Max Verstappen is another huge favorite in Australia

Max Verstappen’s odds are getting absurd. And it’s only the third weekend of the 2023 Formula 1 season.

Verstappen is now -275 to win Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix (1 a.m. ET, ESPN) following Red Bull’s wins over the first two races of the season. Verstappen absolutely dominated the season-opening race in Bahrain and then drove his way from 15th to second in Saudi Arabia behind teammate Sergio Perez.

Verstappen was the favorite ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and it’s easy to envision him easily winning the race if qualifying was straightforward. But Verstappen had an engine issue in the second round of qualifying that relegated him to 15th on the grid as teammate Sergio Perez was too far ahead by the time Verstappen worked his way to second.

As you can imagine, Perez is the only driver close to Verstappen on the board. Perez is +450 to win the race, +300 to win the pole and +350 to post the fastest lap in the first practice. Verstappen is -120 to win first practice and -225 to win the pole.

Our advice to you — and to ourselves so we can start to look smart — is to keep betting Red Bull drivers until proven otherwise. With approximately 70% of the lap spent at full-throttle, the Red Bull speed advantage should continue to be apparent.

Here are some picks for us to finally get right. All odds are from BetMGM.

Max Verstappen to win the race (-275)

We’re going to bank on Verstappen not having mechanical issues in qualifying for a second-straight race.

Sergio Perez to finish in the top three (-250)

Like Verstappen, Perez has finished in the top two in each of the first two races this season and we aren’t sure anyone will be able to jump ahead of either Red Bull driver without some issues for Red Bull.

Max Verstappen to win pole (-225)

Verstappen was consistently faster than Perez in the buildup to the race in Saudi Arabia and likely would have grabbed the pole if he wasn’t for that engine problem.

George Russell to finish ahead of Carlos Sainz (-140)

Ferrari has been a significant disappointment so far this season and even though Mercedes has struggled too, we’ll take Russell to stay ahead of Sainz.

Verstappen and Perez to finish 1-2 in any order (-125)

Why not? As we said earlier, we’re going to keep backing Red Bull until proven otherwise. Maybe Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso has enough pace to get to second. But we’re not counting on it happening straight up.

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