F1 2024: The upcoming season will be defined by Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Fernando Alonso
The three main protagonists in Formula 1 are Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Fernando Alonso. The 2024 season, which gets underway this weekend in Bahrain, is expected to be dominated by them both on and off the track.
With Verstappen as the overwhelming favorite to win the world championship for a record-breaking fourth time, concerns about the sport’s future will arise if the Dutchman and his Red Bull squad continue to dominate.
With his close-season decision to join Ferrari for 2025, where he will ride alongside Charles Leclerc in a supercharged driver lineup, Hamilton has upended the whole racing industry.
The most successful driver in history won’t join the most prestigious team in the sport until the entire season is over, but the dynamics it will create will have far-reaching effects.
Alonso, who begins the season just under five months shy of 43, will be immediately impacted by Hamilton’s transfer, but he also finds himself in the middle of one of the more intriguing driver markets in recent memory, with the majority of the grid’s contracts up for renewal.
There will be plenty to keep the interest level high, even if the action at the front of the field tends toward the predictable.
Despite the high hopes that Red Bull will continue where they left off at the close of the last campaign, the team is under scrutiny due to accusations made against Christian Horner, the team principal.
Employers are looking into the 50-year-old after he was allegedly acting inappropriately toward a female coworker, an accusation he “completely denies”.
Red Bull has not provided an end date for the investigation, which is still underway.
Everybody in Formula One has heard the specifics of the accusations, which are confidential, and senior F1 figures are deeply concerned about the harm this incident is causing to the sport’s reputation.
Toto Wolff, the CEO of Mercedes Formula One, stated during testing that the inquiry was “an issue for all of F.1” because of this.
The only other major figure to raise his hand on this matter is Zak Brown, his opposite number at McLaren. Like Wolff, the American urged for Red Bull to be open and honest about the investigation’s results and labeled the issue as “extremely serious”.
Everyone involved with Formula One, both inside and outside Red Bull, is placed in an unfair position until it is resolved.
Additionally, Red Bull finds itself drawn to it. Regardless of the decisions made on Horner, the team’s response to this predicament will define the season.
Hamilton and the market for drivers
Days after the other big news of the off-season—Hamilton’s decision to join Ferrari in 2025—the Horner tale broke.
Almost everyone was taken aback by the action, including Mercedes. A day before his decision made headlines, Hamilton discussed it with Wolff over brunch.
Given that Hamilton had only recently signed a new contract with Mercedes last summer—which was initially disclosed to be a two-year agreement—it was all the more surprising.
It turns out that the discussions had not gone well, that Hamilton had a one-season leave clause, and that, when he was looking for a longer contract, he was not exactly satisfied with Mercedes’ lack of commitment.
When Ferrari called, Hamilton was open to the idea. After all, their relationship had already soured due to the team’s refusal to budge from their contentious (and now discredited) design philosophy during a challenging 2022 season.
He stated during testing last week that “it really wouldn’t have happened” without Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur. “An opportunity came up at the end of the year and I decided to take it,” he said.
Being one of Vasseur’s closest friends and having worked with Hamilton for ten years, Wolff must have taken offense at that comment.
Even while Mercedes and Hamilton are experienced performers and will strive for the best performance, there will unavoidably be awkward moments.
Additionally, it indicates that a spot at Mercedes is now available for 2024. Red Bull, where Sergio Perez also has an expiring contract, has warned the Mexican that he needs to turn around from his dismal 2023 performances or else they will let him go.
Whose contract expires this season, by the way? Alonso. After Hamilton won his seat, Carlos Sainz of Ferrari is also hunting for a ride.
Because of their common past, Mercedes would have laughed at the idea of having Alonso drive for them a few years ago.
When Alonso and the team had a falling out during the 2007 spy-gate scandal, Mercedes was McLaren’s co-owner and works engine partner. As a result, Mercedes paid 40% of the $100 million punishment that the FIA imposed on the team.
However, the two-time world champion is without a doubt the best contender among the current F1 drivers available, and Mercedes’ comments regarding Alonso have significantly subsided in the wake of Hamilton’s announcement. He is undoubtedly being thought about.
However, Mercedes is also considering giving the 17-year-old Italian rising sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who has been a part of their driver development program for a while, a chance.
Having missed Formula 3, Antonelli is making his Formula 2 debut this season, and he is receiving great praise.
According to rumors in the motorsport world, he tested an F3 vehicle at a wet Silverstone this winter with two other highly regarded F2/F3 drivers. Despite being four seconds faster per lap than the rest, Antonelli had never seen the track before. Four seconds—yes, you read that correctly.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that Antonelli is being considered as Verstappen’s successor.
But would Mercedes take the chance of starting him in their car after just one Formula Two season? If not, Alonso may be a very tempting stopgap, although it’s unclear if the seasoned Spanish player would come across that way.
Alonso has emphasized his qualifications on his part. This month, he stated, “I am probably attractive to other teams because of the commitment and the performance they saw last year.” I am the only available world champion among the three on the grid.”
To “commit my life a few more years to the sport which I love” or “maybe have more time for my private life, which is also very important at this age,” he has stated that he must first make up his mind.
There will be a lot going on in politics this year as well. It was a challenging winter for the FIA, the regulatory organization.
After less than a year in their positions, Steve Nielsen, the sporting director, was among the three senior executives that left. Originally tasked with cleaning up the FIA’s race operations, Nielsen walked out after losing faith in the organization’s commitment to make changes.
Tim Goss, the single-seater technical director, also quit to join Red Bull’s RB squad, albeit he was recently replaced by Jan Monchaux, a former Sauber employee.
Additionally, the FIA became involved in an odd story involving Toto and Susie Wolff that might yet have consequences.
It’s becoming problematic that the FIA hasn’t finalized the 2026 regulations yet. The engine rules were completed a while back. They have made certain adjustments, such as raising the electrical component of the hybrid engines’ power output to about 50%. These were enough to get Audi involved in Formula One.
Though more appropriate for the road, the new engines will nevertheless be less efficient than the present ones. The rule makers must lower the cars’ drag in order to make up for it. In order to achieve this, they are implementing movable aerodynamics, which were long outlawed in Formula One.
The FIA asked the teams for an October deadline since the rules are complex and would otherwise need to be finalized by the end of June this year. However, unanimity was required for this, and it was lacking. Will they be completed on schedule?
Aside from that, the new chassis regulations will continue to apply to ground-effect vehicles with venturi floors, just like the present ones do.
The goal of these 2022 regulations was to increase F1’s competitiveness. The field has closed up, yet this has allowed one squad to dominate virtually completely for the past two seasons.
Given that, it becomes inevitable that individuals in Formula One will start to wonder if these regulations—which were created under Ross Brawn’s supervision but are no longer in the sport—have been ineffective. Furthermore, if that is the case, should they be the basis for an entirely new set of regulations?
It is not the best moment, then, for the FIA and the commercial rights holder F1 to be at odds over the ongoing issues, which were most recently evident with the projected arrival of the US-based Andretti team.
Andretti was supported by FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who has been a contentious figure since taking office in December 2021, and their application was submitted to Formula One for approval.
However, F1 said no in January, at least until General Motors, Andretti’s engine partner, creates its own engine, which the US behemoth has stated it will do by 2028.
The Hamilton and Horner tales have taken over this drama in the news cycle, but it would be shocking if it did not pick up steam again.
Similar worries have been expressed in various places over Red Bull and RB’s growing close ties. Brown has demanded a review of the regulations governing what makes a customer team in order to uphold the idea that every team should be a self-contained constructor.
In addition to all of this, the 24 race season is the longest one ever. There has long been worry about the constantly growing calendar, which is the result of the drive to earn more money.
For everyone involved, an F1 season is already a marathon; it’s starting to resemble an ultramarathon. Even in the case if there was true competitive jeopardy—which many believe won’t materialize—there are legitimate worries that the sport would become overly saturated.
Carlos Sainz, a Ferrari driver, stated last week: “I hope the front is closer. If not, I worry that a 24-race schedule would be a little excessive.”
