As the Drivers’ Championship 2022 looms around the corner, Sky Bet have released their odds for the winners of the upcoming season of races.

Max Verstappen is the current reigning world champion following last season’s controversial final race win in Abu Dhabi, but he isn't the favourite this time around!

The defending champion will be looking to retain his success and fend off Lewis Hamilton as the Brit looks to break record by winning his eighth world title.

Maybe somewhat unsurprisingly, the Mercedes superstar sits at favourite to win this year’s championship at 13/8 after narrowly missing out last season.

As he looks to defend his crown coming into the new season, Verstappen is second-favourite with his odds sitting at 7/4.

Mercedes’ new recruit George Russell sits third in Sky Bet’s market at 13/2, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finds himself narrowly behind Russell at 7/1.

Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz closely follows at 12/1 – it may be that they work together to boost an outcome for either driver.

British driver Lando Norris continues to make a name for himself as he enters this season and is priced at 20/1 to win.

Both Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso are unlikely winners this season as they sit at 40/1 and 66/1, respectively. Alonso, though, may be a sensible outside bet given his ferocious talent.

It comes as a surprise that Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s teammate, is priced at a whopping 66/1 seeing as he is Red Bull’s other driver.

The odds then shoot up to 125/1, which sees German driver Sebastian Vettel just ahead of Alpine star Esteban Ocon.

At 200/1 is Pierre Gasly, who hopes to ‘fight at the very front’ as AlphaTauri’s standout driver.

The most unlikely winners who sit at the bottom of the pile are Valtteri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda, who are priced at 500/1 and Guanyu Zhou and Nicholas Latifi, who are priced at 750/1.