Formula One Insider - Odds on the Japanese Grand Prix
by Charles Jay
BetUS Sportsbook Odds
To Win Japanese Grand Prix
October 4
It is official - Kimi Raikonnen (+1200 to win the Japanese Grand Prix at BetUS) has been bought out of the final year of his contract by Ferrari, which opened up the door for the sports' most prestigious team to sign Fernando Alonso (+1800 to win Japan at BetUS) for the 2010 season.
- Sebastian Vettel +250
- Lewis Hamilton +300
- Mark Webber +500
- Rubens Barrichello +800
- Jenson Button +800
- Kimi Raikkonen +1200
- Adrian Sutil +1500
- Heikki Kovalainen +1500
- Fernando Alonso +1800
- Robert Kubica +2000
- Nick Heidfeld +2000
- Nico Rosberg +1800
- Timo Glock +4500
- Jarno Trulli +4500
- Vitantonio Liuzzi +7500
- Giancarlo Fisichella +10000
- Kazuki Nakajima +15000
- Romain Grosjean +20000
- Sebastien Buemi +25000
- Jaime Alguersuari +70000
http://www.betus.com/sportsbook/f1-motor_sports_futures-japanese_grand_prix.aspx
Raikonnen, who has made noise in the past about going into rally racing on a full-time basis, would not commit himself on whether he would return to the Formula One circuit next season. He can afford to pick and choose offers, as he is the highest-paid driver in F1 - earning a reported $49 million salary this year.
He has said that he will only be interested in getting in a car that has a legitimate chance to win the world championship. That could mean McLaren, which will be looking around for a driver to join Lewis Hamilton (+300 to win Japan at BetUS), as Heikki Kovalainen (+1500 for Japan at BetUS) is most probably gone at the end of the season. There are, of course, four new teams entering the grid in 2010, though it is too early to determine how good their equipment might be.
Alonso may have been somewhat numb about his move in recent weeks, but it has been common knowledge that his dream has always been to race for Ferrari. "Leaving Ferrari to change teams is always a step backwards," he said. "It has to be a step backwards because Ferrari is more than a team and I want to finish my career with them."
Alonso has gone on record as strongly recommending Robert Kubica to replace him with the Renault team. Kubica (20/1 to win in Japan at BetUS) is on his way out with BMW Sauber, since the manufacturer has pulled out of F1 racing. Kubica has not been kind in recent statements about his Sauber colleagues, so the prospect of staying with the team, which has been bought out by Qadback Investments, is highly unlikely.
Toyota has made no commitment to go further in Formula One racing, even in light of a runner-up spot for its own Timo Glock (+4500 to win at Suzaka at betUS) in the Singapore Grand Prix. The final determinant will not necessarily be performance on the track, but performance on the parent company's balance sheet, and the team's officials have lobbied for cost reductions for quite some time now.
Toyota 's team has made a deal with ZF Sachs as an official supplier for 2010 and beyond, which has sparked some talk that the '10 participation was a fait accompli, but that deal may simply be contingent on their being a team in 2010.
Felipe Massa looks like a good bet to be in a Ferrari car next year, although the party line is that they are not rushing him. Massa put himself into a go-cart this past week, taking seven laps on a track in Sao Paulo. He's been told not to drive for more at an hour at a time because of potential back problems.
By the way, in an interview with the London Daily Guardian this week, Massa ripped into the Renault team for engineering the crash of Nelson Piquet at Singapore last year that cost him a chance to win the world title. He called it a "robbery" and implied that the whole team should be disqualified. He said, "This is not right. This robbery changed the championship. I lost by one point. I am not, nor will I ever be, a driver who thinks: 'Oh, I could have been champion'."
Of course, the winner of that Singapore race is his new teammate at Ferrari, and I can imagine the tension if anything surfaces that suggests Alonso had knowledge of skullduggery. Hey, I just thought I would keep the story alive....
Rubens Barrichello, who is second in the drivers' standings behind teammate Jenson Button and is posted at +650 to win that title at BetUS, as well as +800 to win in Japan, is no stranger to all the rumors that have Nico Rosburg moving into his seat with Brawn GP (-100000 to win the constructors' title) in the wake of Mercedes' deal to buy into the team. Still, the 37-year-old, who is the oldest active F1 driver, insists he is not through just yet. "I wish to be driving next year in a competitive car and I think I will be driving a competitive car, but so far that's all I can say," he told Reuters.
Barrichello has started 285 races (a record) and has a legitimate chance to overtake Button, who is only 15 points ahead of him in the standings. Supposedly he has visited the Williams factory recently, as that team would be looking for someone to replace Rosburg. That would be, in effect, a trade.
And you wonder why they call it the "silly season" every year?
