Author Ernest Hemingway believed that there were only three sports – bullfighting, auto racing and mountaineering, and the rest were just games. If he were alive today, he might limit that list to one entry: the Formula 1 series, which held the first race of the new season in Bahrain last Saturday.
After two years of Red Bull racing as if the race track were the streets of Pamplona, the biggest question of the season is which team, if any, will be able to maintain its track position with the three defending champions, lead driver Max Verstappen Can. And The End brought an end to Red Bull’s reign.
Red Bull won the World Constructors’ Championship from Mercedes-AMG Petronas in 2022, winning a record 17 out of 22 races that season, and followed that up with 21 pole positions out of 22 races last year – 19 grand prix race wins ahead of Verstappen. Verstappen gave two. Sergio Perez. As far as the first race of 2024 goes, Verstappen and Perez finished first and second respectively, which shows why they are the most excited to take the throne.
“I think Max is a world champion and Red Bull is dominating the sport,” two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who currently drives for Aston Martin, said during pre-season testing last week . “Now nineteen drivers in the paddock will think they can’t win the championship.” He’s watching
However, with the series gathering momentum with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah this weekend and many rival teams on top and close to the leaders, Red Bull faces a new and formidable opponent, Mountaineering. Like, no less than anyone. in it’s own.
The first racing weekend was marred by a personnel crisis affecting Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. The matter erupted a few weeks before the start of the race when an employee filed a formal complaint accusing Horner of “inappropriate conduct”. Horner was acquitted the day before the first track in Bahrain after a statement was issued saying his parent company Red Bull GmbH was investigating the allegations. The bomb fell twenty-four hours later. During the second practice session of the race, 79 WhatsApp messages, allegedly between Horner and an employee, were leaked to the media and senior Formula 1 staff, questioning the company’s decisions and Horner’s performance.
Shortly after the race ended on Saturday, Jos Verstappen, father of the reigning Formula One champion, told Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper that “as long as (Horner) is at the top, there is tension,” adding that ” The team is in danger of being torn to pieces.” “Everything remains as it is. It will explode.”
Regardless of whether Horner, who has led the team since its inception in 2005, stays or leaves, the internal discord at Red Bull Racing is likely to have a negative impact on performance, although Max Verstappen is trying to shrug off the noise. . “There are many different tracks on the calendar that you will compete on. “It’s better not to think about it,” Verstappen said. “You just wake up, go to the track and see the results. ,
Alonso reiterated that view, saying the teams need to get through the first four races – Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Japan – before the real situation becomes clear. At least after winter testing and the first race results, the team that looks set to pose the biggest threat to Red Bull is Ferrari. In Bahrain, their drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished third and fourth respectively.
The Italian team returned from the winter break with renewed vigor, and their coach Frédéric Vasseur was very busy in his first year at the Prancing Horse. As well as the many new developments in the 2024 car, most of which make it easier to drive and give Sainz the ability to attack again, there has also been a revolution in Maranello. On 1 February it was announced that Lewis Hamilton, Formula One’s most successful driver with seven world titles and 103 wins, would join Ferrari next year.
However, this means that the existing pair is now under more pressure than ever. Leclerc needs to stake out his place as first-team driver before Hamilton arrives, while Sainz, who will replace Hamilton, wants to show the world that Ferrari has got the wrong man. Last year, Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win the race, which he won in Singapore.
Sainz said after the podium in Bahrain: “It’s important that we start the season well and start the season with a strong race, not only for my future, but just for myself.”
In fact, the biggest battle for most drivers this year is with their teammates, with more than half of the drivers out of contract at the end of the season. This means that many siblings fight to prove who is the strongest on their team.
Even at Mercedes, as Hamilton prepares to leave the team with which he has won six of his seven world titles, the dynamics between the drivers and between Hamilton and the team as a whole will be both interesting and problematic. George Russell, whose contract expires this year, will look to overtake Hamilton as he did in Bahrain to prove to Mercedes that he is ready to lead the team.
McLaren remains one of the biggest question marks. He almost reached the top of the series in the second half of last year, but looked weak during the winter testing. In Bahrain, McLaren driver Lando Norris finished sixth, with teammate Oscar Piastri eighth. While both drivers still have three seasons left on their contracts, Piastri will be happy to challenge Norris now that his last rookie season has ended. Neither driver had won the race before, but Piastri overtook an English driver to win the sprint race in Qatar last October.
Before Bahrain, Norris was skeptical about McLaren’s chances this year: “I think we’re still a long way from Red Bull and Ferrari. So we still have a lot of work to do,” he said. This was confirmed after the race, noting that the team’s position was behind Ferrari and Red Bull, and he described it as “two big steps that need to be taken”.
After a great start to 2023, Aston Martin has lost momentum. The oldest driver on the grid, Alonso, who turned 43 in July, is trying to prove he is still as good as ever (he is eyeing Hamilton’s seat at Mercedes). Lance Stroll, a Canadian whose father owns the team, would like to do better than scoring two-thirds fewer points than Alonso did last year. Both finished last in the points standings in Bahrain, with Alonso ninth and Stroll behind him.
Then there are the teams with the most room for improvement, with Williams, Haas, Kick Sauber, Alpine and RB all looking to start from the back of the grid. Logan Sargent, last year’s American Rookie of the Year, managed to keep his job at Williams, knowing that 2024 would likely be his last chance to prove his worth. Daniel Ricciardo is on a mission to beat teammate Yuki Tsunoda and show he is a better choice than Sergio Pérez to return to the original Red Bull team (where he raced between 2014 and 2018 before voluntarily leaving).
Beyond the teams and drivers, the upcoming season presents unprecedented challenges. It is the longest schedule ever, consisting of 24 races, and will push the drivers, cars and more than 60 traveling staff from each team to their limits. Add to this six sprint races and there will be a total of 30 races in just nine months, with the final taking place in Abu Dhabi on December 8. At least statistically, someone other than Verstappen should have more grand prix wins in this long season. And Red Bull compared to the last two years.
“Overall, the other teams are close,” Verstappen told the press after his latest win. “I think it went very well today and I certainly expect it to happen at every grand prix in the near future.” No – but we’ll take it.” Fans are also excited about the wild ride that the 2024 Formula 1 season promises to offer.
Editor’s note: Author Brad Spurgeon has covered Formula 1 for more than two decades for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times, and is the author of Assolin’s book Formula 1: The Impossible Collection.
