gambling news of those odds doesn’t go down well with Sebastian who has been losing his cool of late.

This is, of course, as to nothing as to the amount of cool that has evaporated from Daniel Ricciardo, who may well not tolerate his team letting him down for a third time. If his pit crew and race strategy isn’t perfect in Montreal you can pretty much bet on the Canadian Grand Prix ending with a body-count in the Red Bull garage. Out on the track Daniel is getting 6/1 to win at Betfair, but given the Circuit Gilles Villeneueve is pretty much a straight blast with few corners, and Renault are still maybe 30bhp adrift of Mercedes in the engine department, those are actually hugely generous odds.

A Non-Mercedes Bet On The Canadian Grand Prix??

So if you’re going to bet on the Canadian Grand Prix winner you’re going to be picking a Mercedes, but which one of these incredibly dull automatons are you going to choose? Well Hamilton is the obvious choice, he’s won here before, getting his first ever win in 2007 on this very circuit, and is carrying the lucky momentum forward from his Monaco miracle which not only saw him win, but Nico, his rival, come just 7th. With the points gap between them now down to just 24, there’s a hope that this season isn’t all going to go Rosberg’s way, and he’s never won at the Circuit Gilles Villeneueve so the bookies at Betfair are only giving him 9/4.

Lewis Hamilton, current world champion, gets a 11/10 which is pretty much on the nose, he’s more than likely to stroll off with this one, certainly beyond Red Bull and Ferrari the odds get into silly territory where the Williams drivers Bottas and Massa get 125/1 each, and the Mclaren of Button or Alonso can’t get more that 300/1 on a win. Something the media tend to ignore. They scream that anything could happen but then try and make the battle for fifth place sound interesting as yet another parade ensues with the result if not a forgone conclusion then one you could make a good guess at.

Do the 11/10 or 9/4 odds attract you to bet on the Canadian Grand Prix? Of course not, Betfair has hugely betting things to wager upon, however if you insist on taking advantage of UK gambling laws and splurging on the F1 betting scene might I suggest an each way bet on Daniel Ricciardo, because a frustrated Nico Rosberg is an accident waiting for a clipped barrier in Canada, and if there’s one thing the Circuit Gilles Villeneueve doesn’t have, it’s any forgiveness for error on the chicanes – so you can expect to see Max Verstappen hit the barriers in one on about lap sixteen.