Formula 1 looks very familiar as we enter the 2024 season, so where does the intrigue lie? Join experts Damien Smith and Edd Straw as they discuss the stories set to define the year ahead...
Refining perfection
DS: The champion team comes into 2024 on the back of an unprecedented season. Max Verstappen says he’s not bothered about chasing records, whether it be championships or Lewis Hamilton’s mark of 103 wins. He appears to live in the moment. So where do you think he goes from here?
ES: In the short term, he will just want to keep doing what’s he doing. Although he doesn’t care about records, he does care about winning. Certainly it could be more of the same for the next few years, before the new power unit rules for 2026 create a reset. Verstappen is the critic-in chief for certain elements of F1’s drive for entertainment. For example, he doesn’t like the sprint races. But for now, while so many wins are on offer, he will be doing all he can to take them. DS For the first time ever, the grid will be the same one that finished the previous season. And we don’t have any big rules changes this year. So more of the same is the fear. I can’t see anyone stopping Verstappen becoming a four-time world champion.
ES: At least it is extremely unlikely that Red Bull will be as dominant as last season. The only question mark is its second driver, which could become a weakness if one of the other teams does step up to challenge. But Red Bull should roll serenely into this year, and it would be a surprise if they don’t win both championships.
DS: Sergio Pérez wasn’t good enough too often last year and he has been lucky to keep his drive. Some have suggested Red Bull’s patience could even run out mid-season in 2024.
ES: Red Bull looks at it that the drive is Pérez’s to lose. The team would be happy if he trundles around as a functioning number two, picking up points, which he didn’t do well enough last year. In terms of alternatives, it has Daniel Ricciardo in the fold at the second Red Bull-owned team. He wouldn’t be any worse than Pérez and has a certain appeal off-track. But it’s a problem that Red Bull hopes will solve itself, with Pérez just sorting himself out.
Hamilton's curveball
DS: It’s not unprecedented for a team to race on with a driver who will be leaving for another at season’s end. Fernando Alonso won a world championship for Renault in such circumstances in 2006 before his ill-fated move to McLaren. But this is a very odd situation for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton ahead of his move to Ferrari in 2025, whatever they say publicly. He basically doesn’t have faith in Mercedes any more.
ES: It makes a difference. Regardless of the rhetoric of how much he wants to drive for Ferrari, which I’m sure is true, the number-one objective is still surely success. I can’t believe he would be confident that Mercedes will get back to the front in the next few years and go to Ferrari. He has to believe at the very minimum that Ferrari is equally likely to and realistically more likely to achieve that. You have to assume what he’s seeing at Mercedes isn’t convincing him, at least not enough. If it was so essential to drive for Ferrari for emotional reasons, surely he would have made that decision earlier.
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Like most sports your only as good as your equipment, if the car is better than last years, if the other teams haven't caught up, if there drivers aren't any better, then,Verstappen has only got to get to the front, put two fingers high up and drive off into the distance,and if it's like that and the season Championship is sealed by race ten,then, why bother watching the rest,maybe the FIA need to look at weight penalties if a team is running away with the championship.
In sport, you're as good as your training, your body, your mind... you. In car racing, you rely on a car. That's why it's marketing, not sport.