5 F1 Request A Bets to Look Out for Ahead of the 2022 Season

Last season, the F1title race was one of the most dramatic in the history of the sport, with Max Verstappen edging out Lewis Hamilton in the final race at Abu Dhabi in controversial circumstances that saw Race Director Michael Masi demoted from his position.

In the upcoming season, Hamilton and Verstappen could well be vying for the title once again, with the Dutchman looking to retain, whilst Hamilton will be aiming for a record-breaking eight World Driver’s Championship to overtake his joint record with Michael Schumacher.

These two drivers were a class above the rest, which showed at the likes of Qatar, as third-placed Fernando Alonso finished nearly a minute off the lead of the race.

The last time Hamilton failed to win the title in consecutive seasons was all the way back in 2013, with the Brit ending his six-year wait for his second championship just 12 months later, and would go on to win six of the next eight world titles prior to the start of this season.

Last season, the 37-year-old Stevenage-born driver managed to score points in 20 of the 22 races that he entered.

The two races that he failed to score points in were the Azerbaijan GP, where he famously pressed a ‘magic’ button in his car that switched his brake bias, consequently seeing the Brit fail to make the first corner in the late restart to the race, in-turn, gifting Sergio Perez the win on that day.

Hamilton’s other failure to score points in 2021 came at the Italian GP at Monza, where the Brit and Verstappen famously collided in a frightening accident that saw the Dutchman’s car go over the top of the Mercedes, which meant an inevitable retirement for both at this race.

The 1982 season is the only one to have had 10 or more race winners, whilst one of the most recent campaigns to have come close to this record was back in 2012 when eight different drivers emerged victorious at different Grand Prixs’.

Famously, even Pastor Maldonado won a race with Williams at the Spanish GP having shocked everyone with Pole Position, this was perhaps the biggest anomaly of the lot, as he won races alongside the likes of Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.

Last season, there were just six different race winners, as Verstappen won 10 of the 22 races, whilst Hamilton won eight, with the outsiders being Perez, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon who all managed one victory each.

With this the 2022 season is expected to be unpredictable due to the new car models, as well as there being 24 races on the calendar, there may be potential for there to be a multiple race winners once again.

Last season Verstappen was in sensational form as he beat Hamilton to the world title having won 10 races, as well as managing 18 podiums without touching the third step once throughout the whole of 2021, showing the 24-year-old’s staggering pace and consistency on his way to his maiden championship win.

The Dutchman’s podium count last season was a new record and notably, he only failed to finish in three races throughout the whole of the 2021 campaign, of which ironically, two had Sprint Qualifying on Saturday prior to the races at Great Britain and Monza.

Famously, Verstappen and Hamilton collided at the Copse corner at Silverstone which left a bitter taste in Red Bull’s mouths, as they felt that Hamilton was at fault, which was evident to the stewards when the Brit received a penalty for the collision, whilst at Italy, following a slow pit stop, the Dutchman attempted a desperate overtake of Hamilton into the first chicane at Monza, consequently retiring both cars from the race, with the 23-year-old receiving a grid drop for the Russian GP in Sochi.

His other DNF came at Azerbaijan where he had a freakish accident when comfortably in the lead of the race, as the Red Bull had a tyre failure whilst driving at full speed down the pit straight, he was not the only victim of this, as Lance Stroll had also suffered a similar high-speed tyre blowout around the same place on the Baku street circuit.

The final tip on this list sees each of Verstappen, Charles LeClerc and Carlos Sainz priced at 125/1 to win their home GPs’.

Judging on last season’s results alone, there is a chance of this coming off if the Ferrari’s testing pace translates into race speed when the season starts, as Verstappen managed to win his home GP at Zandvoort with an impressive performance.

On the other hand, LeClerc actually managed to get a shock pole position at Monaco in his home GP, but, crashed his car in the final minutes of qualifying which actually sealed the Monegasque’s place at the front of the grid, however, due to significant car damage he couldn’t start the race as Ferrari had chanced that they could turn up to the start of the race with a patched up version of the car, but hadn’t realised the state that the collision with the barriers had left his left driveshaft in.

Sainz would actually go on to finish second at Monaco that race, whilst in Spain, the Spaniard would go on to finish the race in seventh having started sixth in what was a fairly uncompetitive car at that point in the season compared to Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren.

The 27-year-old Spaniard managed to finish fifth in the driver standings in 2021, picking up four podiums along the way at Monaco, Hungary, Russia and Abu Dhabi.