Australian Grand Prix / Nick Tedeschi / 18 February 2009 / 1 Comments Bet Now

The Australian F1 Grand Prix sets the tone for the F1 season andl plays a critical role in determining the championship winner, writes Nick Tedeschi

The Australian F1 Grand Prix, the opening event of the F1 season since the race moved to Melbourne in 1996, has become a bellwether race, setting the tone for the sixteen-race season.

Of the last nine winners of the Australian Grand Prix, seven have gone on to win the drivers championship that year. The last two winners of the race, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, both started their first championship runs with a win at Albert Park while 2005 winner Fernando Alonso started his successful campaign for back-to-back championships with a win in the 2006 Australian GP. During Michael Schumacher's run of five successive championships from 2000 until 2004, Schumacher won every Australian Grand Prix except for the 2003 race. Damon Hill in 1996 and Mika Hakkinen in 1998 both won in Melbourne and went on to win their first crown that very same year.

The Australian Grand Prix is, simply, a race where the best drivers win. The reasons are plentiful. Teams and drivers have been focussed on this race for many months, unlike the usual week or two-week window teams get throughout the meaty part of the season to prepare for a race. The Albert Park street circuit suits the best drivers in the best cars. Drivers are looking to assert their dominance as early in the season as possible.

Traders should certainly look to bet those at the top of the championship futures market when wagering on the winner of the Australian F1 Grand Prix. Upsets in the race are rare. This means bettors should work around McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, the Ferrari tandem of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa and Renault's Fernando Alonso. The winner will most likely come from that quartet with Hamilton and Raikkonen, who both have very good records at Melbourne, the two most likely victors.

Other drivers who have tended to do well at Melbourne include Nick Heidfeld, Giancarlo Fisichella and Nico Rosberg. BMW Sauber's Heidfeld, who came sixth in the championship last season, has finished in the top four in the last three Australian Grand Prix's. 2005 winner Fisichella, who now drives for Force India, has finished in the top five in five of his last ten efforts at Melbourne. Rosberg, the number one Williams driver, has raced only three times in Australia and finished third last year and seventh in 2007.

The Australian Grand Prix is a race for the best. That is the one mantra that traders should remember before betting the race.