Formula 1 racing returns this weekend
with the first race of the new season, the Australian Grand Prix.

After setting a record for
youngest-ever F1 champion last season Lewis Hamilton returns to defend his
title. Hamilton
narrowly edged Felipe Massa by a single point in the final standings with 98
points for the season. 2007 F1 champ Kimi Räikkönen finished a distant third
with 75 points, while Robert Kubica also finished the season with 75 points but
landed in fourth with fewer wins than Räikkönen.

Looking at those standings you would
expect either Hamilton or Massa to enter the new season as the favorite
to win the 2009 championship. However, that’s not the case at Pinnacle. On the
latest Pinnacle futures odds Räikkönen is the favorite at +399. Hamilton is right behind him at +403, while Massa comes in at +551.
Aside from Hamilton and Räikkönen the only other former F1 champion in this
year’s racing field is two-time champion Fernando Alonso. After returning to
Renault last season Alonso finished the year in fifth place and is listed at
+456 to claim a third world championship.

While the odds on the championship
futures are pretty close one through four, the futures odds for the
constructors championship look like a runaway for Ferrari. Last season Ferrari
claimed the constructors championship with a 21-point lead on McLaren-Mercedes.
Ferrari is clearly the team to beat again this season with two drivers capable
of winning a world championship in Massa
and Räikkönen. McLaren-Mercedes of course has a championship contender in Hamilton, but it’s tough
for them to match up to Ferrari’s duo with their other driver Heikki
Kovalainen. That’s why Ferrari is a +122 favorite to repeat as constructors
champ and McLaren-Mercedes is a +405 underdog.

Looking briefly at this weekend’s race
in Melbourne
the Pinnacle favorite is Jenson Button at +414. That should come as a big
surprise considering Button did not finish the race last year and placed 13^th,
and his best career finish in Australia is a sixth place he posted in 2004.

Hamilton dominated the race last
year, leading all but five laps of the race to start the season with a win.
That win apparently doesn’t mean that much to Pinnacle oddsmakers, though, as
he’s a +988 underdog to repeat. Drivers receiving better odds than Hamilton
include 2007 race winner Räikkönen at +502, Massa at +576, 2006 race winner Alonso
at +620, and Rubens Barrichello at +779.