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1st off there are 2 scheduled Austrian Grand Prix now. This week is the 1st race. There's a Grand Prix of Spielberg at the same track in a week's time. Obviously we're betting blind with no racing or insight since pre-season testing. It's Red bull's home track and historically they've done well here. They won here last year but that was due to very unusual high temperatures 36C/97F. Weather predictions for July 5 are 28C/82F. I don't expect Mercedes, or any other team, to struggle.

Mercedes looked comfortably good in preseason testing with Red Bull 2nd. Ferrari were well behind and in a battle with Racing Point for 3rd best team. The race win is a highly juiced market but with Verstappen a short price following the 2019 win and Ferrari always being juiced there's +200 available on Hamilton which is a 'fair' price. I'm not tempted by +200 on Verstappen for the win but he's -222 for a podium finish in at least 1 place and I think his true odds are -240. Alternatively Perez is +1000 for a podium and I think his true odds are +925.

...but the clear best bet is Giovinazzi to beat Räikkönen head-to-head. I've seen Giovinazzi +205 to win H2H. I have him a -103 true odds marginal favourite to beat Räikkönen every race and -117 to finish above him in the end of season points table. I intend to peck away at this every race until i'm proven wrong or books adapt.

The lowest juice market for F1 bets is, (as always), the top 10/points finish market. The total book here is about 1090% with 1000% paid out. Perez at -300 and Sainz at -200 have some appeal here. Perez is at worst a clear 7th best in the race. He has a decent shot of beating a Ferrari for a top 6 finish at +100, (+110 in a spot), even if the 'Big 6' all finish the race.

Good luck with whatever you bet. It's going to be a bit of a lottery.

NB: In case you don't already know 2 top 10 drivers will be leaving their current team after the season. That may affect how they perform in 2020.

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Good luck. Not sure I will be betting very much this week but looking forward to the second race next week.

...but the clear best bet is Giovinazzi to beat Räikkönen head-to-head. I've seen Giovinazzi +205 to win H2H. I have him a -103 true odds marginal favourite to beat Räikkönen every race and -117 to finish above him in the end of season points table. I intend to peck away at this every race until i'm proven wrong or books adapt.

I like this angle. Will tail that for interest.

Probably have a shot at some fastest lap bets as usual too, just for a bit of interest as well.

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Stroll may be some value if the Car is really in the fight for 4th best team too.

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Stroll may be some value if the Car is really in the fight for 4th best team too.

The 2020 Racing Point car is their best guess copied version of the 2019 Mercedes. It looks and performs much like the 2019 Mercedes. They're well ahead of the 5th placed McLaren, (0.5 second per lap), but Sainz is way better than Stroll, which is why he's going to Ferrari. Stroll also tends to make more mistakes which is why even in a slower car i'd take Sainz over Stroll for the Driver's championship table over a full season. For this 1-off race between them it's a pick'em. The big question is what's happened since March. It's normally easier for slower cars to catch up in development rather than the faster cars getting further ahead. Worst case Sainz is 9th best, and he may be 8th best. Stroll should be 8th best but he might be 10th...and struggling for that. (In 'Without the Big 6' season betting I had Perez as a massive favourite in March. Even with the best car I had Stroll 5th in the betting).

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I am no Stroll fan. But he did well enough in lower series that we know he isn't hopeless and has shown a couple of flashes of decent drives in F1 too.

I expect this car has been built to suit whatever he prefers in terms of setup and he might just beat Perez this year.