[bubblebuttluv]

5Mike5 has had his highly acclaimed Nascar thread for a long time now, and I have decided to start my own Formula 1 (F1) thread. While my thread will not be nearly as detailed as 5Mike5's, I will have picks for every Formula 1 race. The first race of the season is next weekend, the Australian Grand Prix. Tail me if you want. I really enjoy watching this sport and I hope to bet effectively on it. FYI, unlike NASCAR there is usually only 1 F1 race a month, but I just wanted to keep all my picks in one thread.

[shaunovery]

generally f1 has a race every couple of weeks

good luck on your picks

[bubblebuttluv]

Oh yeah, your right. Lol, what a start.

[Optional]

Good luck. Great to have another F1 fan around here.

[Vegas39]

Welcome aboard bubble

[shaunovery]

Good luck. Great to have another F1 fan around here.

yes great to have more f1 people on here

[MatI]

GL this year! Only 1 week to go!

[Optional]

Can hardly wait.

Despite just having evolution cars, I have almost no real clue what the pecking order is going to be.

High hopes for Williams and Torro Rosso to step forward and compete for top 10s this year.

[5mike5]

i tried to play some last season, cant recall even winning 1 wager on F1 ...but im sure i will try again a few times but im just still clueless to those machines

[Optional]

i tried to play some last season, cant recall even winning 1 wager on F1 ...but im sure i will try again a few times but im just still clueless to those machines

It was a tough year in 2012 with 6 or 7 different winners in first 7 or 8 races.

[bubblebuttluv]

I'm updating my thread for this weekend. Like I said my thread won't be as detailed as 5Mike5's Nascar thread, but I hope it is helpful. Optional's F1 thread looks really good, so I hope that my thread will be viewed as another quality source. If any of this information resembles what is on Optional's, I mean no offense. I am not the type of person, when it comes to motor racing, who bets on outright winners. I bet on things like will someone finish in top 5 or top 10. Sure there will be juice along with that, but my job is to figure out winners and juice only matters if you lose.

Something up front, I am a Ferrari fan and Fernando Alonso is my favorite driver. I will try not to let my favoritism effect my picks.

The race this weekend is the Australian Grand Prix and Practice 1 and 2 have been completed. Here are the results:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/...sults/practice

From the practices the only real surprises I saw Filipe Massa having the second best time in practice 1. He really struggled a lot last season until the end, and I think Ferrari should have replaced him with Sergio Perez. Also Lewis Hamilton replaced the G.O.A.T. Michael Schumacher this season after Schumacher retired, and he really seems to be getting a lot out of the Mercedes GP car. This is not surprising given his skill level. I'm also surprises to see the McLaren's practice times being so slow, with McLaren being one of the top 3 teams in F1. Jenson Button is a very talented driver and the aforementioned Sergio Perez (who went through the Ferrari Academy) is a great young talent and should do big things at McLaren. Finally, it is good to see Sutil and Hulkenberg running really well since they are from mid-tier teams.

Team breakdowns:

Top tier teams (in my opinion)

Ferrari - The most celebrated team in F1 history and known worldwide for their performance road cars. An interesting fact is that Ferrari only started producing road cars so that they could continue to fund their racing program. In contrast their main competitor, in road cars, Lamborghini, originally produced tractors, haha. On to the F1 team... they are the Ferrari factory team and are officially known as Scuderia Ferrari. As such, their cars use a Ferrari chassis and engine. The team drivers are Fernando Alonso, a 2-time Drivers Champion, and Felipe Massa, a man who came 1 point shy of winning his first Driver's Championship in 2008. The Team principal is Stefano Domencalli and the Technical Director is Pat Fry. Ferrari is still regarded by many as the pinnacle of F1 racing and the team all aspire to one day race for. The also have no budget that I can think of. At Ferrari, it is all about the race. They have had 16 Constructors Championships (CH) and 15 Drivers Championships (DH).

McLaren - the second most celebrated team in F1 history. They have won 8 CH's and 12 DH's. Current drivers are Jenson Button, the 2009 driver's champion, and Sergio Perez. The team uses McLaren chassis and Mercedes engines. The team principal is Martin Whitmarsh and the technical directors are Tim Goss and Neil Oatley. McLaren is usually very competitive.

Red Bull - the most dominant team of the last 3 years, winning both the CH and DH in those 3 years. Sebastian Vettel is their first driver and he has won the DH for the last 3 years. Mark Webber is their other driver and he is very talented as well. Red Bull uses a Red Bull chassis and a Renault engine. The team principal is Christian Horner and the chief technical officer is Adrian Newey.

Mercedes (Grand Prix)- this is the Mercedes factory team. They use both Mercedes engines and chassis. Typically a very competitive team and a top 4 team. Their drivers are Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, a one time DH. Mercedes has accumulated 2 DH's. Team principal is Ross Brawn and technical director is Bob Bell.

Mid Tier Teams:

Lotus - Use Lotus chassis and Renault engine. Two drivers are Roman Grosjean, a talented young driver, and Kimi Raikkonen, a 1 time DH with Ferrari. The team principal is Eric Boullier and the technical director is James Allison. They were very competitive last year.

Sauber - Use Sauber chassis and Ferrari engine. The two drivers are Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Guitierrez. The team principal is Monisha Kaltenborn.

Toro Rosso - Use Torro Rosso chassis and Ferrari engine. Two drivers are Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo. The team principal is Franz Tost and the technical director is James Key.

Willliams - Use Williams chassis and Renault engine. Have won 9 CH and 7 DH. The two drivers are Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas. The team principal is Sir Frank Williams and the technical director is Mike Coughlan.

Force India - Use Force India chassis and Mercedes engine. The two drivers are Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil. The team principal is Vijay Mallya and the technical director is Andrew Green.

Bottom tier teams:

Caterham - Use Caterham chassis and Renault engine. The two drivers are Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde. The team principal is Cyril Abiteboul and the technical director is Mark Smith.

Marussia - Use Marussia chassis and Cosworth engine. The two drivers are Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton. The team principals are John Booth and Graeme Lowdon.

-

All cars use Pirelli tires since they are the sole tire provider for F1.

-

The Australian Grand Prix takes place at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit. It has 16 turns and is 3.295 miles long. The lap record was set by Michael Schumacher at a time of 1 minutes 24.125 seconds, when Schumacher was at Ferrari in 2004.

[5mike5]

good information....especially useful for some1 like me who knows absolutley nothing still about F1....but im trying to slowly learn...

GL this season buddy

[bubblebuttluv]

Right now the safest pick would be Vettel to finish in the top 10, but when I looked 5Dimes had it at -600ish. I think the best value is presented with Webber to finish in the top 10 if it is in the -300ish range. I need to see more from the Ferrari cars and Lewis Hamilton pushes so hard to win that he screws up at times and wrecks. For the top 10 you need a really good car like Webber's Red Bull coupled with a more laid back driver. In any top ten bet you have a 45% chance of winning with any driver since there is 22 total drivers. Let's automatically take out the 4 Marussia and Caterham drivers so now your chance of winning with the remaining drivers is 55%. I beleive Webber has a great chance of making the top 10.

Qualifying is Early Saturday (2 A.M. or somewhere around there), and the race starts at around the same time in the A.M. of Sunday. A cool thing about F1 is that you can bet on it for an early morning race and you can bet on Nascar for the afternoon.

[bubblebuttluv]

Thanks 5Mike5, hopefully we'll both make money.

[bubblebuttluv]

I'm going to see if 5Dimes is posting lines for qualifying. It happens at 2 A.M.

[bubblebuttluv]

They said to check back in an hour

[bubblebuttluv]

5Dimes said Qualifying lines should be up in 15 minutes. Here are results from final practice Notice: Most likely front runner for qualifying suffered mechanical problems.

http://www.crash.net/f1/results/1889..._practice.html

[Optional]

5D are slow with F1 lines so far huh

[nba2013]

gl i took vettel

[bubblebuttluv]

Yeah, they're definately slow.

[bubblebuttluv]

They ended up saying they would only have lines for the race.

[5mike5]

Edit

[shackfu99]

Nice to see someone talking F1.

[bubblebuttluv]

I took Sebastian Vettel finishing in the top 10 for -600. Yeah a lot of juice, but I got my ass handed to me today so I may be kind of a mush at the moment. Sorry that I don't have anything better.

[bubblebuttluv]

Race is at 2 A.M. by the way.

[Optional]

Good luck

[bubblebuttluv]

So this week's race is the Malaysian Grand Prix, it starts early tomorrow morning (probably at 1 AM at the earliest, so I would recommend placing bets by that time). The race is held at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang, Malaysia. The race is a 56 lap race, with each lap being 3.44 miles for a total race length of almost 193 miles. The track has 15 turns.

Somethings I forgot to mention last week: 1.) Under the current rules you can not refuel during the race; 2.) The sole provider of tires for Formula 1 is Pirelli and one point of controversy is since Ferrari can tend to be like the Yankees of F1, they get away with more than most teams. One thing that is rumored to have happened in the past is that Pirelli, an Italian company, has allowed Ferrari, another Italian company owned by the Italian company Fiat, to have an early look at the Pirelli tires for the seaon before it starts out of a sense of national pride. 3.) In regards to the tires, Pirelli selects 2 sets of tires, along with wet tires, for each race. On the upper end (with all else being held equal, so ideal track conditions) you have the HARD tires and these do not allow your car to go as fast but they have slower tire degradation. On the other end is the SUPER SOFT tire, which degrades rapidly, but allows you to move the fastest. 4.) During qualifying, if you reach Q3 which is the last ten drivers and the top driver will be on pole, you have to start the race on that set of tires you used during Q3. Every driver at some point during the race has to use at least one set of the 2 sets of tires Pirelli provided (this rule does not apply to the wet tires). So if Pirelli provided the HARD and MEDIUM tires for the race, along with wet tires, each driver has to have used each of these tires at least once during the race. 5.) All cars (if the team can afford it, money means a lot in this sport) have to features to boost speed: The KERS (Kinetic Energy Reserve System) and the DRS (Drag Reduction System). I can't remember exactly but, I beleive KERS can be used by any driver at any time as long as your KERS has enough energy stored up. The DRS on the other hand can only be used after race control has activated it, this happens early on in the race, and it can only be used in the designated DRS zone which is usually a long straightaway. Also, the DRS can only be used when a traliing car is a at a maximum of 1 second behind another car, and the car in front of the trailin car can not use the DRS unless they are within a maximum of 1 second behind another car...so essentially DRS hurts the car in front in most conditions. The lead car better have a driver that is good at blocking if they do not want to get passed in the DRS zone.6.) Most of the time during pit stops the only things that will be changed our tires and a front wing if need be. Like with every other motor sport, pit stop quickness is vital. When you are actually in your cars pit, the best teams can do a stop in around 3-4 seconds. 7.) Any team who does not follow the rules is supposed to be penalized. One penalty would be using the DRS in a non-DRS zone. 8.) An interesting thing which I haven't seen anything come of this yet, is that every team is supposed to speak in English when they the tv crews listen in to their radio (sorry, I can't remember if this is counts during the race or for if they win). Ferrari does not obey this rule and typically speaks in Italian or Spanish (since Alonso is Spanish) or also sometimes Portuguese (since Massa is from Brazil). This could lead to a penalty and was once again brought up last week at the Australian Grand Prix. The leader of F1 is Bernie Ecclestone, unlike other commisioners of other sports this man is rightfully feared and doesn't take s.h.i.t. from anyone. He is a multi-billionaire and because of this and his power, he is beholden to no one in F1, though he tends to show some favoritism to Ferrari.

Now on to this race. Here are the times for the practices and qualifying:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/...sults/practice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/...lts/qualifying

The safest pick for this race is as always seems to be Vettel to finish in the top 10. Another fairly safe bet is Alonso to finish in the top 10, and for my riskier pick it is Massa to finish in the top 10. When looking for top 10 finishes, I like to look at more even keeled racers and not one who take too much risk, so this is why I don't bet on Hamilton or Rosberg.

What qualifying has showed me mainly is that Massa appears to be back in good form this year unlike most of at least the last two years, where he seemed to struggle until around the end of last season. Massa had an accident when a piece of debri hit him in the head and it almost killed him and he hadn't seemed to be the same since. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAbQLkgbFeA
Now he looks to be back on track after dragging down Ferrari for a little while. This is the last year of his contract so he is fighting to keep it.

Also, Sutil seems like a really good driver and I had forgotten about him.

So my picks are in order of safeness to riskiness (but I have a good amount of confidence in the first 2): Are Vettel to finish in top 10, Alonso to finish in top 10, and Massa to finish in top 10.

[bubblebuttluv]

5Dimes closes betting at 4 AM, so the race must start then.

[GP]

5Dimes closes betting at 4 AM, so the race must start then.

that's right BBL. www.f1.com has a countdown timer that converts times to local time.
thanks for the reminder, got to set the alarm now.
nice thread btw! GL!

[bubblebuttluv]

thx, you too!

[shackfu99]

Any reason why 5D is dealing vettel to win +205 after qualifying?
I also grabbed Vettel -290 vs Kimi. Kimi has a grid penalty so he will start in 10th.

[bubblebuttluv]

I am once again taking Vettel top 10 at -680. My other two picks that I had looked at had Alonso at -700 in the top ten and Massa at -500. I think Vettel is the safer bet over Alonso but just by a little, and I am willing to pay -180 more in juice for the much more reliable driver in Massa. Yes, once again this is a super square play and a lot of juice, but I am only looking to post winners and my pick for last week (Vettel in the top 10) hit, so let's try for 2 in a row. IMO, their are only 6 teams that can realistically compete for the top 10 every week (Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes GP, Lotus, and Force India looks good this year so far), so Vettel only has to IMO beat two drivers to make it into the top 10. So once again my pick is Vettel to finish in the top 10​ . 5Dimes has it listed under their "futures" section in the motor sports category. GL all, let's hope we cash again. And from a fan's point of view, as always I hope Alonso and Massa finish one and two...FORZA FERRARI!!!!

[bubblebuttluv]

So this weekend is the Chinese Grand Prix. The Chinese Grand Prix is held at the Shanghai International Circuit. The race has 56 laps at 3.387 miles per lap for a total race of almost 190 miles. The track has 16 turns. The tires for this race are the MEDIUM and SOFT tires. Last year's winner was Nico Rosberg when he was racing for Mercedes Grand Prix (which he still does) and it is his only race win to date. There are a few interesting storylines for this weeks race. First off, at the last race Vettel disobeyed Red Bulls team orders and passed his teammate Mark Webber when Webber was slowing down at the end, since both drivers were ordered by the team to dial their speed back to help preserve the car. Vettel didn't give a damn and he didn't listen to his team. Racing is a TEAM SPORT and Vettel acted like he thought he was bigger than his team. There were even rumors that Webber may quit the team and I am glad he did not. Another storyline is in qualifying Webber had fuel issues, so he has to start in last place. There is a lot of dissension in the Red Bull camp and it is not unheard of for teammates to wreck each other (such as the man in my avatar, may he rest in piece, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost), so I would avoid betting on Red Bull for the time being. The next storyline is that Lewis Hamilton won pole today and it is his first pole since joining Rosberg at Mercedes Grand Prix.

Now for my bet: Even though I can't stand Lewis Hamilton and his immature douche-baggery and he can be reckless at times, I believe with his talent and this car he can finish in the top 10. So my pick is Hamilton to finish in the top 10 at -800. Very juicy, but this thread is 2 for 2 in its Formula 1 picks. The bet is listed under 5Dimes "futures" section and they have it listed as them taking the bet until 3 AM. Remember the race starts tomorrow 4/14/13 at 2:30 AM (2:30-3 AM may be their pre-race stuff), so I would place my bets no later than 2. The race will be on NBC Sports Network. As always I hope Alonzo and Massa finish one and two...Forza Ferrari!!!!!

[bubblebuttluv]

Don't have a write-up for tonight's race. I am taking Vettel in top 6 for my safer pick and Rosberg over Massa for my h2h pick.

[bubblebuttluv]

F1 race is at 8 AM on NBC Sports Network.