The days of Schumacher leading a weekly procession are well over

The 2011 Canadian Grand Prix is on today (from 5pm on BBC 1).  2011 has seen the introduction of Pirelli tyres and a new overtaking system, DRS. I won’t bore you with the details but they are the two factors that are being lauded as the main reasons why the sport has been so exciting this year.  There are so many overtakes happening on a Sunday that the commentators are struggling to keep up!  The days of Schumacher leading a weekly procession are well over....

Betting wise Formula One is a sport that has always plagued me.  Technical decisions and team strategies make such a difference in the sport and these decisions and strategies are often very hard to notice during a race weekend.  It’s not like you can see that a team are playing a high line and hence buy the offside spread  or see that a team are lobbing the ball endlessly to the tall striker and quickly get on the headed goal minutes etc etc. Formula One is much more cloak and dagger.

In Formula One, car setups cannot be altered between qualifying and the race.  This weekend the qualifying took place in dry conditions but the teams were expecting rain for the race on Sunday.  Therefore to battle to beat the bookies on the “Circuit Gilles Villeneuve” will hinge on two things: 

• You will either need to take a punt on the weather being dry (and therefore it would be hard to look past Vettel
• Or take some bigger prices and back the teams that may have sacrificed some time in qualifying time in order to have the best set up for the race come Sunday in wet conditions.

The young German finished on pole for the Grand Prix for the 6th time in 7 races.  He is a shade of odds against to also make it 6 wins in 7 races this evening.  If clear skies were guaranteed, the man would be value at 4/6 but with dark clouds on the horizon anything can happen.

Weather reports this morning still do not seem to be sure but they still seem to favour rain.  This can probably be reflected in Vettel’s price.

Canadian Grand Prix betting strategy – you could wait until the BBC coverage starts and assess the weather yourself.  If it’s dry, the value about Vettel may disappear.  If it’s wet the bookies may be wary of some of the longer priced cars and cut accordingly.

I myself will be doing a rain-dance and will be getting on a handful of long shots for small stakes this morning.

Gary Sinnott
Please leave comments underneath with your take on the Canadian Grand Prix!