If the forthcoming 2024 season of Formula One racing starting this month was not novel enough — 24 races, a season lasting February to December, which is record-breaking long — came the news that the sport’s best-known racer was switching jobs. F1’s Lewis Hamilton, after six world championships in 12 seasons with Mercedes, announced earlier this month that he would be moving to Ferrari in the 2025 season.
Some call it the biggest move ever in this sport, as F1’s most successful driver switches lanes to enter F1’s most successful team. On par with Michael Schumacher on world championships (seven), Hamilton is seeking to stand alone on the podium with eight, which he came close to achieving in 2021 before being pipped to the chequered flag by Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen. But plagued by Mercedes’ less-than-satisfactory car for the last two seasons, in which Hamilton has been winless, the 39-year-old Brit is moving to — hopefully — faster pastures that will let him ride into the inevitable sunset with the kind of achievements he aspires to.
There is, however, that uncomfortable 2024 season yet to go through with, which many professionals who have served three-month notices in their corporate employments would empathise with. With six of his titles coming with Mercedes between 2014-2020 (first one was in 2008), this would be an uncomfortably long goodbye for both driver and team, particularly as Mercedes will try to keep Hamilton out of their plans and meetings for the 2025 season.
“It’s a wonderful brand (Ferrari), it’s a great team,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner told ESPN when the news became public. “To walk away from the relationship he’s (Hamilton) had with Mercedes-Benz since before his time in Formula One is a big move for him, but one he’s obviously given a great deal of thought to. He’s obviously seen something he believes in at Ferrari that’s been sufficiently appealing to get him to step out of his comfort zone.”
In the lead up to a newsy F1 off-season ahead of the year’s first race, came the revelation from Red Bull that Horner himself is under investigation for some allegations made against him. Though F1’s longest-serving team principal — he’s been in command since Red Bull entered the sport in 2005 after the energy drink acquired Jaguar F1 — denied the allegation, it added another element of surprising twist to the circuit. If the off-season can cause so much tumult, the racing season might be more of a rage.
If Hamilton does win his eighth world title with Mercedes this season, it would be a fitting end to the sport’s most successful driver-team pair. His biggest rival Verstappen, who has won the title the last three years, is currently the favourite for a fourth straight title.
But Hamilton’s move would have surely sent Verstappen’s team into a huddle. “I was probably a bit surprised with the announcement at the time,” Verstappen told ESPN about Hamilton’s move. “But if someone wants to drive for Ferrari, and especially when you have achieved already so much in your career, why not?”
Ferrari is as integral to Formula One as racing cars are, ingrained in the sport’s history, culture and ethos. According to The Athletic, Vettel once said: “Everyone is a Ferrari fan. Even if they say they’re not, they are Ferrari fans.”
Hamilton’s change of team news will remain the talking point — even though it’s not relevant for 2024 — ahead of the season, which starts in Bahrain from February 29 to March 2. The Thursday to Saturday schedule is a shift from the normal Friday to Sunday one, done especially for Ramzan and the Middle-Eastern venue for the race. It will be similar in the next race, in Saudi Arabia from March 7-9 (Thursday-Saturday), before the championship moves to the more traditional Friday-Sunday sked with Australia from March 22-24.
Twenty-one countries across five continents are included in the schedule this year, with recent additions of Las Vegas, Miami and Qatar (end-November) and the return of China since 2019 and the pandemic. The scheduling, according to F1, is a reflection of the environmentally unfriendly sport gearing towards greater sustainability. Venues have been swapped around — the Japanese Grand Prix, for example, has moved from September to April — so that F1 freight can move more efficiently in transport.
Besides Hamilton, another one for the near future is new engine regulations that will come into play from 2026 as F1 aims to get carbon neutral by 2030. The new regulations, an equal split between internal combustion engines and electric power, has its critics but the sport recognises that it needs to reduce emissions and, therefore, plod on with relevant changes.
Sauber, which ran under the Alfa Romeo name, would switch to its sponsor-led, rather eclectic title of Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber or Kick Sauber in short. That might still be slightly better than Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team or RB in short, which is AlphaTauri’s rebrand.
But minor distractions aside, the new season will start similar to the last, in who could challenge Red Bull and Verstappen to the top spot. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but you’ve got to believe Ferrari had a strong car last year in terms of single-lap pace,” former racer David Coulthard told formulaone.com. “If they’ve managed to improve on whatever it was that was making their race pace difficult then they are a real contender.
“Mercedes were making big strides at the end of the year… McLaren, again, back of the grid in Bahrain, pretty much at the front of the grid in Abu Dhabi, so huge growth during the course of the year,” the website quoted him as saying.
It would take some special racing to bring the focus of F1 conversation back to the grid, away from whatever is happening off track.
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