In Formula One racing, there are a few different ways to bet. For the most part, they are going to involve “fields,” which accommodates one-way betting on a number of posted entries; this number corresponds with the number of drivers that are in the race.

That number is capable of varying from one season to the next. In the 2013 season, for example, there are eleven teams involved and 22 drivers. Therefore, you’ll see 22 entries in an F1 betting field.

Here are some of the things you can bet on for any one particular race:

— Odds on each driver to win
— Odds on each driver to reach the podium (i.e., finish in the top three)
— Odds on each driver to score points (i.e., finish in the top ten)

You can shop around, if you like, for two-way propositions on the finish of one driver against another.

There are, of course, futures as well. These are fields too; they cover odds on who is going to win the driver’s world championship as well as the constructor (team) championship. These future props may become moot as the season progresses because of the possibility that one driver or team might get so far ahead of the field in the points standings that there is no longer a doubt as to who will win.

There are a few things that should probably be said about Formula One betting. One is that there is not a long list of drivers who are actually capable of winning any single race. In F1, there are “haves” and “have-nots,” and the have-nots generally do not win too many races. Some teams, such as Red Bull and Ferrari, have much more money than most of the other teams, who try to get by on more of a relative shoestring (though admittedly, “shoestrings” don’t exactly exist in F1).

There were 20 races conducted in the 2012 F1 season. And although the first seven races had seven different winners, in the end those races were won by a total of eight different drivers. As you might imagine, it is not a stretch to say that wagering on a podium or points finish can be a more interesting proposition than who is going to win.

Although the better drivers tend to attract the best teams, Formula One success is more about teams, money and technology, reflected in the “equipment,” than it is about the driver. Many times a driver will have to move to a less well-heeled team and experience a precipitous dip in fortunes, while other drivers move up to a team that spends much more money and graduate to perennial contention in races.

Certainly the event that attracts the highest level of interest from the general public is the Grand Prix of Monaco, but any sportsbook that carries F1 action is going to feature all the races, because they all have equal weight on the schedule. In other words, there are no “majors,” per se.

Even though the Grand Prix of Austin just re-introduced Formula One racing to the United States, the sport still does not have nearly the traction of NASCAR or even the IndyCar circuit in America. Granted, there is some television coverage, by way of NBC Sports Network in the States, but F1 is much more of an international spectacle.