The 2024 Formula 1 schedule will resume early on Sunday with the 2024 Australian Grand Prix on the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne. The green flag is scheduled to drop at midnight ET. Max Verstappen is the three-time defending world champion, piled up a record 19 wins in 2023 and won the first two races of the 2024 F1 season. He'll look to make it three in a row at the Australian Grand Prix 2024 and Red Bull Racing will look to extend its already-swelling 38-point lead in the F1 constructors' championship.

Verstappen is the -600 favorite (risk $600 to win $100) in the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix odds and his teammate Carlos Perez is second on the board at +800. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc is next at +1800 in this week's F1 odds, while Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton is listed at +4000.

SportsLine's proven computer projection model simulated the Australian GP 2024 10,000 times and come up with a surprising leaderboard.

Developed by daily Fantasy pro and SportsLine predictive data engineer Mike McClure, this proprietary Formula 1 prediction model takes into account a slew of factors including track history and recent results.

The model has been scorching hot when it comes to picking Formula 1 race events dating back to 2021. It nailed both of Charles Leclerc's wins in 2022, and at the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix, the model was strongly backing Verstappen as its top pick. The result: Verstappen dominated the field and ran away with a surprising victory. 

It followed that up by calling Verstappen's win at the Rolex Emilia Romagna GP in April and nailed Verstappen to win in Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, the United States, Mexico and Abu Dhabi. It also called all 19 of Verstappen's wins during the 2023 season and nailed his wins in the first two races of 2024! Anyone who followed the model's lead on those plays has seen HUGE returns!

The Albert Park Circuit has been the home of the Australian Grand Prix since 1996 and the track curls around the Albert Park Lake in Melbourne. The 14-turn, 3.280-mile layout has some street track characteristics but also features safety run-offs in high-speed areas like a purpose-built racing course. The first Australian Grand Prix was held in 1928 and Ferrari's 13 wins in Australia are the most of any manufacturer. Verstappen is the defending champion at Albert Park but Leclerc, Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas are all past Australian Grand Prix champions as well.

Now, the model has dialed in on the 2024 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix and just released its coveted picks and leaderboard projections. 

We can tell you the model is fading Lewis Hamilton, even though he's one of the top favorites! The seven-time world champion is in a lame-duck situation with Mercedes, having already committed to joining Ferrari for the 2025 season. And while he is unquestionably still pushing for performance, he's producing disappointing results in disappointing equipment early in 2024.

Hamilton finished seventh in Bahrain to open the season and then finished ninth in Saudi Arabia. He's now gone 47 races without a win (the longest drought of his career) and his five-race streak of failing to finish in the top five is tied for the longest of his career. The model is predicting that Hamilton barely finishes inside the top 10 despite being fifth favorite at 40-1.

Instead, the model is also targeting two OTHER drivers going off at longer than 25-1 to make serious charges up the leaderboard! Anyone who backs these drivers could hit it BIG. You ABSOLUTELY need to see who he is before locking in any Formula 1 Australian GP picks of your own.

So who wins the 2024 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix? And which SERIOUS long shots could be in contention? ... Join SportsLine right now to see the full projected Australian GP leaderboard, all from the model that nailed all 19 of Verstappen's wins last season, and find out!