All The Things Diehard Sports Fans Should Know About 2015’s Formula 1 Pre-season Tests and More

Mercedes team told not to get too excited over their great performance in pre-test races in Jerez, Spain but gamblers are all ready to place their bets on them one month down the road.

Car racers, promoters and broadcasters are it again, racing to be to qualified in the event itself, or competing to put up ads during the event or vying to cover the ever-popular Formula 1 sporting event, so adored by online sports betting enthusiasts.

• World record 157-lap opening day for Mercedes

• McLaren logs only 79 laps – the lowest of any team
• 19 countries and 1 principality
• 20 weekends over 9 months

FOX Sports got the honor recently, when they signed a five year broadcast rights agreement, to cover the prestigious Formula 1 racing for five years, joining Channel 10 and Foxtel, in time for the 2015 season, to air the entire heart-racing car tourney.

FOX sports, along with Channel 10, is covering live every practice session, qualifying race and Formula 1 race in Australia as the country hosts the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. The five-year deal for the Australian broadcast rights will have the TV stalwarts featuring unprecedented F1 coverage on Australian TV in HD.

Iconic races on the F1 calendar will continue to be shown live on free to air under the new arrangement

In its 12 year long tenure of covering the formula 1, Channel 10 will broadcast 10 live races, including the Australian and Monaco Grand. It will also air 10 recorded ones while Channel 1 will broadcast the others as highlights packages lasting an hour. While the dates of free-to-air races will change from year to year.

This will happen on the Monday night, beginning at 9.30pm, following the race and mirrors the Channel 10 /FOX Sports V8 Supercars deal. Channel 10 and FOX Sports which already cover the V8s and MotoGP declare that the deal is “the most extensive motorsport broadcast arrangement in history”.

Places and Times

The 2015 Formula 1 2015 will kick off on the weekend of March 13-15 in Melbourne, Australia. There are 19 countries and 1 principality hosting the race from March all the way down to November. The Principality of Monaco welcomes the race from May 22 to 24. The summer will see Montreal, Canada being warm enough to accommodate the competition from June 5 through to June 7.

The race then jumps back over to Europe, taking place in Spielberg, Austria on June 19-21 ending on a festive in South America on November 13-15 in Sao Paulo, Brazil before the actual climax at the weekend of November 27-29 in Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi. Although the country has strict gambling news, enthusiasts can place bets through international gaming operators.

The opening winter test of the Formula 1 season in Jerez, Spain

Among the top ten contenders for the 2015 Formula 1 season are Mercedes, McClaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Sauber. The winter test races took place in Circuito de Jerez, Spain, and so far Mercedes has fans rushing to place bets on online sportsbook in Spain in favor of this outstanding team.

Overall, the four day test saw Sebastian Vettel in first position, while Sauber climbed to a very good position, with table topping times, surprisingly. While McLaren unfortunately, had problems with their new Honda power unit.

Mercedes mammoth laps

The double world champions Mercedes, saw Nico Rosberg racing a whole 157 laps, completing an unbroken record of nearly 600km on the opening day. Mercedes was literally miles ahead with 516 laps over the four days. Last year Mercedes won 16 of the 19 grand prix and remains the favorite, for those who want to bet.

Lewis Hamilton raced around in the F1 W06 Hybrid for the second of four days’ running at the Spanish circuit. He scored 1:22.490 in 91 laps. He was placed in 4th position. However he still seems to be reeling to discern the difference between the W05 and the W06 saying “We did a lot of laps and I got a feel for the car quite quickly. But it feels the same as it did last year which is a good thing. A little more downforce maybe but otherwise it handles exactly the same….I can’t wait to get to that first race”

Red Bull stubborn streak

Red Bull team, the former world champions, ran into problems on all four days showing that the first test of 2015 was just as bad as last year’s when they had problems with Renault then. Most of Red Bull’s misfortunes were once again linked to the power unit.

However, by the last day of the Jerez test races, the newly-promoted Daniil Kvyat finished more runs. Top engineering expert, Guillaume Rocquelin thinks Red Bull came out in “pretty decent shape” at Jerez. Although Red Bull might not beat Mercedes, they may yet pull out an ace card and sports betting fans may regret not placing higher bets on the team.

Ferrari’s petering fire

Ferrari’s car was reliable and pleased its drivers. “It’s a new car and you usually know if a car is going to be good or not good and this year is a completely different story from last year,” said the usually pessimistic Kimi-Matias Räikkönen, the Finnish racing driver who set the fastest time of the week, at 1:20.841 on Day Four, outracing Sebastian Vettel’s 1:20.984 on Day Two.

Mercedes’ team boss, Niki Lauda had to admit that Ferrari is the world champions’ closest rivals although the Ferrari-powered Sauber is living up to Scuderia Ferrari’s expectations. This has given some consolation to the Swiss team whose overall performance at Jerez may surely obliterate memories of last year’s defeat.

MClaren slow moves

The McLaren-Honda gave the team a tough time at Jerez as it zigzagged away from the track as persistent troubled humbled the MP4-30 performance, not being able to sputter out more than 70 laps. Surely then Eric Boullier must have been joking when he said the team accomplished a whole 50% of its goals. Really? McLaren wanted to reach only 100 laps against Mercedes more ambitious 500 and more?

Nevertheless, McLaren-Honda might be able to show who is faster in a month as the MP4-30 looks good enough to race up a storm. However, the truth be told, the MP4-30 has yet to be truly tested even though both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button seem to be loving it as they cruise along in the overheated machine.

With the first four days of testing for the 2015 Formula 1 season over in Jerez, the next step will be the eight days in Barcelona, before the real showdown in one month’s time. However, we should all be careful about who we place our bets on for the Formula 1 Race because glorified test runs can’t compare to the actual outcome of the Formula 1 as rubbers burn on tarmacs, in over 20 different places, all across the globe, over a 9 month period.